Chapter 68: A lot to deal with

Chapter 68: Chapter 68: A lot to deal with

Garrett settled into the back seat, the city sliding past the window in the usual blur of lights and traffic, none of it actually holding his attention.

His mind kept circling back to the same thing.

’Why Brian.’

Raymond had already made his position clear once, sent three men to make sure Garrett understood it properly.

Brian was different. Brian had arranged an actual meeting, chosen the location himself, sat there calm and composed like none of this required raising his voice to be taken seriously.

He’d known Garrett’s full name before Garrett had ever offered it. Known about the time he’d been spending with Emiliana, details Garrett hadn’t exactly been shouting from a rooftop. He’d spoken about her future, her family’s expectations, like he had access to a version of her life Garrett hadn’t been given yet.

’How deep does he actually sit in all this.’

Garrett didn’t have an answer. He turned it over from a few different angles, trying to figure out why someone like Brian would bother showing up in person just to deliver a warning he could’ve easily sent through someone else, the way Raymond had.

Nothing settled into place cleanly.

He didn’t like that. Not knowing what kind of problem always sat worse with him than the problem itself.

He pulled out his phone somewhere along the ride, Emiliana’s name sitting there in his contacts, familiar enough now that his thumb hovered over it without much thought.

He considered calling her.

Laying it all out plainly. Brian had reached out, They’d met at The Ashford Grand. He’d warned Garrett off, claimed her future was already arranged, made it sound like Garrett was interfering with something that had been decided long before he’d ever entered the picture.

Garrett kept staring at her name.

Then decided against it.

’Not over the phone.’

This wasn’t something he wanted to explain in fragments, half the context lost in a rushed conversation neither of them could properly sit with. When he actually saw her, he’d ask her outright. If what Brian said held any truth to it, he wanted to hear that from her directly, not secondhand through someone who clearly had his own reasons for delivering the warning the way he had. And if Brian had exaggerated, twisted things to serve whatever purpose he actually had, Garrett wanted to know that too.

He wasn’t going to avoid the conversation. That much he was certain of.

There was also the objective sitting quietly underneath all of it, the one the system had made clear wasn’t going away regardless of how uncomfortable the path toward it turned out to be. Uncover Emiliana’s deepest secret. Whatever was actually circling around her, Brian, her family, whatever Raymond thought he understood about the situation, running from it wasn’t going to get Garrett any closer to an answer.

He put the phone away without sending anything.

The Uber pulled up outside his building a short while later, and Garrett climbed out, still turning the evening over as he made his way toward the entrance.

He noticed her before she noticed him.

Freya, standing near the compound entrance, phone in hand, looking up just as he approached.

Her expression brightened immediately. "Well, look at you."

Garrett glanced at her, only half-present, still somewhere back in that courtyard with Brian.

"Did you actually get a haircut?" she asked, stepping closer, an easy grin spreading across her face. "Very nice and very put together. Should I be worried you’re stepping up your game for someone else?"

"Just needed a trim."

"Uh huh." She tilted her head, studying him with obvious approval, comfortable enough now to let the teasing carry a little more warmth in it than it might have a week ago. "You clean up well, Garrett."

Garrett managed a small, distracted smile, nowhere close to matching her energy.

Freya caught it almost immediately, her teasing expression shifting into something more attentive. "Hey." She tilted her head slightly, studying him properly now. "You okay? You’re somewhere else right now."

Garrett looked at her, aware that whatever easy mood she’d been in a moment ago had already noticed the gap between them.

"Yeah," he said, though even to his own ears it didn’t sound entirely convincing. "Just a long night."

"Hey, fine boy," Freya said, trying again, clearly hoping to pull him back into the easy rhythm they usually had.

Garrett managed something close to a smile, though it didn’t quite land the way it normally would. "Hey."

"You good?"

"Tired," he said. "Long day. Something came up."

Freya studied him for a beat longer than the answer really called for, her earlier playfulness fading into something more attentive. "What happened?"

"Nothing you need to worry about, Freya"

She didn’t push, though he could tell she wanted to. Something flickered across her face before she let it go.

"Okay..." She said it lightly enough, though there was a small pause behind it. "Get some rest, then."

"Yeah."

He gave her a nod and continued toward his door, leaving her standing there a moment longer than he probably realized.

Freya watched him go, standing akimbo as she considered the exchange. They’d gotten close quickly, and tonight was the first time she’d felt him deliberately keep her outside something.

She didn’t say anything else. She just let him disappear inside, deciding it was better to leave him alone tonight.

Inside, Garrett dropped his things by the door, sat down heavily on the couch, and eventually let himself fall back against the cushions, staring at the ceiling.

For a while, he didn’t move.

The conversation with Brian kept replaying, unprompted, cycling through the same handful of questions without landing anywhere new.

Garrett ran through it again, but he still couldn’t find anything new in it.

Eventually, he got tired of it.

"I’ll just ask her."

There wasn’t much point sitting there manufacturing answers to questions only Emiliana could actually settle.

That settled, at least for tonight.

With Brian pushed to the side for the moment, Garrett’s attention drifted toward something else entirely.

£175,000, still sitting untouched in his account.

He didn’t want it staying there forever, not after everything the system had already made clear about the difference between having money and actually knowing what to do with it. He turned over a few vague ideas, businesses, investments, some version of putting it to work that would actually build toward something lasting.

None of it held together. He didn’t know enough to choose blindly, and he wasn’t about to throw that kind of money at a decision made mostly out of impatience.

Then his father crossed his mind.

His father had run a business once. Successfully, for a while, before everything had eventually gone south the way it had. But there had been a stretch of years where the man actually knew what he was doing. He’d known how to take money, put it into the right places, and make the business grow.

Garrett considered that.

His father was the obvious person to ask.

He thought about calling. Not tonight, not with everything else already sitting heavy from the evening. But soon.

He didn’t land on a specific plan yet. Just a decision.

"I’m calling Dad."

It felt like the first real step toward actually learning how to handle what he had instead of just spending it as it came.

He didnt have a great father and son relationship with his Dad so he had to fix that first, at least to an extent before he could ask him about investments.

Garrett checked his phone again, and Daniel’s absence from earlier resurfaced, still unexplained.

He opened their chat.

Garrett: hey, you good? you weren’t in class today

●●●

The reply came a few minutes later.

Daniel: yeah sorry, was feeling pretty rough today

Garrett: everything okay?

There was a longer pause this time before the next message came through.

Daniel: im actually at the hospital rn

Garrett sat up properly, his attention sharpening immediately.

Garrett: what happened?

Daniel: had a bit of an accident, nothing crazy. banged my head pretty good, they wanted to keep an eye on me for a bit

Garrett: are you actually okay?

Daniel: yeah man im fine, just annoying more than anything. they’re just being careful

Garrett read the messages over. The casual tone eased some of his concern, but he still didn’t like the idea of Daniel sitting in a hospital without telling him earlier.

Garrett: you should’ve told me sooner big man

Daniel: didn’t want to make a big deal out of it lol. im fine, promise

Garrett stared at the screen a moment longer, deciding whether to push further or let it sit.

Garrett: let me know if you need anything

Daniel: will do. preciate.

Garrett set the phone down. "Need to catch some sleep".