Rachel couldn’t feel her toes. Her body felt stiff and she felt like she couldn’t breathe anymore. Droplets of sweat gathered around her forehead and her vision blurred….
“Wh-what did you just say?” Rachel asked, her voice coming out like a ‘gasp’ instead of a whisper. She was sure she didn’t hear well. She was probably hallucinating about everything. There was no way she heard him correctly.
“I said his nickname is ‘The Jaguar’. That’s what I have heard some people call him in the past” George answered, unaware of the shock Rachel was dealing with at the moment.
Rachel closed her eyes, fighting back the sudden tears that tried to spill. She had to hold herself back, she had to be strong. She couldn’t let him know the gravity of what he just revealed just yet. She didn’t want to believe any of it. There was no way his father was the one who ruined her father’s life, right?
It couldn’t be. Her father had told back then that Morris Scott was a good man. Her father had to be right. How could Morris be the one who implicated her father and threw him in jail for ten whole years? How could he be the one who ruined her life, her mother’s life? He ruined their lives! She had to starve for years and work so many jobs in order to adjust to her new life back then. How could Morris do that to her father? How could he?!
Pushing her feelings of rage aside, Rachel whispered quietly “Who were the people that called him by his nickname?”
George paused for a moment to recollect his thoughts. “About two of his board members. I have also heard Judith call him by that name before”
Rachel stared in shock, looking at nothing in particular. That means Judith knew what really happened back then. What was going on? Why did it feel like Morris and Judith used her father to build this company and then got rid of him? What did he do to deserve all this? She didn’t want to believe anything her mind was processing right now. She was so exhausted.
George finally sensed the ‘change’ in her mood. Wondering what could be wrong, he turned to look at her “You are so quiet. Are you okay? Did I say something wrong?”
Rachel glanced at him and quickly looked away. She couldn’t ‘meet’ his eyes right now. She felt so irritated by everything. “I am fine. There’s nothing wrong. Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure. Go on”
“Based on what you have seen in the past, how would you describe your father’s friendship with my father?”
George raised an eyebrow and looked at her “Why are we suddenly talking about your father and my father?”
Rachel sighed, trying to control her rising anger “I suddenly remembered something and this question came to my mind. So I need an answer”
“Okay. Well, from my view, they seemed very cool with each other. I think they trusted each other a lot too. From what I remember, my father placed the entire company’s growth in the hands of your father while he attended to other things. I was never really around them for a long time to know the depth of their friendship. But whenever they showed up at work, they behaved cool with each other.” George whispered, staring at her, wondering why she suddenly looked pale and tired.
“Is there any other thing you noticed about their friendship back then?”
“I’m not sure I remember anything else. Though, I think my mom once said that Morris made a deal with your father t-” George answered
Rachel’s head jerked up “A deal?? Like what?”
George tilted his head to the side “I don’t remember the details. But I think your father wanted to leave the company when it started making over $100 million annually, but my father tried convincing him to stay back and build the company to a billion dollars or more. I am not really sure about the details of the deal they made with each other”
Rachel’s chest constricted and she gasped, struggling to breathe properly. She placed her hand on her chest and squeezed her face as a sharp pain sliced through her chest….
“Rachel!!” George yelled and rushed to her side, holding her pale, sweaty face in his hands. “What’s wrong? Are you alright?”
Rachel tried talking, but no word came out from her mouth. All she felt were hot tears sliding down her smooth cheeks. Tears of pain!
“Somebody there!” George yelled, fear clouding his eyes at Rachel’s limp body in his arms. Nothing bad must happen to this woman or he would break down. A petite maid rushed in quickly. “Contact Dr Andrews now that we have an emergency!!”
“Yes sir” The maid rushed out quickly to fulfill her assignment.
George lifted her in his arms and hurriedly marched towards the direction of Dr Andrew’s hospital. The tears wouldn’t stop flowing from Rachel’s eyes. She closed her eyes, remembering a thought from over ten years ago….
She had overheard her father, Arthur Reeves telling her mother that he agreed to ‘the deal’. Back then, Rachel didn’t know what ‘the deal’ was but she remembered that her mother had been very furious. Her mother had shouted that night, warning him to stay away from Morris, not to take up his second offer. But her father had gone on with the deal, reassuring her mother that he was doing it for their daughter.
Rachel shook her head slightly, refusing to believe the conclusions her mind was getting from all of this. If her conclusion was correct, it means that Morris had used her father to build his own ‘dream’ and gotten rid of him later on. She didn’t want to believe that.
Glancing over at George as he stood by her side while Dr Andrew attended to her, she wondered if he knew that his father was a monster on earth. A monster who had ruined her life…
And to make things worse, she had married and fallen in love with the son of that monster.
Her first mistake.
~~~~~*~~~~~
Morris reclined on a chair, resting his hands on a beautifully carved wooden table. He watched in exhaustion as Judith paced around his library for the thirtieth time. Her continuous ‘pacing’ was making his eyes turn.
“Can’t you just have a seat and give yourself a break?”
“A break? Of course not!” Judith muttered, a worried look on her face. She halted in front of Morris’s table, fisted her right hand and frowned. “Something is wrong. I can feel it”
Morris rolled his eyes for the tenth time, wishing she would just read a book or do something. Anything that would make her leave him alone and stop distracting him. He needed some silence to think properly about where to go from here. His grand plan was long overdue.
“What are you talking about? What is wrong?” Morris asked, gazing up at her as she continued pacing around the open space in front of him.
Judith placed her thumb on her chin, thinking deeply about something. “I can’t really say but I feel very uneasy. I feel like our plan has been discovered by someone, like we’re about to be exposed. I can feel it in my guts”
“Really?” Morris frowned, brooding over what she just said. “That’s strange. Who could it be? Are you referring to the detective I told you about?”
“Maybe…” Judith sighed. She felt very uncomfortable but couldn’t explain why. “… but I feel like there’s more. I don’t believe that detective is the only person suspecting us”
“Well, George is the other person. You remember we discovered he was investigating the case?” Morris answered calmly. He believed he had everything under control. As long as he puts that ‘detective’ lady under his control, everything would be fine. “We have sorted him out. I told Patricia to warn and threaten him and she did that.”
Judith paused in front of him, resting her hands on her waist. “Do you actually believe that he has stopped investigating the case? Just like that?”
“Well, he listens to his mother ab-”
“Morris!” Judith yelled, getting frustrated by his calmness about a serious issue like this. “George has never listened to you or his mother about anything concerning Rachel, you should be aware of that by now! You said it yourself, that the first time George raised his voice at you was because of that lady, Rachel. Can’t you see that he is a different person whenever she is involved?”
Morris stared at her as his eyes widened in understanding. “Ar-are you saying that George is in love with Rachel?”
Judith rolled her eyes “How come you’re just realizing that now? Is it only business related things that you think about? The point is George will not stop investigating the case, so what will you do about it?”
Morris sighed “I have told Raymond to keep an eye on him. I’ll watch the next step he takes and decide how to deal with him.”
“What about the detective? What is your plan?”
“Raymond has sent men to keep an eye on her. If he notices anything strange about her, he will let me know” Morris exhaled in frustration. So many ‘new’ obstacles were suddenly rising, it was getting on his nerves. “Something about that detective rubs me the wrong way. I know a smart detective when I see one”
“You also need to deal with Rachel. She is the cause of all these new problems we have to deal with right now.” Judith seethed in anger. “If not for her, that annoying detective would not show up here. If not for her, George would still be your well-behaved son! She is the cause of everything”
“Don’t worry about her…” Morris responded firmly “I know what to do to her. Besides, she only has five months left for their one year marriage contract. I’ll make sure she is not able to stay beyond that timeline”
Even as they talked on about the different things they had to sort, Morris couldn’t ignore the sudden nudge in his guts that something was wrong. He needed to get ready for what was coming and quickly put an end to whoever was trying to ruin him.
He was no longer the ‘old’ Morris who was scared to commit murder in the past. Right now, he was ready to kill anybody as long as he got what he wanted. In the midst of everything, he realized he had to hurry up and get rid of his opponents.
Morris realized that time was no longer on his side. His opponents were coming after him quickly and in order to crush them, he had to be two steps ahead.