Thank you for reading this chapter! :) More coming soon :)
Like any other night in the past, Josh found himself wide awake.Most nights, he spent working in the home office, clearing all the pending work and working on the future ones. But tonight was something different. Tonight was one of those nights when he could neither find the will to work nor the urge to sleep. He just sat there, in the darkness, staring at nothing, like a ghost of a man who once knew how to live.The wooden chair creaked under him as he shifted his weight, leaning forward and letting his face fall in his hands.Then, he looked up and reminded himself that the reason he couldn’t sleep was not because he couldn’t but because he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to give himself the rest. He didn’t want to lose this feeling of emptiness inside him. He didn’t want to forget how it felt to have that one person taken away from him whom he had loved so damn much.Fuck! He was screwed, wasn’t he?He did this to himself. If only he hadn’t been so greedy…perhaps Shelly would have b
Josh wanted to have faith in his sister, but these days, having faith in literally anything wasn’t his strongest suit.For now, however, he was going to let her be.Clearly, there were more important matters to attend to until his sister would actually need his help. Until then, he was going to keep an eye on her and Simon, and watch them from afar.He nodded at her. “Alright. Go now, have some rest. It’s dawn already.”Elena’s smile widened, and she rushed to give him a tight hug. “Thanks for understanding.”“Of course.”She rose on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “And just you know, I’m glad that you’re here, and we are having this conversation. It’s…I’m never going to take these moments for granted.”He could see tears shimmering in the corners of her eyes, but she quickly shoved them clean with the base of her palm. “Alright then, good night. And please, try to get some sleep too.”He gave her a nod. “I will.”And then she was rushing upstairs to her room, never turning back.———
“I deeply apologize for the inconvenience but the shipment only arrived last night and my staff has to work overnight to ensure that it can reach you before the scheduled deadline,” Mr Knox handed over the file to Josh, and watched as Josh passed the file to his secretary.After flipping through all the pages, the secretary gave Josh a nod.Josh sighed. “Everything looks good. It was nice doing business with you.”“The pleasure is all ours, Mr Matthews,” Mr Knox bowed and shook hands with him.Josh and his secretary walked towards their car, which had been parked a little away from the dockyard. It wasn’t usual for Josh to make private visits to check the shipments but he had been hearing rumors for weeks now that this man was in league with his enemies, and was only fooling around to hide the truth.His suspicions were true and the shipment he just inspected wasn’t a normal one.He got into the car and looked out the window. “What did you find?”The secretary looked over his shoulder.
By the time Josh made it home, it was almost midnight.The whole house was quiet and the only people up so late was either the butler or a few maids, waiting to serve him.The butler, however, was quick to give the rundown of the entire day. “Little master slept soon after dinner, sir. He seemed tired after the eventful day at school. Madam Elena called a few hours ago to say that the shoot will probably end by dawn.”Josh hummed. “So, it’s just you and me then?”The butler didn’t know what to say to that, but he nodded anyway. “I suppose, sir.”Josh shook his head, taking off his suit jacket and handing it to the old man.“The dinner will be served whenever you’re ready, sir.”Josh sighed, loosening his tie. “No need for that. I don’t feel hungry. You said Caleb slept already?”“Yes, sir. Quiet early.”“I’ll check up on him and then head to my room.”“As you say, sir.”True to his words, Josh quietly made his way to Caleb’s room. As Butler had already warned him, the little boy was al
Josh had barely stepped out of the house when another car—an unfamiliar one—came to a halt behind the car that was parked in front of the house. The one in which Josh had planned to drop Caleb at school first, followed by heading straight to his office.But before any of that could happen, confusion crossed his handsome face when he caught the person stepping out of this new car.Her similarity with his dead wife almost left him dumbfounded for a good minute.For a moment, he couldn’t tell if he was awake or dreaming.“Josh!” The woman came rushing to him, her eyes and cheeks reddened to a deep shade of red, as if she had been crying for a long while. The look of grief upon her beautiful features cut straight through his chest, making him breathless, and hurt, and broken.“Oh my God!” The woman cried, hands on her mouth, as if she was just as startled to see him as she was. “This is really you.”She hugged him. Glad to see him after so long.How long has it been? He wondered quietly, s
Simon stepped out of his car and shook hands with the man waiting for him at the entrance of The Golden Oasis, a grand casino in Queens.“Welcome, Mr. Walsh, it’s so good to see you returning after so long,” said the man named Billy Rogers, guiding Simon inside the building.“You exaggerate too much, Mr. Rogers. It was only last month that I came here. Hardly a long while since my last visit. But let me say that it looks like the business is thriving well. The Golden Oasis sure does live up to its reputation.”Billy Rogers smiled at that, looking way too eager to appease the special guest of the night. “Of course. We do try to give the people what they want.”“Of course you do,” Simon said, smirking. “That’s the reason I always find my way back here, isn’t it?”Rogers only smiled before leading Simon into a room that looked like an office of sorts. The room was also soundproof, ensuring nothing came in or went out.Simon took his seat while Rogers moved across the desk and dropped int
When Josh entered his office building, he had to stop in his tracks to glance over at the commotion at the reception.Men and women were crowding the place as if something of interest had caught their eyes. But that wasn’t what forced him to stop, however. It was the loud and annoying sound of someone that made him frown and gesture Hudson to see what the hell wad going on.Hudson followed the order right away, rushing over to the crows, he pushed everyone out of his way, only to return with his face slightly pale.He approached Josh, wiping sweat off his forehead.“What’s wrong?” Josh asked, wanting to get done with this already.Hudson slipped the folded handkerchief back into his pocket. “I think you shouldn’t worry about this, sir.”Josh frowned, getting more and more curious. He looked over Hudson’s shoulder at the crowd, and tried to understand what the person was yelling about.“Nonsense,” he grumbled, before deciding to handle the matter himself. This was so unprofessional of
Angelina had no intention of making a scene, but when people sucked at their supposedly jobs, she couldn’t help but snap.A day before, when she had come to office, asking for her compensation, the woman behind the reception had showed her the door, saying she was wasting her time and that no one in their company reported something like that.Angelina had done what she did best, she had warned the woman that she would come the next day, and if she didn’t get her compensation, she would make each and every person in that building regret their whole lives.And that’s exactly what she came in today to do. She was going to make that receptionist’s life miserable for taking her lightly the day before, for not doing her job. But when the man who gave her the card showed up, she ignored all the lies that came out of that receptionists mouth. The way she had turned pale seeing that man, and was stumbling over her own words, as if afraid she would lose her job for sure, she felt sympathy for h