Read with BonusRead with Bonus

Chapter 3

“Get all your stuffs ready, tomorrow Alfred will pick you up. You will finish your final semester coming from your father’s house.”

“No, please don’t let me go back there. They… please brother… I beg…” Bella wanted to cry right now, she didn’t want to go back to that house where she would be bounded by rules and regulations.

“It’s either that or I inform them about your drug dealings and also your partying.”

“… Please I beg you.”

“Get out of my car.”

“Please,” Bella pleaded. “I won’t do it again, I will be good, I promise.”

“Get out of my car, don’t let me say it again.”

Bella stared at him hoping he would change his mind, but she knew it wasn’t possible. He had made up his mind on what he wanted to do before he got here. She didn’t know how to convince him not to let her go to their family house. She didn’t want to upset him further and decided to get out of the car.

She could probably call him later on in the day, when he wasn’t angry anymore to plead with him, she knew if she disobeyed him, there would be grave consequences.

Has she stepped out of the car, the car zoomed off immediately. Bella walked back into her apartment as she saw Emily coming out of the kitchen, with two cup of tea. She handed one to Bella.

“Who was that?” Emily had tried to go back to sleep but she couldn’t, she had entered the kitchen instead to make some tea for the hangover.

“It’s nothing,” Bella didn’t want to inform Emily of her family issues, she knew how sensitive Emily was to issues of money.

“Are you sure? Your eyes looks…” Emily couldn’t tell if it was the hangover or the fact that she had been crying.

“Am fine, I will take a quick shower.”

“I need one too,” Emily said sipping her tea and dropping her cup on the table. Bella entered the bathroom alongside Emily, there were moments like this when they showered together. Bella had a sister but Emily was more of a sister to her than her biological sister, Janet.

Emily loved her, cared for her and was always there for her.


After Emily was done in Bella’s house, she had decided to go to her office to ask for a loan, today was her off day so she was glad, she noticed Bella seemed off after her conversation with that young man, she wondered what they had talked about, but Bella wasn’t ready to share and she didn’t want to force her either.

“Is Mark around?” Emily asked his secretary.

“Yes he is inside, I thought today was your off day.”

“It is, I came to ask for a favor from him.”

“Money?”

“Kind of,” Emily confessed, it wasn’t a new thing for her to ask for a loan, it wasn’t common in the office but Emily always paid back and with interest.

“Well, knock before you go in. he is having a discussion with someone.”

“Alright, thank you so much.” Emily appreciated, she knocked on the door three times and waited till she heard Mark’s voice for her to come in. on getting in she saw he was discussing with someone.

“Emily, I thought I gave you today as your…”

“I am actually here to see you,” out of shame she could have waited outside till he was done, but every second her mother seemed to be calling her phone, she just had to get the money and go and give it to her on time.

Mark stared at her and got the memo, he didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable.

“Oh right, I remember, let me have my secretary work on it. Wait for me outside okay?”

“Thank you,” Emily bowed. She looked at the man Mark was talking to and realized that the person was the same person that came here to see Bella earlier. Did he work here? She nodded at him and walked out.

“Does she work here?” Leonard finally spoke when Emily had left.

“Yes Sir.” Mark replied.

“What does she do?”

“She sketches, you know most designers here can’t draw much, they usually have the idea but can’t put it down on paper, so she sketches down their ideas and she takes shift being my secretary.”

“How well is this her sketches?”

“She is very good at it, I even question why she isn’t a designer herself… I should have one of her works here.” Mark said opening his drawers looking for something as he brought out a sketch book, he handed it to Leonard.

Leonard collected it and went through it with a blank expression, Mark couldn’t tell if he loved it or not, his boss was a really hard man to understand.

“So you give out my money for this?”

Of course, Leonard had figured out their little conversation was about a loan.

“She pays back with interest,” Mark explained, he didn’t want Emily getting fired. She was really good at her job.

“And how does she pay back and also with interest?”

“She works at two other places… she is a really hard working girl Sir.”

“As regards our discussion, if I do not see fresh new designs soon, I will be forced to close this branch.”

“Don’t worry Sir, I will do my best.”

Leonard stood up as Mark followed behind, they walked out of his office and talked about in low voice, they shook hands and Leonard walked away.

“Hello,” Leonard heard has he was stepping out of the office.

“My name is Emily, we met earlier in the day.”

“Oh right, the bimbo.”

Emily couldn’t believe he actually just called out that, yes she admit she was not looking her best earlier in the day but she wasn’t a bimbo. She had waited outside of the office so she could talk to him about Bella, she figured he was one of those rich people who were rude.

“I am not a bimbo, are you a friend to Bella. Since you left she has been down, is everything okay?”

“What sort of stupid question is that? You mean you stopped me to waste my time.”

“I stopped you because I was worried about my friend,” Emily explained.

“And what if I told you everything wasn’t alright, what will you do then?”

“I will…”

“Emily,” Mark called out coming outside, he had asked his secretary where she had gone to. Did Leonard call her aside? “You are still here Sir.” He got a look from Leonard secretly, “I mean Leonard.”

“Yes I am, this lady was just having a conversation with me. Does she work here?”

“Yes Leonard.”

“Well I guess as a designer under you, I will be reporting to her.”

“Yes,” Mark said as Leonard nodded. He entered his back of the car as the car zoomed off.

“He works here?” Emily was perplexed, how could he work here? He looked well dressed to work here or was that just his dress sense.

“Yes, he works at the headquarter and reports to me any news from the boss,” Mark explained, he didn’t know why Leonard didn’t want him to tell her that he was the owner of the company, well no one really knew that fact, Mark had lied a lot of times to different people about Leonard identity.

When the lie started getting mixed up, he concluded on a story and had to stick to that story.

“Do you know him?”

“Not really,” Emily said.

“Alright, well let’s go inside so I can give you the money.”

“Thank you so much, Mark.” Emily smiled following him as they went inside.

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter