At Seven Oaks. Louis got to the company complex on Monday morning like every other day. He walked to his office after he got out of his car with the comportment of a boss. There was nothing to expose his inner injury as he worked cordially with his staff members and he gave himself a high target to accomplish for the day. Bailey International Conglomerate had been suspending the proposals for partnership from Real Estate firms. He decided to give the proposals some attention. His staff members were on their toes too. They never expected that there would be various Zoom meetings that day and when it was time for lunch, he excused them.“You can take a break. We will resume after lunch.”“It's all right, Boss,' the cheerful staff members accepted and left.He continued with his work and took his usual lunch of tea and crackers. Shortly, Dr. Quain called to check on him.“Good day, Dr. Quain,” he picked up the call and greeted him.“Good day, Mr. Bailey. Good to hear from you. Are yo
At Nicholas Fields' Residence.The next day when Denise got out of work, he visited his Godfather to inform him of the good news. He radiated so much joy that it could be noticed at a glance that he was in love. After narrating his story to him, Mr. Fields joyfully inquired, “Denise, what is it like to fall in love?”Denise was bashful and smiled. Then, he continued without waiting for his response, “I can understand how you feel. I was in your position nineteen years ago when I was twenty-three. We got married after one year and we have never regretted being married. You said you were at the registry yesterday.”“Yes, Godfather.”“It is okay. You have my support. One of these days, you will bring her over.”“I will do that.”A few Days LaterAt Denise's residence. Just as Louis promised, he decided to take a day off to see Denise and his wife-to-be before embarking on his trip to Egypt. He drove into Denise’s compound and got out of his car to meet Denise who was standing in the
At The Bailey Native HomeIn a twinkling of an eye, they were all set to pay Denise and Louis a surprise visit.On The Way To The Bailey Native HomeDenise asked Louis a question to liven the unusually quiet atmosphere in the car“Louis," he called out to him as he focused his attention on the road. “Yes, Big Brother," he answered without looking away from the road. “Is father aware that you are in Dover?” Louis, who was behind the wheels, turned and looked at him. When he did not respond, he asked again, “What's up, Louis? You seemed distant.”Now, Louis came back to his senses and asked, “Sorry, please. What was your question?”“I asked if Father is aware of your trip to Dover?”“Yes. He is aware. I spoke with him last night.”“It is okay."To keep him cheerful, he asked a question that might interest him, "Remind me again, what time is your flight tomorrow?”“9 am," he answered absent-mindedly while they continued their drive in silence.Arthur Bailey was a fifty-eight-year-old
They sipped their tea and stood up to hug their father one after the other“We shall be on our way, Father," Louis announced.“It is all right. Be careful Louis. Denise, how is Angel?”“All right, Father. I will. You will get my call when I land," Louis assured him.“Angel is fine. We will talk later, Father.”“It is all right. Safe trip, Louis.”They took off to Denise's house at once. The drive was still slow because the traffic rush was still there, They got to his house with enormous expectations that they would meet his fiancée and the others at home. Then, John, the security guard, welcomed them.“Welcome back, Boss.""Thank you, John. Where are our guests?""They have gone to Nicholas' residence to look for you.” Louis and Denise only smiled. They have had enough disappointment for the day. So, they decided to take it as an act of God.“Big brother, it was not meant to be," Louis announced.“You are right. You can see her any other time. Just focus on your trip.”“You are
Before 7 AM, he was at Heathrow Airport with all his team members. At 8 am, they were airborne to Cairo.At the Bailey Native Home.Nichole was about to leave for work as usual. Olivia walked her to the verandah and said, “Have a nice day, Mom.”“And you too. Take care of yourself. Remember, no stressing activities.”“I got it, Mom.”When Nichole got into her car, she stole a brief look at her before she turned on her ignition and waved at her.'Is this girl truly pregnant? What was Freya talking about?' She thought and drove off. She could not do otherwise since her son had not mentioned that his would-be wife was pregnant, and she respected his privacy.As Olivia and Denise had agreed, he decided to meet her before lunch, which he did intentionally. He wanted to maintain his principle of intimacy only after the wedding. Olivia, who had been expecting him, jumped to her feet when she heard the doorbell sound.(Ding.)She opened the door, ran into his arm,, and said, “Welcome, honey
In Cairo, Egypt.He had been combining the exhibition and the search for Olivia's parents. It had not been easy for him because the identities of the Missionaries were safe-guided because they were prone to attack. Now, he had visited one missionary camp or the other, but he kept getting the same result. On one occasion, he was almost detained by the security personnel.“Why do you wish to see the McGregor?” an officer asked him.At that point, he was dumbstruck. He could not think of any good reason, and that made him appear suspicious. When he was unable to provide a reason, one of the security guards who saw him as a responsible man advised him, “Young man, kindly leave and don't come back. I may not be kind to you next time.”“Thank you, Officer," he said and walked away dejectedly. He fought back the tears that were about to drop from his eyes when a thought got to his head.'What a life? Olivia could not allow a day to pass by without seeing or hearing from me. Here I am, goin
After the two attempts failed to get a response, he gave him a call. Now, the ringtone, which he wished would be a call from Olivia,, turned out to be from Eri,c, woke him up from sleep. He looked at the wall clock before he picked up his phone and discovered that it was 5 PM.Then, he spoke, “Hello, Eric.”“Good day, Boss. I am at your door. Just want to check on you.”“Oh! That is good. Please wait.”Eric was glad when he said, 'Please wait' because he believed that his plans would work. Then, Louis got out of his bed and put on his bathrobe before he walked to the door and opened it. When he saw him, he smiled and invited him in, “Come in, Eric.”“Thank you, Boss.”Eric responded as he followed him into his suite. When they got in, Louis was not comfortable with the bathrobe that he was putting on, and he announced.“Please have a seat. I will be back.”“It is all right, Boss," Eric said and took his seat on one of the couches. He looked around the parlor of his suite while he wa
Denise laughed softly as they entwined their index fingers, a symbol of a pinky promise. Then, Olivia walked to his couch and sat beside him, feeling uneasy. The nightmare she went through by sleeping with a man before their marriage was still fresh in her memory. Denise looked at her and asked, “What are your plans for our honeymoon. Where and how long.”She smiled and said, “Let it come as a wedding surprise from you. Any plan you make will be all right by me.”“Wow! You are putting me on the spot.”Olivia smiled and remarked, “I trust your judgment. I know you can come up with something nice.”Now, she saw some semblance between him and Louis for the first time and considered it as an act of God. Then, she crawled to his side of the couch and rested her head on his thighs before he looked up to his face. Denise looked into her eyes and announced, “I'm planning sixty days of honeymoon. Can you withstand it?”She sat up and cupped his face with her hands before she gave him a pass
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