Hush, My Sweet Darling

Chapter 29: Time to Kick the Bucket

On the same afternoon, Desmond Lo was fuming inside a deluxe oceanfront room of the upscale Hotel R in West Kowloon. The CEO of Lo Construction Holdings was a man in his early fifties with a well-maintained physique. He'd just gotten off the phone with his lawyer, who had informed him about Duncan's act of defiance earlier that day.

"Ungrateful, good-for-nothing bastard!" he bellowed, slamming his fist on the coffee table. Two wine glasses that stood on a tray next to a complimentary bottle of wine clattered from the impact.

He rubbed his throbbing temples, staring at his cell phone. After waiting for several long moments, he finally dialed a number.

It didn't take long before the call went through, but Desmond could only hear low and steady breathing from the other end of the line.

Intimidated by the silence, he stuttered, "H-Hello Mr.—"

"Who's this?" a commanding male voice cut him off before Desmond could utter a proper greeting. The voice carried a hint of menace, chilling his soul. He almost regretted giving the person a call.

"It's Desmond Lo, sir. We have a situation—"

"I don't know any Desmond Lo. You got the wrong number," the man curtly said before a beeping sound rang in Desmond's ear. The line had been cut.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Desmond cursed. He stomped around the hotel room in frustration, trying to redial the number a few times. But it was to no avail; only a busy tone greeted him.

"Son of a bitch..." he let out a harsh breath. That nitwit of a kid had only been a nuisance, just like his mother. The rotten bitch should have taken him with her when she walked out on them all those years ago. Instead, she had the guts to leave the boy behind. He was not even his flesh and blood. Even so, Desmond had raised him as his own. He had sheltered the boy and given him everything that he needed.

"And this is how he repays me! By threatening to talk to the police!" he seethed.

Ding dong!

He paused his thoughts at the sound of the doorbell. He almost forgot about Maggie, a call girl whose service he had been using regularly in the past month. He had called her earlier, instructing her to come.

After emitting a long sigh, he walked toward the door. This was not the time to have a quick nooky with a whore. Besides, that slut was late. She was supposed to arrive half an hour ago.

He took out ten notes of five-hundred HKD from his wallet and opened the door. He was about to hand the girl the money and dismiss her when he realized she was not Maggie.

Maggie was a twenty-two-year-old aspiring actress with a luscious, petite body who liked to dress up in flashy and skimpy outfits.

The woman in front of him was taller and seemed older—probably in her late twenties or early thirties. Her fiery, body-hugging dress did not reveal too much of her skin, but it showed off her curves nicely. The off-shoulder dress also exposed the right amount of cleavage, leaving just enough to imagine. She held a rose gold clutch in one hand and a bottle of wine in another.

"Mr. Lo..." she said in a raspy, sultry voice. "I'm Joanne, a friend of Maggie. She sends you her apologies... She had an emergency and asked me to come here. I hope you don't mind?"

After getting embroiled in a bidding issue with the Blue Ladder Construction for the Sky Highway transportation project in the past few weeks, Desmond was really looking forward to having an afternoon of getting his wick dipped. Alas, Duncan's news of defiance had soured his mood.