21

By the time Richard was done with watching all the video clips Asher had prepared, he was feeling like ending the Philips family.
He couldn’t understand how a family could hate their child so much. Weren’t they happy finding their long lost daughter?
“Give Diamond Studios ten million dollars as the final investment on the movie and there will only be one condition, cast Macy Philips in the part she wants.
“Brother, are you sure?” Asher asked surprised.
It wasn’t that ten million was a lot for Richard but that he has never helped anyone else again.
Richard was an ice block. He never cared about what others needed or wanted as long as it never involved him.
All Richard did was donate to the philanthropic charities their family worked on and he did that anonymously. But this was an open war on the Philips.
Why was Richard doing this?
In one of the clips he watched, Macy and the rest of the crew who would be involved in the shooting of the movie Major Calamities were in the opening ceremony. The movie would start shooting in a month time.
Most of the clips were useless as they showed people arriving, games, eating, speeches and such.
But when people were mingling and getting to know each other because they would be working together for months, that was when the Philips heir, Macy’s dad, decided to show up. It was long after all the speeches were done.
But since he was a major sponsor, having given five million dollars of the twenty needed for the budget of the whole movie, he was welcomed with pomp and colour.
After his short impromptu speech where he wished everyone best of luck, he sat on the high table and started conversing with the other producer and the directors.
After a while, where Macy was seated with a girl named Chloe, she excused herself to go to the loo. She didn’t want to drink a lot but with everyone toasting to the lead characters and all, she had downed a few.
And because she had learnt her lesson, she had a condition made for her by a Chinese friend which after taking ten milliliters, she would be as good as new. And this was what she went to do in the toilet.
When she came out, her father, who everyone gathered there except Angela didn’t know was her father, was waiting for her at the door to the restrooms.
“Mr Philips, what are you doing here? This is the ladies,” Macy said respectively although anyone who knew her well after she had been away for almost seven years could tell that her voice was laced with sarcasm.
“How dare you call me Mr Philips? Have you forgotten that I am still your father? Where did your manners go?” He hissed as he tried controlling his voice so that it wouldn’t carry far.
“Careful sir. Don’t forget where we are. Do you want people to know that you have such a delinquent like me? Isn’t your angel still inside? She is your daughter remember? She is the one you greeted and hugged and introduced to everyone when you came in.
So, are you sure you are my father?” Macy asked and this time, there was no denying it. There was sarcasm there.
“You,” Mr Philips hissed and raised his hand to slap her.
“Careful now sir. Do you want me to scream that you want to molest me?” She said with the corner of her mouth raised in a sly smirk and Mr Philips was so angry that smoke was almost coming in if his orifices.
“You! I really don’t know what I did to deserve a daughter like you,” he said and Macy was done with him.
“What do you want? I have stayed out of your way, haven’t I? I have even changed my name to my original name, Macy Smith. Isn’t that what you demanded when I came back? So, what have I done this time?” She asked wanting to get rid of him.
She wanted to go back to the party and forget that she had even been his ugly face.
She wondered why she was so cursed. Her grave looked like the two people she hated in this world, her birth mother and father.
She had her mother’s soft Chinese features and her father’s hard African American jaw and colour.
“We need to talk,” he said and she chuckled.
“Isn’t that what we have been doing?” He asked.
“Not here. Let’s go to the balcony,” he says and started walking and she followed.
The clip changed and there was another one that seemed to have been taken by a camera that was directly overhead from where the two stood at the back balcony of the floor they were in.
“What do you want?” Macy asked again this time wih no trace of patience in her brow.
“When will you treat me with the respect I deserve?” Her father hissed and she kept quiet.
If she would have talked, she would have said never but…
“Anyway,” the man continued when he realised that she wasn’t going to talk, “I want you to drop out of the movie. I don’t want you to take Angela’s spotlight in this movie. She has worked hard to get here and,” he sighed and looked at anywhere but her and continued, “just drop out,” he finished.
“Why? So, you knew that they would drug me during the day of auditions,” it wasn’t a question, it was a statement. “I worked my ass off to get this role. Unlike her, I didn’t need you to buy it for me. What rights do you have to ask me to drop it?” Macy asked with indignation.
Who did Christopher Philips think he was? She could t belief his guts.
“Are you dropping out peacefully or not? Angela already has someone to replace you so it won’t be a problem for the crew. Just drop out. Make an excuse. Just give this to your sister,” he continued.
“She isn’t my sister and I am not dropping out.
I have never asked for anything from you since you dumped me in Uswazi and I have come this far by working my fucking ass off. If it doesn’t work well for you and for your darling daughter, then I’m sorry,” she said and walked out.
“I was trying to be nice because you are my bastard daughter but since you have refused to accept my charity, don’t regret it,” he shouted as she left and Richard didn’t know whether she looked at the idiot professing to be her father or not.
“So, what has she been doing?” Richard asked Asher who shrughed his shoulders.
“After she was dismissed the following morning after the party, the news her so called manager was so glad to bring her in her rundown apartment, she disappeared but May found her in a race track.
Apparently, she is also a racer. I don’t know what this girl can’t do. You should see her in a motorbike,” Asher said in a delicacy voice as he smiled like an idiot.
“Arrange for her return to the movie and why did you say her run down apartment? Isn’t her accommodation supposed to be provided by her company?” Richard remembered and asked.
“Oh, it is and they did. But they looked for the cheapest house they could get in the the most foulest environments in Washington and that’s where she lives. Didn’t I show you the photos?” Asher said with disgust as he fumbled with all the papers he had.
“Here, look at this,” Richard took Te photo his brother handed him and he frowned as his face went back with anger.
“This is horrible! How? Why?” The same questions I have but ni answers so far. And if Ash doesn’t have an answer, no one in DC has,” ajser said as she returned everything in the bag he had come with.
“Arrange it now. I want her back in the movie. In fact, offer them the twenty million. Tell them that the rest is for emergency. Make sure she returns,” Richard said as he sat.
“Oh, wow! I pity the Philips family. They should have known better than to play with Richard. I pity them. And brother, you are repeating yourself. You already said it and I am on it. Give me your card,” Asher said and his brother produced a black platinum card from his wallet and gave him.
“I am going to enjoy this!” Ash said as he rubbed his hands together.
Richard sat there as he thought of what Macy had gone through. She was a beautiful girl and if what both Asher and Melvin said was anything to go with, she was a good girl. He didn’t just understand why her family didn’t investigate all the allegations her so called sister levied at her.
If Asher was able to find all those materials within such a short period of time, he wondered why the Philips never did.
All given, he hoped to give her justice as long as she treated Melvin well. She seemed to have grown into his daughter’s heart and as long as Melvin was happy, he would make sure to help the girl’s career and protect her.
“Another thing, put May on her. Let May protect her,” Richard added.
“May? She is a secret service agent and you want her to follow Macy around?” Asher asked with surprise and Richard have him that look that always shut him up.
“Yes sir,” he said and stood up to go to his quarters.