Chapter 4

"Adrian, if it is okay I would like to have dinner with you sometime next week. Your mom told me you're around for the week" she proposed, looking at him with a hint of eagerness in her eyes.

"Yes Adrian, I feel you guys should have lunch and catch up with each other. It's been a while" Caelia's mother spoke up, looking to Eleanor for support. Adrian looked at his mother who made a gesture to agree and then looked at his uncle who had a neutral stance.

"I apologize Caelia, I will not be able to join you for lunch. I have a lot of matters to settle here during the week" Caelia's face reddened in embarrassment and she bit her lips.

"I will ask my secretary to arrange for an appointment for you, just tell him where you want to go" he added, signalling to his secretary who came forward.

Caelia was about refusing but he gave no room for rebuttal, he stood up to leave. Eleanor placed her hand on her back encouraging her and she nodded obediently.

"I will discuss with him later" she whispered to her, and then told her to go play with the others.

She stood up and greeted the rest before leaving to find Clarissa and Co.

Later in the night, on the second floor of the Cagliari mansion, Adrian was in his study attending to issues. Word of mouth had gone round about his arrival in Italy and sure enough, he was swarmed with various proposals, contracts reviews and diplomatic matters. Adrian Cagliari was currently holding a meeting with the executive staff of Cagliari industries from various sectors. He was accompanied by his trusty secretary Mr Turner.

The meeting went on till 11pm before coming to a close.

He asked his secretary to retire for the evening and left to his room, he met his mother sitting in front of his room door in her wheelchair with a maid waiting for him.

"I want to have a word with you briefly" she told him, he reached to open the door for her to enter.

His room was spacious and had a minimalist design, this was mostly because he was not around much and he instructed that no one was allowed to tamper with his personal belongings. Eleanor signalled that he sits on the bed but he refused, implying that the conversation should be brief.

"Since you're like this, I might as well get to the point. I want you to get closer to Caelia. It was not very nice of you to turn down her invitation" Adrian stilled for a second, knowing where the conversation was heading to.

"Mother..." he tried but his mother silenced him.

"I have allowed you do as you wished thus far, but I will not sit idly again. The LaRosa family has been your father's great companion when he was alive and their daughter has been your childhood friend. This arrangement was bound to happen eventually, you should stop avoiding Caelia and start building a relationship with her" Eleanor chided her son.

She regretted not getting the engagement fixed earlier; by now they should have a child running in the mansion. Caelia likes her son a lot so she feels that should be enough.

"Mother, I do not feel Caelia would be a suitable match for me. I don't want to be unnecessarily burdened by my father's promises. I think you should have your rest now" he concluded, gesturing for the maid to take her to rest.

On their way out, they saw Turner rush into the room.

"What is it" he grunted out, changing into his night robe and getting ready for bed.

"Boss, I have more news about Ashleigh Hartman" he said, and proceeded to brief him about their findings.

At the end of his report, a spark of surprise flashed in Adrian's eyes, followed by a low chuckle.

"Is that so?" He mused, strolling lazily to his window in thought. He then made a quick resolve and asked for Turner to contact his private lawyer.

**************

It had been two weeks since the incident occurred and since then Ashleigh had a peaceful life working at Tixton.

Mrs. Smith had been pardoned by the CEO and was given a higher position in a shocking turn of events. She used her new position and ensured Ashleigh was in charge of training the new recruits. This was a perk of having a family member in a position of authority.

Despite all this Ashleigh maintained her calm demeanour, she guided the new staff accordingly and did her work as it was due. This made her earn a few friends from the recruits and from staff members around who saw her during work hours. Ashleigh loved her current work life and had saved a lot for college, so she began preparing as well.

Currently she was in the general cafeteria having lunch with her friends James and Fiona, they sat at the back of the cafeteria, near the break room where the kitchen staff stayed. They had gotten their food and were busy chatting on various things.

James was a tall lanky guy that did not seem capable of manual labour but he was a lot stronger than he looked. James was about 5"8, had a rather tan complexion with a dreamy face while Fiona is a fun- sized girl, who is shorter than Ashleigh so they chose to call her that. They were both two years older than Ashleigh and looked after her like their baby, she liked to ship them for jokes but each time they shut it down.

As they discussed, Fiona looked around the cafeteria before nudging Ashleigh hard.

"What was that about?" she complained, rubbing her shoulder to relieve the pain.

"Uhmmmm, isn't that Mr Cagliari's secretary walking towards us?" she yelled silently, pointing at Mr turner who was indeed coming this way.

Ashleigh gave a polite smile as he neared their table which he returned.

"Sorry to disturb your lunch, but I would like to see Miss Hartman" he explained quickly, facing Ashleigh.

"Okay I guess" she responded sceptical about everything, but still standing up to leave with him.

As she left, she turned to see Fiona and James mouthing questions like "what's going on?", "what did she do?" and all that to which she shook her head to deny knowing anything. They soon made their way to the first floor and he led her to the private elevator, she stopped him.

"Don't you want to talk to me about something?" she questioned and Turner waved his hands.

"I'm sorry for the confusion Miss Hartman, it is the CEO who would like to see you" He cleared up and her heart stopped for a second.