“Ma’am, I'm going to need you to calm down,” the chief of police said, his hands stuck into his pocket. Amelia sharply raised her head, her eyes locking with his. “You can't expect me to come down when I don't know where my grandson is, it's been more than 24 hours. Can you send a search party already?”“Yes Mrs Houston my team is currently on it. In the meantime do you have any idea what could have possibly been wrong, any leads might help us to find him faster.”She stopped pacing around for a moment. “The only person I can think of is that witch Vanessa, she probably had something to do with the abduction of my son.”He raised an eyebrow, “why would this person want your son gone or kidnapped?”She resumed her frantic pacing. “The very day that they came back to the city, my son was attacked and almost abducted, and yesterday she came over here blaming me for some loss she made in her business or whatever, what if she attempted to kidnap my son again and was successful this time?”
In the hospital, Amelia moved at the same pace with the paramedics despite her bad knee, she was more concerned about the well-being of her grandson than anything else. They push them on a stretcher towards the emergency room at which point a nurse stood between her and the entrance. “I'm sorry ma'am but you can't go through this point,” the nurse stated in a firm voice.Amelia didn't argue, she just stood there on her toes, stretching her neck to see her grandson. “Please make sure that he's alright.”“We will do our very best.” The nurse turned around and entered the ER, shutting the door behind her. It didn't take too long before the sound of approaching footsteps met Amelia's ears and when she turned around it was her butler Charles. “I came as soon as you texted me, is it true?” He asked in his usual thick polished accent.“Yes, he was involved in an accident. We found his car by the river, crashed.”Charles gasped, covering his mouth with his palms. A part of him felt guilty
The room went dead silent after he spoke and he was oblivious to the fact that he had just made things awkward, in fact he was smiling widely at Lola. Xander clenched his fists by his sides, his jaw tightening as he stood there with the front. Amelia looked between the both of them and then smiled. “Oh, what a pleasure to finally meet you,” she spoke. “The pleasure is mine ma’am.”Amelia paused for a second. “I could have sworn I've seen you somewhere before…” she snapped her fingers repeatedly. “Yes at the office, the executive department. I may be old but my memory isn't feeling good yet.”“Yes I used to work there.”“Used to?” Amelia shot back. Now Matthew tried to straighten up on the bed. “I don't understand, you worked at Houston corps?”Lola blinked a few times, she wasn't sure if Matthew was being serious or he was just pulling her leg.“Yes, you hired me as your secretary.”He looked as lost as a puppy. “I- I can't remember.”Amelia cleared her throat, taking it upon hers
“I don't know if it's because of your closeness to my mother or the amount of years you've worked for our family, but whatever it is that is giving you such audacity to talk to me like that… I would like to find out.”Charles let out a tired sigh, like this was a conversation he was already tired of having. “Forgive my manners master,” he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.Deciding to ignore the butler's tone, Raymond continued with what he had to say. “Listen, I don't know what you and Matthew have been talking about or were planning, but as you can see my nephew just lost his memory and he will be needing time to recover, I don't need you starting up any nonsense.”Charles got to the receptionist desk and smiled at her, going ahead to briefly tell her that he would like Matthew to be discharged before he turned to face Raymond. “It sounds like you're guilty of something, because if you have a clean tab, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.”Raymond smiled, but it wasn
The following day Amelia had invited the doctor over to check on Matthew, they had recommended routine therapy sessions which might help him to regain his lost memory, but the doctor advised that if they were not working, they just had to let it go since he didn't lose too much. Martha brought a tray of orange juice for Matthew and the doctor who were in the sitting room. “Thank you so much Martha,” he said, appreciating her. She smiled, something that they rarely ever saw in the house. “It's nothing, I figured that you two might want something to drink.”The clinking of shoes met their ears and it was Raymond coming from upstairs. “Martha you're not a maid, I don't see why you're bothering yourself with such domestic tasks.” His tone was condescending but Matthew had to hold himself back from saying something, he didn't want to start any drama this morning. He faced his doctor. “So can I resume work and school?” Her face twisted as she thought, trying to weigh the pros and cons o
Charles was strutting into the mansion when a familiar voice suddenly caught his attention, “and just where have you been?” Raymond asked, seated on the couch with legs crossed as he nursed a tall glass of champagne in his hands. “Nowhere in particular, I went to run an errand.”The corner of Raymond's lips twitched into a weak smile. He leaned forward and dropped the cup on the centre table before him with a soft clink as its bottom connected to the glass top of the table. “What kind of errands could you possibly have that would require you to leave the mansion early in the morning?”“Madam Amelia-”“Do not lie on my mother's name, I have already spoken with her and she said she had no idea where you went butler.”It took a lot of restraint for Charles not to say the things that were in his mind. Left to him, he would cuss out this man standing in front of him. For years Charles had to keep up with his excesses, including that of his son, but of recent it was becoming more irritati
Karen was still a bit surprised by what she had just heard. “What about Xander? How is he taking it?” The way Lola avoided her friends eyes was very telling. It made Karen to jump as she tried to track Lola's eyes. “Hey don't look away from me, what happened between you and Xander?” “Let's just say, I don't think our relationship is going past a friendship.” A frown formed on Karen's face. “But I thought you said he was a nice person and everything was looking good and that you had feelings for him?” “No, no… never said I had feelings for him, I was just confused at the time. And I guess my anger towards Matthew also made me to make stupid decisions. But it's clearer now, I don't think I like Xander, at least not in the romantic way.” Karen folded her hands against her chest, a slightly disappointed look forming on her face. “So tell me, who do you like? Matthew?” Lola threw her hands in the air as she shrugged. “I don't know, maybe, I think I should tell him the truth first. Abo
He parked his car and got down, the bouquet in his hands as he wondered what his cousin could possibly be doing here. His mind flashed back to yesterday when they both walked into the hospital at the same time and he couldn't help but wonder if there was any correlation. Why were Xander and Lola always seemingly within proximity of each other? The fact that he had lost a bit of his memory was frustrating, because he couldn't help but wonder if something had transpired that would warrant such closeness between the both of them.When he turned his head around, he saw Xander standing right in front of her apartment and watched as she opened the door. Taking a deep breath, I decided to walk up to her as well. “Xander what are you doing here?” He asked in a confused tone looking between the both of them.“Oh Lola, who is by the door is it your date-” current voice seized when she looked through the doorway and saw both Xander and Matthew standing there. Her face dropped and it was almo
The history behind the Winchesters and the Houstons was a rather complicated one. Back then, Edward Winchester and Henry Houston used to be really close friends. And so was Vanessa and Amelia before they got married to their husbands. Amelia came from the Briggs family while Vanessa came from the Carter family.Edward and Amelia were the first ones to fall in love with each other, they spent so much time together and had even gone to the same college. The four were a tight knitted friend group, almost inseparable. However Edward had to move abroad because of work, but he couldn't take Amelia with him.In order to fulfill their dreams of starting a family and pulling themselves out of an ordinary life, Edward took the opportunity to go abroad and work in the sea as a marine engineer while Amelia was to stay back and wait for him.Unfortunately during his absence, Henry and Amelia had begun to grow close. At the time Vanessa was in love with Henry so this turned her bitter.Vanessa ha
Amelia was in the back seat lost in thought as the car drove towards the conference center. She was thinking about the kind of speech she would deliver.Speculations were already flying left right and center, there were a lot of affected families and some people might even started to spoil the Houston name.When the car arrived at the venue, the driver got down to open the door for her. A small crowd had begun to gather and the moment they saw Amelia Houston getting down from her car they all rushed towards her, Mics and cameras pointed in her direction.The bombarded her with questions but she ignored and simply just walked in. Amelia was only going to give her press conference once and once alone. They welcomed her, parting the way as she mounted the stage. She scanned the room with her eyes, her gaze confident.“Today is a dark Day, not just for the company but even for my family. Because of this senseless act of violence lives have been lost. To the families of the victim, know t
By now it was all over the news and images of the burning and collapsed Houston office building were all over the internet and media outlets. Lola was facing back and forth in front of the TV. “Okay you need to stop moving around you're making me dizzy,” Karen complained.“This kind of thing doesn't just randomly happen, an explosion that brought down the whole building? They said they are still yet to confirm how many people have died. Karen I used to work there,” she whispered softly. “The police have started an investigation and I'm sure we will soon know what exactly happened.”Lola shook her head. “You don't need an investigator to tell you the truth in this situation. I mean we saw in those videos how each floor seems to be going off. I think whoever planted the bombs put it on several floors.”She whipped out her phone from her purse and failed Xander's number. “Hello, Xander, any news so far?” “Nothing yet. Matthew is still unconscious but the doctor says he's getting bette
Lola's eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her palms in shock. “He was caught in the explosion? How is he? Is he okay?” “I don't know but I think I have to go to the hospital.”Xander quickly grabbed his car keys and was about to back away when Lola spoke. “I should come with you.”He grew worried, remembering the last time that they had gone to the hospital together. “I think you should just stay here for now, grandma probably still thinks that you are Matthew's girlfriend and I don't want things to become awkward.”She nodded, understanding where he was coming from. “Just keep me updated when you get to the hospital okay?” “Of course.” He planted a soft kiss on her forehead before leaving. He rushed into his car and got in driving straight to the hospital. As he moved down the road he turned on the radio. The presenter was already talking about the bombing of the Houston company building. Several speculations were flying about, there were some arguments that there was an
Amelia covered her mouth with her palms as her eyes grew wide. An enormous amount of dust rose, enveloping the area.For a moment it was impossible to see anything, and people began to back away slowly. As the dust was beginning to settle, it became clear that the building had crumbled. Yet there was no sign of Matthew. She grew nauseous, her legs buckling and threatening to give away under her weight. Charles was quickly behind her and he supported her as she fell backwards, resting against his body. Tears quickly filled her eyes. “Matthew!” She screamed at the top of her voice. She had never let out a hoarse scream like this before and even Charles did not know how to react. If this woman were to suffer another loss of a loved one, he was not sure to what extent it would damage her. One of the reasons she had dedicated her whole life to finding Matthew was because there was no evidence that he was dead. She made sure that until her last breath, she would not stop looking for h
The scene outside of the Houston office building was simply just chaos. People were running about in the street screaming for help.From a distance the sound of sirens could be heard which meant that the firefighters were on their way. Most of the staff that had managed to escape from the building gathered outside, waiting for more to troop out. As soon as Elena was spotted coming out of the building, a group of men rushed forward to receive her. She leaned on them, her lungs already filled with smoke.She kept looking back expecting Matthew to come out of the building anytime soon. By now the flames had grown much stronger and could even be seen from outside as the smoke rose to the heavens.Amelia's SUV pulled up just by the corner and she didn't waste time before getting down from the car. Her eyes surfed the crowd until they landed on Elena.“My goodness! My company!” Amelia screamed loudly, drawing attention to her.Elena dragged her feet towards Amelia. “Matthew–” she pointed
There was chaos all over the executive floor as people began to hurriedly get up from their seats. Elena rushed out of her office, leaning by the door frame for support as the floor was still vibrating. “What the hell just happened?!” Before Matthew could even have the time to think, another explosion set off, knocking everybody to the ground. “There is a bomb in the building!” A masculine voice screamed. At this point it was everyone for themselves. People try to scamper to their feet and rush down the stairs. The room seemed like it had tilted and they were already cracked on the wall. Some of the ceiling lights had popped out from their fittings and were dangling loosely. Matthew rushed over to assist Elena, just as they were trying to make their way towards the stairs another explosion rocked the building, throwing them to the floor. The explosions didn't stop, in fact it seemed like they kept coming in waves. A final huge blow sounded, making segments of the wall break. M
Earlier in the day When Matthew woke up in the morning he began his usual routine freshening up in the bathroom and brushing before coming out. Sandra was already in the sitting room, arms wrapped around her doll. He didn't know what to say to the girl as it was obvious that she was too angry with her father. “Where is Henry?” He asked, buttoning up his shirt. She slowly looked up at him. “He's in the room.” “I'm going to work but I'm going to put somebody in charge of watching you guys, I'll be back pretty soon and then we can discuss removing you people to a safe house.”She simply nodded and didn't say anything in response. Matthew made his way to the kitchen area and brought out a box of cereals so he could have something to eat before getting to work. “If you're hungry you're allowed to take something from the fridge, take whatever you want. You can also order food from reception and I will handle the bills when I come back.”“Thank you.” He made sure to eat in a hurry as
Present day Now with all made sense to Matthew, everything that he had experienced growing up was beginning to add up. Sabrina was by the corner listening to her father as he retold the events. She looked angry but mostly disappointed. Her father was deeply involved with trafficking children. “So what about those other kids that you didn't rescue?” Sabrina asked in a soft voice. Henry cast his gaze on the floor because he couldn't bear to look her in the eyes. “I don't know what happened to them, I have no idea what fate befell them.”She shook her head slowly, this was not the father that she knew and loved nor was he the man that she grew up with. The thing was that after Henry gave up his life of crime, he used the remaining 3 million to establish himself and start a family. Unfortunately, Sabrina's mother passed away during childbirth and since then he had been single raising Sabrina on his own. “I can't believe you did that,” she whispered and then ran off to the guest room