Dampened spirits

For the past few days, Derek had been in high spirits. Since that night when he and Steve had their altercation at Ava’s house, Steve left her alone, and as far as he could tell, Ava was glad about that.

As a matter of fact, so was Derek. He had been seriously worried about the fact that such a shady and abusive character as Steve was hanging around his daughter and Ava, but now that Steve was gone, he felt much better.

As he was thinking about this, there was a knock on his office door, and then the person came in without waiting for a response. It turned out to be Derek’s assistant, and the look on his face wasn’t a pleasant one.

"I’m sorry to disturb you boss, but I’m afraid that I have some bad news.” Derek’s assistant told him.

“Jeez! Those aren’t words I want to hear right now. What’s the matter?” Derek asked the man, already steeling his mind to hear whatever it might be.

“It’s about Jerome, sir. Unfortunately, we just received a phone call from the hospital that he died this