Rachel squatted in front of George and she pushed his feet into his shoes. She was so happy to see him awake and finally back to normal. For some reason, she had been worried that his treatment wouldn’t work but looking at him now, she was pleased with how everything turned out.
George sat down quietly and watched as Rachel fixed his shoes and cufflinks. Was she acting kind to him just because she pitied him for this moment or because she really cared about him? He would never know…
Personally, he didn’t feel like seeing anybody. He just wanted to hide away for the rest of his life, so he never came in contact with the terrible people around him. That didn’t make any sense at all at this moment but that was how he felt.
Rachel rose to her feet and looked at him “You’re all set now. Your mother must be waiting. How do you feel now?”
“I feel okay” He mumbled dryly “Resting for three days paid off”
Rachel gazed at him for a moment. He seemed distant. She shook her head, pushing away the thoughts in her mind. “Let’s get going then. She’s waiting”
~~~~*~~~~
“It’s good to see you doing fine, George” Patricia patted his shoulders and smiled. If anything bad happened to her son, she wouldn’t be able to survive. Turning towards Rachel, she said “Thank you for your help through all this”
George nodded and returned her smile. He rested against his chair and asked “What did you want to tell us? Where did all of this start from?”
“It was years before you were born…” Patricia closed the laptop in front of her and pushed it aside.
“… Morris was the personal driver for my family. I know what I am about to say next is not what you would expect but my parents were very mean people, very hostile. Even as a young girl back then, I noticed they treated people differently. If they considered you as someone beneath them, you would be treated like trash. Even though I knew that their actions was wrong, there was nothing I could do about it”
She continued. “They would harass, insult and hit Morris occasionally. In other words, they made his life miserable in any way they could. In their minds, he was a mere driver and way below them. My parents had serious character problems. Morris worked with them for some years and during that time, my naive young self fell in love with him….”
“… Born in an extremely wealthy family, all I had ever known were egoistic bachelors and old perverts who thought they were better than everybody else. All the men acted the same way and I wanted something different, a way of escape from my loveless and mean family. I was desperate for help and thought that Morris could be the one. Now that I think about it, I fell for his calmness and smile. I thought he had such a great character, I thought he was different from every other man I had been introduced to…”
Patricia paused and chuckled. “… I didn’t know that his smile was fake and his calmness was a pretentious mask. I didn’t know that he was just waiting for a good time to strike. I noticed on so many occasions he would meet with Judith and they would talk and laugh. I didn’t take it as anything, I assumed they were just close friends. Now, it all makes sense…”
“… As time went by, Morris noticed I was blindly in love with him and wanted to escape from my family. He took advantage of my desperation and started acting like he was in love with me too. Also, back then, the news spread out that I was going to inherit a multimillion dollar company from my parents. He probably heard of the news because that was when his ‘fake’ love for me intensified…”
“… He suddenly proposed to me and I foolishly agreed. I was so happy that my dreams of escape were becoming real. My parents refused, they probably knew about Morris’s real intention. I treated Morris so well, I gave him anything and everything he wanted. He clearly had me wrapped around his finger. I already knew that my parents were terrible people, so I wanted to make sure I showed him I was different….”
Rachel who was listening, wiped away the tear that slid down her cheek. Her uncomfortable family made her jump into an uncomfortable marriage.
“… I always treated him well, I made sure he was always comfortable. My parents actually disowned me because I was adamant about marrying him. They still left the company in my name anyway. It was when we got married that I started noticing that Morris didn’t love me but I was naive so I thought I had to prove myself to him. Even when I gave birth, he didn’t really come around our baby. It broke my heart so much”
Patricia’s eyes became misty as she talked on “… I did everything I could to make him love me, to show him I was different from my parents but I guess his heart was already filled with revenge and bitterness. He already grouped me and my parents as ‘one’ in his heart. Despite everything I did, he showed up a few years later with a pregnant woman who turned out to be my own maid. I will never forget that day….”
“… I don’t even know what I was thinking by allowing her to stay in this villa because it only made her greedy for more. More of what belonged to me. A year after I gave birth, Morris begged me to put my company in his hands, he tricked me by using George as a tool to get to me. In his words, everything he was doing was for his son. I was desperate to please him so I agreed….”
“Was that when Arthur Reeves came into the picture?” George asked after listening quietly from the beginning.
“No, it was about nine years later. I signed a contract telling him I would put the company in his hands for ten years and if he did a good job, I would hand it over to him. I really thought he was doing it for our family. Within nine years, he almost collapsed everything my parents worked for. It was during the ninth year I told Morris that he had just one year left. I really wanted to help him because he looked so depressed so I recommended a top marketing expert I had been hearing about to him. That was Arthur Reeves….”
“… If I had known what Morris was up to, I never would have recommended him in the first place. Your father would have been safe and free. If I had known from the beginning that Morris was focused on his revenge against my family, a lot of mistakes would have been avoided.”
Patricia turned to Rachel and held her hands “I never knew that recommending your father to Morris would ruin his life. There is no day that passes without me regretting my action.”
“It’s alright, Mrs Patricia. It has already happened” Rachel replied as she patted her hands. “What we need to do is figure out where to go from here. Do you have a plan?”
“What has been on your mind lately?” George asked “How do you plan to get back at him?”
Patricia sighed. “It might not be what both of you expect of me but right now, I don’t care. I have made up my mind. I am looking for ways to get my company back from Morris’s hands. Since he has decided to turn against me and our written contract years ago, then it’s time for me to go against him too.”
George glanced at his mother “Mom, that’s too dangerous an-”
“Do you expect me to sit back and watch him hand over the company to Judith and her son after everything they have done to us? Is that what you want?”
“That’s not what I mean…” George reached for his mother’s hand.
With the way things were, he didn’t have the strength to lose anybody dear to him, especially not his mom.
“… Everything Morris has done so far was to protect his precious company. He didn’t just put Arthur Reeves in prison, he even covered up Judith’s plot to kill me. He tried to kidnap and probably harm Rachel’s friend. Imagine what he would do to you if he finds out that you’re pursuing ways to get the company back in your name. He is obsessed with wealth and power and being in charge of this company gives him those things. Don’t do it Mom, we’ll find another way.”
“What George said is true, Mrs Patricia. We need to focus on protecting ourselves first. There’s no use in winning the court case against Morris and losing our lives in the process. It’s of no use” Rachel answered
“That’s understandable. What the both of you said makes sense” Patricia replied.
Little did they know that she had made up her mind to do what she wanted. She already had a lawyer waiting to see her two days later.
Patricia was drowning in deep guilt. She believed she was the cause of everything that had happened from the beginning. Everything started when she married Morris.
It was all her fault and she would pay for it.