“What is all the fuss about?” Charles asked as he saw staff going in and out of the house from his window.
“Mrs Vale invited a catering service to come to serve Japanese food,” the girl standing behind him said.
“I have told you not to address her as that,” Charles said slowly. He never approved of Abigail and will never approve of her. His son Edward had defiled him and gone ahead to marry her against his will.
Ana gulped as she did not know the right way to address the woman. She was married to Edward Vale and had taken his last name, all of her official papers carried that name but Charles had victimized her about it for fourteen years now. Charles had forbidden them from referring to her as the lady of the house as well.
It was part of that reason that he openly accepted Cade when he came and put him in the family tree while hiding the fact that he was an illegitimate child. His son had declared his undying love for his wife when they eloped and married and then came back to the house, however, a few years down the line he was already out and about cheating.
Charles had known he was cheating but did not think too much of it until a strange woman showed up pregnant and fine enough after she had given birth to the child and DNA testing was done the baby was a true Vale by blood. Abigail was unable to do anything about it. If she was going to raise her son to be the chairman of all the Vale family heirloom then she needed to learn to sit on her tail and be quiet.
“Why is she celebrating?” Charles asked.
“I do not know the details but I overheard her telling kitchen staff that she was having an important guest for dinner” Ana replied.
Charles tried to wrap his mind around what she could be celebrating. It definitely was not the compliments he had showered on Cade in the morning. It was no news that she despised Cade with her whole heart so there was no way she would celebrate him.
“She must be up to no good, let us find out,” Charles said dismissing Ana. She left the room with hopes of finding out what happened with Abigail.
Ana knew it would be impossible for her to get any information out of anybody except she went around trying to eavesdrop. Charles had made her his favourite and when the other house staff found out about it they began to suspect she was giving him sex favours to maintain that title.
Charles just found her useful to eavesdrop and gather information around the house. She doubted that a man who was mostly in a wheelchair even though he could walk would be interested in having sex with her. He was just concerned about Cade and leaving the company to him at the end of the day.
She was not bothered by what they all said about her anyway, she enjoyed immunity against all the things Abigail did to the rest of the staff. She knew Ana was off-limit and because she still wanted to remain in the house she acted as though the young girl did not exist. Ana also received an outrageous amount of money as a salary so she was okay with it.
Ana moved around the house silently hoping to somehow come across useful information. After going round and round and finding nothing useful to report, Charles decided to wait and see what diabolical things Abigail wanted to do.
“I heard you have important guests visiting us today?” Charles asked as they sat at the table. He had asked Cade to be home early so they could witness the plans she had made.
“Oh Father, you heard that already?” Abigail beamed.
Charles gritted his teeth but held himself. He did not want to be called Father by her in any way but did not want to make a scene.
“S who is thos important guest? I do not know who it is but I do hope it is a wife for Cael” Charles said causing the smile on her lips to falter.
She knew he said that on purpose to hurt her. “It is not Father” she replied letting the smile resume to her face.
“Then who can be so important to make you go all out like this?” Charles asked. He had touched that wound because Cael had never been able to successfully land a decent lady himself and he was foolishly waiting for true love like his parents.
Charles had told them that for Cael to have a shot at even being a part of the major shareholder in the company he needed to have a family of value. He kept coming across those who would make his value decrease. He needed to marry from the Gates family or the Brunswick family for him to have good value and be able to have a place in the company.
“Just a little more time and you will see,” Abigail said. Her ego was hurt but she was happy with what she was about to do. She could not wait to see the look of horror on Cade’s face when the girl got there. She was also too happy to see how Charles would react to it.
“You always go out of your way to do useless things anyway,” Charles said dismissively as they kept on eating.
Midway to their meal Cael emerged with Harper behind him causing them to turn and face them.
“You already started your meal?” Cael asked as he saw the eating.
“What is she doing here?” Cade asked dropping his cutlery to the table and it made a loud clanging sound.
“Oops,” Abigail said holding her chest playfully. “Do you know her?”
“Hi Cade” Harper let out in a high-pitched voice.
“What is happening here?”
“Maybe Cade would want to explain himself,” Abigail said crossing her hand across her chest.
“Why should I explain? I did not bring this stranger to our house” Cade said turning his back to them.
“Abigail, you better get talking unless you have a new place to live”
It was then Abigail realized that their plan was not foolproof and that she had messed up. Harper just showing up did not make anything bad for him, instead it made her look stupid.