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Besides, he was justified in his
decision. He didn’t know what you would turn out to be.”
    She glared at him angrily, her rising temper
reflecting in her flushed cheeks. “Well, I turned out all right,
didn’t I? I could easily have got married when I was still in my
teens and blown off all my precious inheritance!”
    “You didn’t need to, Jessi. You get enough
from ‘The Residency’ as your annual allowance.”
    “That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have done it
if I had wanted to,” she threw back, running agitated hands through
her thick hair. “Jeff, the whole point is that I’m not a child
anymore! I am more than capable of taking my own decisions.”
    Her brother watched her dubiously. Although
there were ten years between them, they shared a strong bond that
had not snapped over the years; strained perhaps but certainly not
snapped.
    He had been only twenty-two when their
parents were killed in an air crash but he had not let his sister
feel orphaned. He had brought her up the best he could, fussing and
fretting over her like a parent as she grew up into a beautiful
woman. His only regret was that as President of ‘The Cantrell
Residency’, he had to be away quite often and couldn’t always be
there for her.
    It was no casual matter running ‘The
Residency’. He had been lucky that his father had the right people
working for him and their support allowed him to get his degree in
Business Management. ‘The Residency’ and then college took up a lot
of his time but he somehow managed to be home for most holidays. It
bothered him to think of Jessica all alone at home and although she
sometimes accompanied him on his trips abroad, it was not always
possible.
    Then he met Cheryl at a convention in Geneva
when Jessica was still in high school and married her after a
yearlong courtship. He was aware Jessica felt alienated from him
after his marriage and try as he did; he failed to convince her
otherwise.
    While still in her first year of college,
she suddenly announced her decision to leave for Paris to get a
degree in Fashion Designing. When he tried to reason with her, she
brushed him off brusquely pointing out that it was her life and she
could do whatever she chose with it. He noted she had almost
completely withdrawn from him and wondered if it had anything to do
with Mark’s sudden departure. He knew she was smitten with Mark and
had wanted to delicately stir her away from him but before that
Mark had called to announce he was leaving. A month later, Jessica
was gone.
    Those four years were the longest in his
life and he missed her terribly. But Cheryl gave him a beautiful
daughter and a son a few years later that kept him reasonably
occupied. Yet he did not ignore Jessica. He visited her frequently
and watched with pride as she blossomed into a beautiful, stylish
woman. She returned home after her graduation but dropped the bomb
on him with her decision to open up her garment boutique in L.A.
instead of their home city of Miami. He once again bowed down to
her decision and she soon lost herself into her busy new life.
    Jessica made ‘Jess-C Creations’ her sole
purpose in life, striving hard to make it a success. She started
off on a small investment that was almost entirely funded from her
ample savings. She rented a small apartment in Santa Monica close
to her boutique and visited Cheryl and the kids occasionally. Jeff
sometimes felt as if she deliberately downplayed her heiress tag
and was determined to claim her independence.
    As a result, he never interfered with her
work. It was only when she had called him a couple of days ago that
he had cancelled all his appointments and come running to help her
businesswise. She had wanted a loan from him that would enable her
to complete her pending orders but he had refused on impulse
wanting to understand her situation firsthand. It was not that he
didn’t want to help her but he had plans to divert her under the
care of someone he trusted. His