Frances got to the house at the crack of dawn. She had gotten a message from Cael that his mom wanted to see her, and it was urgent. Frances was happy that Abigail called for her, which was a very rare thing for a woman to do. It was always as if she was independent and did not rely on anybody, but seeing that she was the one to reach out first, she was ready to do what she could do for it to work out.
She made her way to Cael’s room. She was no stranger there, as she had spent many nights with him. The staff who saw her did not bother to stop her from asking questions. It was like she blended right in. She stood and knocked on the door; when she did not get any response, she let herself in and sat on the bed. It was only when she was inside the room that she noticed he was in the shower. She wondered the reason he was getting up so early.
He always stayed in bed till the last minute and spent the day on his winning terms. He never allowed the things happening around him to influence him in any way. Frances had always thought of how the opportunity he had in life should have been given to someone else. Anyone else would take their role of being a Vale more seriously than he did. It was like he was not interested in any of it.
“Holy sh*t!” he exclaimed as he stepped out of the shower, only to be met by Frances sitting on his bed as if she owned the place.
“Hi,” she said, waving her hand at him.
“What are you doing here so early?”
“You asked me to come,” she said, pouting her lower lip at him.
“I did, but I did not ask you to come at dawn,” he said, moving from the door of the bathroom to the door of the closet. “How did your mom even let you leave the house so early in the morning?”
“As soon as she heard that it was your mom who called me out, she let me go.”
Cael had always not understood how brazen the Gates family was and how they did not even bother to hide it from them. It was obvious that they were trying their best to latch onto them and benefit in all ways.
“You are up early today. Are you going golfing?” she asked, knowing that it was interests like that that really made him want to get out of bed. She had worried about him being the father to her children and if they would benefit from him.
“I am going to work,” he said from the closet.
Frances stood up from the bed and hurried to the closet, where he stood buttoning his shirt. “Let me help you with that,” she said, going to him and taking over the buttoning. “What had gotten over you?” she whispered, looking up at him.
“What do you mean?” he asked with his face scrunched up in a frown.
“You never go to work early, but you are awake and ready to go to work before breakfast is done,” she said, pressing her lip into a thin line as she helped him cuff up his sleeves. “Is there some kind of change in plans that I need to know about?”
Carl opened his mouth to speak. He wanted to tell her about what she was stepping into, but he knew that his mom would desperately want to do the honours, so he closed his mouth and swallowed the words bubbling in his throat.
“When you see my mom, you will know what is going on,” he said. She nodded and helped him get dressed quietly. After which she went down to help them prepare the table for breakfast.
“Ughh! What are you doing here?” Charles said when he came down with Valerie pushing his wheelchair. Charles had requested that Valerie move in last night without giving her the chance to go get her things. He told her that he was ready to accept her at that time, but his son did not want to do that because he thought of how it would affect his marriage. He told her that he was glad that she was there now.
“Grandfather,” Frances said, dropping the dish to the table and going to stand in front of the wheelchair that had stopped midway.
“I have told you to stop calling me that.”
“Then what else should I call you? I would be getting married to your grandson, so you are grandfather to me,” Frances said with a smile on her face. She knew that if she were the one married to Cade, things would be different for her. Charles would automatically love her. Her eyes darted up to the woman who was pushing Charles.
She had not seen her before, and knowing how prickly Charles was, she knew that asking any questions was going to earn her a strange lecture she did not bargain for. She also didn’t want to bump into Charles that early in the morning, but there was nothing she could do about it. She was in his house after all.
“Don’t call me anything; just leave my house,” Charles said with a fake smile on his face. She smirked back at him, trying to act as if his words did not bother her.
“Did you come here because he called you, or did you come because I did?” Abigail said, appearing from behind.
As soon as Abigail appeared, Frances could feel the tension. No matter how disrespected Abigail had been in the past by this man, she always treated him with respect; however, seeing the way she passed by him without a word, she could tell that there was something going on.
“Mother,” Frances said, turning to her.
“Let us eat breakfast and go to my room to talk,” she said to her.
“Okay, ma…”
“Cade? Ophelia?” Charles cut her off before she could finish her statement.
Abigail stopped in her tracks and turned to see them, approaching them all. “I did not expect to see you here.”
“We just thought to say hi before going to work, Granpa,” Ophelia said, leaving Cade’s side and going to stand by him.
“You have good judgment,” Charles said, looking up at her.
“I see that you are beginning to love your granddaughter-in-law better than your own grandson.”
“What can I do? She is so lovely.”
“Frances!” Abigail said in a firm voice. She was grateful that they all ignored her, so she did not need to talk to them at all. “Let us go eat.”
“You might need to find another place to have breakfast. I want to have breakfast with my grandson, his wife, and his mother,” Charles said, causing Abigail to stop in her tracks.
“Of course you do,” she murmured to herself. She took up a plate and put a few pieces of toast and gave it to Frances. She repeated the process and then went into the kitchen to get two cups of filo with tea before returning away and leaving the room with Frances following behind her.
“She is really pissed, isn’t she?”