Back in Valerie's house, Sidney and her friend both sat down in the living room on the floor with the twin books laid together, and with a small lamp turned on beside them.
They both handled each of the bible and searched for the record section they were looking for. When they found it, they started to read, noticing that the Morgan book began where the Humphrey book ended. "Charles David Morgan and Michael James Humphrey decided that it was time they willed their properties to their only sons, Allen Morgan and Rodney Humphrey. Michael decided it was wise to will his property to who was going to work with it harder. For he had only one son, he willed the majority of his property to his wife, Rebecca, and the rest of it to Allen; his friend's son."
Below the Morgan's book page, there was a small fine handwritten script that read: This book is incomplete without the other." They read.
Valerie looked at Sidney. She understood what they just rea
BRADLEY's POV For the umpteenth time that morning, Bradley swore! He had woken up to find her gone, just like that, with no note left from her or text. He had been trying to get in touch with Sidney since she left his house early in the morning, calling her phone, but the line had not been going through. Either that or the phone was switched off. He just needed to hear her voice, to know that she was okay. He tried to call her once, and then twice again but it went straight to her voicemail. There was no point in leaving her a message, since he wasn't sure of what had happened to her. Fear, they say wasn't a good feeling at all. It starts from one's mind, formed by the brain and offered slowly to one sense organs, until you can feel, see, touch, ear and most importantly, smell it. And that was exactly what was happening to him right at the moment. He had woken up and had found her gone, with her bed made, as if she
Bradley knew something was wrong as soon as he had stepped into Valerie Madison's hall, and into her living room. As he sat on the couch beside Sidney, he asked. "What's wrong?" Sidney looks at Valerie with a questioning look in her gaze, and Valerie; understanding what she was asking nodded. She cleared her throat and said. "Bradley, I need to tell you something. In fact, I need to show you." She said. She took a deep breath, and with an unsteady voice, she told him everything she had discovered. Bradley listened to all Sidney told him carefully, starting from the first time they met with her trying to remember where she had heard his last name before, to her dreams and to her doubt about the official cause of her father's death, to the connection she was able to find about their families and the history they had together, to the break-ins at her place; telling him that it wasn't a coincidence, and to the family bible she fou
Bradley called his mother, Abby, the following morning and asked her about what she knew about the Morgan family. As he expected, she lied.Bradley knew that she was lying because of the give she did. Whenever his mother was lying about something, she would start to say something, then pause, clear her throat, ask the question again and say a lot of oohs and umms.This had been her reply to his question. "Bradley," she paused, and cleared her throat, then she said. "Oh, the Morgan family. What do I know about the uhm, Morgan family? I don't think I've ever heard of uhm, them. Why did you ask?"He had shrugged and said. "Nothing much really, I just wanted to know if you knew something about them, that's all." He had hung up the phone with a shake of her head.He had collected back the Humphrey version of the book and the Morgan's version from Sidney before he left Valerie's house last night. He was going to read it from page
Sidney sat down there, waiting for him to reply to her, or say something, anything at all. Whatever it was he wanted to say. It was taking too much time. Her mind was blank. What was it he knew about and wanted to tell her? Could it be that there was a rift between their grandfathers? She shrugged. Well, she was going to hear whatever it was out of his mouth, pretty soon. There was silence for a while, and when she thought that he wouldn’t say anything, he spoke. “Micheal and Charles were best friends since they were kids, they played soccer together and did their homework together. They also went to classes together, partied together, and most importantly they did the business together. When Micheal was in his early seventies, he made his will. But he willed nothing to his son. Instead, he gave his wife some of his properties and the rest to Charlie’s son.” “My dad! Yes, I know that much, but what I don't know is why he did that. I
In another minute, they talked and joked and laughed. After that, an awkward silence took over and they peered into each other’s eyes, and they both recognized what it was that was happening between them.“I am traveling,” Sidney said suddenly, gauging his reactions. It took a while but finally, he looked at her. “What did you say? Where are you going?” He asked with a frown. “When are you leaving?”“I’m leaving for Paris, the day after tomorrow, I need to go see my mother. She asked me to come.” She told him. She wanted to let him know where she was going so he wouldn’t be worried.“Alright. You should take me with you.” He said, smiling, not believing what she said. When he saw that she wasn't smiling as well as he had expected. “Are you pulling my legs? You can’t just get up and leave like that you know?” He asked her.Sidney stood up from where she sa
All it took was for Sidney to tell Valerie that Bradley had asked her to dinner and she was dragging her to all the shops in Shipley to get her a dress. Sidney sighed as they entered the third shop, carrying two bags of clothes already. She wondered how many clothes she was going to have to wear to dinner. "I'm tired of this, Val. For God's sake, let me sit down for a minute. I already have enough clothes to set up a small village." She said, with her brows furrowed and a sigh. "I'm serious, Valerie. I've had enough. Besides, it's I who is going to dinner, not you." She said. Valerie scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I don't care who is going to dinner. You are going to the dinner, that’s all that matters.” She said. After changing into about five dresses, Valerie took one of them and they went to the front desk to pay for it. As they paid, Valerie said. "You should wear the dress we picked from the second store. It's nice." She told Sidn
They got to Sidney's place in Shipley about ten minutes later and they both walked to the front door, with Bradley to hovering behind her as she brought out the key to the front door and unlocked the door. When she was done, they went into the living and Sidney went up the stairs to her room to change her dress into something comfortable. When she came back down, she found that Bradley was not seated in the lining room as she expected, but she soon found him in the kitchen. She smiled as she saw that he had a pot on the cooker with water inside. He must be serious about giving her a foot rub. Her mouth dropped open and she was taken aback, surprise showed on her face. Anyone could tell that she wasn't expecting that at all, she wasn't expecting him to be serious, but other than that his expression was cheerful. She dragged one of the chairs arranged around the kitchen counter to sit down. "What are you doing?" She asked even though she had an inkl
As Claire’s limousine drew up outside the airport, a plane touched down on the runway. Her daughter was on that plane, she’d already received the information from the airport’s Chief of security. She had to pick Sidney herself from the airport.Claire didn’t want her daughter to know about her father’s death. Allen was murdered three years ago, and she had told Sidney that it had been an hunting mistake, and he had been shot during the Hunter's Hunt; a game the hunters all come together to participate in.But she knew who had shot her husband, and had kept quiet about it for all these years, and had decided not to involve the police. She decided she would do culprit on her own way, as it was better that way.Rodney Humphrey was a very dangerous man and she needed to tread carefully when dealing with him. She needed to also do everything she needed to under wraps.And now, unexpectedly, Sidney had fou
Bradley told Claire he would be going back to his hotel after they had talked again. Rising up to his feet, he walked towards the hall as Sidney followed him to the door. When Sidney came back to the living room, her mother had gone into the bedroom upstairs, and when she came back down to the room, she was holding a piece of paper. She sat down on the couch beside Sidney, and showed her the paper. On the heading of the paper was the name of some charity or the homeless home for kids. Among those names was a name that was written in a capital letter. Claire pointed to the name across the paper. "GREAT FUTURE." Sidney frowned. "What's this, mother." She asked. "It's the name of the home that Bradley was adopted from. She said. Confused, she looked at her mother and asked her what she had just said. "What did you just say, mother?" She asked. "I said it's the name of the home Bradley was adopted." She
Sidney pushed down on the top of the french press and pour the delicious-smelling coffee into two substantial mugs. They sat close to each other and lapsed into silence. Sidney guessed that this was the moment where they were supposed to address what went down the night before, but it’s always hard to start. The world grinds to a halt around Sidney when he produced a simple black ring box. She stare at the tiny box and her mind and heart made an obvious leap in her chest. Bradley watched her jaw hit the floor and he laughed. "Yes, it's what you think. Sweetheart, will you marry me?" He asked her, looking pointedly at her. Her mouth went dry and she began to stammer. "But don't you think we should talk about this feud between our family and wait until it will be finalized?" She asked him. That was the only right thing to do. "No buts...just say yes, please." Bradley said. "Yes...ye
"You both need to get out of here before the police arrive," the man behind the bar drawled as he took in the two men still groaning on the ground. "It's just a friendly advice. They won't care that you're right. Fighting in a bar isn't allowed here." He said, explaining further. Bradley had beaten them so much that they were lying on the floor. Sidney and Bradley had both gone out to the bar to just chill and those two men had walked up to Sidney when Bradley had gone to the bathroom. They had asked her if she wanted to dance, and she had told them no, but they had stayed on to ask her annoying questions. She had told them that they should leave her the hell alone and that her boyfriend would be there soon. They had laughed at her and said that she as lying and that she was only teasing them. One of then had even said that he saw the way Sidney was looking at them with a sexual look in her eyes and that she wanted to have sex with them bot
The doorbell sounded in the hall across the sitting room. A maid went across, into the living room to see whoever had pressed the bell. She opened the door to find a stranger. “Good afternoon, I’m here to see Miss Sidney Allen.” He said. “Good afternoon, may I know your name sir?” She asked. Closing the door, she went to the sitting room to declare the stranger’s name and intentions. “Bradley Humphrey?” Puzzled. She asked the maid to let him in. She wondered how he got to be there, she couldn’t remember talking about the address to her mother’s house in Paris. When Brad appeared in the large French doorway of the sitting room, Sidney couldn’t believe her eyes. “Brad, what are you doing here?” Instead of answering her question, he went over to her mother and greeted her. “Nice to meet you too.” Claire replied. “You are most welcomed.” When he turned to Sidney, there was no longer a puzzled look on
Sidney was wearing grey trousers and a yellow top the hour she met with her mother’s husband, Parker. She had gone upstairs to change again when her mother told her that what she was wearing for dinner was not appropriate enough. She had come back dressed we'll, better than before and her mother had nodded in approval. Just then, a car had honked and they heard the car drove in. "That must be my husband." Her mother had told her, and she had rushed to the window. She drew the curtain back to confirm what she had said, and when she did, she had gone to meet him at the front door with a wide smile on her face. Sidney sat there, waiting for him to come inside so that she could meet him. It was the first time she was going to meet him physically, and she wanted to have a good chance at seeing him from a neutral perspective. Parker was a handsome man. He was tall and had a broad shoulders. He looked pretty young and good looking for his age.
Brad had woken up that morning and he had suddenly decided that he was going to Paris to be with Sidney, and he had bought his plane ticket online; a first-class ticket of course. He drove slowly, with his headlights on because it was still very much dark; considering it was very early, towards the airport. He glanced at his wristwatch to check out the time to see that it was some minutes past six. He shrugged his shoulders and focused on the road in front of him, the one that would lead him to Sidney; the woman he was crazy about, the woman of his dreams. He wasn’t going to stay in Queensbury, doing nothing when Sidney was in Paris learning about what they should both be finding out. That was not who he was. He knew she wanted to do this alone, but to be honest, it was something they should be doing together. It should be the two of them against the world, or his family in this case not her against him and his family.
Adam was the first person to see Sidney as she moved toward them. He pulled up a smile on his face and directed it to his sister. Sidney smiled back and pulled him into a small hug. He was taller than the last time she saw him. "Hello, Adam." She said in greeting. "It's so nice to see you again, Sidney. It's been such a long time since I saw you.." He said to her and he grinned when she chuckled. Sidney nodded her head and said. "That's true, Adam. It's been such a long time. But, we're seeing each other now and that's what matters." She said, but in reality, it was absorbed. Sidney had only met him once and that was when he was five years old and now he was eight years old. That meant that the last time she saw him was three years ago. It was not something that should be considered normal. Although, she had been happy for her mother when she married her stepfather and when she gave birth to Adam, but because her
Two hours later, Sidney heard a knock at her door and she sighed. She had just woken up about a minute or two ago, and she was just considering getting a quick shower before she went downstairs to meet her mother, but now someone was at the door, knocking. She wondered who it was and why they were knocking on her door. She stood up and went to the door fo open it. She had been right. It was her mother and she was smiling widely, waiting for her. Sidney sighed again and waited for her to step in before she closed the door and turned back to go sit down on the bed. "How are you feeling now, honey? Are you well related or do you need more time to yourself to do that? Her mother asked as she sat on the bed as well. Sidney gave a small shrug with her brows pulled together, and the corner of her mouth drawn down. "I was able to rest a bit for a few hours. I could still use some more but I'm fine for now."
As Claire’s limousine drew up outside the airport, a plane touched down on the runway. Her daughter was on that plane, she’d already received the information from the airport’s Chief of security. She had to pick Sidney herself from the airport.Claire didn’t want her daughter to know about her father’s death. Allen was murdered three years ago, and she had told Sidney that it had been an hunting mistake, and he had been shot during the Hunter's Hunt; a game the hunters all come together to participate in.But she knew who had shot her husband, and had kept quiet about it for all these years, and had decided not to involve the police. She decided she would do culprit on her own way, as it was better that way.Rodney Humphrey was a very dangerous man and she needed to tread carefully when dealing with him. She needed to also do everything she needed to under wraps.And now, unexpectedly, Sidney had fou