‘I’m sorry, Phoenix, but there was nothing much about Anne Devano. It was as if she ceased to exist twenty years ago, and most of the information about her was being erased. Did you get the name of the school she attended with your stepmother?’Amelia stared at the message Vold as sent to her. After listening to Ava's words, she could barely sleep, and that resulted in her asking Vold for help since he was the only other person that knows about her mother. Why would anyone erase information about her mother? Was it her father, because he had made sure there were no traces of her mother left in the house?“What are you staring at?” She heard Mike’s voice. She had thought he was asleep as they had divided the bed, and she lay on her side of the bed. But his voice was as clear as day. She closed her phone and hid it under the bed. No one was to know that she was looking for her mother. “Nothing.”Mike sat up, “It doesn’t seem like nothing. Did something happen with Ava before I
“I need to know more about this Anne Devano,” Mike told Steve. Steve leans on the chair, opening magazines and paying attention to Mike. “Who is this Anne Devano?” Steve's curiosity got the best of him, making him close the magazine and focus on Mike. “You already have too much to do, and now you are giving yourself an extra duty to look for some Anne Devano.”He frowned. Phoenix had never asked him of anything, this is the first favor she had demanded from him, and he knew how desperate she was. She had always talked about the mother she had never met, and how she wanted to know about her, even if it was just a little. “You can’t understand, Steve. I am doing this as a favor to a friend. She is an important friend.”Steve narrowed his eyes, making sure to make eye contact with him. “Are you cheating on your wife, Mike?”Mike shook his head. Sometimes he could hardly believe the way Steve thought. Yes, he was a playboy, but that was only to get his mind off things that bother
The party was supposed to be modest – that was what Amelia had heard, but judging from the extravagant cars outside, and guards protecting most of the guests, she knew it was more than just a party. The hall was lavishly decorated and big enough to occupy lots of guests, but the guest was restricted to simply by invitation. Chairs were arranged in groups, and the stage holds one podium. Some goods were neatly arranged at a corner of the stage until they disappeared into a room close to the stage.Amelia looked down at her herself; she was dressed in a simple black skirt and a button-down shirt. She was undressed for the occasion, even though she was only there as her husband's secretary. She didn’t dare stand next to him afraid she would look like a maid beside him, as she hurriedly follow behind him.Mike noticing his wife’s falling footsteps, stopped for her to catch up with him. “Why are you walking behind like some kind of guard?”Mia frowned at him glancing around; most of t
Amelia didn’t pay attention to the rest of the conversation between Shawn and Mike; she was glad to be out to Shawn’s unending questions. The items they continued bringing out were rare and Amelia gaped at each with surprising eyes, she couldn’t believe some of this stuff actually cost millions of dollars. The people kept bargaining for each item until the highest bidder won it.The whole event was getting boring to Amelia, as she couldn’t afford most of these things, and didn’t see how it was helping the less privileged. She brought out her phone hoping to catch Vold online this time; it had been a while since they were both online at the same time. It seemed crazy they were both busy at the same time.“I will pay ten thousand for that.” A voice beside her said. Amelia turned to see her husband raising his fan. She turned back to see what he was willing to purchase; it was a small necklace, with an angel pendant. She hadn’t listened to the attribute the Mc had mentioned, but sh
Ava was standing outside the door when the couple returned making Amelia smile. She was seeing more of Ava now than she had ever in her whole life, and she was already twenty-two. Upon seeing the couple, Ava flashed a smile at them. “Welcome, dearest sister.” She engulfed Amelia in a hug, and the other pretended to fall for her hug out of courtesy. She left Amelia and tried to hug Mike, but when she saw the look in his eyes, she drew back with a chuckle. “Welcome back, brother–in–law.”Mike ignored her as if he hadn’t heard, and headed inside. The only reason he was tolerating her was because of Amelia, and he was already in a bad mood thanks to Shawn. Ava's eyes followed Mike until he was out of her sight, her teeth biting her lips wondering when she would be able to touch him and kiss those lips of his. The clearing of the throat brought her attention back to Amelia who glared at her. Ava smirked; it was the first time her sister was showing this side of her. “What’s going
Mrs. Afonso sighed before watching Mike retreat from the room without any other questions; he looked sad as he pulled his leg all the way through the stair. She knew a day like this was going to come. A day Mike would question everything around him, and not just sit down and obey their instruction as they hoped, but it was getting closer than she had expected. After she was certain she couldn’t hear the boy’s footsteps any more, she followed also, but to her room. The moment she locked the door behind, Mr. Afonso sat up like he wasn’t sleeping before. “What did he come for?” The older man pulled the blanket to cover his upper body, as he had been experiencing a series of colds and coughs. The doctor had advised him to keep himself warm all the time. “Just what you fear, Thomas, he is getting curious. He came to refute our decision for keeping his wife a secret from the world.” Thomas coughed loudly, “He must hate us so much right now.” He had anticipated that, but that didn’t m
It was hard to walk with your head high when you know all eyes were on you, and they whispered about you. Some were confident enough to point their fingers at you. Amelia put her head down; she hadn’t spent up to two weeks in her working place, and she was already the topic of gossip. It was annoying. This was not what she expected when she dreamed of freedom.She forced herself to the office, but Florence was waiting at the door with a frown on her face. She folded her hand below her breast and glared at her with so much hatred; if looks could kill, Amelia was certain she would be dead by the way Florence was looking at her. When she got to the door, she tried to move inside but Florence blocked her. “What’s the meaning of this?” Amelia asked with gritted teeth.Florence scoffed, pushing her phone .in Amelia’s face. She removed the phone only for her face to show an expression of shock. It was a picture of her lying in Mike’s leg, while he gazed at her with what anyone would r
What boyfriend? Mike wondered as he walked into the office. He could feel the ladies' gaze on him, but they didn’t dare to say a word. He walked up to Amelia, who sat up on her chair. The moment he stopped before her, she wrinkled her face into a forced smile, “How can I help you, Sir?” She screamed the ‘Sir’, and that made Mike wonder why she had to scream it.He had come to check on her and force her to dine with him, but after hearing about this boyfriend he had no idea on. He wanted to speak with her now. “Meet me in my office now?” He turned without waiting for her response.Amelia turned to look at the girls, and saw Christie whispering, “What’s wrong?”She shrugged. Florence was glaring at her, but she followed Mike behind. On the way, Mimi was coming back, and when she saw them, she started adjusting her dress. Mike was out of space that he didn’t respond to her greeting.She glared at Amelia behind, who sighed. She was surely having more enemies than friends. When they g
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