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Chapter 9

Jayden

I arrived home with Brian after we dropped off Sierra at her apartment. Yes I am glad that I know where she stays but I am puzzled at her behavior.

I feel like everything was okay until the last few moments when she spaced out. I don’t think I said anything hurtful. I sighed and headed to my room. As usual the housekeepers had cleaned my room making sure not to disturb anything.

A quick shower will help me focus and refresh my body and mind. I got out of my suit and put them in the laundry chute on the far side of the wall. My bathing robe had been switched out for a clean set, one was hanging beside the door to the shower.

I looked longingly at the bathtub. A long bath would do good but in the end I settled for the shower. One of the perks of having money is hot water throughout the day. I turned on the faucet and steaming hot water hit my body.

After my shower I headed to Brian’s room to tuck him in. On school days he had early nights, that wasn’t a debate. Well unless he had sleepovers at his friend’s places.

“I like her,” I was surprised as I kissed his forehead.

“Like who?” I pretended not to know.

He chuckled and looked in my eyes, “Sierra, dad. She is funny and interesting to talk to.”

I smiled back at him and nodded, “She is isn’t she? Well buddy you better sleep, I have a busy day tomorrow. I will come home very late.”

“Goodnight dad,” Brian said, closing his eyes. I got up and headed to the doorway, closing the door behind me. I made a mental note to remind David to take him directly home. I walked down the stairs doing a quick check on the door and windows. It was more of a habit rather than checking to see if the housekeepers had missed one.

I opened the fridge looking for something to snack on and finally settled for the homemade pickles. I wrote a note and stuck it on the fridge. Maria was to call the saucier, butcher and prep cooks to restock my ingredients. I looked at the drinks section and added barista to the list. I shut the fridge, rinsed my fingers and put on the alarm. With that done I went up the stairs passing Brian’s room. The kid was fast asleep.

As I got in bed a few thoughts raced through my head. The first one was about Brian. As much as my mother had reassured me that he was okay I felt like I wasn’t doing my best. If only Hildie was here.

The two of them had been very close and I often joked that Brian was stealing my wife from me. He was a very beautiful baby having taken Hildie’s eyes and face structure. I had rarely heard Brian cry as a toddler except for the few times he was hungry.

Brian was like a shining light that we both didn’t know we needed. If our love was strong, with Brian it felt bonded with industrial superglue. His laughter running throughout the house, Hildie singing to him, the background baby music in his room all those, the smell of baby powder, his light yet strong baby grip all added to the experiences we both had.

Nowadays though he wasn’t as jovial as a kid. Mother had chalked it up to him about to transition into his teenage years and no mistake of mine. She reminded me of how I changed my demeanor when I became a teenager. So I should stop worrying that I wasn’t there for him as he wasn’t lonely.

That was true as the house was usually full of people from David the driver who lived at the staff residence nearby to the three housekeepers and the four groundsmen. In total other than Brian and I, there were about ten other humans in the compound with us; yet I felt lonely.

Which led me to the next carriage in my train of thoughts.

I remembered how I had been raised up though it was no fault of my parents. My father had been a regular man working long hours to support his family of four. However, things weren’t rosy for us and it put pressure on dad to the point that he started drinking.

Fortunately, dad never got tired but things would have spiraled out of control hadn’t mother stepped in and taken a job. My maternal grandparents were still alive at that time but they had never approved of the marriage between my parents.

They were very wealthy too but they never stepped in to help us. Of course as a child I never knew this, it was only when I became an adult was the truth told to me. By then they had already gone to the afterlife, so my mum deemed it safe to let me know. In her words “it is hard to hate a dead person”.

My paternal grandparents were more involved in my life and they were the ones who raised my sister and me when both parents were working full time. I was born just before things went downhill for us so I never really experienced a proper parent-child relationship like my sister who is ten years older.

When I got the inheritance I vowed never to be broke. They had left their house to my sister and I. We both wanted our parents to move into it but they stubbornly refused so it became my house until the time I made my first million.

Hildie was very supportive of me from the moment we started dating. She was very down to earth though at that time she had a very wealthy background. Her parents were very supportive of us from the moment we started dating.

Hildie had chuckled when I told her how sacred that they wouldn’t approve of us. She had confided in me that of the few boys she had tried to date, none had passed her parental test yet I had scored a clean pass with them. I hadn’t even known that I was being tested.

Later on, I found out that they had done a background check on me. By that I mean only me, not my parents. My academic and personal life had been searched through with a fine-tooth comb. Her parents had told me this in person on the day I had proposed to Hildie.

Life with Hildie had been a tsunami of love, passion , lust and finally parenting. Her parents had given us a generous wedding gift that had enabled me to invest and finally started making my first millions. In our first year of marriage, we were finally millionaires.

At Hildie’s request and urging I bought a house for my parents and had them move into it. With my parent’s housing situation sorted I focused on providing for us. I was always busy but I made it a routine to be home by six pm in the evening on a daily basis. I made sure to be there for Brian every night.

Everything had been rosy until seven years ago when Brian was five. Hildie had a car accident.

After her loss, I became buried in my work doing my best to fight the loneliness and grief of losing my high school lover. But I never forgot looking after Brian. My sister Janie always made sure to be there for both of us and I was really grateful. My brother-in-law was also very understanding and he occasionally dropped by either the office or home to check up on me.

When Brian turned nine, I tried to get into dating. By then I had moved up the ranks and was close to hitting the billionaire ceiling. I found out that most of the people I met were just interested in the wealth and prestige of dating me. None were in it for love and it really hurt.

I realized that the dating pool for my class was really just a small shrinking puddle on a hot summer day. I did meet someone who wasn’t interested in money and she would have passed had she shown interest in Brian at least.

Our subsequent talks I found out that she was a childfree lady by choice. She was also my age at that time. She did know I had a child from the very beginning but as we dated for the short while I realized that it would never work out between us and we parted amicably.

I thought that chapter was closed until I literally bumped into Sierra.

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