The sound came the second time before he could get to the door, and he responded, “Hold on. I will be with you shortly.”He got to the door and opened it. Then, he breathed freely when he saw her. He welcomed her with a charming smile, “Welcome back. I felt empty without you.”She walked in while he held the door for her.“Thank you. I felt the same way, too," she said as she walked in, and he shut the door. Then, he held her hands while they walked to the couch. (Peck)“How did it go at the office today?” He asked her before they sat down on the couch. Then, Lorene gave a superficial answer, “Nothing much. We will continue on Monday.”She gave him a keen look, which he mistook for a suspicious look, and that made him fidget because a sinner would always run even if no one was chasing him. Then she requested, “Tell me, how did you spend your day without me?” Now, Stephen tried to change the tense atmosphere to a lively one and joked. He gave her the same response she gave to him
She calmed down, lifted her face, and announced, “I just remembered how Louis wept the other day.”Arthur smiled softly and said, “I thought as much. It is all right. He is fine now. Let us send a message to our family platform. I am sure it will soothe all of them to hear that we arrived safely."At that point, he ran his hand through her hair. Then, she cheered up and said, “Ok. It is a good idea.”They sat together on the bed, and he drafted the message and shared it. He looked at her and declared, “Maternal instinct can be powerful.”Nichole only smiled. Then, he drew her closer and gave her a peck. Indeed, maternal instinct could be powerful. Their message got to Louis when he was about to make a decision that would affect everybody adversely, which he thought would favor everyone. The feeling Nichole got when she got into the room was the type a mother got when her child was in danger.At The Tourist Center.Jude was beginning to feel guilty about eating and doing nothing. He
At The Tourist CenterThe Security Officer and the Men's wear company agreed that the clothes would be delivered to the island by 7 AM, and they were punctual. At the stipulated time, the company vehicle was at the Tourist Center, and Robin took the delivery of the wear. At breakfast, he accompanied the waiter to Jude's room. “Jude," he called out after the waiter left.The panicked Jude, who had lived in fear for the past four years, thought he had wronged anyone and looked up in fear. The Officer smiled and continued, “The, Boss sent this bag to you." Now, Jude was awestruck. He looked at the bag and collected it from him. "Thank you, Officer," he appreciated him without knowing the content. "You are welcome. He requested to know what you can do. That is, he wants to know if you have any skills," he said and looked into his moist eyes. From the look of things, the only skill he had was to aid in criminal activities. Thanks to the adults who were supposed to be responsible m
“I mean, as a Security Officer, how can you assess him?”“I can attest that he has a good spirit, Boss."“It is all right. You can order a piano keyboard for him so that he won’t be bored. Did you get it?”“Wow! That will be nice," he responded cheerfully."Do you think so?""Yes, Boss. He will be delighted. I will do that right away.”“It is okay.”After the call, he turned on his ignition.‘Even the officer is happy because of him. He must be an impressive person. Meeting impressive people at odd places,' he reasoned as he drove off and headed for the barracks. He ruminated about how he met his wife and his face beamed with delight.“God bless the man who rejected her. Otherwise, I would not have met her," he prayed silently.Meanwhile, he was already inside the barracks and heading towards Gen. Bailey's apartment.At the Military BarracksDenise got to Gen. Bailey’s apartment at 12:50 PM. He searched for a suitable spot to park his jalopy, which gave him much delight. Initially,
Now, the other aggrieved Family Heads raised their voices and interrupted him.”We will not accept that cock-and-bull story.”“Please sit down, if you don’t have anything to say.”“You can give him your wife and daughters to abduct.”When Brown heard someone say, ‘You can give him your wife and daughters to abduct,’ he was ashamed of himself and quickly sat down.Then, the Patriarch took over and pointed out Brown's flaws, “Thank you all for your patience. I thought his Family Head would have started by apologizing to Oscar and his wife.”“Yes, Our Patriarch,” the house chorused in unison."That explains why Stephen did not have a proper upbringing. If a Family Head cannot think of an apology unless he is reminded, what do you expect from his family members?” a disgruntled Family Head remarked.Now, Brown was infuriated. He walked to the last speaker, pointed at his nose, and declared, “I will not have you insult me or any members of my family. Watch your tongue.”Now, the Family Head
“The woman I have in mind is a woman in our mist who had made this family proud. I am convinced that with someone like her by Stephen’s side, he will be stable…”Now, one of them interrupted him and requested, “With due respect, our Patriarch, can you stop dilly-dallying and tell us the female psychiatrist in our mind who is capable of marrying a madman like Stephen?”His question erupted raucous laughter in the house. Denise, who had not said a word since the meeting, laughed too. Mr. Oscar and his wife laughed heartily.Then, Gen. Bailey chuckled and continued, “It is all right. Moving forward, the woman I have in mind is Nichole, the widow of our late brother, Williams. She is a…”Now, all eyes were on Denise. Gen. Bailey was aware that he had broached a delicate issue and avoided looking in his direction. However, whether he looked at him or not, it did not matter because Denise must make him do that compulsorily. Then, he lifted his right hand and, without waiting for recognitio
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
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
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