The Lost Heiress

Chapter 4

Ivy decided against telling Jordan when he called the following morning knowing fully well it would destabilize him perhaps make him come home earlier which would make him look bad and seem unreliable in his father’s eyes. Deciding to face the problem head-on and alone, she dressed up for her ‘date’ but even as she got ready, she could feel her conscience berating her for dressing up to go on a date with someone who wasn’t Jordan but she tried to encourage herself.

Don’t worry Ivy, this is not permanent, lets just stall for time till Jordan gets back then we’ll fix everything together

She didn’t really put in much effort to what she wore as she wore a simple and plain black dress with heels and her necklace which she wore all the time, to complete it, she picked up a small black purse and looked at herself in the mirror. She simply used powder and a put on little pink lipstick, but even as she looked at herself, she became angry. Angry at the thought of meeting a guy for dinner, a guy who wasn’t Jordan.

“Well sis, you look simple, a little too simple if I may add” Allen, her older brother said as he accessed her from head to toe and Ivy rolled her eyes at him.

“Whatever Allen, Dad will be introducing you to your future bride soon, I’d like to see you run your mouth then”

“Hey, if it makes any difference, I tried to talk Dad out of this ridiculous idea of a family tradition, he’s simply set in his own way and wouldn’t budge, but if there’s any way I can be of help, don’t hesitate to let me know, despite our weird relationship, I love my baby sister very much”

“I love you too Allen, I’m just worked up about all these, anyways I better get going”

“He’s not coming to pick you?”

She shook her head “No, I got to talk with him this morning and asked for the place, going with him will only make me feel worse”. He gave her a look of confusion but didn’t say anything more and simply nodded his head.

“You look good baby” her mother, Olivia said as she saw her daughter “good luck baby” she kissed her cheek and Ivy sighed “Thanks Mom, I gotta get going now, I’ll see you all later”

“Bye”

“Bye”

Both Mother and son said together and waved. Almost immediately, Allen left and went into his study while Olivia waited till Ivy’s car drove away before she sighed and went into one of the rooms.

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Ivy tried not to panic on her way to the restaurant, she felt as though she were committing a huge sin against Jordan but she tried to convince herself that it was still the best decision to make that will not make her father marry her off in the blink of an eye.

She sighed as she saw the name of the restaurant come into view, she was glad that she made it without having an accident but on the contrary, an accident would have been a great way to stall for time and she wouldn’t have to meet this suitor. But then if she got into an accident, minor or major, Jordan would drop all and come back into the country without finishing any work and then he would still make his father unhappy which is what she was trying to avoid as well.

No Ivy, we can’t allow that to happen, his step mom might make him look bad for business

AICA’S PLACE

The name sounded simple and one would think it was one of these simple restaurants you easily come across but it was nothing like that. The restaurant was the most expensive restaurant in the whole of Jochain, to get a reservation, you needed to have at least booked, six months in advance which sounded ridiculous to Ivy. As she got down from her car, she handed over her key to the valet who parked it further down while she made her way in. She rolled her eyes at the extravagance of the place. If Mister suitor thinks she would be impressed by this, he definitely had another thing coming. Having lived all her life in wealth, places like this held no real value to her, she preferred where Jordan would take her, those places felt real and alive and homey. She sighed as she made her way towards the reception area.

“Good evening ma’am” the lady greeted her with a smile and she smiled back.

“Reservation under, Quinton, Caleb Quinton” she informed the lady who typed on her system.

“Oh Miss Stewart, you’re welcome ma’am” of course the lady recognized her name, that Caleb probably gave it to her. The lady quickly called over a man in white shirt and black pants, he was probably a waiter or something.

“Please take Miss Stewart to the private booth on the third floor” the lady then turned to her with a wider smile “Please enjoy your evening ma’am”

Ivy wanted to roll her eyes, her surname could make people do things they normally wouldn’t do but she simply smiled and let the other guy direct her.

“This way ma’am” the guy led the way and they both took the elevator to the third floor.

The elevator had a sweet fragrance to it as did the whole building, the young man directed her out of the elevator and to where they were going and all he said so far has been ‘this way ma’am’

As usual the whole place was elegant and beautifully decorated, but to her it felt a little too perfect and lacked real emotions just like the people who frequented the place.

She was led to the booth and of course, Caleb was there already, rising up when he saw her approach with a bunch of red roses in his hands. Caleb and Jordan did have some similarities in their features except for the hair and eyes, while Jordan had the same dark eyes and midnight dark hair that his father had, Caleb had piercing blue eyes and Auburn hair, a feature he had inherited from his mother. Apart from that, they had every other thing in common, they were both tall, although she could tell as she stood closer to him that Jordan was slightly taller and had a slightly bigger body build than Caleb. Still there was no mistaking that they were both brothers. Caleb shooed away the guy who had brought her there with his hand as he pulled out her chair for her, his action was not overlooked by Ivy.

As she took a seat, he also took a sit opposite her and cleared his throat

“Hi, Ivy, nice to finally meet you” he said with a small smile on his face.

In her head all she wanted to say was ‘its not at all nice to meet you’ but she refrained because she knew that screwing up this dinner was a direct invitation to the altar as her father wouldn’t take lightly her embarrassing him.

“Same here” she settled on something milder convincing herself that he was still going to become her brother-in-law once she got married to Jordan. Her heart clenched when she thought about him again.

Please don’t be angry at me Jordan

She said a silent prayer and almost immediately her phone vibrated and her eyes widened when she saw who was calling her and the handsome face flashing on the screen of her phone.

MY LOVE Calling…

“So what would you like to order?” Caleb asked oblivious to her phone vibrating and the internal battle she was having. As if just remembering that he was there, she looked up at him and then at the waitress who was now ready to take her order. Quickly she made her order and she scribbled it down in a small note pad and faced Caleb who also made his order and she left immediately she jotted it down. Ivy noticed that unlike all other typical waitresses who love to flirt with male guests, this one seemed professional. Hmm, interesting, if all the waitresses here were like that, well she could definitely come here with Jordan, some of the other expensive restaurants that they had been to, the waitresses there seemed to see Jordan as a piece of meat while some of the waiters saw her as a piece of ass.

Quickly she remembered that Jordan was calling her and she quickly looked down at her phone and saw that the call had ended. She then typed a quick message to him

Hey baby,

Sorry I missed your call, Dad sent me on a small errand, I’ll call you later tonight.

All my love, Ivy

She pressed send and after ensuring that the message had been sent, she put her phone on silence and threw it into her purse. She questioned herself about lying to him but then shrugged it off that in a way, she was only on this date because of her dad.

Remembering about Caleb, she looked up to him and found him string at her as if waiting for her to be through.

“I’m sorry, I needed to put my phone on silence” she said quickly and he just shook his head

“No worries”