Nosy Jazmine

The child was sleeping. He was not planning on waking her up now, was he?

Austin looked up and sighed. He dropped the document and sighed before standing up.

"Don't worry, Miss Roosevelt," he said, walking towards his room. "You can stay with Alicia, until she wakes up. I will just leave."

Jazmine nodded.

It was not like she even wanted to return to that boring meeting after all. She might as well use the time meant for the meeting to try and find something useful. It would be great if she could find what would be useful for her job so that she could leave the place as quick as possible. Otherwise, Jazmine had no telling what might just happen between the both of them.

A few minutes later, Austin came out. He was dressed in another suit, a navy blue one this time and truth be told, he looked dashing in it.

"Miss Roosevelt, come here." Austin called from the table he stood by.

Jazmine came and stood before him, waiting to hear what he had to say.

"Do you have a laptop?" He asked and Jazmine shook her head.

She looked away and mumbled something underneath her breath but Austin did not hear it.

"Excuse me, Miss Roosevelt?" Austin snapped his fingers before her face and Jazmine looked up quickly.

"Where is your laptop?"

Jazmine but her tongue. She did not want to tell him that she had forgotten it, that would be very unethical of her. Instead, she would lie to him. It was just a small lie, after all.

"It had issues so, I took it for repairs." Jazmine lied with a small smile.

Austin looked at her, no express on her face. Just plain and it made Jazmine feel uncomfortable.

Austin blinked and looked away. He turned to the table and picked his own laptop and gave it to her.

"Use this," he said. "These files on the table need to arranged. I'm sure you are well versed with Excel, right?"

Jazmine nodded.

Of course, she knew! How could she not know when she used it almost everyday since she started working for Mr. Watson.

Austin clapped once and picked his phone, handkerchief, and popped a sweet into his mouth.

"Arrange them in a sheet. Have fun, Miss Roosevelt," He said and walked away.

Jazmine clutched the laptop tightly to her chest as she watched him leave.

Have fun? Doing what exactly?

Somehow, she needed to call Watson. She did not sign up for this when she agreed to do his bidding. But then, she could not argue. At least, not until next week, after her mother's surgery.

Jazmine sighed and placed the laptop on the table. She quickly prepared a cup of coffee for herself and got to work.

A while later, an idea popped into her head and she smiled widely. Like one who had won a lottery. Jazmine minimized the Microsoft page and started to go through the laptop's every file.

Hopefully, she should find something in it since it was his personal laptop. So, with lots of hope, Jazmine kept searching.

After clicking on almost every file and folder in the laptop, Jazmine sighed in resignation. There was nothing. In almost every file or folder she had clicked on, it was official data. Except for a few that had images of Alicia as a child and a woman she found as familiar. Though she could not quite place a finger on where she had seen the woman, Jazmine was sure she had seen her.

With a sigh, Jazmine clicked on the last folder that she had not checked. Her eyes lit up when it opened up, but dimmed when she saw that she needed a password to access it.

Jazmine sat there, looking at the computer screen, and drumming her fingers on the table. She had been sitting there for about fifteen solid minutes, trying to think about what Austin Sylvian's password might be.

A part of her thought that it must be his daughter's name, but she had entered it and it was incorrect. Another part of her believed it should be Alicia's date of birth, but she did not know it.

Heavens, how can a man who loves his daughter not use her name as his password?

More than ever, Jazmine is more curious to know what was in that particular folder that it had to locked.

Just like Watson was mounting pressure on her for 'something' tangible, Jazmine herself was very much in a hurry to find something and return to her mother.

Rhea had even called the previous day to tell her that her mother's surgery had been set to take place in the next seven days. That was a week's time from now.

If anything, Jazmine had made up her mind to take a week's break from the Sylvian Company and go nurse her mother. Maybe, when she returned, she would be in a better position and frame of mind to gather information, as much as Watson needed.

But, how was she going to start asking Austin?

Jazmine only turned away from the computer when she heard the door of Austin's bedroom creak. She looked up to find Alicia come out of the room.

"Aunt Jazmine?" The child called, walking to where she sat.

"Yes, baby." Jazmine replied with a smile and spread her arms for Alicia to land in. "Slept enough?"

"Yes." Alicia nodded, looking up at Jazmine's face. "Can I get a bowl of noodles, please?"

"Sure," Jazmine said, standing up and waltzing to the kitchen with Alicia behind her.

Ten minutes later, Alicia was seated at the table with a bowl of steaming hot, delicious noodles before her.

"Thank you, Aunt Jazmine," she said with a small voice before taking a taste.

Jazmine rubbed her hair tenderly and smile.

"Enjoy, baby. I'll be at the table, working."

Alicia nodded and continued eating. Jazmine reached the table and sat down before the computer again. Almost immediately, she recalled something. She stood up and went back to where Alicia sat.

"Alicia, would you tell Aunt Jazmine what date you were born?" She asked in a sing song voice, trying to coo the child.

Alicia looked up for a moment before nodding her head.

"Daddy says I was born on the first of November, five years ago." Alicia replied.

Jazmine smiled satisfactorily and thanked the child before returning to the computer screen again.

Fingers crossed, she entered the date, 01/11/2018, and closed her eyes with her palms. But, from the creaks of her hands, she peeked and almost screamed down the building when the folder opened up.

"Aunt Jazmine, are you alright?" Alicia asked, worried.

Jazmine calmed down a bit and replied, "Yes, baby. I am fine!"

She took a deep breath before starting to scroll down the contents of the folder. Silently, Jazmine was praying to find something in the folder.