After their breakfast, they prepared for work and got out of the house at once. Then, Lorene stopped him off.
(Peck)
“See you later, Love,” Stephen said and got out of her car.
“Bye. Love,” she responded and drove off to the hospital.
It was quite unfortunate. Stephen had devoted his love to her, who possessed all the attributes he needed in a wife, but she was in love with Arthur Bailey and not Stephen Bailey.
“This is good. With a wife like Lorene and her friend Evelyn, I will have a blissful marriage,” he mumbled before he boarded a chartered taxi.
Then, he sat comfortably in the back seat. While he was approaching his house, he turned on his phone to transfer the payment for the ride, but an epiphany occurred when he saw the different breaking news popping up on his phone. He punched on one of the news and saw his resort as a heap of rubble. Then, he looked at it critically to confirm that his eyes were not misleading him. When he confirmed it, he rested on the headrest of the car and suddenly, his head began to spin. He closed his eyes for some seconds until the driver’s voice jolted him out of his bewilderment.
“We are at your house, Sir.”
He looked around his environment to ensure that he was not dreaming, but it was not a dream, his house was not bombed.
“I see. I changed my mind. Take me to the Resort by the lakeside.”
“Which of the resorts? Do you mean the one that was bombed by the angry beggars and indigents?”
He had concluded that it could be Denise’s handiwork, but with what the driver just said, he thought otherwise.
Then, he asked the driver, “Which of the resorts are you talking about?”
“The one beside the lake.”
Stephen ran his left hand over his head, feigned ignorance, and asked further, “Was the resort bombed?”
The driver who was not aware that he owned the resort, answered, “Yes, Sir. It was all over the news.”
When Stephen was mute, he inquired, “It is like you were just returning from a trip?”
“Yes. You are correct,” he answered.
“I see. Welcome back,” The driver said and turned on his ignition.
He made a turn towards the resort. To get more news through the jungle drum, Stephen inquired further, “Why did the angry beggars and indigents bomb the resort?”
“The news had it that the owner of the resort was a dubious man. He stole the money that the government provided for the beggars through him. When they came for their money, the owner escaped and they bombed his resort.”
Soon, they got to his ruined resort. He paid the driver and got out of the vehicle. Meanwhile, the driver’s story was different from what he was reading from his device, which stated that the owner of the resort dropped the explosive to kill the angry beggars and indigents, including the displaced people.
He looked at his once-upon-a-time beautiful resort, but now a heap of debris, secured with a crime scene barrier tape. He kept his distance from the scene and stood like an onlooker to avoid being arrested.
‘What of my workers? They must have been buried in the underground, especially Jude,’ he thought.
(Ding)
Suddenly, he got a message alert on his phone.
At The Bailey International Conglomerates, Seven Oaks
Louis got a call from his parents while he got to work. He gave Cassandra a perfunctory response to her greetings and walked into his office.
Then, he picked up the call and said, “Hello, Mom. Are you up already? I am aware that it is still midnight over there”
“Hello, Son. We woke up to call you.”
“Oh! That is fine.”
“Yes. How are you?”
Louis chuckled and replied, “Mom, this is about the tenth time you have checked on me since you traveled…”
Arthur collected the phone from Nichole, interrupted their discussion, and said, “Yes, Louis. Your Mom had been worried about you. But I have told her that you are now an adult, and you can be on your own.”
Louis, who was startled when he heard his father’s voice, composed himself and responded, “Hello, Father. I am happy to hear from you.”
“Hello, Son.”
“You are right, Father. I am old enough. Let Mom understand that.”
“It is all right. Take care of yourself.”
“I will. Kindly take care of Mom. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Louis did not have the time to ponder over the call from his parents. He got a call from Barrister Guidance immediately.
“Good morning, Barrister. It is a pleasure hearing from you.”
“Good morning, Denise. I called to inform you that Stephen had not responded to my suite, and it is six days today.”
“That should not give you any stress. Send a reminder to him and I will give you the email addresses of our Patriarch and his Family Head. You will forward the suite to them as a mark of respect. If, thereafter, he refuses to comply, we will take the next step.”
“That is a good one. Kindly share the email addresses with me.”
“It is all right. I will do that straight away.”
Without delay, Barrister Guidance sent the reminder to Stephen and copied Gen. Bailey and Brown after he got their email addresses.
At the Scene of the Ruined Resort
While Stephen was at the scene and attempting to conceal his identity, a message alert caught his attention. He swiped his phone and saw the heading of the email. This time, he needed someone to speak with, especially Jude, who he believed was killed along with other workers.
‘The reporters said that no life was lost because they were not aware that there was an underground and Jude with the rest were buried there,” he thought as tears trickled down his cheeks.
Now, he needed to leave the scene to avoid exposing himself.
‘Where do I go from here?’ he asked himself.
Although, his house was intact. He knew that the police would invade it at any moment. Then, he read through the email and realized that he had time to waste on dialogue and that he could not do his things as he deemed fit. He had realized that family squabble should be given family attention.