“Andy baby, how are you?” The Jones matriarch asked as she encompassed her son in a hug.
Andy bend and laid his head on his mother’s shoulder and he felt like he had a million and one things to tell her but he didn’t even know where to start.
He relished her warmth for a while and then raised his head.
“Are you okay?” Mrs Jones asked as she looked at him.
Andy looked at his mother and felt tears sting his eyes and his nose.
He looked upwards and breathed in and when he looked at his mother again, he had a small smile on his lips though it didn’t reach his eyes.
“I am well mama. I am well,” he said as he walked past her into the house.
He didn’t want her to see him she’d tears.
He had tried not to get hurt by all that he heard Angela say but there was no helping it.
He could still not believe that Macy was right all along.
Andy always thought that Macy was jealous of them as Angela always said but now, he knew better.
He walked into the living room and found his father who was sitting on the couch still watching the entertainment channel that was airing Angela’s dirty linen to the public, literally.
“Dad, why are you still watching that?” Andy asked as he walked towards the small table by the side of the big couch his father was seated on to grab the remote.
“Did you know that Macy had a child?
Did your so called wife tell you?” Mr Jones asked and Andy froze on his feet as he looked at the TV.
“What do you mean? Do you know that I even have a grave for my daughter?
I visit it every year!
What do you mean I had a boy and he’s still alive?” Macy was screaming on the TV though she wasn’t visible but Angela was laughing.
Then the TV went black showing that whatever camera was feeding the stream had been turned off.
Andy froze there as he looked at the TV with his mother behind him.
She was also coming into the room when she heard what Macy was saying and she was as surprised as her son was.
“Did you know that Macy was pregnant?” Mrs Jones asked.
She was the first one to speak as they were all looking at the TV waiting for the stream to continue but it was done.
“Did you know that Macy was pregnant?” She asked Andy again shaking him and getting him out of his stupor.
“Oh my God! Oh goodness!
That was Angela too?
And to think that she told me that Macy had an abortion!” Andy said and this time, he couldn’t control the tears that streamed down his face.
He sat down with a heavy sigh and held his face with his palm because even looking at his parents was embarrassing to say the least.
“Andy?” Hos father’s deep voice called and he knew that there was no escaping it.
He was here now and it was time he got clean.
“Yes. I knew that she was pregnant and at first, Angela told me thatacu had had an affair and cheated on me.
But today on that broadcast I found out that she lied and that she was the one who drugged Macy with an aim of making her sleep with strange men.
But from what I gathered, Macy went to a different room and she thus didn’t sleep with the men Angela had contracted.
I thought that she had really betrayed me.
She even believed for a while that I was responsible for her pregnancy because she said that she slept with just one man but I never believed her.
What with Angela always by me fanning the fire of doubt in my heart!” He sighed agij heavily wishing that he could go back in time.
If he could, he would.
He wished that he knew how to make it up to Macy and the worst was how to face Angela after this.
“Oh goodness! Where is she now?” Mrs Jones asked and Andy shook his head.
“I don’t know. Martin and the rest are trying to locate her but it is like she isn’t in this city,” he said and looked at the watch.
It had been an hour since he asked Martin to do all he could to locate her but he still hadn’t received any call on the same.
“Have her parents called you?” His dad asked and as if his voice was what they were waiting for, his phone rang.
He took it from his pocket and checked then gave the phone to his mother.
Mrs Philips was calling and Mrs Jones face changed from the gentle woman she was when talking to her son to the matriarch of the Jones empire.
“Andy…” Mrs Philips began on the other side once the call connected but Andy’s mother cut her even before she could form a sentence.
“What do you want?” Mrs Jones asked coldly and the other woman was stunned to silence for a moment and then she found her voice again.
“Oh, my in law, I wanted to ask Andy if he knows where Angela is,” she said changing her voice from the stern one she wanted to use on Andy to a gentle one.
“He doesn’t. He’s at home and we are also looking for her because she has a lot of questions to answer,” Mrs Jones said and the other side was silent.
Mrs Philips didn’t know what to say because they were also looking for Angela for the same reason.
“If there is nothing else to say, I will be hanging up,” Mrs Jones said and hang up.
She looked at the phone and sneered.
“The nerve!” She said and then placed the phone at the table and sat beside her husband.
“I knew that she wasn’t a good girl.
I just couldn’t put my finger on why I never liked her but even if I did, I would never have thought that she is so nasty.
Goodness! How can one child be such evil?
I don’t even know where to begin.
I wish I had seen the whole thing,” Mrs Jones lamented and then remembered something.
“Ray! Ray?” She shouted and a middle aged man in a suit came into the room in a hurry.
“Yes ma’am?” He said panting and it looked as if he had just ran a marathon.
“Did you get the whole video?” Mrs Jones asked and the man walked towards her and handed to her a flash drive.
“It’s all there,” he said and then stood aside.
“Good job. Well done.
Five hundred bonus this week for this,” she said and the man beamed.
“Let’s see how it started and how it’s going to go.
Ray, did you call the Vice president and CFO?” Mrs Jones asked as she stood up and walked towards the TV to insert the drive.
“Mom, do we have to watch it again?” Andy asked feeling anxious.
He didn’t know why he was but he just didn’t want to hear Angela insult him again.
He wanted to pretend that all was well and that she didn’t say that she was with him for his money and fame.
He was still hoping that it was all one bad dream and that he would wake up soon.
“Yes son. We have to watch it so that we can know the steps to take towards securing our shares and company.
You know we are a listed company and the last thing we need is being sanctioned for anything related to her.
You are the president of the company and she has shares there and you can be sure that many will and can use that to bring us down.
Even if we are the largest shareholders, we need to be prepared.
We need to separate the company from her and even if we have to deny your relationship with her, we will,” Mrs Jones said at length and by the time she was done, Ray was back with three other men.
” Do we really have to do this? Can’t it wait?” Andy asked again feeling beaten.
He wished that he was anywhere else but here.
“Sir, we also wish you could rest but we have the same be ready because you can be sure that by now, press people are already at the company gates waiting and looking for anyone they can interview.
We need to release a press report and we need to discuss what to say and what not to,” the man who was the Director of the PR department of the company said.
“It’s all going to be okay son,” his father said.
“Gentlemen and ladies, please sit,” Mr Jones welcomed the three people and then looked at his son.
“Okay, let’s do this,” Andy said as he sat upright and inhaled and exhaled deeply.
He knew that he couldn’t run from this longer than needed and rhw faster he dealt with it, the faster it would be past him.
He also wanted to be done with it so that he could go and look for Macy.
He still didn’t believe that she had a man in her life.