Chapter 4

Gregory Hanson

‘…in another exciting gossip, Anna Vendel has been married off to the emotionally unstable CEO Christopher Hanson. Though nothing is public yet, we are made to understand that Anna was sighted at the Hanson mansion with her luggage and it seems she’ll be staying there for a while. It’s rather shocking that this rapidly happened shortly after she took her father’s company to the ruins. This makes Business Gossips wonder if she’ll achieve such a feat with Dazzling Dreams…’

I poured myself wine as I watched the gossip show. The Business Gossips show was one of my favorites and I never failed to sneak a peek at their daily episodes. They were good at digging up gossip like those I just heard. One could learn a lot about business rivals and competition just by listening to most of this gossip.

However, I felt they’d been too quick to discover that Anna had come over. Everything concerning the marriage had been done covertly so I had to hand it to them.

I took a sip of wine and watched for more details.

‘…everyone knows that Mr Harold doesn’t mince words when he points out his daughter, Anna, as a misfortune bringer and this was more established after she let a deal slip to a scam group that cost the company billions, bringing the company to its knees. We are wondering if this marriage is in any way beneficial to the Hansons or is just a show for attention. Or maybe Christopher has finally recovered and needs a warm embrace after more than a year of losing his wife?’

“Children,” I whispered as I drank the wine. They raised valid points, but they were children. This was exactly what I’d hoped for by bringing Anna into the picture. There was no direct or immediate benefit, especially to something that wasn’t business-minded. For a man like me, we saw three steps ahead.

Whatever Harold thought of his daughter—and whatever reputation he must have coined out for her—wasn’t my problem. It did have its negative effects but those effects were what I was working towards harvesting. 

I soon turned off the TV when the presenter kept talking too much about Christopher’s late wife. I sighed and leaned against the bar counter. Stacy’s death had wrecked Christopher badly. After a year of hiring professional psychologists, they couldn’t help to pull him out of the mire he was in. There were little improvements but not good enough. Most times I felt guilty for this. Had I taken another alternative, things wouldn’t have taken this turn. Or more likely, had Stacy kept her nose from sniffing things that were bigger than her, she’d still be alive and Christopher wouldn’t have lost his mind.

I took another sip of the wine, then I decided to call the doctor once more. I had many other things to deal with. Now that Anna was here, I expected Harold to call any moment from then to start asking for deals and the sort. Although that annoyed me to some extent, it was an agreement. I needed a woman for Christopher and he needed the damn money!

I guessed I could’ve settled for another woman but when I’d seen those paintings in Christopher’s studio some months ago, I couldn’t help but think out of the box. All it took was just a careful wiring of my plans to bring this together and I expected that Anna’s presence would have the effect I desired—at least it would give me peace of mind.

I finally dialed the doctor and he answered the call. He sounded like I’d just woken him up from a deep sleep. “Hello, Mr Gregory?”

“Dr William, did I wake you up?” I asked.

He chuckled. There was a shuffling of sheets in the background. “Not really. I dozed off on my files. Is something wrong?”

“It’s about Christopher.”

“Okay…?”

“The girl arrived today and I don’t know how to judge the effects. I figured that only a professional in matters of the mind could see if there’s something, you know?”

Dr. William took a few seconds before he said, “Um…let’s hope it’ll trigger something positive in Christopher. As for the plan, I’m not sure it might have the effects you’re looking for. You see, I told you that what Christopher needs most is to make peace with what happened and move on. We might be adding another reason for his mind to be broken further.”

“But he painted her!” I said, exasperated. “He spent months painting that girl—different paintings of her! How do you explain that?”

“Uh…I’ll talk to him tomorrow and see what therapy I can recommend. I’ll need to speak with the girl too.”

I read the hesitation in the doctor’s voice and that was enough to tell me that he was hiding something from me. It probably had something to do with his ethics of not sharing patients’ information with third parties. I sighed. I had to be patient and let this fall back into place.

“It’s okay. I just want my son okay.” I couldn’t help but remember the days when Christopher would fearlessly and fluently lead business deals and negotiations; he could close fairly impossible deals and persuade investors to come into the company. He was…different. Not like me but powerful and successful in a different way. 

“Don’t worry, Mr Gregory, Christopher will be fine. We’ll keep reaching out to him till we pull him back from the grief of losing his family.”

When the doctor said that, I hung up the phone, feeling exhausted already. I didn’t want to think of that day when Christopher had been dragged back home all bloodied and raving. It had taken a lot of effort to pull him away from his wife and son’s mutilated corpses. I remember that I’d hid in my room that night, shuddering and cursing myself. At least my grandson could’ve been spared, right?

The doctor was right, but maybe Christopher wasn’t the only one plagued by grief and regret.