"So what is the next step we can take to dethrone him?" The deep voice with the rich baritone asked.Mr Benedict leaned back on his seat and swirled a bit. Everyone's eyes were focused on him, waiting for his next instruction."I have nothing planned yet, and that is why I have called for this meeting. I mean, we all know that Henry is not qualified for that position, he should not be there at all and the fact that he is slowing things down, I mean, since all the while that he had been given the company to raise, not even a single move had been made by him to improve the company." Mr Benedict said. There was a malicious undertone to his voice which anyone could easily hear but everyone present there was probably more occupied with their hatred for Henry that they didn't notice."You are right, besides, I think it's high time that we take back what belongs to us." Michael, who was sitting opposite Mr Benedict, chipped in.They were about five men, sitting in a circle and surrounding a
Henry wondered why there was a hitch in his heart after he ended the call with Ava. He did not like the lump in his throat which he had to swallow hard to get rid of.Why did he have that kind of feeling after saying no to a request from her?Henry drove straight home after he finished work while thinking of the sad event which had occurred in his company some days ago. He could not help but have the feeling that someone was probably responsible for what happened but he couldn't place his fingers on it.He had thought initially that this would be easier than having to live with the Guild family, but as it stands now, it seemed like setting up his own company turned out to be the hardest of all.By the time Henry arrived home, he was determined that he would not let himself be swayed by the little opposition he was facing and make sure he didn't become the failed heir like Mr Benedict had predicted.It was already late and Henry thought his mother would probably already be asleep by th
Natasha sat in front of her desk as she flipped through a few documents. Natasha was exhausted, but she didn't want to go home yet. She wanted to finish going through the documents so that she could sign them before she would leave. She knew that she was almost the only one at the office, yet she didn't mind. As long as she finished up with her work, and went home safely. She heard a knock on her door and lifted her head to face the door.Natasha's door was not transparent, yet she looked towards the door whenever she heard a knock. She didn't respond at once. She waited for the knock to be repeated before she opened her mouth to speak. "Who's there?" She asked. "Please, come in."She didn't mind who it was. She already knew that the only thing anyone would come to her office at that time of the night was someone who wanted nothing else but business. Natasha was so sure that her secretary was the one behind the door. The door opened slowly, and just as she thought, her secretary wa
Just as soon as Henry alighted from his car, the first person his eyes met with was Linda who had equally just alighted from her car.Henry stared at her for a while as she got down from the car and straightened herself, then she flipped her hair before she suddenly looked towards Henry's direction and their eyes met for a brief moment.Linda found it difficult to look away as she stood dumbstruck staring back at Henry.She had earlier had the idea that Henry was going to be at the party since he had always had this closeness with Asher, but she had exactly no idea why her heart skipped a beat when she saw him come down from his car.Henry held Linda's gaze for a long time before his eyes moved over to her neck and he swallowed hard when his eyes caught the necklace glistening on her neck.The necklace brought back memories.He remembered when she mocked him for being unable to afford that necklace which at that time had become a fashion amongst the women of substance in the town. Ric
Linda was sitting beside Richard as she watched Henry snub the young petite lady who was sitting beside him all through the party and trying to get his attention. For some reasons, she felt herself heave a deep sigh of relief when she noticed that Henry paid no attention to the girl. She probably still had a chance with him.She wished she could walk up to him and actually apologize for all the embarrassment she had caused him in the past and equally beg him to take her back. But she knew it was almost impossible because Richard kept hovering around her and she absolutely hated it. She was in Richard's arms when she noticed Henry whispering to Asher, she believed that he was about to go back home.He cast her one last glance after he exchanged a handshake with Asher before he walked out of the hall."Are you ready to go?" Richard asked her after every one who attended the party began to discard one after the other. He had a glass of wine in his hand.Richard had noticed her earlier gl
Linda stood in front of the mirror as she admired her beauty. She was still as beautiful as ever. It never got old. She had been standing in front of the mirror for almost five minutes. She had intentionally begun to dress up an hour before the time for the meeting so that she could take her time to look good for Henry. She had stayed in her dressing room for more than thirty minutes, trying to decide on what she would wear. She ended up picking one of her very tight gowns. She wanted Henry to see all her curves.She didn't forget how Henry always praised her for how she had the perfect shape. "Are you done yet?" She heard James scream from outside her door. She took a second to laugh at herself before walking away from the room. She picked up her handbag and phone and walked out of the room. She met James waiting outside the room for her. He stared at her for a while. He was surprised to see her that way. It had been a very long time since he saw Linda dressed that way. She had b
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
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