Chapter 128: Chapter 128

Geneva stirred awake that morning. She stretched out her arms up over her head and smiled. That was a rare sight for her husband, Alex. He was propped up and seated by the bed headstand, reading the morning’s newspaper.

She turned her head sideways to her husband, who put down the paper and gave her his undivided attention.

"That’s quite refreshing to be greeted with this wide smile this early,"

"Mmmmm, that’s because I had quite a good sleep."

"How long have you be-?" Geneva paused whatever question she had been about to ask as she also sat up, resting her head on the same headstand.

She thought long and hard, especially as it was already daybreak, and then it clicked.

"Why are you still here, Alex? You said that there was a major meeting that you had to attend today. Don’t you usually leave early in the morning before daybreak for such meetings?"

Instead of responding directly to the question, Alex smiled. He waited a little too long by Geneva’s standards before he said,

"Why should I go when my son wi-"

"Son? Which son? Are you leaving the meeting to that good-for-nothing Brad?"

Alex shook his head and continued his statement just as it all clicked into place for Geneva as well.

"... as I was saying, my son with the Midas touch hands is here.... So, my retirement starts from today!"

"OMG! How could I have forgotten that Ian-"

Geneva sent a frantic look to her husband.

"Pinch me! Was he really out yesterday? What if it was only for yesterday and no-"

Geneva did not complete her words. She shot out of her bed and towards the door.

"Are you going out like that?" Alex called out, making Geneva pause.

"Like what?" She had no idea what her husband was referring to, especially from her puzzled look.

Alex gestured towards her attire, ".... In your nightwear and barefooted?"

That’s when she realized it. She shot towards her walk-in wardrobe and grabbed a thick morning overcoat, slipped into her bedroom slippers, and was out of the door in under thirty seconds.

Alex settled back in bed, already used to his wife’s gimmicks. He continued flipping to the next page of the newspaper. The first article that caught his eye was about James Wendover’s arrest. He only skimmed over the article as he went over the previous days’ proceedings in his head.

"It doesn’t make much sense, no matter how I think about it!"

He muttered to himself, feeling nothing for the man who had dug the hole for himself. It would have been either Ian behind bars or James. Frankly, Alex preferred his son where he was and outside the prison cells, no matter what he had done. Looking at the charges being levelled against James, Alex tsk and smirked.

"Who would have thought that behind that innocent mask, he was also the biggest drug dealer? A typical case of the pot calling the kettle black!" He quickly skimmed over it and went to the Business & Financial section.

That was what interested him the most. However, at the back of Alex’s mind, he wondered how Ian had been able to pull out all that evidence and hand it to the police. Ian seemed like one disconnected from the world for years, but it had taken him barely hours to get this done.

Alex never believed for once that the T-Vino Island Local Police Station were so effective and already had a file on James to have been able to pull it out on such short notice.

"Definitely, my son!"

He smiled; his wife had already been long forgotten. Geneva would do whatever she wanted, and he did not bother with her in her episodes like those.

Geneva almost half-run and half-walked towards the East Wing as fast as her old legs could carry her.

Despite her best efforts, it took her about ten minutes or even more to get there. She looked up at the door that had become a formidable fortress to them the past couple of years.

A couple of maids hovered behind Geneva, panting and out of breath. They had to try to keep up with the older woman. Despite Geneva’s advanced age of sixty-seven, she had still given them quite the workout that morning, but she broke no sweat.

Geneva turned the doorknob slightly, but of course, it was locked.

Geneva frowned. On the short trip there, she had gone through many scenarios in her head, but the most prominent was, ’Did my son really come out? Was it all a dream?’

Her hand lightly trembled as she took it back from the knob.

’Was it all really a dream?’

Then something ticked in her. "W-hy is this door locked again? Ian! Ian! Open up!"

She pounded on the door fiercely as if it was the last thing she had to do, and she had to do it right.

Just then, the door opposite her swung open.

It had been a few hours since that conversation that Rocky had had with his mother the night before, but he still felt as if he was in dreamland.

For the first time in a long time, he had spent the night at home and in the Wendover mansion. He had to be there to keep things together because he knew that his mother would just cry everything into a mess. However, at that moment, when Rocky lay on his bed with his eyes wide open, he did not want to think of anything.

Clara’s words kept re-echoing in his thoughts:

"None of this scathed her! Nothing happened to Shelby! Thank you for pointing this out, Rocky, but my daughter is still very much okay and way better off now. Isn’t she?"

"What are you saying, Mum?" Rocky had opened his eyes wide in shock. His eyebrows rose an inch higher than they were.

"How is sis okay? Do you know what could happen if Sis had met a man different from her current husband? How could you even say that, mum?"

"How is she not okay? She never even called home even once! If she was not settled in properly with a loving husband, would she be that cherished to the point that she forgot about her family?"

Clara rubbed her hands furiously over her eyes, cleaning off the remnants of the tears. It was not fazing her son, so why did she have to waste it?

"Didn’t I also have to get married to a man who took care of me? Shelby should be lucky enough that she got such a young and handsome man, and most importantly, she married into a very rich household! What could possibly go wrong with it? Shouldn’t she be thanking James instead?"

Rocky’s mouth dropped open.

"Didn’t you say that Shelby married the man that she liked? You were all happy on the phone for her. What changed?" Rocky’s voice fell at the end, his disappointment increasing with each word that fell out of his mother’s mouth.

"I just told you that your daughter was possibly sold, and you have this reaction? Mum! Just look at this contract! I know that you don’t get the words, but I already explained everything to you!"

Clara remembered that document from when she had visited James’ office and also from the night that Shelby had been married off. She remembered that, that looked like the document that James had taken from her grasp. However, she looked up at her son, and her eyes took on an interesting glint. She stated the next words slowly, each word at a time:

"Whatever James did to secure her that marriage was in her own best interest, and it worked out in the end... didn’t it? I trust James in this!" Clara whispered, adding, ".... Besides, that is not the issue at hand!"

Rocky gaped! It was as if a bolt of lightning had been passed through him.

He shrunk back from an automatic recoil. His level of disbelief was extremely surprising!

’Did mum really just say that? I heard that wrong, right? Or am I dreaming?’

He pinched his thigh really hard, but it remained the same. Rocky blocked out anything that his mother had said that night. He hardly remembered when he had walked out of the room and back to his own bed. He lay like that on the bed, without even knowing as time passed.

Rocky had no one to turn to. Even as the daylight streamed in, he still did not move. He still had a lot to do in regard to his father and the mess he had left, but Rocky could not help himself.

He immediately dismissed those thoughts.

’No, that would be a bad idea. She will be devastated if she hears about this. I should not let sis worry about these and add them to her burdens. I told her that I could handle everything, so I have to, but...’

At that time, Rocky had ceased to worry about his mother’s mental state. The same thing that had him cut the dinner short to come back home. ’When did mum change ?’

His mind went over to the one person who could soothe his emotions. He picked up his phone, ignoring the many missed calls from his friends and even the lawyer. He pressed speed dial number one, and Ava’s name popped up.

His hand trembled as the phone rang and rang...

Thank you so much to all for your votes and comments! I hope we can keep it up ^_^

Support the author by reading only on NovelHub :) ~Uploaded only on NovelHub by Loctovia ~