His Christmas Pearl by Renee Dahlia

Author:Renee Dahlia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Escape Publishing

Chapter 11

Kiet wanted to curse at Zoe’s statement. She was right, and damn he was saying that a lot lately. He wanted one more hug from Mum, one more thump on the back from Pa, one more time where they were proud of his achievements. Grief was one thing. Being scammed was another entirely, and it ate away at him, because ….

‘I can’t let this scammer win. The farm was their whole life. Pa gave up everything to be with Mum on the farm. He arrived in Australia from Thailand on a student visa and met Mum while working in the summer holidays. They fell in love and he gave up his studies to stay with her. I can’t lose the farm—the one thing that brought my parents together—because I procrastinated over looking at the accounts, because I dismissed my gut feeling about the money not being right. And …’ Kiet paused, not wanting to tell anyone that he’d ignored his gut feel over Elizabeth being the culprit because she made Sam happy, and he’d spent so many years doing his best to make Sam happy. Kiet had sacrificed his own education to run the farm and pay for Sam to go to boarding school in the city, and then to university. It’d been worth it, just for the satisfaction of seeing his baby brother grown up into a properly qualified aquaculturist. Sam’s choice of degree was good for the oyster farm. Kiet sensed, deep in his heart, that Sam didn’t want to stay on the farm, and had only done that degree so he could give back to Kiet. The farm was Kiet’s world. He should have been the one to do that degree, and to bring all the knowledge back to his parents. But he didn’t begrudge Sam his knowledge, because they were a team. So many complicated reasons for saying nothing about the woman who’d made Sam smile every day. And for naught—Sam’s heart was broken, and Kiet was about to be proven correct about Elizabeth’s scam.

‘Kiet.’

He shifted on the seat to stare into Zoe’s big hazel eyes, mostly brown like his, but with flecks of green, like the hills behind them. ‘Yeah?’

‘I’ve seen your accounts. You are not failing your parents. Even with this scammer stealing from you, the farm is still successful. You are making enough money to keep going, and once we figure this out, you’ll have enough to do the expansion you’ve been planning.’

‘How did you know?’ He was certain he’d never mentioned his plans with her.

She glanced down at her lap, then lifted her chin to stare at him. The sea brought out the green flecks in her hazel eyes, while the brown centre reminded him of the way a fish’s shadow ran along the sandy bottom of the river on a bright sunny day.

‘Just a gut feel. Something in the way you reacted when I asked about your spending on equipment.’

‘You are too clever for your own good, you know that?’

She held up her hands, palms towards him, confusion making her eyebrows knit together in a frown.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.