11 Chapter 11

With the Reyes' family now substantially fed, the two families were sat around the table with cups of coffee, safe for Archer, who was drinking a warm glass of honey and lemon. Surprisingly, despite his mature exterior, he was unable to hold his caffeine, extremely prone to jitters and sharp mood crashes, which he had been unfortunate enough to have experienced in his middle school years, something no member of his family has ever let him live down. There was a mostly comfortable silence, only the respective second sons not really understanding why they all seemed so comfortable.

They did not get a chance to question it either.

Haerin's phone rang and everyone turned over to the woman standing at one end of the table. This time she seemed far more calm and collected; at least that is what Henry thought. Of course, last time she had found out one of the members of the family she was serving was rushed off to hospital in an unknown condition.

"Alright, thank you for letting me know. You know what to do if you catch a glimpse." She hung up and looked to the two sets of parents. "The prediction was correct, they attempted on Penelope's life again."

And now Henry was confused, why on earth was she calm this time? Just a little warning is enough for all the worry and stress to be knocked out of her? Was this the same young woman he had calmed down on Saturday?

Joshua on the other hand, sent his parents an incredulous look. Why was everyone else so calm on the topic of his sister being attacked a second time. In fact, when had the first time even occurred? He was starting to feel incredibly lost on the situation, unsurprising since no one had informed Joshua on the findings of the two PA's' research.

It was Henry to notice first, realising that the Lore second son was oblivious to all the recent developments. Realising it would be a little awkward to continue this meeting without Joshua being up to date on the entire situation.

"The Q Group set the fire to attack your sister in order to warn your family out of the merger, the same reason why we were hit with a cyber-attack. They probably reasoned that if they attacked us a second time to try and sink us, they would try hurt your sister again; this is the Q Group we're talking about. At the moment they have a mole in our company we ate trying to dig out. Considering our company's attacks being so pubic, the merger needs to be formally announced as quickly as possible before it hurts both companies' image and success of the merger. That's the whole reason we are meeting this quickly."

As the young man spoke, Joshua was suddenly reminded on the agreement to discuss an alternative basis for the merger as well as them, declining the joke of a marriage meeting. Of course, he had been so preoccupied that the thought had completely escaped him, much like reality seemed to have over the past 24 hours. If the roles had been reversed, he would have thought about going ahead with their original plan and talking to his parents about how ridiculous the whole thing was.

In an ideal world he would have definitely talked to them, however Joshua was too uncertain on whether he would have had the face to bring it up unprovoked.

Having gone through a strangely wide array of situations with Henry in an absurdly short amount of time, the slightly older man had a good idea that his thought process would have been similar, especially considering how bad things were getting. So when the other six continued discussing, he was glad that Henry silently asked if him if he had told them through a mixture of eye contact and subtle nods. In response, Joshua ever so slightly shook his head before nodding towards the other man.

Henry shook his head, a little awkwardness showing on his face; he had no reason behind not bringing the topic up with his parents other than cowardice.

The two immediately realised that they needed to discuss this with words as soon as possible, a heavy stressing weighing on the two simultaneously.

Joshua was hit with an overwhelming urge to smoke, a habit from university he had mostly curbed due to the difficulty of keeping it hidden. However now the idea of his family finding out he smoked was the least of his concern, the merger and two families were at risk.

"Sorry, I need a smoke." All heads turned to the beautiful man, confusion showing in everyone present from the Lore side. The Reyes were not far behind as Joshua's words and the stress made Henry think of a similar thing – in an ironically similar position as the other man in regards to his family and smoking. "I think I'll join you." They both stood up and left the office with a slight nod at their shocked elders.

All talks stopped for a moment, everyone soon realising it was not just them in confusion. Even Ramy and Haerin were naïve to the exposed fact. "Did our son smoke?" Hanna asked, not quite at grips with the situation. None of them were. Marcus looked to his elder son, sending a questioning look only to receive a shrug in return.

After a few minutes of confused, not quite present murmurs, a single idea started to enter every confused occupant of the office. Samuel was the one to finally vocalise the common suspicion. "Is it possible that they… just said that… to talk."

What the man had said was not wrong in some senses, however the reason behind this talk was far from the truth, only making both families think that the wedding was going on for sure; that being said, everyone had already been rather certain on that.

In the meanwhile, the two younger men were making quite the statement as they walked towards one of the two smoking rooms in the building. It was impossible for them to not have, no one could stop themselves from turning their heads to follow the two equally good looking, silent men roaming through the building, as if Henry hadn't been enough, there was now a second.

There had been more originally, but in an attempt to improve health throughout staff, Caroline and Marcus had slowly weened the chances people had to smoke, offering help for those who were willing to quit. However, a good number of smokers remained, and while they did, so did the smoking rooms.

When the two entered, there was only one other man in there already putting his cigarette out on against the ashtray, the smell of tobacco and menthol hung in the air.

It was only then Joshua realised he did not have anything to smoke on him since he had long curbed the addiction, now only partaking in times of extreme stress. He turned to Henry only to see him roll his eyes and drop his head back. In that position, the blond man asked, "Do you have a fag?"

"Unfortunately not, it slipped my mind since I don't smoke often."

"You and I both then."

The third man in the room had slowed down his actions having witnessed both Joshua and Henry walk in, recognising the two of them immediately due to his versatile role in the company, often having him tag along with Samuel to the Lore's company building. He knew, much like most of the company, that the Lore family were present, however he did not know that the second sons of each family knew each other, especially well enough to smoke together.

He stopped his own thoughts before they got ahead of him, for all he knew, his presumptions could have been far off the bat.

Henry looked at the man, knowing he should know his name but not being able to remember it, just opting for a smile. "Do you happen to have a couple cigarettes we could smoke?" Without looking, the man shook his head. He knew well since he had already made a mental note on it. "Sorry, I only have two left and I need one for after work."

"One is fine," both Joshua and Henry answered in unison, neither believing the desperation in their own voice. Clearly smoking was not the best idea, however they had already set their mind on it.

The third man thought to himself that the two must be friends, they are happy to share a single cigarette.

What he didn't know is that both of them had become extremely accustomed to smoking with complete strangers while studying abroad, neither finding the act even remotely intimate.

He nodded and pulled out a green carton, handing one over to the two, Joshua taking it as he asked, "Could be borrow your light too? We were a little unprepared."

Something about the voice of the older beauty in front him set off something in his head, and he couldn't help but think that Joshua Lore really had a very attractive voice, something about it seemed almost melodious even if he was asking for something menial. He had slowly gotten accustomed to Henry having seen him around most days, however Joshua's allure was different.

When speaking of allure, it was not one of sexual attraction, or even physical, it was more of a mental attraction, making the man want to listen to whatever he was being told. He was well aware of this, making him extremely glad that his wife was safely at work, away from the exposure of the Reyes and Lore duo.

In the end, he pulled out lighter and handed it over.

The younger man took the lighter and lit a flame, the older lighting the cigarette in his hand before taking a drag. Henry handed the lighter back and the third man exited, suddenly feeling as though he was intruding. He was not sure why, but that is what it felt like out of nowhere.

Joshua and Henry had moved towards the window, leaning against a rail bordering the room. Now that they were alone, they could discuss the situation, not that there was much to catch up on they found. As they shared the cigarette, they came to realise that neither had thought about the horror from the weekend.

"So, are we going to tell them now?" Henry asked, taking a drag before handing the lit cigarette back to the older man. He couldn't describe the feeling, but there was something that urged him to not to bring it up now with his parents – he also could not tell if this was the situation not being right or more cowardice.

"Well, it feels a little awkward to bring it up all of a sudden," Henry started, swallowing whatever the feeling was before continuing, "but this is all getting out of hand. That's two attempts on your sister's life, you realise? And they are trying to crumble my family. If we do not think of something soon, it will just be worse."

"So, in a way, we really have to tell them now. At least that way we can have eight of us working on a solution together before the Q Group try another underhanded technique."

Even if both men agreed that the faster they brought the subject matter up the better, neither were a particular fan of it. To them, of course marrying another man was completely out of the question, that was never a doubt, however the prospect of talking to their parents seemed to get worse and worse as time goes on.

"We'll tell them now," the dark haired man finally said, his voice with a inconceivable amount of certainty. If they did not say it today, who knows how long it would take. Also, he would much rather bring this up himself than wait until they were forced with spilling the beans and worsening the matter when it could be too late.

The confidence in Joshua's voice inspired the younger man – who was none the wiser on how Joshua immediately amazed that so much had come out in his voice. He could also understand the reasoning, they had been cowards long enough. At this rate, they may as well get married because, as jarring as the thought was, if they did not say it today, they may never get a chance again, his family could crumble before then. Henry nodded in return.

Just as quickly as the confidence had come around, however, it left the two men, leaving them suddenly looking at each other, both faces unreadable, hiding their identical, internal turmoil.

Joshua took the cigarette and took a deep drag, the smoke travelling down to his lungs too fast and burning his throat a little. Henry could easily understand what that meant.

"After we finish this."

"Definitely," Joshua responded after exhaling and passing the cigarette to him.

Suddenly, both men found them self attempting to make the half burnt cigarette last as long as possible.

As they smoked in silence, they were oblivious to Ramy leaving the area outside the smoking room to go back to his bosses' office. Once at his destination, he was met with six impatient faces; he found it a little ridiculous that the room was full of some of the smartest minds in the country, perhaps even the world, and yet they had put a hold on all their work in order to hear gossip about their sons.

For once though, the PA could not fault them.

"Obviously I could not hear what they were talking about," he reported, "but that is not the important part. Firstly, apparently they do both smoke, and more importantly, they were sharing one between them."

Haerin sent Ramy a look of disbelief, only to be returned with a solemn nod.

Simultaneously, all four parents found them self smiling with excitement.

Due to Joshua and Henry's actions, something they to them seemed menial, the unfortunate misunderstanding seemed to have worsened dramatically.