Chapter 264 – Beginning with a Daring Encounter

Benne sipped from his glass of wine as he watched Mr. Wyatt who was seated opposite him. He knew that his call must have come as a surprise to the man since they had no business together, and the last time they had met, their interaction had not been exactly pleasant.

“Are we going to sit here drinking wine all day?” Mr. Wyatt asked in an irritated tone.

“Why? Are you in a hurry to go somewhere?” Benne asked, and the elderly man glared at him.

“I see you don’t have anything to say,” he said as he pushed his seat away from the table.

“Let me guess, you’re in a hurry to meet your doctor’s appointment? Or are you going to Club Edge?” Benne asked, and the man’s heart skipped a beat as he looked at him in surprise and adjusted his seat.

How did he know he frequented Club Edge? Mr. Wyatt wondered as he shifted in his seat uncomfortably, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mr. Wyatt murmured, but didn’t meet Benne’s piercing gaze.

Benne dropped the glass of wine on the table, “Perhaps you need me to simplify things using pictures,” Benne said as he slid a brown envelope from his end of the table to Mr. Wyatt’s, “These should tell you what I’m talking about,” Benne said as he gestured to him with his head to check the content of the envelope.

Mr. Wyatt’s forehead was suddenly coated with beads of sweat, and his hands shook as he reached for the envelope. He opened it slowly, and his face paled when he saw different pictures of himself seated on a gambling table at Club Edge, and in one of the pictures he was handing over his car key to someone on the gambling table. Inside the envelope was a slip of his latest medical fitness result which showed that his only health condition was his high blood pressure.

“Why are you doing this? What do you want?” He asked without taking his eyes off the pictures.

“What do you know about the news circulating the internet regarding my personal assistant?” Benne asked, and Mr. Wyatt raised his head to meet Benne’s gaze.

“Why are you asking me that?” He asked in confusion.

“Because if you don’t tell me what I want to know, I will go straight to your sister and your niece and confront them myself. The only problem with that is that I don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep everything I know away from your sister. Your sister doesn’t know that you lied about your health, does she? Or maybe I should just hand this information over to someone reliable to post them on the internet?” Benne asked, and Mr. Wyatt took out his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the sweat on his forehead.

Seeing the hesitation on his face, Benne went on, “I wonder what she would do to you when she finds out that you sold the airline which you both inherited from your parents just to take care of your gambling mess,” Benne said with a shake of his head.

“I have nothing to do with your assistant’s problem,” Mr. Wyatt said defensively.

“But you know who is behind it, don’t you? I just need you to tell me if either your sister or your niece is involved. That is the only thing I’m interested in,” Benne said with a shrug. All he needed at this point was confirmation of Anita’s involvement in this, and from a reliable source too.

Mr. Wyatt swallowed nervously as he thought about his sister. She was going to kill him if she found out that he was still very much into gambling and had sold the airline because he was in debt and not because he was ill. He couldn’t let her find out about it else she would take whatever little he had left from him, and kick him out.

Benne sighed, “I guess you really don’t know. I should ask them myself then,” he said as he stood up, and Mr. Wyatt quickly stopped him.

“I think Anita is behind it,” he blurted out with his eyes closed, praying that both his sister and niece would forgive him for betraying them. Although he would rather betray them and not have someone like Benne in the family.

Satisfied by his response, Benne returned to his seat and looked at him curiously, “How so?”

Mr. Wyatt swallowed as he recalled how his oldest niece had called his sister in front of him to inform her that the CEO whom Anita was interested in was also interested in his personal assistant and pretending to be her driver. His sister had immediately called Anita to hear from her, and Anita had assured her that she had everything under control, and she had something up her sleeves, and once she revealed a secret she knew, Celsie would be forced to disappear from Benne’s life.

“She found out that you were pretending to be your assistant’s driver, and wanted to get rid of her so that she could have you,” Mr. Wyatt explained.

“So she knows my real identity,” Benne murmured more to himself than to Mr. Wyatt. He wasn’t surprised since he had been suspecting it all along.. Now that he knew for a fact that it was Anita behind it, he was just going to focus on clearing Celsie’s name first, before teaching Anita a lesson.

“Are you sure you will be fine? I mean you only just agreed to see a therapist after all these years, and all of a sudden you want to talk in front of the camera to people that don’t care about you?” Celsie’s mother asked in concern after Celsie finished sharing her plan with them.

“I’m not seventeen anymore, mom. I already told you I can handle this. I will be okay,” Celsie assured her with a smile.

This was something she knew that she needed to do to eventually be free from the past, else it was going to keep coming back up in the future, and she couldn’t deal with that. If she could talk to a therapist about it, then she could as well talk to the camera. If anything happened to her while filming it, at least the viewers would see firsthand the effect of their careless words.

“Don’t worry, I will do it with her, so she will be fine,” Sonia assured Celsie’s mother, and she turned to Sonia.

“What about you? Will you be alright? They’re still your family after all,” Celsie’s mother asked with a concerned frown.

“Sure. I’m okay,” Sonia said with a small smile, feeling somewhat grateful that they were also thinking of her wellbeing.

“How are you doing today? You weren’t really yourself yesterday, and we didn’t want to bother you because we were aware of your breakup with the actor,” Celsie’s father said, and Sonia’s smile widened.

“You don’t have to worry. We have reconciled, so I’m okay,” Sonia assured him, and his face fell.

“Ouch! Here I was thinking he was out of the picture and you could focus on me again,” he said with a teasing grin, making them laugh.

“Well, I’m glad you worked things out and you’re both back together now. I was really worried about you. You know, being Celsie’s best friend you would always have reasons to run into him if she ends up marrying his brother…”

“I never said I was getting married to him,” Celsie said with a roll of her eyes, feeling embarrassed that everyone kept speaking about her relationship with Benne with regards to marriage when they had barely dated for a week.

“Well, you will. I won’t let you throw away a man who loves you the way Benne does. Can you believe that both brothers were out all night trying to find who posted the stuff on the internet? And even now he is out there trying to get evidence,” Sonia told Lucas.

“That’s pretty impressive. Both brothers must really love you both a lot to want to be involved in all this regardless of how it must be affecting them personally,” Lucas who had remained quiet the whole time said thoughtfully.

He couldn’t help thinking about how Rachel who was his fiancee was busy asking him not to get involved in his family’s mess, while these men whose reputations meant a great deal to them were busy sticking out their neck for his sister and Sonia. It kind of said a lot about the kind of person Rachel was, and about his relationship with her.

Celsie looked at Lucas, and their eyes met. She didn’t need him to speak further to know what he was thinking, “I guess different people love differently,” Celsie said, trying to ease his mind, and the doorbell rang at the same time.

“I will see who is at the door,” Celsie told them as she picked up her glasses from her dressing table, and put them on before walking out of the bedroom to the living room. It was past noon already, and she was still dressed in her pyjamas, and she honestly didn’t mind.

“Isn’t it beautiful how they both got involved with two brothers? I still have a hard time believing it was all coincidence,” Celsie’s mother said to her husband.

“Have I told you that I met their parents at the hospital?” Lucas asked, surprising their parents and Sonia who weren’t aware of it.

“You mean she was trying to hook you up with Jade?” Sonia asked with a peal of amused laughter as they listened to Lucas narrate all about his session with the Delgado couple.

“It’s a good thing you invited them to your wedding! I can’t wait to meet the wonderful couple who raised such wonderful men for my girls,” Celsie’s mother said happily as she imagined both Celsie and Sonia walking down the aisle on the same day while she stands as the mother of both brides. She did not doubt that their wedding would be grand.

---