She blinked rapidly and the image got clearer."Mrs Matilda?!" She called in a whisper, Matilda was standing behind her, her hands behind her back, she was putting on a black gown, on brown sandals and a brown shawl was draped over her shoulders."Mrs Matilda," she called out again and bursted out in tears as she made to talk, she was already looking hell of vulnerable, there was no need to try and save her face again."Oh boy," Matilda whispered as she squatted to Eleanor's level and hugged her from behind, as she patted her back lovingly."I know for a fact that you're a very strong woman Eleanor, this too shall pass!" She said to her, Eleanor held on to her arms as she leaned into her an wept.Matilda felt genuinely bad for her, she had being particularly drawn to her the first time they met, Eleanor reminded her of how much of a dedicated person she was back in the day, the first time she saw her present at the Wilson Corp, it pained her heart to see her go through the same kind o
"Eleanor I'm sorry," Arthur said turning to her as they settled into his car."Sorry for what exactly?! That you let your Mom embarrass me like that without saying a word to pacify her,""Or just leaving me alone to myself after what happened?!" She retorted turning to look him , she wanted to be angry, she wanted to just tell at him, but looking at him right now all her anger seemed to melt away and she just wanted very much to run into his arms and remain there."For everything Eleanor, I'm sorry for not speaking up for you," "I'm sorry for not standing up to my mom, I feel terrible, trust me, I do!" He said to her."I actually don't have any right to be angry, you're just my boss, you shouldn't even be apologizing," she whispered placing her hands across her chest and staring out the window."Don't say that Eleanor," he whispered, his voice dripping deep emotions, he slowly placed his hands on her jaw and slowly turned her to face him."I love you," he whispered, her eyeball slowl
"Mom!" Eleanor called immediately as she stood up."You will sit back there and shut the hell up!!" She growled turning back to Eleanor, who in turn just slowly sat back on the chair."I thought you were smart! So after everything he has said and done to you, you still have the guts to open your mouth and say you love him?!" She growled angrily."Ma'am I ..." Arthur tried to say."I said shut the fuck up!" Racheal growled and her heads snapped up to look at her mom, it was the first time since she became wise enough to discern things that she heard her mother use that word."I'm talking to my daughter not you!" She gritted as she turned back to look at Eleanor."Have you forgotten the pain you went through, that fateful day at the hospital, still you choose to love that same man !" "Or you've hurriedly forgotten what happened yesterday?!""Mom please can you try to understand my ...""There's nothing to understand because it's just plain stupid!" She growled."Let me tell you now! I
Next day Saturday Morning Eleanor took in a deep sigh as she stood in front of Arthur's door, she had no idea why or how she got here, but she found herself here anyway. She place a soft knock on the door, after consecutive knock she finally heard footsteps walk up to the door, she dropped her hands and stepped backwards as she heard the door bolt unlock."Hey," she whispered immediately Arthur's face came into view, he looked a mess, and her heart ached at that."What are you doing here!" "Sure your Mom isn't going to come for my head?!" He retorted."Did you sneak out ?! Look it's best you head back home now!" He added smugly, his voice and facial expressions clearly depicting that he wasn't in the mood to talk to her."Really?! Not yet twenty four hours in a relationship and you're going to fight with me because of something my mother said!" She said, he scoffed and let go of the door knob as he walked into the house, she took it as a cue, she stepped in and slammed the door sh
"Matilda," Fred called, standing up immediately Matilda stepped downstairs."What are you doing here?!" She asked instead, slowly walking up to him and took her seat."I wanted to talk to you," he replied, his legs quivering as she took her seat again, Matilda elegantly crossed her legs, looking up at him, she couldn't help but only remember the dispisable way he stared at her twenty three years ago, as much as she tried, the image was very hard to push away."Is this about the contract?! I said I was going to get back to you!""And if you don't understand what that means, it's means at my own time!" She snapped, caring less about her rude tone, he deserved more rudeness from her than that."No it's not about that," he replied as he sat up on the chair, "I just realized that, I did a lot of bad things to you in the past and I didn't properly apologize the first time we met again," he said and a small smile slowly crossed her lips ."Why?""What for? Why are you apologizing to me now?
Following week ....Monday Morning ...."Good Morning Sir," Lydia greeted immediately Arthur walked into the office."Good morning, is Eleanor here yet?!" He asked and she shook her head negatively."She's not""Oh, here she comes," she whispered pointing towards the elevator door that just went open, his eyes followed her hands and met with Eleanor's eyes, he immediately took his eyes off her."Oh," he whispered softly as he turned around and walked towards this office."Good Morning Eleanor, are you fine?!""Is everything okay with you and sir Arthur?! You guys don't look too good?!""We saw the news," She whispered immediately Eleanor got to her desk, she exhaled deeply as she turned to look at the other staff with her side eye, they were all concentrated on her, expecting to hear juicy gist."I'm fine Lydia, thanks for asking," she replied instead."Yeah it's nothing," Lydia replied with a genuine smile, a smile that indicated that she could be comfortable around her if there was
A small knock came on Arthur's door, he paused what he was doing on his laptop as he looked up at the door."Come in," he whispered numbly, his voice devoid of any kind of strength.The door slowly went open and Eleanor slowly walked in."Oh" he whispered as he pushed his laptop further into the table and reclined in his chair."Babe," she whispered as soon as she moved closer to him."Wow!" He exhaled, as he stood up from where he was seated and walked towards the window, he peered out shortly before turning to face her, his hands across his chest."I didn't think you'd still want to be in a relationship with me," he replied."What?! Babe why would you say that!" She whispered."Because the last conversation we had didn't seem like it wasn't something you couldn't do!" He replied."Wow, you were the one who walked out on me remember?!" She retorted."Look Eleanor, I don't want to argue with you, what do you want? Why are you here?" He asked and a small smile tugged at the corner of h
Wilson Corp,“All the documents with Mr Henry has been finalized,” Eleanor said as she walked into Arthur’s office.“Okay that’s good, has Tyler said anything again?!”“I guess you should forget about Tyler as it is, he has made up his mind not to come back,” she said and he nodded slowly.“Alright, you can go ahead and interview the other applicants,” he said and she nodded slowly.“Sure, will arrange for that immediately,” “Yeah that reminds me, in the mean time can you help me look over these documents, I’ll send them to your mail,” he said to her, she nodded slowly as he calmly dished out orders, telling her what she was supposed to do with.“Okay,” she muttered and turned around to leave,“One more thing Eleanor,” she paused in her tracks and turned to look at him.“Yes?!”“I love you honey,” he said and she broke out in a sweet smile.“I pray I don’t die of diabetes from all your sweetness,” she said and his smile equally widened, as he stared at her with so much fondness and w
Author’s POVOne year Later. Isabella stepped out of her room, her heart heavy with thoughts of her mother, today makes it one year since she was sentenced to life imprisonment. After everything that happened they had moved to a small apartment and led a much more quiet life. Thankfully she was already done with high school. Her, her boyfriend and bestfriend gained admission into the same school and will be leaving in a few days. She looked forward to it enthusiastically.She paused briefly in the hallway when she saw her father, Marshall, sitting on the couch with Matilda beside him. They looked so comfortable together, Matilda’s hand resting lightly on his arm, and the sight made Isabella’s stomach churn. The fact that Matilda lived in her own mansion did not stop their house from being her second home and she was there almost everytime. She knew she should be used to it by now—her father had moved on. But every time she saw Matilda in their home, it felt like a slap to her face.
Arthur. Meanwhile.The second we left the restaurant, my world felt like it had cracked open. My chest tightened with every breath, and the weight of the man’s words echoed endlessly in my mind. "My son."It didn’t make sense. None of it did. How could the man standing before me be my father? How could my mother have kept this from me? Lied to me every day of my life. From the look of things my dad was equally as shocked, she played the both of us.Eleanor squeezed my hand gently as we walked aimlessly, far away from the restaurant. I could tell she wanted to say something comforting, but what could anyone say to fix this mess? I didn’t want to hear the truth. Not from anybody."Arthur... do you want to talk about it?" Eleanor's voice was soft, like she was afraid I'd shatter if she pressed too hard. I shook my head. "Not now." We found a park bench and sat down. The late afternoon heat didn’t help; my shirt clung to me, soaked with sweat from everything that had just happened
Few hours Later.Eleanor.“We’re not going to the cafeteria?!” I asked as we walked into the elevator and he pressed on the ground floor, he slowly turned to me and shook his head slowly.“Ofcourse not,”“I’m treating my baby, to the best cheese in town,” he said to me, my face lit up in excitement immediately.“Ouuuuu, as tasty as Paris Comte?!” I asked snuggling closer to him, he turned to look at me and chuckled lightly. “I can’t give you my word on that though,” he said and we shared a laugh, ofcourse American cheese can beat Paris cheese, no matter who makes it. “Also my Dad wanted to meet with us, he said he has something to say,” he added and I nodded slowly with a small oh.“Yeah speaking about your dad, have you seen the accusations going around?! About the company and your mom?!” I said bringing out my phone to show it to him.“No I haven’t, and I really don’t care. I’m used to the rumors. They are not true anyway.” He said, I paused and slowly slipped the phone back in my
Eleanor. Next day. 6:30amMy eyes slowly fluttered open, it took me a while to adjust but immediately I did my gaze fell upon a pair of brown eyes staring down at me. My lips stretched into a shy smile and I slowly raised my hands to cover my face.“How long have you been staring?!” I asked in a mutter as I gently pushed myself up to sit on the bed, “Long enough to know you look extremely cute in your sleep,” he murmured in reply scooting closer to me, I felt literal butterflies in my stomach at his words, he gently raised his hands to my face and tucked my scattered hair carefully behind my ear,“Good Morning Sunshine,” he whispered and placed a small kiss on my forehead.“Good Morning Love,” I murmured in reply with a sweet smile.“Today would definitely be a beautiful day for me, I got to see your face immediately I woke up,” he said, I chuckled lightly as I gently pulled the duvet away from my body and got up.“Stop teasing me Arthur, we have work today let’s get ready,” I mutt
Meanwhile , 6:30pm Eleanor. “Alright then, I’ll take my leave now,” Lydia said to me, I flashed her a small smile and nodded slowly. “And please do the needful,” she whispered, I took my lips into my mouth and nodded slowly.“I’ll try,” I muttered in reply, she passed me one last tight lipped smile before walking out of my office. I exhaled deeply and reclined in my chair. It’s been the three days and Arthur hadn’t spoken to me in these three days, we walked past each other this morning at the entrance and he barely acknowledged my greeting, he seemed to be giving me space, a whole lot of space. He had been doing everything to avoid working together with me and it felt really obvious. I exhaled deeply again, I’ve been doing that a lot recently, I tidied up my work, picked up my bag and headed out. I walked past Arthur’s office, on a second thought I paused and walked back, I placed a small knock on the door before pushing it open and walking in. Immediately he heard my footstep
Three days later … Matilda.“I’ve spoken to Louis,” Camilla began, breaking the silence. We were currently sitting with Carson in his office, it’s been three days after our first discussion and now, based on more developments we have come to restrategize. “He did a thorough job. We have Fred’s financial records, including the transfers to that shell company tied to the mafia. It’s all there.” She continued.Carson stopped pacing and turned to face us, a glint of both relief and worry in his eyes. “That’s good, right? So we can take this to the authorities now? And end this once and for all?!” I shook my head slowly, my fingers tightening around the stack of papers on my lap. “Not yet. We have the proof, yes, but we need to secure a few more pieces before we make any moves. If we present this now without covering our tracks, I have a feeling it wouldn’t give us what we want.”Camilla leaned forward, her gaze serious. “We need to lock everything down. If we go public too soon, Fred
Minutes Later …Eleanor. I sat on the edge of my bed, my knees pulled to my chest as I stared blankly at the wall. My argument with Arthur was still echoing in my head. We had never fought like this before, not so raw and ugly. My heart felt heavy, honestly I thought I should be feeling angry but I was feeling something different, Guilt. He didn’t deserve the things I said to him.Thinking about it now, I said a lot of things I shouldn’t have, I said a lot of things I didn’t mean and I hurt him even when he tried to make things better. I took advantage of my anger and poured out all my frustrations on him, and honestly, I shouldn’t have. I heard a soft knock on my door but didn’t move. The door creaked open a moment later, and my mother walked in. She didn’t say anything at first, just walked in and sat beside me on the bed. The silence between us was thick, but comforting in its own way. She didn’t push, didn’t demand answers, just waited.“Mom,” I finally whispered, my voice bre
Meanwhile. 3:30pm.Arthur. The door creaked open, and Eleanor stepped inside without knocking. She didn’t look at me. She never did every single time since today whenever she comes into my office. Her eyes flickered toward the stack of papers on my desk—the ones related to the project we were supposed to be finishing. She crossed the room, her heels clicking against the hardwood floor, sharp and unrelenting like her silence.“Sir,” she muttered emphasizing in the sir like she had been doing since morning and it is killing me!“I need you to review the final revisions for the Miss Matilda project. The budget allocations are off by two percent, and she’s asking for an updated timeline by tomorrow,” she said, her voice steady, detached. She didn’t pause, didn’t give me a moment to respond, just pushed a file onto my desk and continued.“Mrs Penelope wants the project done and over with as soon as possible,”“The marketing team’s also waiting for your approval on the ad campaign for the
Next Monday.Matilda. “This way Ma’am,” I flashed her a hearty smile as Mr Jackson Assistant led me to his office. My grip on my bag tightened as she led the way and I followed behind her, I wanted to get everything I came here for done as soon as possible. My first and easiest Target was Fred. I had Camilla draw me up companies that Fred cheated is still manipulating to his own advantage. He makes them sign contracts and then goes against them, just because he knew they needed him to survive. This is the third CEO I was visiting today, his office was more modest office, tucked away in the industrial side of the city. immediately I stepped into the office, he looked up and gently got up to his feet to greet me with a small bow.Jackson Barnes, CEO of a local logistics company. “Matilda, I wish I could help,” he said as soon as we sat down, running a hand through his thinning hair. “But you have no idea what these people are capable of. They’ve already made threats against my