Maliya woke up twenty minutes after Andrew ordered her breakfast. She woke up feeling really weak. Everything looked fuzzy and she couldn't focus on anything. Andrew who had remained close to her all through the night was there to hold her hands when she woke up.The night before had been very long and gloomy for Andrew. He blamed himself for Maliya's condition. When she woke up, Andrew was stroking her hair. And because she could not see clearly, she tried to rub her eyes with the back of her hand. But she felt so much pain just trying to raise her right hand to her face. She also noticed the burn on her face from the cut Zed Jefferson had left on her face. And all of a sudden she felt a cold breeze blow all over her. The events of the night came flooding back to her memory. She remembered being accused of breaking a Lisa's Smile portrait worth over two billion dollars. Major General Zed Jefferson had agreed to let her pay two billion dollars.Her family had been invited and detain
Andrew looked as dumbfounded as Maliya, maybe even a little more. He had known all this time that Zed Jefferson was dead because he killed him by himself but he had acted as surprised and shocked as Maliya for her sake. In his mind, he said, “My dear Maliya, how do I tell you that I am the masked man? How do I tell you that I am responsible for this Zed Jefferson and his subordinates’ death. How do I tell you who I really am?”, Andrew wondered to himself. He turned to Maliya and said with a smile, “This is good news my love. Now that Major General Zed Jefferson is dead you don't have to worry about him being angry at you. It's all over now”. Tears welled up in Maliya's eyes. She let the tears flow and even though its wetness made the cut on her face burn, she was happy. “I know it's not right to be happy at Major General Zed Jefferson's death but …”, she sniffled and continued “why me? What did I do to deserve….”, she trailed off again. “I did not break the portrait honey. Then
Hmmmmph! hmmmmph!Stanley cleared his throat and waited for everyone to coordinate themselves. He was about to make a serious announcement and he wanted everyone to settle. “Yesterday you all saw what happened in this house. The way those soldiers barged into our homes and forced us into their van. You saw how those animals insulted us, how they treated us with no respect. To worsen the situation the Jefferson family who have been long term friends, have now become enemies. Yesterday we were humiliated, I was humiliated because one of my children chose to do the wrong thing”. Stanley Coker said when everyone had finally settled.As he spoke the room was quiet as a graveyard. The only other sound apart from Stanley Coker's voice was the tick tock of the wall clock. “For years now I have emphasized the importance of family and sacrifices for the family. I have also made it clear to everyone in this family that no form of indiscipline or misbehavior will be condoned. There are rules
Andrew kissed Maliya's forehead before leaving. He wanted to buy her lunch from her favorite restaurant. By the time he got to his personal packing space, Pete was already there waiting. When Pete saw Andrew, he rushed to open the door of the car for Andrew then he went back to the driver's seat and drove off.“Any reports Pete?” Andrew asked. “Yes sir. The Jefferson auction assignment was successful. Not one member of the Western army under Major General Zed Jefferson survived. I ensured that. The other Jeffersons are unharmed. I have kept an eye on these past few days. They are all in town, just laying really low. I also questioned the Jefferson's individually about the whereabouts of the lava heart but sir they did not seem to know. Martha Jefferson thought that only Zed Jefferson would know that he is dead now”, Pete said .“Good job Pete. Keep monitoring the Jeffersons. I want to know where they go, why they go there and when they do. ”. Andrew paused and lit a cigarette.“Abo
Andrew tried to pull Maliya to her feet but she refused to stand. Rather, she stayed on her knees and continued banging the door, crying and begging her mother to forgive her. Although he was strong enough to lift her up if he wanted, he could not bring himself to do that to Maliya. He knew this was a difficult time for her.“This must be really traumatizing for you my love”, he said to himself feeling sad for Maliya. He wished he could take her pain away and carry it like it was his. “Let's go home honey. Your mom is just very upset about the incident, that's all. She will get over it soon my love and everything will be okay again my love”, He continued. He tried to lift her up again. This time she did not struggle. She let him help her to her feet. When she was standing, Andrew pulled her to himself and embraced her. She let him hold her for some minutes while she continued to sob. “I have to talk to Grandfather honey. He is the only one that can make this right. Honey, can we g
One of the men tried to touch Maliya but before he even got close enough, Andrew who had been following Maliya closely and watching her family humiliate her took out his anger on the first security man who tried to touch Maliya as well as the second security man who tried to defend his colleague.Andrew was so angry that by the time he was done beating up the security men he had broken the first man’s bone while the second man had lost a tooth. Then he turned to Eric and gave him a punch on his face. He made sure to hit him hard enough to leave a broken nose and one black eye.“Let's go honey. None of these people deserve you my love”, Andrew said and carried her with his strong hands. She felt really light in his arms. Before he carried her, and when he did, she had been crying but by the time they got to the car, she stopped crying. Inside the car, although the drive from the Coker family mansion to Andrew's private hospital, Maliya was quiet. By the time they got to the hospital,
The next morning, when Maliya woke up, she was in so much pain. The night before, she could not feel herself. For the past ten years, she had been living in so much ridicule, outright hate and humiliation from her family members. This was all because of the injuries she sustained in the process of trying to save the life of that boy ten years ago which disfigured her face and made her ugly. Everyone in her family blamed her for it. She also blamed herself.“Grandfather, I'm very sorry. Please don't get mad at me. Someone was in there. I only wanted to help him open the door grandfather. I did not know I was going to get caught in the fire too…Please forgive me mom… dad…”, fifteen years old Maliya pleaded with her family. “No one sent you Maliya. Why can't you stay where you are meant to be? Why can't you ever do the right thing… Look what you've done to yourself now… You've ruined your life… Just look at yourself now”, everyone in her family was saying. From that day, her life took
Seven o'clock the following morning, at the Coker family mansion. Ring! Ring!Raymond Coker raised his head up a little bit with his eyes closed and stretched his hand to the little bedside table next to his bed. When his hand felt his phone he picked it up and brought it to his ear.“Hello, what can I do for you this morning?” he said without opening his eyes. He hoped that whoever was calling him would be done talking quickly so he could go back to sleep. “Good morning sir. Sir we have a problem”, the factory manager said.“What problem is there?” Raymond asked, slightly worried. “All our trucks that were sent out to the Green Group yesterday evening just returned sir”, the factory manager said.“And? What is the problem? Will you go straight to the point or do you want to keep wasting my time this early Monday morning?” Raymond asked, pretending to be angry when he was actually really worried about what could have gone wrong.“Sir the thing is that the trucks returned fully load