Siren Song 148 Fake Smiles

"Ah my cousin, Chang or should I call you Charmaine now as everyone else does? It has been far too long since we last saw each other." The slightly taller man stood to embrace her but she rejected him sharply with a hand to his chest.

"Ah, yet I would say it was not long enough of a time. I would rather you not call me at all, I would greatly appreciate it if you did not disturb me during the work hours and hara.s.s my employees." Chang Dumont scowled up at the man. Her cousin was nothing but endless trouble, a lesson she had come to learn painfully. To see him now only picked at the old wounds she had thought she had already forgotten.

"Heh, you are so cold, we are family, there is no need for this. Plus we have shared some rather interesting experiences together. Or has my cousin forgotten?" The man's smile widened as he looked at her. Most would have considered him to be a fairly handsome man, especially when he smiled; but with their past shared experience she only thought of him as being a creep, and his smile was oily. "I merely came to wish you well on your birthday."

"Why thank you, now that you have accomplished your goal, you may leave, thank you for stopping by." Chang Dumont forced a smile on her face and opened the door, holding it open to invite Robert Dumont out.

"But you've only just arrived, should we not catch up after so long?"

"There's no need, if you do not mind, I have quarterly reports to total and file from the bond investments we are holding, and I would prefer to finish it today." The man opened his mouth to protest and she cut him off before he could continue. "Good bye Robert." Chang cut him off and motioned for him to leave.

Giving her a smirk he left unhurriedly. "Farewell for now cousin.I'll see you later."

'Ugh now what does he mean by that? Don't think about it, focus now.' Chang Dumont quickly lost herself into her work as she did every day, staying busy helped her keep her mind from straying. She worked steadily until she heard a knock on the door and Anouk came in with a light lunch for her with a gla.s.s of lemon water. Glancing at the time she was surprised to see that it was already after noon.

"Merçi Anouk." Chang wearily rubbed her eyes and looked to see the pet.i.te brunette still standing there. "Is there something else?"

"Oui, do you have another name you go by Charmaine?"

'I did once, but I've buried that person and the name that went with it..'

"No." Chang took a forkful of her salad while reviewing doc.u.ments.

"Then this just gets weirder. We just had at the front a bouquet of flowers delivered for a 'Chang Xie' and it was written the lovely manager of our firm." Chang dropped the fork from her hand mid-bite hearing her words.

'Who would send me flowers, and have them sent with my old name? There's only a few people who know my original name. Who could this be? ' "Where was this delivered?" Chang stood and motioned for Anouk to lead her to where the present was delivered.

On one of the front desks near the door stood a tall crystal vase filled with flowers and bits of greenery for color. It was filled with mostly white roses, not quite at maturity as well as pink camellias with a smattering of little blue forget-me-nots tucked in here and there.

Beside the vase sat a small embossed card with the words Chang Xie written in elegant script in the front. On the back was a small written not, 'for the beautiful manager of the Bouleau Argenté, I shall see you tonight. Happy birthday.'