Linda pulled herself together and employed all the expertise and smartness her parents had instilled in her. As the heir of the Guild family's business, her parents had taken time to groom her and made sure she was a very strategic and intelligent business woman. She was not just beautiful, but she was equally very smart too and that was why she was made the CEO of the Guild family's company, to become the chairperson in the future.She exerted all her smartness and expertise in presenting her working plan which made Henry impressed and if not that he was still mad at her, he would have smiled brightly. But he pretended not to notice her and focused on the iPad in front of him instead.Even though he refused to look up and show how much he liked her presentation, he was deeply impressed by her. Henry had always known Linda as an intelligent woman, he had always admired the way she led her company with so much bravery and intelligence, that was one of the reasons he had fallen in love
After the board meeting had ended and Henry watched Linda leave, he dismissed the board member he was talking to and returned to his office to kick off his work from where he left it the previous day.He was trying to look into potential clients and possible places he could make some investments. Henry was determined more than ever to make the company work and make his mother proud.While signing documents and going through some mail, Henry surprisingly received an unexpected mail from a strange email address.He was going to ignore it at first thinking it was one of those numerous people who send several mails to beg for money. But then, something prompted him to check it out which he did.The mail read. "The pioneer business group is hoping to collaborate with you and invest heavily in your business. We are aware that you are trying to start up a new subsidiary of the Floater family business and would be needing all the help you can get. It would be a great honor to us if you can ac
The Bay family's mansion Jerry sat in his office, going through a few files when he received a text. He took his eyes to the phone immediately after it beeped. His heart sank when he saw the name that was displayed on the screen and saw that it was Fred. He had completely forgotten about Fred or not. He picked up the phone and unlocked it, using his fingerprint. He sighed deeply and blinked twice before reading the words on the screen. "I'd be back before Natasha's birthday. I hope that she knows about us already."Jerry's heart sank deeper into his stomach. He opened his mouth widely and left it open. His hands began to shake until he dropped his phone, and it landed on one of the open books on his table. He looked towards the door, and for a second, he thought he saw the door open, but it didn't. He wiped his face with both hands. Jerry stood up from the chair and walked away from the table. He was already close to the door when he remembered his phone, so he walked back to th
James and Linda walked into the big hall, which had now turned into a semi clubhouse. Linda had her eyes darting around the room for unknown reasons. "Everyone now looks bigger than they were five years ago," James said with wide open eyes. Linda quickly agreed with him. The last time she saw any of these people was during their last get-together five years ago.She turned to James with a smile as she sighted one of the funny guys then. She wanted to make a nasty comment about him, but she paused immediately after noticing that James had disappeared from her side. She looked deeper into the route he could have taken and saw him walking steadily towards a group of boys. "Sam!" She heard him call out excitedly. Linda rolled her eyes and hissed before turning in the other direction. God knows how much those boys annoy and disgust her. She began searching the room for her friends when she felt an arm over her shoulder. Linda gasped as she turned around quickly to see Mary standing b
Jerry was surprised that Madame Gu sent a text asking if he had seen her invitation. Although he hadn't received it yet, he knew it would come eventually. Madame Gu had never sent him a text to let him know about any invitation. He now got a special treatment from the almighty Madame Gu, and it made him smile. Just as Cassandra was about to ask what he saw that made him smile, a knock came at the door. "I will get the door," she said instead and was about to stand up when one of the maids walked out of the kitchen and walked towards the door. She opened the door and talked in whispers for a few seconds, while the couple observed her. Cassandra was clueless about who was outside, but Jerry knew it was the messenger from Madame Gu. After a while, the maid returned with the invitation and handed it over to Jerry. He pushed it over to his wife, and she quickly opened the invitation letter. "It's inviting us together with Natasha to Madame Gu's ball," Cassandra said with a smile. Th
Madame Gu and her son were seated in the sitting room. Henry was walking on something on his system, or he just wanted to bury his head in it to distract him from his mom and the wide screen that was turned on in front of him. "Take this to the address on it," Madame Gu told one of her messengers that was standing in front of her. He took the letter from her and placed it in a large envelope that he held closely. "How many of those invites do you have there right now?" She asked him. He looked into the large envelope and did a quick count. "Five," he responded. Madame Gu picked up two more envelopes and turned the two around as she stared at them more intensely. She handed the two over to him. "Seven envelopes," she told him. "Do not make any mistakes as you deliver the envelopes. I would not allow any miscreant into my ball under a misplaced invitation."He bowed in front of her and walked away with the letters. She turned to her son and noticed that his head was still buried
"What the fuck is this?" Jerry asked and threw the letter to the floor. "This must be some kind of a joke," his wife told him. He stood up from the bed and began to pace the room with his finger in his mouth. He could not believe what he had just seen. "How?" Cassandra asked. There was silence for a while as the two tried to process what they had just seen. Everything was happening too fast. "Whoever is fast forwarding things really needs to slow down," she said. "I mean, just yesterday we received Fred's text that he wanted to come back, now this?"Jerry suddenly stopped pacing and faced his wife. "We need to convince Madame Gu that the wedding should be held as soon as possible. If she could make Henry propose to Natasha during the ball."Cassandra did not say anything in response to what her husband had said. She wasn't sure about how to react to it. What excuse would they give Madame Gu that was making them rush the wedding. "We can't let Fred come back here and ruin everyt
Natasha spent the whole night thinking about the next day. Very early the next morning, she woke up and dressed up. She made sure that she looked exceptionally beautiful and simple for Madame Gu. Natasha wondered why she was trying so hard to impress Madame Gu. It made her remember her date with Henry. She didn't even put in any intentional effort to look beautiful for him. She just did her thing, caring less about how she looked or how pretty she was.After dressing up, she stood in front of her standing mirror and smiled satisfactorily. Natasha walked out of her room after dressing up and met her parents in the sitting room. Her mom walked up to her with a smile and hugged her. "You look beautiful!" Her mom commented. Her dad also smiled at her. They were proud of their daughter. She grew prettier and even sexy. "Make us proud out there, honey," her father told her. She smiled and walked away. When she got outside, Madame Gu's driver was already out there waiting for her. She
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