Chapter 186 - You can work for me

Caspar and Finland hurriedly finished their activities before leaving the study to take Aleksis from Kara and admire the drawings she made.

The little one drew lots of worms and leaves on her drawing paper and proudly blurted out the names of each of these animals, making her parents laugh.

"For a two-year-old child, her pictures are great..." commented Caspar. "She takes after my artistic talent..."

Finland looked at Caspar and shook her head with a faint smile on her lips. Apparently, this husband of hers still liked to compliment himself.

"I didn't know you had artistic talents..." she said. Finland immediately remembered that Caspar intended to enroll at an art school in Hong Kong three years ago when he decided to take on a new identity. She did not know that Caspar really could paint.

"Oh... I never showed it to you, huh? I haven't painted for the past few years, but I have a gallery in Singapore. I built it on the month we first met, after I bought the Continental Hotel. I've painted for hundreds of years. I first met Katia at my painting exhibition," Caspar explained.

Finland remembered that Katia was an artist and Finland was even in charge of the details of Katia's exhibition gallery 3 years ago in Singapore. She did not know that Caspar and Katia shared the same artistic interests and met through paintings.

Thinking of that evil woman made her heart feel very painful.

Caspar was thinking the same thing and he regretted mentioning Katia's name in their conversation. He wanted to distract Finland from their problems and keep her calm and happy while they waited for the results of The Wolf Pack and Lauriel's missions.

"Three days from now, we will definitely have our news. Meanwhile, I will not stay quiet either. I will hit the Meier family business so that Alexei will be struggling and complacent," Caspar said later. "I'll be busy all day tomorrow taking care of a lot of things. You can take Aleksis on a trip to town with Kara and Jadeith if you're bored."

Finland nodded. Her cellphone suddenly rang, and she saw a video call from Lauriel.

"Take it, that must be important..." Caspar said. Finland received the call and immediately saw Lauriel's handsome face on the screen. His eyes were squinted due to sunlight that hit his face.

"Hey, how are you?" Lauriel asked.

"Uhm... fine. Where are you now?" Finland asked.

"I just arrived in Manaus. While I still have internet connection, I want to talk to Aleksis and ask how she is doing. Soon, I will go into the jungle to get my ingredients for the potions. I won't have any connection for 3 days," Lauriel answered.

"Oh... Aleksis is fine, she took a walk to the lake and then drew some worms and leaves. Let her show you the results of her drawing..." Finland smiled as she pointed her cellphone at Aleksis.

"Ahh... worms again?" Lauriel sounded amused. He then talked with Aleksis for a few minutes and asked for the names of the worms in the picture, then praised her tidy hair - not messy as usual - and her nice drawings, while Caspar and Finland looked at the scene with complicated feelings.

Lauriel was practically a father figure for Aleksis during the first two years of her life and the two were very close. Caspar was a little jealous seeing his daughter's closeness to Lauriel, but he could only swallow his feelings, since he didn't want to cause new problems.

He knew that he was indebted to Lauriel, who had taken care of his family during their separation.

After Lauriel was satisfied chatting with Aleksis, he talked to Caspar and listened to the results of the meeting with the Wolf Pack.

"I will come to London as soon as possible to meet Marion and set up a plan to administer the poison to Katia. I will need her expertise to infiltrate and poison that evil woman..." Lauriel thought for a moment, "I think I can come in a week."

Caspar suddenly remembered Marion's surprised face when she heard that Lauriel was going to make the Medusa poison and its antidote. He felt that there was something odd about the girl's expression and assumed that it wasn't very simple to formulate the antidote for Medusa.

"Lauriel... about the antidote for Medusa... You said you would only take that road if you had to," Caspar swallowed hard and tried to arrange his question well. "Is the antidote very difficult to make?"

Lauriel was silent for a few seconds and finally answered, "Yes."

"Oh..." Finland pressed her lips frantically. Lauriel immediately cleared his throat and changed the topic. He did not want to worry Finland.

"I am the best poison expert alive. I will not fail. You don't need to worry. I will leave now. I will call you again in a few days when I have connection."

Lauriel ended the call.

Caspar and Finland looked at each other.

"Do you remember Marion's reaction when Lauriel said he was going to use the Medusa poison? I have a bad feeling about it..." Caspar said quietly. "I'll try to ask Marion what made her so worried."

"Alright... Ugh... hopefully our worries are unfounded," Finland murmured.

They played for an hour with Aleksis before Caspar had a meeting with the director of Academi, who had come from the US at his invitation. They discussed some issues for a short while in his study while Finland read a book to Aleksis.

After his guest left, Caspar went back to spending time with Finland and Aleksis, then they prepared for dinner. He kept the details of his talks with the director of Academi from Finland because he did not want to discuss terrible things with his wife.

During dinner, he tried to make Finland forget their problems by asking her to share her current projects with LTX. Finland, who enjoyed her work, was happy to discuss the details of her projects and the clients that she had handled so far.

"Hmmm, so investing in Indonesia is easier now, huh?" Caspar asked with interest.

"Yes, but please if you want to invest, it is better to focus on renewable energy. We need a lot of investments in this field in Indonesia. Not many people or companies are interested in them because the return on investment takes longer compared to other more lucrative businesses such as mining, palm oil and e-commerce, but in my opinion, the future of renewable energy will be more sustainable, and this is good for our earth..." Finland explained excitedly.

"You can work for me and become an investment advisor in my company for the Southeast Asia region," Caspar said, smiling sweetly, "I know you enjoy working, and I don't want to lock you up at home without being able to do what you like. You can work at whichever office you want, and I will not interfere, everything will be kept professional. You don't even have to let people know that you are my wife, so you don't have to feel awkward towards your office mates..."

Finland's eyes widened when hearing Caspar's offer. Oh, how nice it would be to be able to work with Caspar! And she could still be a professional. She never thought about this possibility before.

She was already willing to sacrifice her passion and quit working for the sake of being together with Caspar and Aleksis, but of course, in her heart there was a bit of sadness because she would feel that something was missing from her life.

Right now, Finland worked not just to make a living, because she still had a lot of money given by Caspar in her account, but to channel her enthusiasm and intelligence and to gain inner satisfaction when she went from one project to the next.

"But I can't become an investment advisor yet... I haven't had much experience..." Finland said. "LTX International is the only company I have worked at, so I don't have experience working for other companies."

"From what I heard, you are very good at your work. You are a dedicated person and you are so quickly promoted for transfer to their branch in America after only six months of working! Moreover, during your 2.5 years in America, you have successfully accomplished so many projects. If you are not confident in being an advisor, I can give you a consultant or research associate position, it's up to you..."

Finland's eyes sparkled. This was a win-win solution for both. Finland could continue working, but at the same time, she would stay closer to Caspar.

"I would love that..." she said passionately. "I would love to work for you... As long as we can stay professional."

"Of course. What city do you want to live in? We can live in New York, Singapore, Berlin, Hong Kong... wherever you want. I can find a position in my company's office in that city later."

Caspar was very happy because Finland welcomed his offer. He himself did not need to work. He only worked to please his heart, so he really understood how Finland felt. That was why he thought of this solution for both of them. Wherever Finland chooses to work, he would move his work base there. They could have fun together.

"I'll think about it first..." said Finland. She was very happy with this new arrangement and she couldn't wait to start her new work and their lives together. Soon... after all these problems are over.

She brought her face close to Caspar's and kissed his lips gratefully. She knew Caspar understood her very well. She felt that she was the luckiest woman in the world.

***