***The next day, Aliyah was beside herself with anxiety. She had gone to bed wanting to hopefully and magically forget the whole chain of events when she woke up. That would have been convenient for her, but things never worked that way for anyone in the real world. It was like an irrevocable moment, a stain on her psyche, that only time could wipe up. She recalled Ben's reply when she sought his forgiveness and the thought of it unsettled her, sending shivers down her spine, she had no idea just what he had in mind for her. Just when she thought he was beginning to go easy on her, unknown to her he still had things on his mind— far from forgiving her actions. The past was one thing, and forgetting it is another, but Ben didn't seem like he cared about either of them— At least that was what she thought, up until he said those words about making her suffer. He wanted to make her life miserable, and he was making it clear to her.The wounded man earlier, from what she could gather,
Aliya lay cocooned on her bed, turning to the other side as she felt a sharp ache in her neck. Her eyes fluttered open as the sunlight beamed into her room. With a yawn, she stood up and walked into the bathroom. Turning the faucet on, she splashed a considerable amount of water on her face to wade off the grogginess in her eyes. After finishing her business in the bathroom, she stepped out, brushing her hair before using a hair tie to pack it into a bun. Her gaze darted to the clock and she saw it was still as early as 6. She finished up from the room and was about to step outside when the door was suddenly knocked on, before she could answer it, the door was opened and Aliyah didn't need anyone to tell her that it was certainly Ben. "Good morning," Aliyah said as her gaze fell on the brooding young man who stood by her door with an annoyed expression. Her eyes trailed up, and he was looking down at her with both his hands in his pockets. "You have something t
As Ben came into view, there seemed to be a glimmer in the old man's eyes. "It's barely been 3 days since I last saw you and you seem to miss me already," Ben said as he stepped closer to his Grandfather. Mr. Vawn scoffed."Don't flatter yourself, boy, I had nothing doing so I thought I might as well come visit you." The old man said as they walked side by side, down the hallway. "You say that, but your being here right now proves it" He smirked at the old man. The walk from his door to the living room seemed to last a lifetime. And it bothered Mr. Vawn. "Was it always this far away? Why do I have to take such a long walk before getting to your living room""Are your old bones giving out on you already? We are almost there, see?" he said, gesturing his hand along the space of the living room as he entered. ”Where is Aliyah? I trust you informed her that I'll be coming by today.”"Yeah she is a bit occupied at the moment but you'll see her.""Okay then."They spoke for a while in t
The elderly man shook his head as he gnashed down on the morsel of food and Aliyah couldn't tell if that was a positive sign or not. She gulped down the lump that was forming in her throat. The suspense was killing her. "Mmmm.. This is good, I didn't think you'd be such a wonderful cook," He smirked at her, after ingesting the chunk of food, as his cutlery danced on the plant of food. As soon as she heard those words a bright smile seized her face, lightening up the entire room. Ben seemed to be staring at her but Aliyah didn't even seem to care about him at this moment, deposited the fact that it was his own judgment which could determine if she had a good day or not. Still in the middle of chewing, Mr. Vawn took another spoonful to his mouth and there was no other way to see that he meant those words but that. It was clear as daylight that he was enjoying the meal. Aliyah felt like she had won the lottery or a million bucks having him compliment her this much over the meal. She
Ben walked to the study hastily after having spoken to her out of anger, he was going to have time to give her an earful later but now he had a seemingly more pressing conversation to have with his Grandfather. He could pretty much tell why his Grandfather was here, but there was no need to jump to conclusions, he'd hear personally what he had to say soon. Just as he entered the room, he halted as he noticed the old man going through his shelf of numerous books.He turned quickly as he noticed Ben, and dangled a piece of literature in his hands."Ah, this used to be one of my favorites back in the day." The elderly man's hoarse voice echoed through the room, and a faint smug appeared on his face as he let his hands down, seemingly perusing through the crisp pages of the hardcover. "I noticed your books are re-arranged alphabetically, that's an odd way to organize books, That's this many."Ben's mind flashed back to the incident, "Yeah I only had it done recently." Wondering why the
"I can't believe how he ruined everything for us. All the board members backed out of the meeting last minute. That bastard cousin of ours, does he think we are going to allow him to keep hugging the whole damn company for himself?" Mark said as he paced angrily around the room, his fist tightened and he bumped it heavily into the table with a curse. Panting heavily from the heat of the situation,"We are going to have to find another way to force his hand about this. If we do not do something about his influence, he is going to ruin us and leave nothing for us at all.""You need to be careful about this Mark, we still don't know how he orchestrated all those things 5 years ago, if you force his hand you might just end up in a ditch somewhere like Dad, he's shown us just how dangerous and scheming he is and we just have to find a way to match him," another man said from across the room. He wore a calm expression as he closed his eyes and took a seat in the swivel chair. Weariness to
Alexander stepped out of the building, leaving his cousins behind. He picked out his phone from his pocket, and checked the time, seeing that it was almost time, he ruffled his hair and strode to his car which was parked by the road. Stepping inside, he dialed a number before gearing the car on and driving past the City's Highway. A subtle ring from his phone diverted his attention as he checked who the caller was, a frown crept on his face but was quickly replaced by a smile when he answered the call. "Hi, Dad." "How was it?" a firm voice asked from the other end of the call, Alexander gripped the steering wheel and then answered. "It was okay. It went well. We heard a few conversations and are working on a straight line for better results," he said, glancing out the window for a brief moment before looking ahead of him. "That's good to hear and all I wanted to know. I have some business to do now, let's talk more another time," before Alex could answer, the call ende
Aliyah was feeling really good about herself but something about Ben's look from earlier unsettled her, she decided she was going to wait till evening, when she had a chance to face him, maybe by then he'd have cooled off, but he was never around. Waiting in the living room, her mind wandered far and back as she thought about where he had gone off to. Maybe he was somewhere out there clobbering someone to death, she shook off the thought as it would only bring forth memories she had been trying hard to keep locked away in her mind. If she continued to think about all that it would be the same as playing directly into Ben's hands, since he relished in the thought that she was deeply scared of him. Her thoughts drifted back to his Grandfather's receptiveness toward her. If Aliyah played her cards right, The opportunity she could gain from gaining his grandfather's affection would be endless but that was something she could only start exploring when she would finally be seeing him arou