Ava drove back home as speedily as she could. She ended up breaking the traffic rules without realizing it. She was pulled up by the cops and she had to pay her way out. "I'm so sorry," she apologized before leaving. She tried to reduce her speed and watch the road so she wouldn't fall into another trap. When she finally got home, she met her dad alone at home. He noticed how his daughter was boiling in anger as she walked into the house. "I can see that you already met with Benedict," he told her. She stopped abruptly and faced him. Her eyes opened in sudden realization. Her dad was Benedict's informant. He was the one who told Benedict about the dinner with Henry. She should have thought about that earlier because who else will? "Of course," she replied and walked away into her room. "Ava, you have to hasten up with the plans, though. Delay would not help us."She ignored her father's remark and continued towards the stairs. She met her mom walking downstairs. Her mom had a w
"Here's the list, sir," Harrison said as he handed Henry a note.Henry took the note from him and placed it on the table. "Go through it, sir, so that preparations can begin...""Henry," Henry corrected him. He smiled slightly and nodded. "I would take it back to the headquarters before evening," he told Henry. "I'll go through it after I'm done with this. Also, try to make another copy for me before you return so that I can distribute it to everyone on the team who would help. "Harrison nodded and walked away from the office. Henry finished up with what he was doing and picked up the note that was handed over to him. He went through the names and was about to sign when he suddenly realized something and paused. He read the heading again, aloud this time. "Top twenty richest, camp." He began to check through the names once again, but this time more carefully. While he read the names, he stopped at number four. It was the name of Natasha's family. He smiled, but he didn't know
"Honey, sometimes you need to take a break from work and have fun, too."Natasha rolled her eyes. Her mom had said this countless times, yet it never sank into her head. She wished sometimes that she could take a break as promised, but it was almost impossible. There was a lot that she needed to do to keep the company going. "But mom..." She argued. "I am not overworking myself. I would know if I am, and I will stop."Cassandra sighed deeply and took her daughter's hands. "You lose weight every single day, and I am very sure you have noticed that, too."Natasha smiled. "I haven't lost a pound in two weeks. Mom, I need to maintain my body shape. I have not lost or added weight. You and Dad are just getting worked up and overthinking this thing. I am fine."Jerry stared at his wife and gave her a calm-down expression. She nodded, and he smiled at her. "What about Henry?" Jerry asked her. "I know you have too much to worry about, and Henry is another issue you don't want us to bring
"So he's not even rich?" "No, just that he's not one of the top twenty richest as he claims to be."The light whispers, giggles, and chuckles that were being heard from the cleaners downstairs made Linda stop. She had just finished working at her company and was on her way home. She wondered why the cleaners were gathered at that corner of the company by that time of the night. It was already past ten in the night. She stood by the side and decided to wait and know who they were talking about, but they kept talking without mentioning any names, and it was getting annoying. "I heard he's with Linda now," one of them said and giggled. "Linda, who?" Another asked. One of the staff noticed Linda standing behind and paused quickly. The one who was about to reply realized that her colleague was staring at something in shock, and immediately after she turned around, the other three followed. Five of them walked away quickly without saying anything to Linda after they saw her. "That wa
Linda was shocked when James mentioned Richard. She had been stopping herself from thinking to that extent all along. She opened her mouth to speak but ended up shutting herself up without saying anything. How could this be? It was impossible, right? Richard was not the person the women were referring to back there. While she was trying to create other thoughts in her head, James leaned forward and dropped his spoon on his plate. Linda fixed her eyes on him. He pushed the plate away slightly so that he could rest his hand on the table. "Guess what else," he asked. Nobody replied to him. Catherine was the most confused person at the table. She still had no clue as to what was going on, but she knew it had something to do with Linda's mood earlier. No wonder she asked her if she heard anything. There she was, thinking it was Henry when it was very far from having anything at all to do with him in the first place. "What is this all about, James?" She scolded. "This is not time to
Henry woke up that morning even before his alarm went off but chose to stay back in bed staring at the ceiling. He did not bother getting up to get dressed for work because he had planned working from home that day. He was going out to have a meeting with Natasha's father later in the day so he decided to stay back at home till it was time.Henry used that time of inactivity to go over his thoughts, there were several things bothering him all at once which he needed to give serious thoughts to but the most prominent one was the man he had encountered at the ball. That very encounter had left him in stitches since then since he had been trying to figure it out but every attempt made proved abortive. He had even tried so hard to convince himself that the encounter meant nothing and that the man was just bluffing but each time he tried, he failed woefully because he always found himself thinking about it.Another thing bothering him was the proposal from the pioneer business group, he k
Madame Gu was quick to try to enquire from Henry how the outing with Jerry went as soon as he came in."You are still up?" Henry asked as his eyes traveled down to the wall clock.His mother traced his gaze and brushed him off with the wave of her hands."If you stay up late this often, it wouldn't take long before you start again more than you are supposed to, mum." Henry pointed, causing Madame Gu to laugh out loud."I didn't know you cared so much about my health." Henry rolled his eyes and went over to sit on the couch where his mother had been sitting when he came in. She went after him and sat in front of him."You are even drinking by this time." He said and picked up the glass of wine she had left on the table."Well, I had to wait for you, and also to make sure that you don't screw things up for me." Madame Gu said, causing Henry to shrug his shoulders.The meeting with Mr Bay went well, we had a glass of wine together and even played golf. "Really!" Madame said, letting ou
"So how did it go out?" Richard shouted. He had just gotten the news about what happened. Everyone now knew the truth about his company. How else would he brag? He suddenly remembered Linda. Has she heard about it also? What if she had heard? He needed to know. He had walked into the office that morning and heard a few people discussing it. He didn't pay attention to their discussion at first until he settled in the office and got a call from a distant friend, who is also a business partner. "Is everything we are hearing true?" He had asked Richard. "What did you hear?" Richard asked casually without knowing what it was all about. He even had a piece of cookies in his hand and bit from it immediately after he asked the question. He had asked his secretary to serve him some cookies when he walked in, and the way she was staring at him, he thought it was because of his weird appetite that morning. She served him cookies with a glass of juice and left without saying anything. "Th
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