291 Along memory lane (1)
When she met Liam that afternoon, the last thing she wanted to talk about was work.
“I’ve been getting more requests from investors lately but who cares about them?” She shut her file within two minutes of opening it to show him her progress.
“It’s not every day something bugs you enough for you to lose your focus. What’s going on?” He rose from his seat and circled the table to her desk, pushed her chair back to create space and leaned against the desk to face her.
“Your plan has loopholes.” She admitted. He had briefly talked about his plot with Evan and since then, she had not been able to focus on anything else.
“Actually, forget the loopholes. Liam, you cannot do this to a woman. It will ruin her.” She took his hand. “I hate her but no one deserves such humiliation. If you publicly proclaim her as a woman who cheats on her fiancé even before the engagement is set in stone, it is likely that no one will care since, well, you are not her boyfriend or fiancé. But how would she feel, thinking the whole world is judging her for something she didn’t do?”
“Ximena.” He massaged his temples. “I know it is unethical but it’s either her or me. She is ganging up with my family and hers to destroy me. How can I not retaliate?”
She didn’t relent and when he thought about it, he had to admit it was a bit too harsh—if Ximena could consider anything as heartless, it had to be the worst thing.
“How about this? I’ll only show them to my mother. She would never share them with anyone.” He asked.
“I would prefer that.” She hugged him in relief. “I’m sorry. I know you are the one losing the most from her antics. It’s just…”
.....
“Hey, it’s okay.” He knew she would never be against it if the pictures were real. He kissed her lips. “Can we talk business now?”
She rolled her eyes. “You have me here and all you want to talk about is business?”
That was his cue to take her lips with his.
….
As expected, Ember was furious when she saw the pictures. She swiped through them with disgust written all over her face. “It’s already enough that she is gluing herself to my son who clearly doesn’t want anything to do with her. How dare she cheat on you as well?”
“It wouldn’t be considered cheating if we are not an item.” He reminded her, but she was still enraged.
“You are not an item now, but what have our families been discussing all along?”
He took his phone back from her. “About that. Mother, you went ahead and discussed my marriage with Abbie against my wish despite knowing I love someone else.”
“Do you think I wanted that?” She blew up. “I hate arranged marriage more than anyone. Heck, if it were up to me, you would never have existed.” She seemed to realize what she had just said and slowed down. “No offense. I love you. But in comparison to this sham that I call my marriage…I would have been better off in prison for these three decades. Why would I want to do the same thing to my son?”
He didn’t know what to tell her. She rarely spoke of her marriage to anyone. The world thought she and his father were a match made in heaven as they portrayed it, so her sudden outburst caught him off guard.
He steered away from the topic as fast as he could. “If the main point is having some sort of business deal with the Watsons, why didn’t they choose Eugine? He is the eldest and he’s single. Why did it have to be me when clearly…” She shifted uncomfortably and for the first time in over thirty years, he made a dreadful discovery. “Do I want to know?”
“No. I’ll have a word with your father.” She forced a smile on her way out.
He didn’t want to think about it but he couldn’t pretend it didn’t matter. If he and Eugine were part of the cause of the rift between his parents, he could never change that. Not even if he did their bidding and took the woman they wanted for him like an obedient little puppet. Since that was the case, he might as well stick to his choice like he had intended to all along.
_____
Meanwhile, Lucy had been buying way too much time in the Su Conglomerate. When Nathaniel caught on, he couldn’t help confronting her about it.
“Didn’t you promise to help Su Conglomerate get back on its feet?” He asked when he found her in the office he had set up for her at home, spaced out with an empty wine glass still in her hand.
She had vaguely heard him coming but that didn’t stop her from glaring at him. “Before you get into anyone’s personal space, you should knock. Didn’t anyone teach you that?”
“That, coming from my daughter, is amusing. What makes you think there’s such a thing as personal space between a child and their parents?”
“A child?” She scoffed at his choice of words. “I’m a mother. And in six months, I will be a grandmother.”
“So? I will be a great-grandfather. You will always be my child even when you are old.”
His words were creepy and the last thing she wanted was to start a fake familial conversation with him so she shuffled the paper on her desk and gave him a sheet. “I’ve not been sitting here doing nothing. I discovered a gold mine.”
He checked through the details of what she was showing him and huffed. “Even if you want to run Su Conglomerate to the ground, you don’t have to be so obvious about it. How can this be a gold mine? All I see is a hotel that fell before it had the chance to rise.”
“Doesn’t that sound familiar?” Lucy raised her eyebrow, reminding him about his greatest loss which was to auction Royal Hotel off to Preston and Fort Group.
“Fine. What do you want to do with this?” He asked.
“The main reason why it didn’t thrive is because it’s in Hustace and the owners’ marketing strategy is a load of crap. None of which you need to know, because you are not interested in the fine details.” She fired off the briefest explanation she could and slid another document over to him. “We need The Sparks for this. They may not measure up to Preston and Fort Group but if anyone can make you buy a cockroach with their impeccable marketing skills, it’s them.”
“Do what you find fit.” Nathaniel was impressed but cautious at the same time. It was unlike Lucy to take the initiative and be so engrossed in helping out. The contract didn’t mean much to her. Was she doing her best to secure her family’s safety, or was she planning something?
“I have scheduled a meeting with Owen Sparks and his wife today. I’m meeting them in Hustace.” She announced and rose to her feet. “Excuse me. I need you to leave my office before I leave. I don’t trust you.”
Nathaniel laughed. There was no way she was scheming. Lucy was more likely to parade her sneaky deeds in his face than scheme.
She took out her phone as soon as she left the Su mansion and gave Natalie a call. She was exasperated when the latter didn’t answer and left a frantic voice message. “I’m leaving for Hustace. I’ll be back tomorrow but I need you in Preston and Fort Group within half an hour. Tell Zaria all about Dawn.”
….
Owen and Ava were still in disbelief when they arrived at their airstrip.
“She has always been our rival. Why does she need us now?” Ava had a billion questions.
“There’s no permanent friend or foe in business.” Owen reminded her.
“I know. This just feels…” she glanced around the airstrip. “It’s strange. It feels like something that happened ages ago which I can’t remember but it did happen and I have a bad feeling. Great. Now I’m rambling.”
Owen glanced at her and shook his head. “Haven’t you always wanted to figure Ms. Roatta out? This is your chance.”
Their plane was ready, but the door wasn’t opened upon their arrival as usual. Owen pondered calling his staff but shrugged the thought off. “Let’s go. We are running late.”
His words were barely out when the plane burst into flames merely several meters away from them.
“Run!” Owen yelled amid Ava’s scream and they sprinted for the exit, hearing the earth-shattering blast seconds later.
____
It took several hours for Ava’s mind to wrap around what had just happened. Their plane had exploded out of the blue, at the time when they should have boarded. If they had been on time, neither she nor Owen would be alive.
She winced at the sting of disinfectant on her arm as a doctor cleaned it. She had no idea how she got injured. Maybe it was the debris, or maybe she fell. Owen was nursing a broken leg that she had no recollection of either.
The entire incident was a blur, except the woman she saw before her eyes forcefully shut. Lucy had stood over her with a devilish smirk on her face, but that was nothing compared to the words she had said.
“It’s been three entrie decades since we had a proper conversation so I thought I’d refresh your memory. Does this ring any bell, sister?”
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