Eric switches the lights on in his office. He takes a seat behind his desk and stares at his laptop screen for a long time. The events from the day that Ally went missing keeps playing out in his head. He reaches for his phone and searches for Ronald’s number. He hesitates to call Ronald. Does he really want to ask a stranger about what is going on with his wife? Should he just go and talk to Ally?He wipes the screen and puts his phone away. After what feels like forever, Eric gets up and leaves the room. He heads to the bedroom, hoping to find Ally still awake. As he enters the room, he can only see her form laying in the bed. The lights are off, all but the bathroom light. He goes to switch off the light and looks into the bathroom as he does. The bathroom has already been cleaned. He doubts that Ally did anything to clean it. The staff in this house is extremely adequate.Eric gets ready for bed. He pulls the covers open and slides into bed. Laying next to Ally who has her back tu
Eric speaks to Ronald for a few minutes. Ronald does not elaborate on any specific event that occurred when Ally was away. He tells Eric that she was one of his patients and that he saw that something was wrong at that house. He helped her to get away when Doctor White contacted him.Eric asks about Doctor White and Ronald only tells him that she is a psychologist and that she treated Ally. Ronald gives Eric contact details for Doctor White.“One last thing Ronald. When we left the hotel, you gave Ally a strange look as we did. What was that about?” Eric asks the question that has been burning in his mind for a while now.There is a moment of silence on the phone line.“I thought she was acting a little strange. We used to talk about a lot of things during the sessions. Even the night before you came to pick her up, we had a good conversation. She is not shy around me. When you greeted to leave, she didn’t even want to make eye contact with me.” Ronald tells Eric. “I found the behavio
Eric is stunned. He looks at Ally across the room. She is standing with her arms crossed and she has an angry expression on her face. Eric looks at the other staff members. Each of them has the same shocked expression on their faces.The one lady takes off her apron and places it softly on the counter.“I am sorry. I will not be able to work here without Dirk.” She says before leaving the kitchen. One after the other, everyone in the kitchen takes their aprons off and walk out of the kitchen.Eric waits until the last staff member is out of the kitchen.“What the hell happened in here?” Eric asks Megan. Megan drops her arms from being folded over her chest but the angry frown stays on her forehead.“I cannot eat this shit!” she tells Eric. Eric takes a few steps closer to the plate of food she is referring to. He looks at it for a few seconds before lifting his gaze back to Megan.“But this is the way that you asked him to make it. He used to make it differently but when you moved in
Eric sits in his office at the restaurant. He finishes up his paperwork and puts the papers in the desk shelf where his secretary will take it to be filed.He sits back in his chair and looks across the street at Ally’s office. Ally is laying on the sofa with her phone in her hand. Surely, she must have a lot of things that need to be sorted out. She has good staff members at her restaurant but they cannot do the things she does. There should be things that need her attention.Eric gets up and takes his personal elevator to the ground floor. His restaurant is busy and everything is running smoothly. He walks out of the restaurant and across the street to Ally’s restaurant. The vibe is immediately different when he walks into the restaurant. When he walked out of his own restaurant he experienced a sense of happiness. The waiters were smiling and the patrons were chatting happily to each other.In here the waiters are all tensed up. They do not look friendly at all. The restaurant is a
Eric gets dressed. He looks at Ally laying on the sofa. She used to be so cautious about where she seduced him. And after, she would want to cover her body and lay with him for a while. This time, she stretched out and was laying on full display for him to see.She did not try to cuddle or talk to him. She basically just took what she wanted and cut him off. Eric walks to her hidden bedroom and comes back out with a soft throw. He covers her with it and leaves her office to let her sleep.He heads back to his office and takes a seat behind his desk. He turns to look out the window to where he can still see her laying on the sofa, sleeping. Eric feels guilt ridden. He feels guilty for not feeling the connection he used to have with her. He feels guilty for being angry with her. He feels guilty for leaving her there to wake up alone.Eric rubs his hand over his face and tries to focus on his work. After a while, he looks towards where he left her on the sofa. The sofa is empty. She must
Eric wakes the next morning before Megan does. He gets up and heads to the bathroom, expecting it to be in an utter mess. It is mostly clean except for the wet towel that is draped over the wash basket. Eric looks at the scene in front of him. Maybe he just found the way that he needs to work with Ally. He will have to tell her what he wants, since she has no idea how to behave herself anymore. Thinking these words makes Eric feel guilty. He does not want a woman to behave around him. He wants her to be comfortable in her own skin and do the things that she wants to do, but this Ally is not the Ally he fell in love with. He just wants that Ally back.He gets ready and goes to his office inside the mansion. He takes his seat behind his desk and opens his laptop to go through his emails. Most of the emails are work related. He scans through them to see if there is anything that needs urgent attention. Anything else, he will attend to at work.One email stands out from the rest.Its an e
Eric is furious. He struggles to get his emotions back intact. He grabs some of the things in his office that he wants to take with him and leaves for work. He does not wait for Ally to go with him. He saw yesterday that she does not really do anything at work anyways.He heads straight to his office when he arrives at the restaurant. There must be a thunderstorm showing on his face, because everyone who makes eye contact with him takes a step back to give him some space.Eric gets to his office and attends to the matters on his desk first. He then busies himself with anything his secretary brings to him. When he finds that he has nothing left to do, he checks his watch. It is only eight in the morning. This is going to be one hell of a long day if he does not keep busy.Eric takes his private elevator downstairs and heads across the street. The waiters in the restaurant area does not look much happier. He heads to the kitchen to talk to the head chef. He finds him and asks him why th
Gary stutters when he hears Eric speak. Eric gives him a moment to compose himself. He is used to having this effect on people. He has lots of investments with the bank and so does Ally. Eric knows if he had to take his business to another bank, Gary would be blamed for it.“Mr Symons. I had no idea you were working alongside Mrs May. What can I do to help?” Gary says. Eric can hear that the man is nervous. There are times that he wishes people would not react like this when they speak to him but right now, he takes pleasure in the bank manager’s discomfort.“To start off, you can give Mrs May the authority to authorise any salary payments.” Eric says. April looks at him with wide eyes. She cannot believe that Eric will be able to solve this problem over the phone. “And then make sure that she will be able to authorise any future salary payments electronically.”Eric listens as Gary explains why he could not do it before. He understands that someone with high enough authority had to r