You Looked Down on Me Once Now You Look Up (Patricia and Oliver) novel Chapter 432

Riley stared, caught completely off guard.

He fumbled for words. “Mr. Padilla, what exactly do you want me to do?”

Oliver stood up and poured him a cup of tea, calm and collected. “Martin Group is Jason’s company, but his daughter is looking to take it back. I’m betting on her to win.”

“But Emerson’s in control right now.”

“Things change. Power never stays in the same hands for long. Nothing’s impossible.” Oliver’s laid-back way of sipping his tea made it clear—he was confident this would go his way.

Riley tried to map out the connections in his mind.

Oliver was siding with Patricia. That meant he’d help her, one way or another.

So, an ally.

But today, Oliver had reached out to him directly. That was basically an open invitation—Riley was now part of their team.

Riley stood up and bowed to Oliver, almost at a full ninety degrees. “Thank you, Mr. Padilla.”

...

Lunch wrapped up pretty quickly.

On the drive back to Cloud Peak, Patricia looked over, curious. “This isn’t like you. Normally you wouldn’t get involved. Was it what he said about his kid that got to you?”

Mr. Padilla leaned his head on his hand, looking out the window. “Yeah. Something like that.”

Patricia copied his pose, thinking it over. She pulled out her phone and searched for spinal muscular atrophy.

Turns out, it wasn’t something money could fix.

Sometimes, letting go might actually be kinder.

The car rolled into the parking lot and Patricia snapped out of her thoughts. “Where are we?”

“The supermarket.”

“Do we need to buy something?”

Oliver took out his phone, opened his messages, and played a voice note. Sara’s voice came through: “I’ll tell you, but only if you buy me snacks.”

Mr. Padilla chuckled, amused by her careful look. “If you want it, just get it.”

He never ate snacks anyway—almost everything in the cart was stuff Patricia picked out.

When they were done, they rolled up to the self-checkout. Oliver started scanning everything, then suddenly remembered something and looked at Patricia. “Grab a couple boxes of condoms.”

Patricia froze.

Her whole face went red, all the way down her neck. “Why don’t you go get them?”

Mr. Padilla grinned, obviously enjoying her embarrassment. “I’m busy checking out.”

“I can do it.”

“You left your phone in the car, remember? You can’t pay. Either way, I’ll have to check out.” She’d left her phone behind when they got out of the car, not wanting to bother with it.

“You did that on purpose!”

“Come on, I usually handle this stuff myself. Today’s just not the best timing. Be good. Unless you want Johns to be the one restocking our… private supplies next time?”