Love Unspoken

The car door swung open, and the first thing to pop out was a cane.

Next came Alexander's shiny leather shoes, black pants, and finally, the man himself. Quinn squinted, her brows knitting together. Something about this scene just felt off. Standing in the sunlight, Alexander's cane looked more like a king's scepter.

He strolled up to Quinn and glanced back at the distant villa. "Why aren't you going in?"

Quinn looked away from his face and muttered, "There are bugs."

Alexander blinked, probably not expecting that to be her reason for staying outside.

"Bugs? Seriously? Since when are you scared of bugs?" Alexander said, using his cane to poke at the grass. When he saw the swarm of bugs, he calmly pulled his cane back.

Quinn shot him a look. "You scared?"

"Not scared, just grossed out," he said, trying to keep his cool but failing to hide the disgust on his face.

He turned to Quinn and asked, "You really wanna go in?"

"Why else would I be here?" Quinn snapped.

Alexander nodded, pulled out his phone, and made a call.

Quinn watched him, puzzled.

The call connected, and Alexander said, "Get some folks to clear the grass, $20 per stem."

Quinn's jaw dropped. She started counting the grass stems in her head. Suddenly, the bugs didn't seem so bad.

After he hung up, Quinn couldn't help but ask, "You got money to burn or something?"

"How'd you guess?" Alexander smirked.

Quinn pursed her lips. The old Alexander was annoying, but this new Alexander was downright infuriating. A few words from him and she was speechless. Half an hour later, a bunch of cars pulled up.

A chubby guy was the first to hop out. He jogged over to Alexander, his belly jiggling. "Mr. Kennedy, why didn't you tell me you were coming? I could've picked you up at the airport." Alexander ignored the flattery. "Did you bring the people?"

"Of course. I didn't know how much grass needed clearing, so I only brought half the crew. Didn't expect there to be this much. I'll call the rest over and get it done ASAP," the chubby guy said with a fawning smile. More than thirty people got out of the cars. They eyed the wild grass, rubbing their hands together, already counting the money in their heads.

"$20 per stem? That's easy cash!" they thought.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

Pulling one stem per second, a thousand stems would take just 16 minutes. Earning $20,000 in 16 minutes-where else could you make money that fast?

The villa and its grounds covered at least 50,000 square feet. With the grass density, even a lowball estimate of 100 stems per 10 square feet meant the potential earnings were mind-blowing.

They could hardly believe it.

The chubby guy pulled out his phone to call more people but then turned back to Alexander and asked, "Mr. Kennedy, did you really say $20 per stem on the phone?"

Alexander looked at him calmly. "Clear it all before dark. I don't want to see anything but dirt."

"Alright, I'll call more people." The chubby guy told the initial crew to start working and then made more calls to bring in extra help.