Chapter 5

She rang the doorbell twice before someone came to the door. Mrs Fuller opened the door. She was wearing a large grey cardigan and sweatpants. 

"What do you want?"

She said harshly as she tried to close the door. 

"Please wait! Just hear me out!"

Lori begged. 

"I just, I need to see him... I woke up and they said you had taken him..."

"See him?!"

Mrs Fuller scoffed, retying her robe with anger. 

"You are not his mother. You relinquished your rights to him remember?"

Lori nodded. 

"I know. I know I did that. But please, can you just let me know where he's buried? I just.. I just want to say goodbye."

"Goodbye?!"

Mr Fuller appeared from behind, there was a scowl on his face. He must have been listening in on their conversation. 

"You don't even deserve that! You don't deserve anything. You put his life in jeopardy!"

"Tom."

Mrs Fuller murmured but he ignored his wife.

"You're the fucking reason he's dead!"

Mr Fuller shouted. 

Lori swallowed hard. 

She wiped away the tears on her face. 

"Please. I'm begging you."

"You don't deserve anything from us."

"After all we've done for you."

"This is the end. If you come here again I'll have you arrested for trespassing."

Mr Fuller said as he slammed the door shut.

Lori stood outside, waiting, hoping they would come back. They didn't. 

Slowly she left their front porch, walking slowly towards the street. 

She would try again. she wouldn't give up. As many times as it took her to. 

Lori had gone to bed angry and sad. She dreamt again of a crying baby, a baby in a crib that she tried to reach and couldn't reach. 

She woke up in a fright, sweaty and panting all over. 

After that, it was hard to fall asleep. She pumped some milk and lay on her bed awake, with her eyes wide open.

She went to work as usual, forgetting the contract on her coffee table. Work went by in a drawl, barely anything memorable happened. 

When she got back from work and saw the contract on the coffee table she sighed and picked it up. 

 She looked at the contract again, this time, taking time out to read it word for word and looked at the business card that it came with. Gabriel Caine. CEO Caine Inc. 

Lori opened up her laptop and decided to look him up, while putting a pot on the stove for some ramen. She didn't remember eating anything all afternoon. Only some eggs for breakfast and coffee at the diner. 

Gabriel Caine, his name, image and several article links popped up. 

He was twenty eight years old. CEO of Caine Inc, a multi billionaire conglomerate. He came from a large distinguished family. Unfortunately his parents were no more. But his grandfather who was around ninety seven years was still alive. He had no siblings, he was an only child but he had a lot of cousins so it seemed. 

He had business everywhere in America and Europe. He had taken over the company at the early age of twenty. He didn't finish school until three years later. There was no news about his daughter, he must have kept her away from the media then. 

His pictures popped up. He was often seen with prominent rich people, and there were claims he was part of the rumoured cult group The Lords. 

The Lords was a cult, an elite group made up of only prominent figures all around the world. Though its members didn't affirm or deny the fact that it was a cult, it was said that they held meetings at different secret locations all around the world. No one knew what they did, or why they were formed, but they seemed to be a very powerful group. 

Conspiracy theories had speculated that they were Satanist or part of the infamous illuminati but Lori didn't care much for those. Whatever they were and whatever people thought of them, they were a revered cult.

Even though Gabriel Caine's life was in the public eye, there was very little about his personal life online. He seemed to seclude himself, living in private and secret locations that were deep in the woods and out of reach to normal people. That was the only aspect of him that seemed strange to Lori. 

Lori picked up her phone and dialled the number in the business card. 

She was taking the job. 

He picked up after the first ring.

"Ms Wyatt?"

He said and Lori's eyes widened. 

"How? How do you know that it's me?"

She asked and he seemed to chuckle. 

"I have been expecting your call."

He said. 

"So what's it going to be Ms Wyatt? Are you taking my offer?"

Lori took a deep breath and the sighed. 

"Yes. I am."

She answered..

"Excellent. You resume right away. Please pack your things, my driver will come pick you up in an hour."

He said and Lori nodded. 

Immediately she dropped off the call she went to her small bedroom.

There was a suitcase she had pushed under the bed, she knelt down and pulled it out. 

She dusted the suitcase and opened it up on her bed. 

She went back to the kitchen to switch off her stove. She was too excited to eat. 

At least for now. 

She packed her good clothes, all the ones she would need and a few of her shoes. There was nothing much in her fridge, but she put the frozen bags of milk she had and arranged them into the cooler with ice on it. 

Then she tidied up her apartment, throwing away the things she didn't need and the things that would get spoiled if left alone for too long. She was taking out the trash when she spotted a black car waiting in front of her apartment complex. the driver approached her.

"Are you Ms Wyatt?"

He asked and she nodded. 

He was a tall man, with a shaved head and sunshades.

"I'm Tony, Mr Caine's chauffeur. He asked me to pick you up."

He said and Lori nodded. 

"Give me a moment. Let me just bring my suitcase down."

The ride was long, longer than she had anticipated. After several minutes, they arrived at a large mansion on the top of a hill. The only way to get to the mansion was a lonely dark road that led directly to the mansion. 

Lori wasn't too surprised, given what she had read about him, these were the kind of locations that Gabriel Caine was used to. Besides, he was a very private man, a home at the top of a hill surroubdrd by trees was the best place to avoid civilisation. 

Finally, the long lone road came to an end and there was a wrought iron gate in front of them, the gate opened by default and the car drove in. The driveway was large, flanked by well trimmed bushes and figurines, as they neared the house, there was a waterfall at the front, a waterfall with the statue of a large wolfman with its head tilted backwards, water flowed out of its mouth and paws. Weird, she had never seen such a peculiar sculpture before. 

The car pulled up in front of the house, and Lori got out while Tony retrieved her suitcase from the trunk of the car. The weather was warm, the mansion looked even bigger than she had imagined, to her left there was another house, notably smaller, perhaps a guest house and to her right there was a large sprawling lawn with a small garden. Tony took her suitcase right up the front porch and the door opened automatically. As if someone had been waiting for them. 

Apparently someone was. 

A tall dark man in an impeccable suit.

"Hello Ms Wyatt. My name is Gregory. I am the butler."

He said. 

"Welcome to the Caine household. I hope the ride here wasn't too uncomfortable?"

He had a slight British accent and a lovely smile and impeccable white teeth that complimented his dark complexion. Lori instantly felt comfortable with him. 

"It was good. Thank you."

She said as he led her inside. 

Wow. She thought as she was led inside the foyer. She took every bit of the house in as they walked in further. 

Well! It was certainly much more grandiose than she had expected. 

"You will be taken to your room. You can rest and change for a while. Grace will come to you later and give you the details."

She nodded. 

"Oh! Before I forget."

She said as she handed him the cooler of frozen breast milk. 

"For the baby."

She said and the butler nodded as he collected it from her.

She was led up the large spiral staircase by another servant, a quiet small woman with short black hair. Despite all the servant's protest, Lori did not let her help with her suitcase, claiming ut would be very heavy for her. 

And it was. It was equally very heavy.

They got to the room at the end of the hall and the woman opened it with a spare key.

Inside the room, she opened up the windows and patted the bed. 

"This is your room ma'am."

She said and Lori nodded.

"Thank you."

She said as she looked around. 

The room was perfect. Not too small and not too big either. There were two windows that showed her the view of the back of the mansion, there was a large oval pool and a beach house next to it with even more sprawling grass. 

Her room had a nightstand, a large four poster bed with white sheets, a full sized mirror and a small closet with an adjoining bathroom.

She walked into the bathroom and sighed, oh it wss perfect. White tiles, white sink, a bathtub! She quickly moved to change her clothes, she was torn between picking something comfortable or something more formal. She settled for a grey sweatpants and a black T-shirt. She was going to be living in the house anyway, she didn't have to dress uptight. 

She was searching for a hairband for her hair when she heard a small knock on the door. 

"It's me Grace!"

An excited voice said from the other side of the door. 

Lori opened the door and saw Grace standing on the other side of the door grinning at her. Lori couldn't help but smile, her smile was contagious. 

"I am so glad you're here! Welcome!"

She squealed as she walked in. 

"Are you hungry? Do you need to eat anything?"

Lori shook her head. 

"No. No. I'm fine. I'm fine."

"Mr Caine will come later to debrief you. He wants to do it himself."

"I am so glad you decided to take this job, I just knew you'd be perfect for it."

Lori's eyes widened. 

"Really?"

Grace nodded. 

"Of course. Ever since I saw you at the hospital. Again, I'm very sorry about your son."

Lori shrugged. 

"Its fine."

"I don't really like to talk about it."

She added and the woman nodded.

"It's fine. I understand."

She said soberly. 

"Do you want to meet Emilia? She's napping right now but I'm sure you can still sneak in to see her, her nursery is right next your room."

Lori nodded. 

She migbt as well see the baby she had been donating milk to for the last few weeks. 

Her heart was racing as she and Grace left her room and Grace gently opened Emilia's nursery. 

This was it. 

This was the moment.