A good marriage

Noah and Steve were still in his office. Now that Noah had told Steve all he knew about Olivia, it was time to talk about the second matter at hand.

"Secondly, how far along are you with discovering the identity of the backer?"

"I am close and I have narrowed it down to two people. I just need a little more time. I think I will have his identity by the end of the week."

Noah nodded. "Good. Because that is also when Maria is coming and when we want to form a plan of action against both him and Olivia herself."

Hearing Maria's name, Steve immediately perked up. "Oh, is Maria going to help as well. Now I am even more motivated to get this done by the end of the week. That way I will have more time to spend with her once she gets here."

Noah chuckled and shook his head as he said, "Just go and get to work already." After that he started bending over his own pile of work while Steve cheerfully replied, "Gladly!" and walked out.

The moment the door closed, Steve's expression changed to a more serious one as he now meant business. He was determined to settle the matter of the mole as soon as possible, so that he could put his focus back on their mystery man, who would hopefully soon lose the title of mystery!

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Meanwhile Laila had arrived at her second stop, her parents' house. She had first went to a few stores in order to buy some gifts for her in-laws. She had found some healthy tonics and supplements for Noah's grandmother in order to help her recover faster and keep her health up. For his mother she had bought a beautiful satin scarf and for his father a vintage pocket watch as she remembered him being an avid collector of those back in the day. She also ended up unable to resist buying a gift for her own parents as well but forced herself to keep it modest as she was sure Noah would spoil them when he would visit. The very cruise they had been on, had been paid for by Noah as an anniversary gift.

When the door was opened, she was greeted by her father who welcomed her in with a big hug before quickly taking the bags out of her hands. "Hello pumpkin. How wonderful to see you again. You are looking lovely as always." Laila thanked her father and followed him inside. As soon as she walked into the living room, which was a much smaller than the one in her own home with Noah, she saw her mother come out of the kitchen. She was rushing out into the living room, holding tea and some of Laila's favourite home baked banana and white chocolate cake. When she saw Laila, her mother placed it all down as soon as she could and walked over to Laila. She gave Laila a big hug too and said, "Oh honey, how wonderful to see you!"

Laila immediately chuckled hearing her father's words repeated almost exactly except for the pet name. "There is no doubt that you two are husband and wife. Even the way you greet your daughter is the same. Is this an achievement you unlock after you have been married for thirty years?" Both her father and mother laughed as they exchanged looks and her mother said to her father, "Did you hear that dear? The curtain has not fallen on our performance yet." After that she turned to Laila and replied, "You can only achieve that by hard work and constant practice. We were practicing our lines just before you got here in order to match each other perfectly. I am glad we managed to pull it off yet again." Laila laughed and shook her head.

She was glad to see that her parents were still happy together. They were the proof for her that a good sense of humour is essential in a good marriage. You need to be able to have a laugh with each other and not take life too seriously if you want it to stay enjoyable.

As her mother walked back to the dining table and grabbed the tray with the tea and cake. As she walked with it to the coffee table she said, "I didn't think you would get here so soon. I managed to finish the cake just in time.." After her focused walk to the table she looked back at Laila and said, "Sit, sit. I made some tea and the cake just got out of the oven. Let's eat it while it is hot and the chocolate is still nice and runny."

Laila could of course not resist that offer and replied, "Don't mind if I do!", before taking a seat on the sofa. Her mother took a seat next to her after she poured them all a cup of tea and placed a slice of cake on a plate for each of them, while her father sat down on the arm chair next to the sofa. After everyone had sat down they both fired a sea of questions at Laila.