Now, Nichole's phone had booted, and she began to go through her messages to check if there were any from Zoey. The messages she got were mainly best wishes from her children and many other numbers that were not on her contact list. She looked at her husband, who was already upset, and said, “Hubby, she did not send any message to me.”“Kindly let me have the phone,” he requested worriedly.Now, she handed over her phone to him and sat beside him. At that point, many thoughts went through his mind, but he did not wish to scare her by saying that Zoey must have been in trouble. Secondly, if she was abducted, the abductors may contact her for ransom since it was her car that Zoey used. Out of curiosity, he carefully, read through the messages from the random numbers one after the other. His eyes beamed when he got to Stephen's message. (Nichole, it is unfortunate that we have to meet like this. I had to take you away so that I could give you the love that you deserve. Arthur does not
At The Underground.Stephen and Jude had glued their eyes to the television for news about the wolves. To their amazement, the authorities did not say anything about them again.“Why is the police not saying anything about the wolves?” The disheveled Stephen asked Jude. Meanwhile, Jude will always give him an encouraging reply, “Your phone had been switched off. You only turned it on when you sent a message to your woman yesterday and switched it off again. They might have sorted themselves out and are trying to reach you."“You may be right. You have just reminded me. I will send another message to my woman right away.”Jude's words assured him that the wolves must have sorted themselves and gave him fresh impetus and encouragement. On that note, he sent a message.(Nichole love, how are you doing? I will be back in town very soon, and we will begin to process our marriage. Love from Stephen.)At Stephen's Residence.After the police knocked and announced that it was the police, Zoe
The police were astonished when they saw him inside the house that they could not penetrate. They got out of their vehicles at once and ran towards the window. They attempted to open the parlor door but could not.“Go through the back door,” Arthur advised them.Just like lightning, they were inside the house.“What happened, Mr. Bailey? How did you get in?”“Where is the janitor?” the second police officer asked in a mad rush.“Come this way,” He ordered them and led them to the room where the lifeless body of Zoey was. “What?” They screamed in unison. One of them brought out hand gloves from his pocket, put them on, and checked her pulse. He looked at his colleague assuredly.“She can make it,” he informed him.They took photographs that were vital to them, picked her up, and left. Then, Arthur gave Phil the car keys and advised him, “Take. Drive my wife's car. Let us go.”“It is okay, Father.”Now, the police walked back to the front yard, with one of them carrying a lifeless wo
“Sweetie," he called out.“Yes, Hubby," she answered.“When last did you visit the family platform?”“Oh! My bad! I have neglected my children.”At that point, she picked up her phone and logged in while her husband did the same thing. He ogled her face to see how she would react. Then, she began to read the messages from the day she stopped, which was Friday night. When she got to the chats of Saturday morning, she looked at her husband and looked at her phone again.After a while, she asked him, “What is happening between Stephen and Denise?”“Did you listen to their conversations?”“No,” she answered worriedly.“Listen to it. You will understand better.”Nichole tapped on the recorder, listened to the conversation, and chuckled. Then, she gave her husband a warm look and asked, “So what, if you used me as your nanny? Was he expecting me to love him? I chose to love the man I adored, my Prince Charming, and my idol. I love you, Hubby.”(Peck)Arthur was elated by the assurance and
“Yes, I wanted to avoid causing you more disturbance. Good to hear from you.”“Good to hear from you, too. How is Zoey?”“Zoey is fine and out of danger.” “Oh! That’s good to hear.”“Thank you for your efforts.""It is my pleasure.""Extend my greetings to your son-in-law. You are a brother indeed.”“Do not think much about it. Which hospital are you?”“We are at the government hospital.”“It is all right.”Now, Nichole joined him in the car, and he drove off. Then she asked, “Why are we using this car?”“It is bulletproof. I don't like moving about with security guards, but we may resort to it if there is a need for it.”“It is okay. I can understand”“Besides, most people will associate us with the other car than this.”“You are right.”They drove silently and after a while, Arthur asked her, “When is your annual leave?”“My annual leave is in two months.”“Can you take part of it before then?”“I will find out. Why did you ask?”“I want us to go for our honeymoon. How about that?”
At The Bailey International Conglomerates HeadquartersArthur arrived after he left his wife very distressed due to the embarrassment he got from the other road users because of his bucket of bolts. To his dismay, there were two cars at the entry gate causing obstruction and the security guard was attending to them. So, he decided to use the exit gate.“How may I help you this morning, Ma'am?”The lady smiled and gave a glib answer, “Thank you security. I am with Arthur. I missed him in the traffic, so he drove in before me. Open the gate, please.”The security guard would have believed her, if not for the two factors that militated against her. Arthur had not driven in, and he did not have the habit of receiving friends and relations at the office, at least, not so early in the morning.“Sorry, Ma'am. Can you leave, please? Arthur had not resumed for today. You can leave immediately, please.”'Oh! I have goofed up,' she mumbled to herself. Then, as the security guard was about to at
At The Government Hospital.Nichole left her superior's office gleefully. Then, Lorene, who was walking to Evelyn's office, saw her and dodged. Nichole, who saw her too, turned a blind eye and walked into her office.At Evelyn's OfficeWhen Lorene was certain that Nichole was out of sight, she sneaked into Evelyn's office.“Lorene, why did you creep? Is anything the matter?”“Nothing. I just want to avoid that loudmouthed bitch.”“Oh! You mean that used-up simpleton who vents her disappointment on others.”“Exactly.”They laughed to their hearts' content. Then, Evelyn inquired, “What is the gist of your visit to his office yesterday? I can imagine the two of you making out right there on his desk.”“Wow! You just rekindled my obsession with him. I was unable to meet him yesterday but trust me; I will check on him again today.”“That is good. I can't wait to see the look on the face of that cotton-headed ninny mugging when you succeed in getting what she could not get.”“You better don
At The Bailey International Conglomerates.The second lady, who waited behind after Whitney left, was getting anxious. Besides, she was famished and had to achieve her goal before she would leave. Then, she drove back to the gate and made her request responsibly.“Excuse me, what does it take to see your boss? I mean, when is your visitors' day? I want to book an appointment.”Her manner of approach earned her the respect and attention of the security guard, so he treated her with respect.“Sorry, Ma'am. What exactly do you want to see my boss for? If I know what you want, I will be able to direct you to the right person to attend to you. The boss does not attend to random.”Unknown to the security guard, the forty-two-year-old woman was a time bomb, and such a friendly and purpose-oriented question would open a can of worms.“What do you mean by 'random'? Do I look unimportant to you? You better watch how you talk to people. Otherwise, your days are numbered here.”She spoke with the
At The BarracksBrown arrived for the meeting at 7 AM. As the head of his family, he knew what to expect from the other Family Heads but he was prepared for them.“Good morning to you, our Patriarch,” he greeted him“Good morning, Brown. How are you?”“As you can see, I am good. What about you?”“I could not catch a sleep last night because of today’s meeting.”“It is expected. We cannot run away from our responsibilities.”“You are right. If those before us had run away from theirs, who knows where we would have been by now.”“You are right.”At that point, the scumbag, Stephen, walked in and greeted them, “Good morning, our Patriarch. Good morning, my Family Head.”The two elders did not bother to respond to his greeting nor glimpse at him. The Patriarch ordered without looking at his face, “Wait in the hall.”“Thank you, our Patriarch,” the momentarily repentant Stephen said, walked to the hall and took his seat. He watched the family heads trickling in gradually before the Patria
Denise paused and looked at her innocent face without responding, but she continued, “Are you still mad at me?”“Eat your food first,” Denise responded and kept feeding her. She took two more spoons and stopped. “I am okay. Thank you,” she sobbed.Unfortunately, Denise failed to respond to the situation. He was angry with the woman that he must save her life.‘I have to concentrate on saving her life first. I can get angry later,’ he advised himself and smiled. He scooped the food and then urged her, “Sweetheart, I don’t think you are okay. Just take more spoons and you will be okay.” Olivia saw it as an opportunity to strike a bargain with her husband, and she quickly asked, “Answer me. Are you still mad at me?”Denise smiled and asked her too, “Can I ever be mad at my beautiful Angel?”(Peck)She gave him a dampened smile and wiped the teardrops that trickled down her cheeks with the back of her hand. Denise was emotional at that point. He dropped the plate and the spoon on the
Now, he gave her a call for the second time. The phone rang several times and timed out.“She must have gone to sleep,” he concluded and went to sleep as well.At the Tourist Center.The Officer was happy with the changes in Jude’s composure. His youthfulness radiated as he was constantly happy. The moisture that usually gathered in his eyes whenever he wanted to speak was not there. He enjoyed making music with his piano rather than watching the television. When the Security Officer got to his room that afternoon for his lunch, he observed that he spoke freely with him; more like a relation than a stranger.“How is your day going, Jude?” he inquired.Jude smiled, paused from the keyboard, and responded, “My day is going well, Sir. And you?”“Fine. Your lunch is here.”“Okay. Thank you, Sir. How about the boss?”“The boss is good. He sent his love.”“Oh! I hope I will meet him soon.”“Yea! You will meet him sooner than you can imagine. Just relax.”“It is okay, Sir. Thank you for your
The clerks noticed the same attitude and were astonished. Without looking back, she walked to the car park, got into her car, and drove to the gate. She stopped and got out of the car. The Security men were surprised to see a woman who was raging a few minutes ago walking solemnly to their office. Quietly, she picked up her phone and drove away.‘What must have happened? Who is the President of the Bailey International Conglomerates?’ She mulled over and drove on. Nevertheless, she never considered calling Stephen, neither was she aware that she narrowly escaped the police arrest. Now, Denise had sent for the Security Officer who drove to the Admin Block after Lorene drove off.“You called me, Boss,” the officer stated.“Yes. Why did you call the cop on that woman?”“I did not call the cop, they just came.”“How? What do you mean by they just came?" Denise furrowed his brow and asked him.Incidentally, the security officer was not aware that Denise was not in the picture of the arra
At the Gate.‘He would be surprised to see me,’ she fantasized and parked. She honked with the confidence that she would not be turned back anymore. Then, the Chief Security Officer, who had seen many of her types since the previous week, walked up to her by himself.“Good day, Ma’am. How may I help you?” he asked her politely.The new face she was seeing for the first time looked more mature than the security guard who had embarrassed her the previous week. “I wish to see the President,” she said confidently.Now, the CSO observed her again and inquired, “Are you on an appointment with him, Ma’am?”“Yes. He must be expecting me. Please open the gate. I want to avoid keeping him waiting,” she made clear.The officer locked eyes with her and then declared with a mockery smile, “I see. Sorry, Ma’am. The President is not on the seat.”Just like anyone would be, with a surge of hostility and violence, she got out of her car and began to rant, “What do you take me for? A kid? After int
Under the present circumstances, Stephen’s head could not process the information he got at the same time. From the stranger’s speech, he grasped that he was aware of the issue at hand. Then, he looked at the two elders and inquired, “Oscar’s wife?”Stephen, whose purpose of visiting his Patriarch was to find a solution to the river of problems that was drowning him, had just discovered another problem.All the same, he had to straighten things out, “I don’t have anything to do with Oscar’s wife. I ….”However, the Patriarch and the Family Head thought that his explanations were lies and aggravated his already bad case. The Patriarch rose from his couch with his military demeanor and the might of the Patriarch of the Bailey’s family and thundered. “I will not hesitate to throw you out of the barracks after the soldiers have court-marshaled you if you think you can dance on our intelligence.”Now, Stephen was aware that he had screwed up and that making excuses would cause him more t
At the Barracks The daily drilling of the young soldiers, which Gen. Bailey looked forward to every morning, took place at 6 AM and lasted for one hour. As a matter of routine, he was in his studies, reading through the dailies after his breakfast, when he got the email from Barrister Guidance. He quickly read through it and was timorous. “Has Stephen gone nuts? How many women does he want to have at the same time?” The nonagenarian Patriarch asked while cold sweat formed on his forehead. He went through the mail again and discovered another serious point.“Accusing Arthur of using Nichole as a nanny is an insult that her children would not take. No wonder Denise was distraught during the meeting,” he thought.At that point, he got a call. He looked at his phone and discovered that the caller was Brown. He took a second look at his phone and vacillated between picking up the call and ignoring it. Shortly, the call timed out.When he was about to concentrate on his emails, he got a
After their breakfast, they prepared for work and got out of the house at once. Then, Lorene stopped him off.(Peck)“See you later, Love,” Stephen said and got out of her car.“Bye. Love,” she responded and drove off to the hospital. It was quite unfortunate. Stephen had devoted his love to her, who possessed all the attributes he needed in a wife, but she was in love with Arthur Bailey and not Stephen Bailey. “This is good. With a wife like Lorene and her friend Evelyn, I will have a blissful marriage,” he mumbled before he boarded a chartered taxi.Then, he sat comfortably in the back seat. While he was approaching his house, he turned on his phone to transfer the payment for the ride, but an epiphany occurred when he saw the different breaking news popping up on his phone. He punched on one of the news and saw his resort as a heap of rubble. Then, he looked at it critically to confirm that his eyes were not misleading him. When he confirmed it, he rested on the headrest of the
The other Family Heads attacked him at once and demanded, “Why did you not ask her son before he left?”Now, Zoey could not help but laugh. To defend himself and maintain his dignity, the Family Head explained, “I was about to ask him, but before I looked up, he had gone.”“Coward. You knew nothing but to insult and push a fellow Family Head," Brown blurted out and the Family Head rushed at him, but he was restrained by the other Family Heads. Then, the Patriarch ordered, “Go home, all of you. The meeting is over.”They began to file out one after the other, still barking and yelling at each other. Then, Oscar shouted, “Zoey, get into the vehicle and let us leave here.”Zoey glared at him and got into the car. She did not relent in rubbing it in his face, “Can you shout at me, Oscar? You could not raise your voice when it was necessary.”Oscar, who was used to such berating, ignored her. He turned on the ignition and drove off.At The Tourist Center After Denise got out of the cal