CONNOR
I drove straight to the airport after meeting with Grace and was able to secure a first class ticket to Wales, where my family home was based.
Usually, it was my secretary’s duty to take care of issues like these but this travel wasn’t the usual business travel, it was my person business, so I decided to handle it myself. I didn’t call Marcus as he informed me he would be unavailable for the rest of the day.
The plane took off at mid-day and hopefully, I should be getting back to London before midnight. I could never sleep anywhere that isn’t my room in my home here in central London. Although I once lived in Wales with my family when I was younger but I left home in my early teen years for an expensive Boarding schools only rich kids could attend.
I didn’t want to go, in fact I begged my parents profusely not to allow me go, but my father was a dictator, so I had no choice but to leave home at such a young age. Somehow, I still resent my mother for it till this day. I felt she would have stood her ground against my father.
The plane landed an hour later, so I quickly took a taxi like normal individuals. I wouldn’t want my mother to know I was on my way, she would make a whole lot of unnecessary fuss about it like giving the maids extra chores of making a banquet, cleaning and dressing my room thoroughly and stuffs like that.
I won’t be sleeping over anyway, and I wasn’t a tad hungry, I was angry, raging, craving to break something in pieces if it could fix things between Grace and me as soon as possible.
The taxi stopped in front of Shelby Castle as I had directed. I paid and got down, removed the face cap and sunglasses I was putting on so the security camera in front of the gate could capture my face easily. Our gate opened almost immediately my face was captured and I walked in.
I built my house back in London almost the way my dad built his, but the difference was my dad’s was more like a castle while mine was a mansion. Also, the expanse of land in Shelby Mansion was far bigger than that of Shelby Castle.
A tricycle came to pick me up as it was impossible to walk to the main house on foot. The driver was one of our workers who greeted me effusively, noting how much it was a surprise I was here and how long since they had last seen me.
I wasn’t in the mood for chit chats and I couldn’t ignore an aged man so I mumbled incoherent replies that sounded like I was taking part in the conversation. He finally dropped me off at the foyer and drove off to his daily duties.
I walked in and saw my mother rushing down from the flight of stairs in the general sitting room with her arms spread wide open and a big smile on her ageless face,
“Son… why didn’t you tell me you were coming,” she said all at once coming to embrace me. I hugged her back briskly and pecked her both cheeks as our family custom demanded before taking few steps back to make her see how mad I was.
“Mother, what have you done?” I ignored her question, almost growling at her but she simply ignored my question and anger and led me to the dining room.
“You must be hungry,” she wheezed, acting like I didn’t just growl at her.
“Mother!” I yelled, causing all the maid to scurry away from the dining. “I didn’t come here to eat, I came here to talk to you.”
“Well,” she took her sit beside the seat my father usually sat on when he was alive. “Since this is the only way I could see or talk to my son, I guess it was worth it after all.” she spoke like she was talking to someone else in the room and not to me.
“Do you have an idea what you have caused-?”
“What?” she cut me short, while trying to maintain aplomb as usual. “A crash in your stock price? Less number of women flocking themselves around you? What exactly, Connor Blue Shelby?” her voice was calm and collected.
“But why Angela anyway?” I raked my fingers through my hair feeling frustrated by her calmness. “I told you I have nothing to do with her anymore. I don’t ever want to have myself associated with that woman, so please call those reporters and tell them to bring that down!”
“And then what?” she stares at me with an elevated eyebrow, “And then you remain single for the rest of your life? C’mon, Connor, find someone already and let me have peace.”
“I’m working on that, Mother, you have to trust me.” I said with a pacifying tone, taking a sit opposite her, realizing that my rage and anger wouldn’t get through her. “And that engagement news is definitely going to ruin things for me.”
“I can’t trust you anymore, son.” she picked an apple from a tray filled with fruits in the middle of the dining table. “Besides, it’s been two years since you called off your relationship with Angela. What have you been doing for those two years?”
“Mother,” I probed leaning forward, “I swear it’s for real this time, just pull down that engagement news down, please,”
I knew my mother might give in if I told her about Grace and for all I know, she and Angela might still be in touch. I wouldn’t want anything that would put Grace into a spot with these media monsters.
“Hmmm,” she mumbled, studying the half bitten apple in her hand, “I knew you would never agree to the Angela saga so I fixed a blind date with a nice girl from a well respectable family. She went to Yale and is currently holding a position in one of the biggest magazine company in London, can you believe that?”
I simply sigh, coming in terms with how smart my mother was. She knew me already, and she would just decide to play dumb so she could trap me.
“I’m not a child, Mother,” I muttered, “I can take care of all these things myself, I can handle myself.” I tried being firm, but it didn’t even pass through the hair on her skin.
“Go for the date, it’s been fixed already,” she gulped down a bottle of water, “If she likes you, I’ll pull down the article, and if she doesn’t, you’ll have to tell me what you’re working on these days.” she drawled the last words like she actually knew something was going on.