CHAPTER 32: SUITOR.
The next morning, as early as 5, the stranger that Kira had helped fluttered his eyes open. He turned his head slightly on the bed before blinking twice as he tried to get where he was. It was certainly not his room, so he turned his head to his right only to find a drawing board before realizing where he was.
“Ouch.” He winced in pain as he sat, he touched the injury below his waist that had been cleaned and well bandaged. He was shirtless as well. He furrowed his eyebrows before finally placing his legs on the floor. His clothes had been neatly arranged beside him and he wasted no time in wearing them.
As he was buttoning the shirt, he walked to the drawing board and saw the drawing of him, his thin lips revealed a tiny smirk. Unfortunately, he had no phone with him so he just let it be.
He looked around the room with his hand on his injury. Different artworks were arranged on the wall and those that were yet to be uncompleted were left laying on the floor.
The man walked gently out of the bedroom only to find a young lady snuggling close to the pillow on the couch. She had a young body in comparison to him and that only made her look like a cute cat in his eyes.
He approached her slowly, afraid that he might wake her up before bending over her. Her hair was scattered all over her face and she didn’t seem to mind as she kept snoring softly. He removed the strands of the hair covering her face before staring at it with rapt attention.
He covered her with the blanket she was snuggling with.
“Good to see you again, Kira.” He whispered and took a step back from her after standing up. He wore his shoes and cast a last look at her, the pain from his injury stung him a bit and he grimaced before leaving the apartment, closing the door gently.
___________
It now fully dawned in the whole of the city, Shaft was sitting with Vincent in the garden. They were sitting opposite each other with an extra chair facing the two of them.
They wore matching clothes and each of them was busy with what they knew best for the meantime.
Shaft would look up from his papers to see if the person they were expecting had arrived or not. This didn’t go unnoticed by Vincent who would occasionally follow his father’s view. He chuckled and picked up his glass of wine to sip from.
“You don’t have to be so eager to meet him, he will soon arrive.” He assured him.
“Well, time is money, son.” Shaft shrugged and focused on his papers.
After a while, the gate was opened and a red car with apparently no roof drove in. The father and son looked at the car before glancing at each other.
“I told you.” Vincent winked.
Vegas came out of the car confidently, he pulled his jacket firmly as an added merit to his entrance. Vincent stood up and waved at him from the garden so that he would know where they were. Vegas waved back and walked to meet them.
“Mr. Vegas.” Shaft called out and stood up to welcome him with a hug.
“Oh, it’s Vegas, please.” He replied and Shaft gave a dry laugh before settling down. Vegas shook hands with Vincent before they sat down.
“Do you need anything to eat or maybe drink? You can join us.” Shaft offered.
“No, you don’t have to. Thank you very much, Mr. Shaft. You don’t need to treat me like a guest.” Vegas refused politely.
“How are you finding our work going?” He asked.
“Well, the commencement of the work is quite fast, Vegas and I am impressed by how hard-working your brother is. I visited the site with my son a few days ago and I saw that the project had already begun with no delay to it. Well-done.” Shaft indirectly praised Raphael while Vegas nodded slightly.
“So, why am I here? I know it isn’t for business, is it?” Vegas changed the topic.
“No, it isn’t for the business. It’s more personal and also profitable if it happens to work.” Vincent spoke this time around.
“Then what is it?”
“You must have seen my niece, Erica…”
“Yeah, she came along with you during our first meeting,” Vegas replied.
“Exactly. She is quite famous and also growing faster as a woman and I believe that this is the prime of her life should be the right time that she would be plucked as a flower by the most respectable man. I need to choose a suitor for her and…your brother seems like the perfect choice for her.” Shaft announced.
Vegas’s eyes narrowed a bit when he heard this.
“Let’s not talk about the business deal going on between us, it’s another thing but for this, Erica informed me of her undying love for Raphael and there was nothing that I could do to stop her from imagining life with him. So that’s my reason for calling you here.” Shaft finally ended his proposal and there was a deadly silence with each man trying to figure out what was on Vegas’s mind as he was yet to reply.
He sighed and looked up, “You could have easily had this conversation with my dad, why me?”
“I presumed that since you and Raphael are siblings then you two must be so close to being able to speak with each other comfortably just like any other siblings. If you can manage to tell him this in the softest way possible then talking with your dad is the easiest to accomplish.” Shaft answered with a sly smile that Vegas, unfortunately, failed to catch on to.
“Vegas, my niece is simply attracted to your brother and this isn’t just about any business benefit whatsoever. She informed us and my dad promised to speak with you on her behalf so if you could please guide us in bringing them closer.” Vincent supported his father.
“We can give you anything that you want.”
Vegas hooked his fingers against each other and put them under his chin. He looked from father to son, unable to figure out if there was perhaps anything suspicious. This was where Raphael was a bit better than him, he was sharper and could figure out most lies made by clients, he would only pretend not to know anything if he had an ulterior motive behind it.
His eyes ranged from the building to the men in black suits then to the cars and other properties before facing them.
“I will talk with my father as this does not concern me. I don’t promise the outcome to be a hundred percent but I will definitely get back to you either way.” He finally replied and Shaft smiled, showing a sign of relief from the apprehension.
“Thank you, Vegas. I hope for a positive response then.”
“If that will be all then please don’t mind me taking my leave now.” He stood up followed by Vincent who shook his hand again.
“Thank you for coming.”
“Hmm, have a good day.”
Vegas bowed a bit to Shaft before leaving. Immediately his car drove out of the compound, and the wall of pretense fell flat.
“I think there is more than what we thought was,” Vincent commented.
“Yes. Anyway, has Pq called yet? I need those items before dusk, so I need them to reach Country R as quickly as possible.”
“I will check on them, dad. Excuse me.” Vincent exited the garden to work on their next project.
As Vegas drove home, he was in a state of contempt. Why did it feel like every single time he was the one at the edge of losing? None of his plans were working at all except gaining the love of their father, there was absolutely nothing that he was good at. This was something that he knew very deeply.
He just couldn’t…no, he had to do something as fast as possible to ruin Raphael’s image so that their father would hate him more than he already did.
If he couldn’t ruin him then there was nothing wrong if he[Vegas] made Raphael disappear, right? With this evil thought brimming against his heart, he smiled deviously.
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“Hmm…ouch,” Kira yelled immediately after her butts landed on the hard surface. Her eyes were still heavy from sleeping and she tried hard in opening them as she rubbed her butt to relieve the stinging pain. Seriously, why did she wake up now when she was just about to touch the moon?
Her still squeezing her eyes, she looked around her sitting room and stood up. It was already past ten in the morning and she wondered what or how the stranger was feeling. She quickly headed towards her room. She opened the door only to find the bed empty.
Her eyes widened and she searched around the room even to her bathroom but he was nowhere to be found.
“Where is he? I can’t believe he left just like that. I hope I don’t get into trouble now.” She mumbled as she scratched her hair and fell flat on her bed to sleep for about thirty minutes more until the doorbell rang.
Pushing herself one more time, she went to answer the door thinking it was the stranger only to find Evelyn and her troublesome godson standing in front of her.
“Hola, familia.” Evelyn greeted in Spanish and Tom hugged Kira’s legs since that was where his height was until he expanded his arm so Kira could lift him.
Kira felt like crying as she did so, “Someone should wake me up from this nightmare.”
“It’s actually a ‘daymare’.” Evelyn corrected as she closed the door.
“I don’t f…I don’t care, sis.” Kira rolled her eyes.
“Why are you two even here in the first place?” She asked.
“Well, I wanted to call you but then Tom suggested that we should surprise you instead with our visit so I obliged. We are going to the beach to spend some time together.” Evelyn replied happily and even did a ‘happy dance’ while Tom did the ‘victory dance’.
Kira laughed nervously and turned serious before giving them a firm answer, “No!”
The dances stopped immediately after she said that.
“Oh yes, we are going,” Evelyn replied.
“I would like to see you force me to go.” Kira snorted before walking into her room and shutting the door.
“Should we…” Evelyn faced her son who put his hand under his chin as if thinking critically.
“Yeah, we should.” He chimed in. The mother and son rushed to the door only to start hitting it roughly.
“Open up or taste the wrath of our anger,” Evelyn growled playfully while Tom laughed.
“Do your worst!” Kira shouted from within and covered her ears with the pillow beside her.