The ladies were waiting at the entrance by the time Amelia returned, she held her kneel and took in a deep breath. Christie who folded her arms regarded her with narrowed eyes and a mischievous smile, “What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you ran all the way down here? What happened to the elevator?”When she was escaping from her husband’s office, the last thing on her mind was the elevator. She hadn’t thought about it and had fled down the stairs. She was certain some staff was staring at her, but that was the last thing on her mind. Why was she so comfortable on his leg when he was the first guy she had ever sat with?Wanting to avoid anything that would bring back that thought, she said, “I am sorry, ladies. But, can we move towards that meeting we plan to have?”Claudia nodded, “Yes, the sooner we do; the faster we can all go home.”They nodded and moved towards Bani’s burger. “I love the location for this meeting. How did you guys know I love burgers? I felt you choose this location
For the first time, Amelia was eager to see Ava. When she got back home from her successful meeting with the ladies, she ran towards the guest room Ava was occupying. She knocked repeatedly, but there was no response. It was the first time Ava was absent since she had forced herself into their home. “Did you miss the way to our bedroom?” A voice said behind her and Amelia turned to see Mike smiling at her with a glass cup in his hand. She moved from Ava’s door to meet her husband in the middle of their room, “What are you doing?” He lifted the glass cup, “I was planning a movie night surprise in the room.” “Movie night?” Amelia questioned. “Yes. It’s one of the things people do for fun with their family or loved ones. They reminisce about their days and they can even try to replicate what they watched in the movie.” Amelia nodded, “I see. Why do we suddenly have movie night?”. He shrugged, “We are a newly wedded couple. If we can’t go out to have fun, it doesn’t mean we can’t ha
“Hello, Amelia. Your maid was caught stealing at home, I just feel like you needed to know.” There was a smile behind her words. Amelia felt like she was hit by a sudden force from nowhere. She had spoken with Loveth not quite long. Was she the reason Loveth had been caught? “What do you mean by stealing?” She tried whispering, but her voice had come out louder than she expected. Mike who had gone back to relax on the bed was beside her in a blink of an eye. “What happened?”Ava blinked and looked at Amelia with a smirk.She turned to face Mike who stared at her expectantly, “I am sorry, Mike, but I have to go home now.”Before he could say a word she was already moving towards the closet.Mike stared at Ava for a second and followed his wife without questioning Ava. Amelia had pulled on sweatpants and a random top and was already pulling her bag. She moved frantically around the house. Mike stood in front of her to stop her from taking another step. “Where do you think you are
Mike squinted as Angie turned on the switch in the room and frowned at the excuse of a room. The outward appearance alone had been spooky enough, and it didn’t help that it was midnight. He held Amelia who seemed to shiver at the sight of the room, and different thoughts filled his mind. Had she ever been here before? Because she looked more scared of the room than anything she had seen before?His hand seemed to comfort her, as she relaxed a bit and spoke. “Where is she?”Angie frowned, but when she met Mike’s eyes, it metamorphosed into a smile, “Come on; the whole building is bigger than a room.” She moved further inside.Mike's gaze roamed as he took in the cobwebs and spiders who weren’t ashamed to show off the place as their home. How could she lock someone in here just because the person stole from her? Whatever the person had stolen, it didn’t deserve this treatment. “Angie…”She paused; probably surprised he had called her by her name and not mother-in-law. “…if I ma
Amelia had never done anything like this; the whole house was a mess and she had no idea if she was getting it right or making it worse. She placed the hot water beside the bed and draped the hand towel inside throwing it down when the heat from the water touched her. She picked it up again until she was able to squeeze it successfully. She dabbed it on Loveth’s bruise earning a loud noise from her.Mike sat on the nearest chair away from flying hot water and safe from screams. He peered at Amelia. “I think it’s best we take her to the hospital. You don’t know what you are doing, and I have zero knowledge of medicine.”“No,” Amelia said again. He had repeated this for the hundredth time, but what was she supposed to say if they asked how she had sustained the injury? She couldn’t tell on her family for the sake of their reputation and although her stepmother hated her, she was still the only mother figure she had in her life.“Okay. We are going to be having a long day at work a
“Didn’t you sleep at home?” Christie asked with a curious brow. Just like always she answered herself before Amelia could come up with an excuse. “Don’t tell me your mother punished you home late?”Amelia chuckled; she didn’t even know her mother, but she had told enough lies about her. “No. I was working on the inauguration party plans at home.” That was another lie, but it was better than the continuous lie about her mother. Chris stared at her with wide eyes. Amelia chuckled, “I can be a workaholic sometimes.”“I can deduct that.” She said. “Anyways, I created a group with the ladies and I wanted to ask if you would like to join the group.”“A group?” Amelia asked as if it was a foreign word to her.“A group chat on WhatsApp; I feel it will be a faster way to share information instead of waiting to meet every time. It doesn’t help that the party is tomorrow. We have to do everything as fast as we can do it while we are still working on our own duty.”Amelia nodded, “Of cour
Amelia's eyes were wide as she took in the hall; a sly smile appeared on her face. This was truly the result of hard work. Her eyes shimmer as she stood in a corner in the hall.“I can’t believe we pulled it off,” Christie said, clutching Amelia’s arm. “In just two days. Look at all that we did. It only inspired my belief that one can achieve anything when they set their mind to it.”Betty rolled her eyes, “Yes. Yes. All of that inspiration; what I can’t wait for is the men in suits.”“Men in suits?” They asked turning to look at Betty.She smiled, “The guys. For some reason, the guys looked very different in suits. They look more handsome.”Claudia smirked, “Yeah. But I am more eager to see the Afonso’s, there is no way the whole family won’t come for their son’s inauguration. Right?” she narrowed her eyes at them. Betty's interest seemed to change with it. “I have only seen them in the newspaper. It’s really a rare opportunity to meet them. I wished we were going to sit at t
“What was that all about?” Amelia asked. Her voice was small like a whisper. Her mind was replaying the event of the day. She had been happy that she wasn’t attached to the family and was free to live the way she liked, but everyone knows now. They were going to treat her differently now. “I have no idea why my parents did that. They had insisted we keep this a secret and yet they were the first to announce it to the world.” He clenched his teeth in anger. “They have always controlled my life. It wouldn’t have been bad for them to give me a head-up” He muttered under his breath, but she heard him clearly.After the announcement, the press went wild taking pictures. They had millions of questions to ask them, but she had been safely ushered out of the hall with the rest of the family. They had gone home while she had returned to the office to discuss things with Mike. She should have gone with them, but she needed to clarify this mistake with him.Mike had been nothing but a fr
Epilogue Amelia had slept all through the trip; being pregnant only makes her wants to sleep all the time. By the time she felt a little nudge by her side they were somewhere far from home. She could barely pinpoint exactly where Mike had taken them to, but the bright sun and the beach side felt strangely familiar. The air was different too. More natural and makes her lean more into him. She felt like she had seen this numerous time, but it also felt like she hadn’t seen it before. Mike assisted her from the car, and it all hit her like a wave. She had the picture of this in her room for a long time. She had sigh looking at him and thinking it there was heaven, this would be it. It seemed so out of reach then like she could never get here no matter how much she tried, but here she was with her husband. She jumped on Mike. “Are you serious?”He nodded, “Of course, I am serious. I bought this place for you.”Her heartbeat raced. It was a different thing visiting the place she had
The whole room was silent as everyone anticipated the next word out of the newscaster’s mouth. In front of the newscaster, in the left corner of the television was an old picture with five young men and women, with some children sitting on the floor in front of them in a chain. It was easy enough to tell the relationship of the children with the adult. They looked so good while the children looked like they could barely stand without falling. They looked malnourished. The headline was the most captivating; Child Trafficking exposed.They had exposed the names of everyone involved in the trafficking and declared them wanted. Apart from those in the pictures, the journalists were able to fish out more people backing them up behind the scenes. It was a bigger syndicate than Mike expected. It might be one of the reasons; that it was easier for Alfred to cover up the death of his parents.The picture made it easier for Mike’s man to find out a lot about Alfred and to get more vital infor
The news spread faster than Mike had expected, and his wife’s phone had continued to ring non-stop since the announcement. It was mostly from her foster family. He was certain there would be more calls from the company, but there was no finding out because he had forbidden them from reaching out to him. If they couldn’t handle those calls, they don’t deserve to be paid the amount they were. The families were spread out in the main mansion, all seated on the couch listening to the news. Every station talked about the sudden appearance of ‘Anne’ and the ownership of D&D, which suddenly brought back the hidden fraud cases. No one could get closer to the Afonso’s mansion, so they were perfectly at ease at home. Mike held Amelia’s phone, thinking she would be tempted to pick it up if the call was too much. If there were something Mike would thank the journalist for, it was their speed of linking up gossip. In a short time, they were able to figure out about Amelia’s identity and link her
Florence had displayed different emotions with her eyeballs within those few minutes, and at last, she settled for fake tears as she gripped the edge of his table, “I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t know much about him. He barely says important thing in front of me.”Mike narrowed his eyes at her, barely moved by her tears, “Seems you just decided your job isn’t precious to you. I’ll ask the HR to type your…”“No sir,” she screamed. Mike raised a brow at her. “I’m ready to talk.”And she did.She split every little thing she knew about Alfred; most she had gathered illegally, maybe hoping to threaten him when they had a misunderstanding. Anyway, it would work well for Mike without putting much effort into finding things about Alfred.After she had split her gust out, he dismissed her and called the H.R. to fire her. Someone who could be so greedy was of no benefit to the company; she could easily tell others their company secrets to gather favors for herself.Glad from all he had gathered f
As Mike checked his phone, he shared a look with Steve, and they both smiled. It was time to go home. Mike made a call to get a new car before they went home.Amelia couldn’t hide her anxiety after waking up and she didn’t see Mike by her side. He had just gotten hurt, and she knew he might be on one of his dangerous missions. If only he could tell her about it; he keeps trying to protect her.She stood beside the door and called him numerous times, but he wasn’t picking up, which only scared her more. Her mother had tried peeling her away from the door, but it was useless.When Amelia heard a car moving into the mansion, she ran out with Anne hot on her leg. She was super excited until she saw it was a different car, and her legs faltered on the way. The car stopped directly in front of the main mansion, and Sharon came out before Mike’s aunt.Guilt filled her as she watched his uncle come out of the car. Ever since she had gotten her mother out of the hospital, she hadn’t gone back
Mike woke earlier than the previous day, and although his hand hurt like crazy, he unbound the bandage and tried some hand exercises he had seen online last night.Amelia was sound asleep, which was the best. He knew she suspected things, which was one of the reasons he needed to act faster. Thankfully, her foster father had fallen into his trap after his short visit to his house, and the accident was somehow a blessing in disguise. To them, he was in a serious accident. They thought he was still unconscious. He had made sure that the hospital said that if anyone called to ask of a Michael Afonso apart from his wife.It made it easier for him to carry out his operations without them suspecting him. He dressed quietly and called Steve to join him.During their previous investigation, they found out that most of the children would be shipped out of the orphanage today because they already suspected Mike was up to something. Now, it was up to him to save the children, and recuperating
The sound of the ambulance and the continuous shouting matched Amelia’s heartbeat. Sharon ran beside her, trying to calm her down, but Amelia pushed through every person and thing until she got to the hospital reception.The disadvantage of her speed was that she couldn’t say a word as she tried to catch her breath. Thankfully, Sharon was quick to ask the receptionist, “Michael Afonso.”The nurse nodded and started typing on her laptop; by then, Amelia had regained her breath, “Where’s my husband?” she screamed, gaining the attention of others in the hospital. Sharon ran beside her, trying to calm her down when another nurse walked up to them. She spoke with Sharon for a while before leading them towards the V.I.P. section of the hospital.As soon as she saw Steve outside the ward, Amelia rushed towards the room, ignoring Steve at the door. Sharon stopped to talk with Steve,Mike lay on the bed with a bandaged arm, but he seemed alright.Amelia ran towards him and started touching ev
When Mike woke up the next morning, Amelia was fast asleep. He moved out of the bed as silently as he could, trying to avoid waking her up. She looked so lovely asleep, so he planted a kiss on her forehead. Her forehead wrinkled, and he almost beat himself for waking her up until she sighed, turned, and went back to sleep. Mike let out a breath of relief.He knew Amelia was already suspicious of whatever was happening, but he didn’t want her to wake up before he left. He did everything as silently as possible before exiting the room.The moment the door closed, Amelia opened her eyes and jumped out of the bed as quickly as she could with her baby bump. She picked the first dress she saw and wore it quickly. She waited to listen to Mike’s car sound before she ran to the nearest car to follow him.She didn’t think about anything as she jumped in the car and drove after him. Hiding from someone while following them was easier in a movie, but to her, it seemed Mike knew she was following
Amelia paced in the room with her phone in her hands. She kept trying to call Mike, but he wasn’t picking up her call. “I told you to sit down. I’m sure Mike’s fine. He might be driving.” Anne tried to reassure her.She shook her head, “You don’t get it, mum. Mike did all he could to prove he’s worthy to led company. Can you imagine how he might feel knowing he had been dismissed as the C.E.O.”If it weren’t for Anne, she would have been on the way to the company now, but her mother blocked the way, preventing her from going out, which resulted in her calling Mike multiple times. But Mike wasn’t picking up her call.“He must be very devastated right now, Mum. As his wife, I should be beside him in times like this. I should be where he is.”Anne closed the gap between them, stopping her from pacing around the room. “Fine, Amelia. If you want to see him that badly, I can drive you to the company.”For a second, she thought it was a great idea but suddenly shook her head. “No, mum. Hav