chapter 28 -Trip to China?

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Shane's P. O. V.

"Congratulations, Mr. Adams on your wedding. " Mr. Chang said whilst extending his hand for a handshake.

"Thank you, Mr. Chang. Glad to meet you again. I didn't expect to see you here. " I said accepting the handshake.

What is he doing here?

"My wife, Suzie..." he said introducing the lady who was standing beside him.

"...happens to be your mother's college mate. She invited us to your wedding. " he continued.

He is surely unaware of fake marriage.

Well that's good, at least for my deal with Mr. Chang.

"I didn't know that. Such a small world! Glad to meet you, Mrs. Chang. " I said whilst offering my hand for a handshake.

She smiled and pushed my hand away gently and took me into a hug. I was shocked by her gesture and my body got stiffen but when I heard her sniffling, I snaked my arms around her and returned the hug with the same enthusiasm and affection.

"Brenda is so lucky to have a son like you, Shane." Mrs. Chang said, as we parted from the hug.

I could see the tears that glistened in her eyes.

"Is something wrong, Mrs. Chang? Why are you crying? " I asked offering her my handkerchief.

"Oh nothing dear. It's just that I feel jealous of your mother sometimes. " she said, accepting the handkerchief. She wiped her tears.

"Sorry, Mr. Adams. Actually we don't have our own child so whenever she sees her friends' children, she gets too emotional. Please don't mind." Mr. Chang said caressing his wife's back lovingly.

"It's totally fine, Mr. Chang. Thanks for coming to our wedding." I said thankfully.

"Meet my wife, Lara Adams, she's a part time primary school teacher and an architecture student." I pulled Ms. Jones by her waist, gently towards me and showed her off proudly. Ms. Jones looked up at me and smiled.

Don't get me wrong, I am just doing this to show Mr. Chang that I am really a family guy or else I will loose the tender of his mansion's construction. And I can't afford that.

Or...is it because you really want to show off your wife? My conscience intervened, again.

Shut the hell up!

"Hello, Mrs. Adams. Glad to meet you and congratulations on your wedding." He congratulated her and kissed at the back of her hand like a happy father would do.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Chang." Ms. Jones replied, blushing.

"Oh please, call me Lee." he said and smiled genuinely.

"Of course, I will but only if you'll call me Lara." Ms. Jones replied, returning the smile.

Mr. Chang laughed and nodded his head.

She is such a sweet girl and wins everyone's heart instantly. I like her...I mean I like this thing about her.

"Thanks for gracing us with your presence, Mrs. Chang. " Ms. Jones said and hugged Mrs. Chang tightly.

It was clear that Ms. Jones really gets very emotional when it comes to parental love and affection.

I could see both the ladies embracing each other with love and affection.

"Brenda is right. You really are a jewel, dear. You are beautiful both inside and out..." She said tugging the loose strand of hair behind Ms. Jones' ear.

I don't know why but somehow I felt proud when Mrs. Chang complimented Ms. Jones.

"You're really lucky Shane to have this beautiful young lady as your wife." she said which I acknowledged with a proud smile.

"And please dear, call me Suzie. " she added.

"How about I call you aunt? " Ms. Jones asked grinning.

"Oh dear!" Mrs. Chang kissed Ms. Jones' cheeks and hugged her again.

We spoke for few more minutes. We came to know many things about Mr. and Mrs. Chang. Mrs. Chang had some gynaecological issues due to which the couple couldn't conceive babies. Due to this, Mrs. Chang went into clinical depression in the early years of their marriage but with time, her pain healed and she recovered from her depression. I feel pity for her.

"I am sorry, Mr. Shane but at our last meeting when you mentioned about your family, I thought that you're not married yet and was about to get married but today I came to know that this was your re-wedding and you young couple have been graced with a beautiful daughter as well." Mr. Chang said.

"It's okay, Mr. Chang. Our relationship was supposed to remain a secret for a while due to some reasons but things happened and we had to disclose our relationship. " I replied calmly trying not to look tensed.

Mr. Chang always succeeds to make me feel nervous by his aura.

"So how's work of our mansion going on? " he asked sipping wine from his glass while Ms. Jones and Mrs. Chang talked about anything and everything.

I could see Ms. Jones getting nervous at times when Mrs. Chang would ask the questions regarding our relationships and all like 'when did you guys first meet? ' , 'Is shane a good husband?' , ' It would have been a tough job to handle your daughter and husband at such a young age? ' and what not.

When asked such questions, she would look at me for a while for help and then answer her questions appropriately.

"The work is in progress, Mr. Chang. You don't need to worry about that, your work is in good hands." I assured him.

He nodded, smiling.

"Mommy, look...Jonah ruined my dress." Cara came running with her tiny feet towards us.

"Why? What happened, baby?" Ms. Jones bent down on her knees and snaked her hands around Cara's little body.

"I was playing with Josh when Jonah came to us and spilled the orange juice on my dress. He is not my friend. I hate him!" she said, crying.

"Oh baby, first of all stop crying. And Jonah is your friend, you should not say that you hate him. You should not hate your friends." She said wiping Cara's tears with her fingers.

"Who's that brat? How dare he ruin her dress? " I asked, furiously.

"Please don't start, Mr. Adams. Jonah is Ash's little brother and Cara's friend.He is a little boy. " she said, glaring at me.

"That doesn't give him the right to spill juice on Cara's dress. He should be taught how to treat a girl." I said, furiously. How can that brat spill juice on my baby?

"You're saying this? " Ms. Jones asked, sarcastically.

"What do you mean by that? " I asked, confused.

"Don't make me open my mouth, honey." she said, warning.

Uh...oh! This isn't going well.

The club scene flashed in my head.

"Sweetheart, I was just kidding." I said scratching the back of my neck.

"Good!" She said whilst she picked Cara in her arms and wiped her tears completely.

"Women can be dangerous sometimes." Mr. Chang said in a whisper, placing his hand over my shoulder giving me the manly support.

I nodded my head in agreement. And only I know how dangerous this particular woman can be.

"Did you say something, Lee?" Mrs. Chang asked keeping her hands on her waist and glaring at him.

"Uh oh, trouble alert!" Mr. Chang said whispering and walked to Mrs. Chang to...you know...face the trouble.

While Mr. Chang was busy in pacifying Mrs. Chang's anger, Ms. Jones started cleaning Cara's dress with a tissue paper.

"OK, now baby be a good girl that you are and greet the guests. " she asked Cara to greet Mr. and Mrs. Chang.

"Hello." Cara said in her baby like voice.

Mrs. Chang came forward and knelt down in front of Cara.

"Hello there, sweetheart. You're so beautiful like your mommy. " Mrs. Chang said, kissing Cara's cheeks.

I could see his newly wedded wife blushing.

Her eyes glistened with tears of joy when she talked to Cara.

"Do you know you look so much like your mommy? " she asked as she took Cara into her hands.

"Do I?" Cara asked feeling proud of the compliment.

We all laughed at that.

Mr. and Mrs. Chang started talking and playing with Cara.

"It so sad they don't have a child. I feel sorry for aunt Suzie." Ms. Jones said when we were left alone at the bar.

"Yeah, me too." I said looking at Mr. and Mrs. Chang talking and playing with Cara.

"Ms. Jones, thank you." I said looking at her.

She was confused after hearing that.

"Thank you? For what? " she asked, raising her eye brows.

"For being so supportive about all this marriage thing." I said, gratefully.

"Welcome." She said.

She smiled and looked into my eyes.

Ms. Jones, your eyes are the most beautiful thing to see.

I wanted to say that but couldn't gather enough courage to do that.

We were staring into each other's eyes for God knows how long.

"Love is in the air, guys. "

"...couple goals. "

"Definitely, they're are goals. "

I could hear people say.

We finally averted our eyes from each other and looked at the intruders.

....and the intruders of the decade award goes to my silly cousins and not to forget my dear 'wife's' friends.

I smiled in a sarcastic way looking at them while Ms. Jones blushed.

Lara's P. O. V. :

"Sorry guys. Hope we were not disturbing anything. " Jake said, teasingly.

"No, not at all."

"Yeah, you did."

Mr. Adams and I said simultaneously.

"Wooo...couple goal it is. "Jake said to which Ian, Angie and Ash laughed.

So typical of them.

We all engaged in some conversation when Mr. Chang and aunt Suzie showed up with Cara in her arms.

"I must say dear, you've really done a great job in raising your daughter. She's such a sweetheart. I've fallen in love with your little princess." aunt Suzie said as she passed Cara to me who was asleep now.

"Thank you, aunt. " I said smiling.

"I want something from you, will you give me? " she asked, hesitantly.

"Yes, of course. Just ask anything. " I said, smiling.

"Dear, next month, we have our 30th wedding anniversary. We are going to celebrate our marriage anniversary in our ancestral home in Beijing where we got married 30 years ago and we really want both of you to come and join us in our celebration in our home and attend the party. It's a request. " she said, hopefully.

How can I accept her request? It should be Mr. Adams' decision and not mine.

"Uh..." I was cut off when Mr. Adams put his hand around my waist and pulled me towards him.

"Of course, we will come." he said and smiled.

Did he really agree to go to China? With me?

I was really shocked to see Mr. Adams agreeing because as far as I know him and have heard about him, he doesn't really enjoy going out for anything which is not related to his business. Well, that's a shocker!

"And we want you guys to come along, Just look at you cute couples. Pairs made in heaven." aunt said referring to Jake & Angie and Ian & Ash which made the two couples choke on their own spit.

Karma plays it's role perfectly. I thought and smiled at my friends, teasingly.

"We...will...come along, Mrs. Chang." Jake said on behalf of Angie, his brother and Ash.

"Mr. Adams, we'll take a leave now. Thanks for having us here. See you guys in Beijing." Mr. Chang said and shook his hand with Mr. Adams and also with others.

Aunt suzie came and hugged me and Cara who was sleeping encircling her little arms around my neck.

"See you soon, dear." she said and the couple exited from the party.

"Are we all really going to China? " Ash squealed in excitement.

"I guess, we are. " Ian replied to which Jake nodded his head in agreement.

"I've never been to China before. I am so excited. " Ash squealed in excitement.

"Me too. " Angie said with the same excitement.

"It's gonna be exciting. " Ian said looking at overly excited Ash with adoration.

"So finally, I guess our cousin is going to go on a vacation. "Jake teased Mr. Adams.

"It's not a vacation. Not at least for me. " Mr. Adams said shoving his hands inside his pockets.

"What do you mean? "Jake asked, confused.

"Mr. Chang is a very important business client of mine and rejecting his invitation would've been a negative point for the deal. This is the only reason why I accepted the invitation. So it's going to be more of a business tour than a vacation for me. " he said sipping on his wine.

What was I thinking! He is exactly like what I have heard and known about him. So typical of Mr. Shane Adams. I thought

"And the workaholic Shane Adams returns. " Jake said, dramatically.

"When was the last time you went on a vacation brother? In high school? " Ian asked, teasingly.

Mr. Adams just rolled his eyes at them to which they chuckled.

It's gonna be the first time after my parents death that I will be going out on a proper get away. I will have to say, I am really very excited for the visit to China.

I don't know why, but I am having this gut feeling that something good is going to happen while on this visit to China.

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