It was clear to anyone just how much Pandora's father adored her-she was the apple of his eye.
"You're absolutely right," Jennifer agreed, echoing Claire's thoughts.
"Oh, by the way, you should have your party at Hearth & Kettle. I'll personally whip up a whole spread for you!"
Before Claire had a chance to reply, Jennifer barreled on, “I already told our regulars we'll be closing shop for a day to throw your party. I even called Pandora herself."
"You wouldn't leave me hanging, would you?"
After all this, could Claire possibly say no? She was genuinely at a loss for words. But she knew Jennifer's intentions were nothing but kind.
"Alright, you pick a date that works for you, and we'll make it happen," Claire said.
Jennifer's eyebrows lifted, mildly surprised. "You're not waiting for Pandora to decide the date?"
Word in town was that The James Village was rather old-fashioned. With Pandora as the family matriarch, Jennifer figured they'd be sticklers about family customs.
“My grandmother's only concerned with the date for the country celebration. She told me I could do whatever I wanted for the city party."
"But the hometown date is already set," Claire added.
"Then we'll just host them separately. Pandora should be able to make it to the city, right?"
Jennifer instantly understood the reasoning. Two parties made sense: the one in the city would be mostly teachers and classmates from school-no need for glitz or glamour. After all, academics always preferred things on the understated side. "How about we wait until your acceptance letter arrives? Then we'll throw the party." "Sounds good," Claire agreed.
It wouldn't be long-college acceptance letters were coming soon.
"Well, I won't keep you any longer,” Jennifer said, not wanting to eat into Claire's busy schedule.
Back at the lab, the team was waiting on Claire alone. As soon as she arrived, she changed quickly and jumped right into the work with everyone else.
When it came to developing traditional medicine formulas, Barry never planned on saddling Claire with everything. After getting her okay, he'd brought Abbott onboard as well.
The moment Abbott heard Claire was involved, he happily agreed.
Still, Claire was the backbone of the traditional medicine division. Abbott rarely entrusted younger colleagues with such responsibility, but Claire was different-she wasn't just his old friend's protégé; she was the future hope of the entire holistic medicine community.
Their generation would pass soon enough. Someone needed to inherit and advance their legacy. Abbott pinned his hopes on Claire.
While Claire spent a full day buried in lab work, the scandal surrounding the James family continued to snowball.
By now, Latham had followed every possible lead, exhausted every connection.
He simply couldn't figure out how a straightforward project could blow up like this. The demolition had gone strictly by the book-so why had it ended in tragedy?
And after that fatal incident, how did things spiral so wildly out of control?
He really wanted to blame Frederic's team for mishandling things and letting the word get out, but Odom flat-out refused to take the blame.
This current project had nothing to do with forced evictions, but by now, the skeletons from every other James family development were being dragged into the open.
With all their dirty secrets exposed
at once, Latham was in over his
head. If their business partners really started pulling out, the James Group wouldnt just owe a
of compensation their entire cash flow would dry up.
Unless someone else stepped in to take over, the James family was finished.
The Byron family wasn't immune either. Odom was already working out ways to sever ties with the Jameses. After all, the two families were only business partners for now Yes there wereans for their kids to marry, but nothing was official. Looking out for themselves came first.
Latham trudged home, utterly spent. He'd already lost his temper at the office, furious and bewildered by who could have leaked the company's secrets-and dredged up every skeleton from their past.