Ally rushes into the house to see Eric. She knocks on the door and enters his office without waiting for him to invite her in. Eric is on the phone with someone when he realises that she is in the room.“I will contact you shortly.” He says abruptly and ends the call. “Yes?”Ally sees that Eric has a difficult time switching between the way he treats her and the rest of the world. To him she is now something he needs to handle. It is in this moment Ally realises that she cannot tell Eric exactly what happened today. She quickly scrambles her mind for something else to tell him. Nothing seems urgent enough.“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have barged in like that. I wanted to tell you about my day.” Ally quickly tells Eric. Eric’s beautiful mouth spreads into a smile. He walks over to her and wraps his arms around her.“Did you enjoy your outing?” Eric asks Ally, he has now managed to switch to the Eric that does not need to handle Ally.“Yes. Thank you. I got four dresses.” Ally laughs softly
“Eric?” Ally asks. The uncertainty evident in her voice.“Good morning.” Eric says to Ally. He still has the look of confusion on his face.“Is it? A good morning?” Ally asks Eric. “You look worried.”Ally’s heart is beating at a rapid pace. Eric can fully see her now. She is sure of it.“Why are you covering up your body?” Eric asks her. “Did you always cover up before I regained some of my sight?”Ally stares at Eric. He still cannot see completely?“I…. yes, I did.” Ally tells Eric with an uncertain chuckle.“Well, that will have to stop.” He says in a soft drawl, pulling the covers from her. The confused frown has now gone from his expression. “And yes, let me show you what a good morning it is.” He tells Ally while pulling her against him, kissing her neck and letting his hands wander over her body.********* It is already well into the morning when they finally get out of the room. Agatha seems to have lost her nerve. The two security guards appointed to watch over Eric and All
Ally has never seen so many gems and diamonds in one place.“Oh, no. I cannot wear any of that.” Ally tells her quickly. Even the wedding ring Ally is wearing isn’t all that extravagant. The initial ring that she was given was chosen by Meg. It was big and bulky as if Meg tried to choose the biggest diamond, she could possibly get her hands on. After the wedding the jewellers came to see if the ring fit perfectly and the owner noticed that Ally feels uncomfortable with the size of the diamond. He gave her another ring that is equally elaborate but with more smaller diamonds. Even though the ring is still far more than Ally would have chosen for herself, it does feel more comfortable on her finger.“Of course, you can.” The woman replies with a friendly comforting smile. “There is nothing that can compare to your beauty but these will only make your eyes shine more brightly.” Ally cannot help but stare at the woman.“Let us try this one.” The lady says and takes out a black velvet box.
Ally looks at Eric. The way he stares at her tells her that he can see her very clearly right now.“I probably have.” Ally starts to tell him. Erik slams his fist on the desk.“Why the hell would you do this. Where is my actual wife?” Eric boulders at Ally. She takes a step back to get a little more distance between them.“I can explain everything.” Ally tries to tell Eric. He slams his fist on the table again and walks around it to come to stand directly in front of her.“I do not even want to hear it. You know the family rules. As a curtesy, I will give you the luxury of a choice.” Eric glares down at Ally.“A choice?” Ally stammers. She knows the family rules but she cannot think what choice she has to make.“Yes, Alicia. A choice. You can decide how you want to leave this family.” Eric seethes at her.Ally knows exactly what he means. He does not even have to say it out loud. The choice for the women in this family has always been to disappear or die. Only one woman could get the
“Oh, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.” The woman tells Ally. She has slightly greying hair that she has put up in a tight bun. She is neatly dressed and is standing with her hands clasped in front of her. “I am Ruth. I am in charge of running the household.” She says in a friendly voice.Ally stares at her. There is not much of a household here, is there?“I unpacked your things while you were in the shower. If there is anything not to your liking, please let me know.” She smiles at Ally. Ally nods at her.“Dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes. Would you like to have it in your room?” Ruth stays as friendly throughout the conversation, even though Ally does not respond much to what she says.“Yes, thank you.” Ally forces herself to speak. She is too tired and really just wanted to get into bed.Ruth nods and walks out of the room. Ally walks to the bed and sits down on it. There is a box on the bed that Ally recognises. She put the box underneath one of her pairs of sho
“Where is Max?!” Eric yells into the hallway. “Send him to me!”Gareth follows Eric as he storms back to his office.“Sir, Max left with Mrs Ally.” Gareth tries to break the news in a way that would not make Eric even more furious.Eric comes to a dead stop and swings around to face Gareth.“What?” Eric gives Gareth a cold hard stare. “When?”“It seems that Max packed Mrs Ally’s things and took her out the door the moment you told her to leave.” Gareth keeps his voice calm even though Eric seems to get more furious with every second.“He took her from the house?” Eric asks harshly.“Yes, sir.” Gareth says. “We tried to track them but both their phones are switched off.”Eric pulls his phone from his pocket and dials Max’s number. He waits a second and then swears under his breath as he dials Ally’s new number. Again, he swears and thrusts the phone back into his pocket.“Find them!” Eric bellows and storms back to his office.Eric goes to stand behind his desk. He looks at the tray of
Megan leaves the office and heads to Eric’s office. She walks past two ladies in the hallway, cleaning as if they did not see her. There is a very tense atmosphere in the house. Meg has not seen Bennet even once, which she is very grateful for.Meg taps on Eric’s door and enters before he could invite her in. Eric glares at Meg. Meg walks up to his table as if she isn’t phased by his death stare. Inside, her heart is beating rapidly. She knows that she may disappear any moment. She has been told this much when she got here the first time. It was her main motivation to get away.Meg places the diary in front of Eric. He does not take his eyes off her.“What is this?” Eric asks as cold as his heart feels.“This is your mother’s diary. It would do you really good to read it.” Meg tells Eric. There is a lot more confidence in her voice than she feels in her heart. “And this, is your marriage certificate.” Meg continues, placing the piece of paper on the diary. Eric breaks his stare from M
Eric sits in his top floor office. He looks at yet another email from a private investigator telling him that they could not find his wife in the last year. She has covered her tracks perfectly and there is no sign of her. They have searched everywhere.Eric has been searching for her for the last year. He spared no costs when it came to finding her, yet, she still has to be found.The restaurant downstairs is up and running again. Eric cannot imagine how he would have survived the last year if it hadn’t been for him starting up the restaurant again. He worked non-stop. When he had a few moments, he spent them finding new private investigators to search for Ally. It has been the longest and busiest year of his life.He stares out of the large floor to ceiling windows that make up most of the top floor outside walls. He loves his office here. It looks more like an open plan apartment than an office really.In the large open space, he put his desk and shelves with books and files, in th
Megan waits in her room most of the day. She looks up when she hears a soft knock on the door. Agatha stands in the doorway, waiting for her to acknowledge her. Megan stands up and takes a few steps towards Agatha.“Morning.” Megan tells her.“Good morning, Mrs Symons. The doctor is here to see you. Would you like to meet him in the downstairs room or should he come up here?” Agatha asks her. There is no emotion on Agatha’s face. She does not let it be known what she is thinking or feeling.“I will see him in the downstairs room. Thank you.” Megan tells her.Agatha nods and turns to go to the downstairs bedroom. Megan follows her in silence. Megan cannot ignore the pounding of her heart as she approaches the bedroom. She does not know how she will be able to get the doctor to keep her secrets. Agatha stops next to the open door and indicates with a gesture of her open hand for Megan to go in. Megan nods at Agatha and enters the room before Agatha pulls the door closed behind her.The
Eric wakes up the following morning. The first thought that crosses his mind, is that Ally has not been for a check up since she came back. He wonders how the baby is doing. When he found out she was pregnant, he was so excited to become a father. He could never share this excitement with her because she was not in a good place and when she was discharged from hospital, she was taken. Even when she came back, he couldn’t share his excitement with her. She was just not the same person anymore.Eric gets out of bed with effort. He will have to arrange someone to go see her at the house. He cannot trust her to go to an appointment. Eric takes a hot shower to force himself to wake up fully. He steps out refreshed and ready for the day. He gets dressed and ready for work. He smiles as he steps out of his hidden bedroom into his office. No commute today. He missed staying here. He lived here for a long time after he had a fallout with his father. He only moved back to the house after Ally w
After dealing with the staff member, Benson goes to Ally’s room. He unlocks the door and opens it slowly. He never knows exactly where she is. She may be behind the door. He enters to find her laying in bed. She has her back turned towards the door and is staring towards the window.Benson walks up to the bed and waits for her to acknowledge his presence. She does not.“Good afternoon, Ally” Benson tells her. She does not move or respond. He stares at her for a few more seconds. It irritates him that she treats him like this. If she only knew what he had to do to keep her alive after the stunt she pulled with Ronald. He was able to deal with Ronald, having him fired at the facility. He is not afraid that Ronald will ever come into her life again. He also got word that Doctor White was in on the plan and have dealt with her too. She will never be able to practice again in this country.“I would like to show you something.” Benson tells Ally. Ally lays in her bed. Not moving at all and
Benson sits at his desk in his home office. He watches the screen of his laptop. The security cameras he installed to keep an eye on Ally is displayed on the screen. He watches her lay in bed. She does not move around much. After he brought her home, he placed her in the same room Megan was in.She was distraught after Eric and Megan left the hotel, crying for days. She refused to eat and she spent most nights walking around in the room. Today, when her meals were taken to her, she ate some of it but not really enough to call it a healthy meal. If things go on like this, he will have to bring a doctor in to see her.Benson sees the screen of his mobile phone flashing on his desk. He takes the phone in his hand and reads the number on the screen.“Yes?” he answers. He waits a second before the person on the other side starts talking.“It’s Megan. We have a problem.” She tells him.“What is the problem?” Benson asks. He is a little tired of having problems. Nothing worked out the way it
Eric is furious. He cannot stand the way Ally does not care about anything. This selfish nature of hers is driving him up the walls. Eric looks at his desk, he already finished his work early this morning. There is nothing left for him to do in here. He refuses to go home and he cannot sit in this office all day with nothing to do. He cannot stand going back to Ally’s restaurant.Eric goes into his hidden bedroom and gets his chef jacket from his closet. He puts it on and takes the bandana from the pocket. Wrapping the bandana around his head to cover his hair, Eric heads out of his office towards his own restaurant kitchen. When he enters the kitchen there is a moment of quick silence. Eric walks straight to a young chef that is busy chopping vegetables. Her work is neat and her station is tidy. He holds his hand out to her.“May I?” Eric asks. The young chef looks at his hand and then at the knife in her own hand. She carefully hands him the knife she is holding. Eric nods and the y
Eric and Jane sort out most of the issues that Jane had within an hour. Jane looks a lot happier when Eric is done talking to her. He applies himself to sorting out the mess on Ally’s table. There are unpaid bills on her table. He looks through them and can now understand why some suppliers refused to deliver to the restaurant. Eric sorts out everything that needs attention. When he leaves the office, there is nothing left to do. Eric shakes his head as he enters the elevator. Ally could have sorted out most of these problems yesterday, if she had not laid on her sofa playing games.Eric stops by the kitchen to check on the mood. The kitchen staff is seemingly working harder than before. All the work surfaces are clean and the head chef is doing his rounds and making sure everyone is ready for tonight’s service. Eric is happy with the immediate change in personnel morale. It was a problem for him when he walked in here and saw all the doom and gloom in the world under one roof.Eric w
Eric walks into the dining area. He finds one of the waiters who are standing next to a wall with her hands behind her back. She stares out in front of her. Eric takes a stance beside her and stares in the direction she is staring in. There is nothing there.“Oh! Mr Symons!” the young girl exclaims when she realises that he is standing beside her.“Why are you so absentminded?” he asks the young girl.“I was just thinking how much everything has changed since I started working here.” The girl answers. She immediately regrets telling this to him when she realises that she is speaking to her boss’ husband. Why did she not think of this sooner?“How long have you been working here?” Eric asks in a soft tone. He has long since realised that when speaking to women, you cannot use your demanding voice. Except when you are in the kitchen. Those women expect you to speak in a strong demanding voice.“I have been here since the restaurant opened.” The girl tells him.“What is it that changed?”
Eric takes the number and dials it from his personal phone.“Good day, Mrs Johnson. This is Chef Symons. Your husband works in our restaurant.” Eric introduces himself. There is an immediate sense of panic from the woman on the other side.“Oh, no! Did something happen to him?” she asks quickly. Eric can hear the dread in her voice.“Not at all. Please do not worry. Your husband is fine.” Eric assures her as quickly as possible. He hears the sigh of relief over the phone. To Eric, this is a positive sign that this woman still loves this man. Eric is somewhat surprised that he is so invested in saving this relationship. Ally would do exactly this. Well, Ally that he married, would have done this.“Mrs Johnson, it has come to our attention that you and your husband has had a couple of difficult years. And to add to that, we have had an admin issue in our offices in the last few days that caused salaries to pay out late. I apologise for that inconvenience.” Eric tells her. He hears how s
Eric watches as all the staff members who have not received their salaries quickly take out their phones. Most of them receive their messages as they unlock their phones. The looks of relief on their faces gives Eric a sense of guilt. He did not know that these staff members were under so much pressure.Eric straightens his shoulders and claps his hands once to draw everyone’s attention.“Good morning chefs.” Eric says. He takes the stance he usually would in his own kitchen. His feet slightly apart and his hands behind his back. He looks at each of them, making eye contact.“Good morning, Chef!” they all greet in unison.“I apologise for any inconvenience regarding the late payment of your salaries. If you were affected negatively in any way, by paying penalties or anything of that sort, please report it to Mrs May. I will gladly compensate you for any of your losses.” Eric watches as some of the staff members start to smile with relief. There is always something that causes chaos wh