SNEAKY LINKS?

CHAPTER 3: SNEAKY LINKS?

When Mini heard Valerie's voice, she quickly hung up. Just then, Valerie heard Alex coming. She immediately dropped his phone, left the room, and turned her back to the door, her chest heaving. Rushing to where Fareeda was, Valerie tried to compose herself. Fareeda was busy directing people to get the decorations done in time for the Christmas party. She pulled Fareeda by the arm and led her to a corner.

Fareeda and Valerie had a close relationship as they were best friends. Their friendship began when Alex married Valerie, and Fareeda was a new maid in the house. Even though Fareeda was two years older than Valerie. When Valerie felt lonely and sad, Fareeda was always there for her. When the former head maid passed away, Valerie insisted that Fareeda take her place. Even though the other maids were envious of Fareeda's promotion, neither Valerie nor Fareeda let it bother them. Anyone who dared to challenge Fareeda's authority would be severely punished. Valerie and Fareeda's friendship had withstood the test of time, and they were like sisters. And any challenges that either of them had, they faced and conquered them head-on.

"Fareeda, I think Alex is cheating on me, "

Fareeda let out a loud gasp and Valerie put her hand over her mouth to shut her up.

"Why, how do you know that? "

"Mini was calling him on the phone and then I answered the call and she said 'Baby, that was amazing, " Valerie said, imitating how Mini said it.

"Who the hell calls their boss, baby?" Fareeda asks rhetorically

"Exactly the same thing I thought,"

"I think you need to confront him," Fareeda advised

"What, no, you saw what happened to me the last time I confronted Alex when he told his dumb friends that when Kevin grew up he was going to send him to boarding school. He gave me a black eye, "

"So, what do you wish to do now? "

"I know that I am right but it may have been a mistake, right? I just need to keep an open mind for now, if I notice anything suspicious then I am going to confront him, " Valerie said bracing herself up

"Okay, Val, we'll talk later. Alex might come downstairs to oversee the preparations for tomorrow, " she said, gave Valerie a tight smile, and then left.

Valerie sighs aloud, unsure of what to do. Just then, a maid runs to her, breathing heavily

"What is the matter? " she asked already irritated by the exaggeration

"Comport yourself, Monica! " she shouted and Monica stood still.

"Ma'am, Mr. Alex's family has just arrived, " she said still breathless

Valerie was stunned as they weren't supposed to arrive until tomorrow, why were they early?

She rushed to the main door with Monica and asked her to usher them in. She looked around the house and everywhere was in disarray. She immediately ran upstairs to find Alex and tell him that his family had already arrived. She wanted to barge into the room but something held her back, she heard Alex laugh. She pressed her ears against the door and found out that he was talking to someone.

"I am tired of that demanding ass company, once everything is done and the money reaches our goal, we are going to leave, " Valerie heard him say. Her eyes widened in shock, she comported herself and opened the door

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking? " Alex roared

"This is my room too, " she countered, her valor made Alex furious as he moved towards her and grabbed her hair. She yelped in pain as he kept on tugging on her hair even harder.

"Your parents and brothers are downstairs, " she managed to say.

His countenance twisted into one of confusion as he harshly released Valerie from his grasp, making her fall on the bed.

He dusted non-existent dirt off his clothes and then rushed out of the room.

Valerie's eyes lit up as she realized that she was alone in the room, she moved to lock the door and then grabbed Alex's phone.

She sighed irritably as she discovered that she needed a face ID to unlock the phone, she saw a 14x7 picture frame of him in the corner of the room above her vanity mirror and tried to use that to unlock the phone but to no avail.

She drops the phone and rushes to Alex's desk, the first, second, and third drawers are locked, but the fourth one is easily unlocked.

There was nothing except a piece of paper in that drawer. She scanned the piece of paper and found nothing useful there.

She tries to force the other drawers open but to no avail, she rushes to her vanity mirror and searches her beauty table for a hairpin, when she finds the hairpin she scurries back to Alex's drawers and tries to use the pin to open it.

She chose the second one and glee was evident in her expression when she heard a 'click'. She flung the hairpin across the room and opened the drawer.

Cash.

Wads of Cash were in the drawer.

Why didn't he use this money to pay the decor company for the deliveries they made? She thought. She quickly shut the drawer and tried to find the hairpin to open the other drawers.

She swiftly goes to take two more hairpins and forces the first and second drawers open.

More cash was contained in the second drawer and then she opened the first drawer and saw documents. She shuffled through the documents and one document caught her eye.

"The sum of 300 million dollars has been withdrawn from the company funds under your name, with no reason stated as to why you took out that huge sum of money, " she read aloud, and her eyes went to the end of the paper

"Signed, board of directors London,"

She quickly folds the paper and tucks it in her bra as she searches the drawer for something else. She found their marriage certificate, and Kevin's birth certificate, and then under all those documents was a phone.

She took out the phone, luckily for her, the phone was unlocked.

"Imessage first, " she whispered

There was a pinned chat there and it was locked. The name on the chat read 'Babe' with a white heart emoji. She sighed as she closed the app and opened his gallery.

The only images on his phone were Images of Naked Women. She was beyond irritated as her hands skimmed through the rows of pictures.

The picture that eventually caught her eye was of a woman she knew.

"Mini, " she whispered. She hurriedly took her phone out of her pocket and sent the picture to her phone via Bluetooth. She turned the phone off and kept it where she had seen it.

Her heart raced as she heard loud footsteps down the hall. She shut the drawers and ran into the walk-in closet to hide the large sum of money document and then started to change her clothes.

The door creaks open and someone peeks in

"Val? " she called

Valerie's heart settled when she realized that it was Fareeda's voice that she heard.

"Coming! "

Valerie came out of the walk-in closet after she had changed into a long flowing blue gown.

She had decided to keep what she had just found in Alex's drawer to herself until she found out why he needed that much money.