Everyone turned to me in amazement as they faced Henry. They were all shocked at his response, and different thoughts ran through their different minds at the same time.
What gave Henry the boldness to reply to them that way.
Kelvin shifted on his seat and cleared his throat uncontrollably. His palm had begun to sweat, and he quickly tightened his fist.
He wondered within himself if it was truly his father's doing. Henry was right. Does his father command such authority? Could his father really pull that string?
"I'm sure you only came here to eat and drink," James mocked Henry. "Of course, what else do beggars know how to do?"
Henry stared at James for a while, and then he snickered. The snicker sounded so loud and annoying. Everyone in the room was still amazed at Henry's newfound courage.
"I knew you were only pretending to be meek all along," Madame Catherine said to Henry. "Your true colors are finally out."
Madame Catherine was also amazed at Henry's new courage but tried to convince herself that it was because he got dumped, and his true characters are finally coming out to the open.
"We will find out the truth soon," Henry said and chuckled loudly.
Kelvin was speechless. He was still trying to wrap his head around what was going on. Was it true that it wasn't his dad who did it? Of course, Kelvin was aware of the fact that it wasn't his dad. Yes, it was very possible that his dad didn't do it. What if it was true, and Henry somehow found out the truth?
He thought to himself that whatever the case may be. Even if his dad didn't do it. How would Henry know that? Who would be the one to tell him?
Henry didn't have such a connection. He was only blabbering and trying to badmouth him because he was jealous that he wasn't in his position.
"Instead of being jealous and trying to ruin the night. Why don't you pretend to be happy for us, at least for once?" Kelvin asked Henry.
Henry burst out in a loud uproar of laughter. He began to couch and pat his chest softly while coughing. He did all of it intentionally and made so much noise, just to make sure that he annoys the whole family.
"You are creating a scene, thereby causing discomfort in this room. I guess it's time to send you out of this table by calling the security," James threatened.
"I'd love to see you try," Henry replied with a smirk.
James exchanged glances with Madame Catherine. Everyone's mouth was left wide open for the next three seconds.
Where did he get the guts to speak?
Something was wrong, and they couldn't place a finger on what was. It was difficult to figure out.
"James," Linda called as she held his hands and squeezed them gently.
"I guess we should all just ignore him. He is only seeking attention where there's none. If we act like we don't see him, he'd definitely get tired."
Henry decided to ignore them as well and continued with what he was doing, as the family continued to sing Kelvins' praises. Henry kept smiling and laughing as this continued.
He was grinning as though his whole life depended on it. They could see him grinning, but they pretended not to see it and ignored him completely.
"Now that we have seen a real son-in-law, I'm sure that someone else would want to learn from him next time."
Henry knew that he was being attacked again, so he decided to respond to it. He turned to Madame Catherine with a smirk on his lips.
"Maybe that real son-in-law is actually a fake one."
Kelvin was struck. The reply hit him more than everyone else present at the table. His feet were already sweating profusely, and his hands were a little shaky. He tried to convince himself that it was actually his dad that did it.
Kelvin tried to compose himself and thought that defending himself would go a long way in keeping his reputation intact.
"If you want to cry, Henry. I would advise that you go outside and do that. We do not allow cry babies in here."
Henry stared at Kelvin without saying a word, so Kelvin thought he could continue wagging his tongue.
"I am sure that you feel so bad already," Kelvin leaned in. "You were beaten to the game. Why not accept defeat and move on? Why are you trying so hard to be relevant?"
Henry snickered.
"You're the one who's trying so hard to be relevant instead of telling them the truth."
Kelvin looked around the table. He was glad that no one was believing Henry's allegations. Even though they were all a bit surprised, they all still stared at Henry with so much hatred.
Henry turned to Linda, who quickly looked away from him. Her eyes had been fixed on him the whole time. She wondered why he let her family maltreat him so much back then when he could stand up for himself.
Perhaps he was only pretending so that he would get mercy from her family so that they could accept him and also let him marry her. Unfortunately, it didn't work, so she decided to move on.
"Let's see how you go further with this, Miss Linda," Henry whispered to Linda.
She faced him with a proud smile on her face. She crossed her legs properly and placed both hands on them. She sat up proudly and made sure her eyes were fixed directly on Henry's eyes as she spoke.
"We already made it through, and there's nothing! Absolutely nothing you could do about it, Henry!" She whispered, but in a loud and confident voice.
Kelvin stretched his hands towards Linda's. She was seated by his side while Henry sat on the chair directly opposite Kelvin's.
Linda took Kevin's hands, and he squeezed her fingers gently. Henry gulped his anger and tried to pretend like he couldn't see that. He looked away quickly and tried to focus on something else.
Kelvin leaned downwards and placed his forehead against Linda's forehead. He rubbed their foreheads together before lifting his head and facing Henry, who pretended that he could not see them.
"Henry," Kelvin called out as he tightened his grip on Linda's fingers.
Henry lifted his head and faced him. He tried not to stare at their fingers, which were locked together and placed on the table.
"Have you ever had something like this?" Kelvin asked Henry.
Henry's brows were now furrowed in a frown. He wondered what Kelvin was driving at. Kelvin was busy smiling handsomely as he kept Henry in suspense for a while.
"I mean, have you ever had the honor of saying something, and it happens before you even know it?"
Henry was about to respond when the start of the dinner was announced. He smiled deeply at Henry and looked away. Of course, he would get the answer to his question in a better way.
Madame Gu walked into the building, and everyone began to bow and greet her. As she approached the table, everyone froze at a spot, except Henry, who was smiling at her to the amazement of everyone.
"Hello, everyone," she greeted them in a soft tone.
They were finally able to breathe as they adjusted to their seats and returned the greetings in a stutter.
"I'm sure you all have met my son. The heir to the Floater's family fortune."
Everyone in the room exchanged glances. There wasn't any new face on the table. They looked around the table and tried to recall if there was any unknown person who had come in there earlier to introduce himself or not introduce himself.
They couldn't recall anyone. There was a pause for a while as Madame Gu kept staring at them with a smile as she waited for their response.
"Obviously," she finally said, seeing that no one else wanted to speak.
Again, everyone exchanged glances, and if she didn't carry the aura she did, they would have begun to argue among themselves. They were all tempted to murmur and whisper, asking questions, but none had the guts to.
"My son, the heir to the Floater family inheritance is here right now at this table..."
Everyone's heart began to pound as she continued to speak.
"Henry Floater," she pointed to Henry as she mentioned his name.
He bowed excitedly and
proudly.
Everyone was stunned. Their eyes and mouth went wide in shock as they tried to process what they had heard.
Meanwhile amidst all the drama going on inside the of the party hall, there were still guests arriving one after the other in their respective cars.A black limousine pulled up outside, it was differing from all the cars that had arrived earlier, everything about it spoke of class and affluence. Anyone looking at the car from afar would know that whoever the occupant of that car was, they must be very powerful.As soon as the limousine stopped, two men on black pristine suits quickly jumped out of the car and one of them opened the door to the limousine while the other stood aside. It almost looked as though they had really spent time to do those things in sync.The first thing one would notice as soon as the door opened was first, a foot which stepped out of the car, then followed by another foot. It was not just an ordinary foot, but one which had on one of the most expensive s
Madame Gu stood in front of the crowd with a graceful smile on her face. Everyone had their eyes fixed on her lips, ready to hear her speech."I am really glad we all gathered here today to have this dinner together," she began to speak with so much elegance even in her tone.She dashed her eyes freely from one person to the other, and her brows were straightened in perfect confidence."Thank you all for availing yourself and for honoring my invitation. "She paused for some time, her eyes now fixed on Catherine. A smirk appeared on her face as she opened her mouth to speak."I am still glad that you greased the dinner with your presence, even though it is more of a favor to you that it is to me."There was an uncomfortable atmosphere around the table, as everyone exchanged uncomfortable glances with each ot
Henry was mad at Natasha for daring him. He stared at her without saying a word as he gulped down saliva. Natasha moved even closer to Henry, who was not ready to get into a fight with her. "You know what," she told him. "You don't have to send me any...""See you tomorrow at the dinner," Henry interrupted her and walked away without giving her the chance to say another word. Natasha folded her fist as she watched Henry leave. Men worshipped her. They were all ready to do whatever she asked, just to have her. She didn't think any of the men who wanted and worshipped her were worthy to have her. If she had known, she would have picked a husband amongst them. Henry didn't seem like someone who was ready to lick her feet. She knew it would be a problem for her if she continued with the marriage.Natasha stood still watching Henry until he was out of sight. She was speechless, and at the same time, she was stunned. She wondered if Henry didn't see her properly. She was too soft for any
Henry woke up from the wrong side of the bed that morning, remembering all the encounters he had with Natasha the other day and how much she had annoyed him.He had invited her for dinner that night and although he hated her guts, he knew he still had to play along with his mother until he had gotten on his feet.But above all, he needed to concentrate on work.Henry was about going into the bathroom to take his bath when his phone beeped. He picked it up to see that someone had texted him just then. It once again came into his realization that he had a company to run and his success in this company would depend if he was going to be a worthy heir or not.Henry replied to the text and stepped into the bathroom to take his bath. The first downpour of water from the shower did much to take away all the anger he had woken up with that morning, but not entirely. He still had fragments of it left.The first thing that welcomed Henry when he stepped out of the bathroom was the knock on his
"What is going on?" The gentle voice of the pretty lady sounded in Henry's ear. He gulped as he tightened his fists together. His eyes were glued to her lips as she spoke calmly, and her voice sounded like music to his ear. "What is going on, young man? You look very stressed.""I... I... they..." Henry stuttered as he tried to get his voice back. One of the boys around began to narrate what happened to the pretty lady. She listened attentively, and her eyes moved from the young boy to the old woman and then to Henry. She sighed after he was done with the explanation and turned to face Henry. "I can see you are in a hurry," she told him.Henry's eyes widened, and he nodded quickly. "Yes, please. I'm in a hurry to meet up..." Henry paused, realising that he could not tell the lady yet that he wanted to meet with someone on a date.He cleared his throat, scratched his head, and quickly added. "With someone."He smiled awkwardly, hoping that somehow she would be able to help. He n
The atmosphere in the Guild family did not remain the same after the little encounter and the discovery in the dinner. The entire members of the Guild family were shocked and left in awe and unbelieve about everything that went on in the party. They still found it difficult to believe that the poor Henry who they had all looked down on just a while ago was actually the heir of the Floater family whom they had all been waiting for."You know this is all your fault right?" Linda asked her mum as soon as they were in her room. "What do you mean by that?" Catherine asked with her hands akimbo.At this time, Richard had already left them and they didn't even notice his absence because they were still overwhelmed by everything that happened."You were the one who advised me to start being mean to Henry." She said amidst gritted teeth. "I loved him for real before, I actually really did love him and was ready to go any length for him." Linda cut in.She was pacing around the room now with h
"So, what have the board members decided?" Henry asked one of his executives present in the conference room.He leaned back on his seat and observed carefully as he watched all the members of my executives making their respective suggestions.He was having a meeting with his board members on how they were going to start running the company. Given that it was one of the phases of his heir test, he had a little help from his mum even though she trusted him so much to be able to pull this through, after all he accomplished the first one successfully without any problems."And we were also supposed to have this meeting with the Guild family, but we received a message from them that they would not be available for the meeting." Mr Boniface cut in after a while."Well, then we would schedule another meeting where we would have a proper discussion with them on how to start the company." Henry retorted and adjusted his tie. Linda's face appeared in his head and once again, he remembered what
Linda and her family were about to start having their dinner when a knock was heard on the door. She stood up and went to open the door while her mom and James continued talking.Linda opened the door, and a weak smile appeared on her face. It was one of her coworkers. She flashed a smile at Linda, too, as she spread her arms open to hug her. Linda fell into Mary's arms, and Mary hugged her for a few seconds before letting her go. She pecked her both chin. "I've missed you so much, so I decided to come over and check up on you," Mary told Linda. Linda smiled. She knew that Mary didn't just show up to check up on her. Mary would only visit whenever she was bored and wanted to join James and Linda's mom to make a joke of Henry. Henry was no longer here, but Linda was still sure there was something else that made Mary show up there by that time of the night. "That's thoughtful of you, Mary. When did you become so nice?" Linda teased Mary. She let her in and locked the door after.
Every other person in the ballroom went numb and stared at the center of the room like they had seen a ghost. In fact, they had indeed seen a ghost because everyone initially believed that Henry was dead.Yes! Henry Floater was standing in the middle of the room.Miguel was quick to regain his composure immediately, he was the first to speak."What are you doing here? How did you escape?" He asked under his breath, pointing at Henry. "Shouldn't you be in prison? How did you show up here without fear of being thrown back in jail?"It was finally Madame Gu's turn to speak as she turned towards Miguel and cast him an angry glance."Don't you dare speak about my son like that." Madame Gu said and finally ran towards Henry. "Where have you been, my son? What happened to you?" She stood from afar, unsure if she should touch him or not.She swallowed hard as she studied his face, it was really Henry.Henry reached out for his mother and hugged her. His eyes were focused on Natasha who was s
Madame Gu slipped the ring into her middle finger while standing in front of the mirror. It was finally the day for the much awaited ball.She stared at her reflection in the mirror. This was not her, this was not what she used to look like. But everything that had happened within the past few days had reduced her into a shadow of herself.Natasha had also been invited to the ball and Madame Gu wondered why. Her company had not formed any alliance with the Floater group, Henry whom she was supposed to get married to and strengthen the relationship between the two companies is nowhere to be found, and had been presumed dead by the law enforcement agents and the cops.But Madame Gu had refused to believe that her son was dead. But why wasn't there? If he wasn't dead, why was he yet to show up?A tear dropped from Madame Gu's eyes, but she was able to hold it back and run her thumb over her eyes to get rid of the tears the moment she heard her room door pushed open from outside."Miss Na
Natasha woke up that morning to an open window which she had intentionally forgotten to lock the previous night, maybe because she enjoyed the natural breeze that was coming in through the window.It felt so..."Soothing." Natasha said, staring out of the window before she got out of bed. She went to sit in front of her dressing mirror and stared into it. Looking at her reflection now made her realize how much weight she had lost and how neglected she was looking over the last few months. She had practically become a shadow of herself ever since Henry got missing and had been presumed dead. She had found herself unable to live with his absence ever since then.She had gone to bed with her mother banging on her door the previous night, trying to find out what was wrong with her and trying to get her to come downstairs and have something to eat.Even though she felt bad for her mother who was obviously worried about her, she still could not bring herself to go outside, nor could she eve
Linda rolled her eyes and tried to avoid Richard, but she did not have my luck because he had already blocked her by the time she arrived at her car."What do you want?" She fired at him as he blocked the entrance to her car.She gave him a once over in a condescending manner, the kind of manner which would have him rethinking his life for the next few moments."What do you think you are doing, Linda? I hope you know the part you chose isn't the best for you? Instead of coming to me and let's resolve our issue together, you went ahead to cast me away just like that, just because you felt like I would not be useful to you." Richard pressed and Natasha rolled her eyes and let out a heavy scoff."You?" She said in the most condescending manner he had even seen and eyed him viciously. "Who exactly are you?" She asked amused and almost burst into a loud laughter. "And of what use are we supposed to be to me?" She questioned, watching him from head to toe while remembering how he had lied t
Two people were seen on a bed, involved in a steamy, raunchy romance.The two people were eventually revealed to be Miguel and Linda. After a while, Linda broke away from the kiss and slightly pushed Miguel backwards."What?" He questioned, looking deeply into her eyes. "Why did you stop? I was starting to get lost in the moment and you suddenly pulled away." They were both sitting on the bed, facing each other in an intimate position. Their faces were only inches apart, it would not be difficult for things to get steamy between them and for them to get intimidate one more time, Miguel would have easily pulled her into his arms and they would go into another steamy round of romance, but he noticed that she had something important to say, so he just let her speak."You wanted to say something?" He asked, lowering his head to meet hers."I... I actually don't know how you will feel about what I am about to say to you now." Linda began, playing with her fingers. She had her eyes lowered
Henry was seated beside the friendly military personnel who had been showing him around since he showed up there and had been equally trying to help him.He was promised by the military personnels that they were going to help him redeem himself and equally take back his company from his uncles. "Because your father had been very nice to us while he was alive, we are going to do everything within our power to help his son." The military man said to him while tapping his shoulder lightly.There were now in the underground office which Henry had been surprised that existed there in the first place when he was first led there. It was more like a tech room because it was lined with several computers and laptops and equally a strong Internet connection."I've been trying to track down Mr Pierson." The man who was sitting beside Henry said, his eyes were focused on the screen of the computer in front of him. "The person protecting him must be a very powerful person. It seems hard to be able
"You know you can't continue like this," Natasha's mom tried to persuade her. "You haven't eaten anything in days. You have been crying all day... you stopped going to work. Do you want to kill yourself?" "See how lean you look," her father lamented. Natasha just sat there, staring blindly at her parents. They were all seated on her bed. She sat in between her parents. "Natasha," her mom called as she pulled her close and hugged her. "You've done so much to get the company to where it is now. Why do you want to ruin everything?" "Just when I realised that I loved him, mom. They didn't even give me the chance to say it to him. They didn't give me the chance to have the last conversation with him, and they took him away from me." Her mom kept rubbing her shoulder while patting her back. Her parents knew she would ruin the company if she continued with the way she was going. Her father's phone began to ring, and he quickly picked it up. He stood up and walked towards the window to
SIX MONTHS LATER Henry's eyes were fixed on the blue Mercedes as it drove into the military training ground. He didn't shift his gaze from the car for a second. For some reason, he was attracted to the blue Mercedes. It finally stopped at a corner of the training ground, and the door opened. Henry's eyes first caught the silver heels as it alighted from the car, and his heart sank. He rarely saw women since he was brought into the training ground. He only saw them whenever he was outside, which was very rare. The men didn't allow him to go out. Other men were training at the training ground, while Henry was seated at a corner, thinking about his mother and Natasha. He wondered if they were looking for him. He didn't want to disobey the orders of not calling his mother."By the time she realises you're safe and stops searching for you. The police would become suspicious. "He would not forget the words. He sighed deeply as he removed his mind from the thought. The next time he look
It's been two weeks already, and Madam Gu had not been able to figure out where her son was talking to. The police had searched everywhere in the country, and they could not find Henry. There was also no record of Henry leaving the country. Madame Gu told herself that she was going to press charges against Henry's uncles and all of her relatives if Henry was not found. The police would also have to provide her son. If they didn't arrest him for a crime he knew nothing about, then he wouldn't be missing by now. "On what grounds are you going to press charges against them?" Madam Gu's lawyer asked her. "You have no evidence that they have him. Mere assumptions can not even win in the courtroom." Madame Gu sighed deeply. She was deeply worried. She felt that the earlier she started acting, then the better for her and her son. Since no one had called her for ransom yet, then it was not a kidnap to raise funds or something. They kept her son so that they could kill him. It was better t