Chapter Seven

My decision to leave Lily in the care of that woman wasn’t easy but I knew I had to. I had no option. I I couldn’t bring her with me to London on such a short notice.

“Edward!” Lucas Dumas, a rich arrogant business minded son of a bitch. He has always been a major investor at Howard empire since the time of my father. I wonder why he wants to pull out now. This is definitely not a good time to lose any cash, not now that my father seemed to have increased pressure on me.

“Mr Dumas, good evening” I greeted stretching my hand towards him

“You’re late” he said

“I flew as soon as I could” I responded not wanting him to keep pestering me about being late. It’s just thirty minutes.

“Considering you had to come from New York, I will let it go this one time” he said, raising a glass of wine.

“That is nice of you Mr Dumas” I responded, taking a sip of the wine in front of me.

“So how is business Edward” he asked, with a sly smile.

“You said to discuss your reasons for wanting to pull out in person Mr Dumas” I said instead

****

Thirty minutes and I was done meeting with him, his concerns turned out to be a huge mistake from the company that I had no idea about.

Apparently the employees sent to his office made a huge blunder with numbers. Thankfully I was able to convince him to stay. I went straight to the company’s branch here in London to try and look over things as well as make corrections to the issue with Lucas Dumas.

“Good afternoon Mr Howard” the branch manager greeted me the moment I walked into his office.

“Tea or coffee sir?” He said when I didn’t return his greeting

“I didn’t hire you to serve coffee Gomez, what exactly is wrong with sales department?” i said in a calm but angry tone

“I’m so sorry sir, I just got notified about the mistake this morning” he said

“Gomez, what's your job around here?” I asked him in a dominating tone my father would always use.

“I’m working on fixing it sir…”

“Working on fixing it? Has an apology email been sent ?”

“Sir I …”

“Answer the damn question”

“No sir” he answered looking down.

“You have thirty minutes to send that email, meet with the Dumas representative in person and discuss the makeup term I discussed with Lucas Dumas”

“Yes sir”

“Keep your incompetence up and you’ll be out of this firm in no time” i warned,walking away from his office

“I will fix it right away sir” he called after me.

I took a look through every department analysis and was convinced nothing else was going unnecessarily bad. It was almost 7pm in the evening by the time I was done so I headed to my parents house.

My mother has been requesting to see me but I was too busy with work, plus I was avoiding my dad as much as possible, but now that work has brought me to London, I had to see her and my dad.

I let out a heavy sigh as the driver drove into my parent’s mansion, I had to face it. Whatever my dad has to say today won’t be getting to me, I will be more understanding and not get worked up.

I walked into the house after a mental preparation session. The housekeeper and other workers rained a bunch of ‘good evening sir Edward’, this made my presence known immediately, I could already hear my mom rush down the stairs.

“Edward!” She screamed stretching her arms towards me

“Good evening mom” I greeted as she wrapped her arms around me in her usual loving manner.

“You didn’t tell me you’ll be here today, I had to find out from your father” she said with a fake pout

“I didn’t even tell dad, because it wasn’t planned, I just had to take care of business with Mr Dumas” i explained

“Well, I asked Mary to make your favorite, come have dinner” I smiled as she led the way to the dinner table, she’s always been caring and loving.

The aroma of the already served dishes filled up my nostrils the minute I stepped into the dining area, suddenly reminding my stomach of its emptiness.

My dad joined us just as we sat to eat, walking down the stairs in his usual stern manner.

“Good evening dad” I greeted with a mouthful of tacos. But he only nodded to my greeting before sitting on his usual seat at the head of the table. My mom silently glared at him.

“What’s the issue with Lucas?” He asked the dreaded question halfway to the meal.

“It was just a misunderstanding” I answered

“Just a misunderstanding that made him want to pull out?” He asked sternly. Of course Lucas Dumas would have told him already, the threat to pull out was just to make me aware of the failures. They’re good friends after all.

“I fixed it already dad” I answered shortly

“The point is, it shouldn’t have happened”

“I’m sorry dad” seeing he was getting angry,I apologized

“Sorry do not make the luxury you enjoy Edward, do better”

“Dad it wasn’t even my fault, I can’t be in New York and calculate payments here at the same time, it was a mistake from the sales department and I’ve fixed it didn’t he tell you that?” I said angrily. I’ve been doing a great job running the companies but my efforts doesn’t seem to be enough since…..

“If you can’t handle simple management then…” he started but I was to suprised to let him finish his statement

“Simple?” I question with wide eyes, managing a multi-billion company in five different countries is no where near simple plus my job is more than just managing.

“It’s always been simple for your brother” my dad said , dropping his fork angrily and walked away.

“George!” Mom called after him with a shocked expression

“Don’t mind your dad son, he’s just having a bad day” she said before going after him.

He has not always been like this, he use to be a cool dad until the death of my brother. It broke him so much that he never recovered.

I try every time to keep my temper in check but my dad doesn’t know when to stop, but I won’t let him ruin my appetite tonight.

I was about to pick my fork back up when my phone lit up, I hissed.

Why does the universe seem to want to stop me from eating? Give me a fucking break!!

“What now, Arnold?” I said into the phone

“Hey chill, why are you so worked up man?” He queried

“I need a goddamn break, handle whatever it is”

“It’s important man” he pressed

“I don’t care!” I snorted

“Umh… I’m not sure you want me to…” he began in an unsure tone

“What is it?” I asked through gritted teeth

“It’s Lily”

“What? Is she okay? What’s happened to her” I almost yelled out, panic kicked in.

“She’s missing…”

“What?!”

“Alongside her nanny”

“What do you mean” I asked confused, it’s impossible for them to get lost at the mansion.

“Well technically, the nanny took her out without the bodies guards”

“How dare she??!” I roared angrily before ending the call and calling Katherine immediately.

“Where the hell did you take my niece Katherine!!” I screamed into the phone, my imagination popping out the sickest shits. What if she took to her a club, feeding her alcohol or sexually…..ahhhh

“Katherine!!!!” I yelled, frustrated when she didn’t respond

“Errm…. Lily and I just stepped out” she said like it’s some funny joke.

“What on earth are you doing to her?”

“What do you mean? She’s just here taking…”

“Taking what? Alcohol?” I yelled into the phone

“What the fuck?! Why would I give a child alcohol?”

“I can’t put it past a woman like you and if it’s a club you took my niece to I promise you will rot in prison”

“What?”

“And better make sure nobody touches her or you all will be dead!”

“How dare you?!” She yelled back before hanging up.

What the fuck? Who does she think she is?

Out of worry I ran out of the house without paying attention to my mother’s questions.

“Where to sir?” The driver questioned

“To the airfield, drive as fast as you can”

I answered him, pulled out my phone and called our personal pilot.

“Get the jet ready immediately!”