The Truth

"Mama!! Mama!!", the little girl screamed as she tugged at her mother's clothes. Andre was confused, he stood for a while, rooted to the spot as people had gathered outside the restaurant to see what was happening.

The little girl was still screaming and begging her mother to wake up.

" Boss, is she dead?", Margaret asked, her hands were shaky, and the horror of seeing what had happened was spelt clearly across her face as she stared in alternation between the still body of Jane Moss, the single mother she had just met and her boss, who was yet to decide what he was going to do.

"I don't think it's real, probably some lowlife trying to earn some quick bucks with the press here and all", Paul walked up to Andre to whisper in his ear, putting a hand over his mouth to ensure that the press didn't make a meal of him trying to protect his boss.

" What do I do now?"Andre responded, still shocked at how everything had unfolded.

"Carry her into the car and take her to the hospital, play the hero, you get your pictures and she gets herself checked, it's a win-win situation. I'll call your father.", Paul advised.

From what he told Andre and his composure, the young man could tell that this wasn't the manager's first rodeo and he also knew that if he wanted to get ahead of this, he needed to take the advice from somebody experienced.

Andre stooped down to carry the woman and as Paul had predicted, the cameras went crazy for him, lapping up the image he was trying to paint. Andre had no doubt in his heart that he'd be front page tomorrow for having knocked down this woman. His father had always told him that all press is good, even when it's bad, so it was something he'd be prepared to tolerate.

" Hold the kid" Andre whispered in Margaret's direction as the child had continued pulling on her mother's clothes while Andre tried to lift her and at a point had resorted to fighting and kicking Andre's legs. Margaret wrapped her hands around little Stephanie, she had only learnt the girl's name a little while ago from the girl's mother and now she was too sad to say it.

"Put her in the car Margaret, I'll take them to the hospital", Andre instructed as he strained himself to ensure he put the woman in the car as delicately as possible, there was no way of telling what had happened to her and he would prefer not to make the issue worse, even though he was inclined to believe Paul who had told him that this was a scam.

" Yes sir", Margaret responded as she opened the front seat and put the girl there. Andre did not wait a second more after putting the woman in the backseat. He jumped into the driver's seat and drove off, not paying much attention to the little girl who was yelling her face off beside him, he needed to get them to the hospital to be sure nothing serious had happened before reaching his conclusion.

He thought about his ring, his mother and the restaurant and bit his lip, today wasn't going to get any worse was it?

Margaret and Paul stood side by side as they watched their boss drive off. 

"You don't think he'd get in an accident, do you?", Paul asked with a shaky voice, his concern for his vehicle had begun the very moment that Andre had asked him for the keys and to this moment, it didn't look like he was sure enough that his car was in safe hands.

" You can't be serious, can you?", Margaret asked as she stared daggers at the man who had already turned around to head back to the restaurant in fear of Margaret's reaction.

Getting to the hospital did not take much time and as Andre parked the vehicle, he brought himself to turn to the side and look at the little girl who sat in the seat beside him, she hadn't let herself be quiet all through the ride.

"Let me go", she screamed.

" Mama!!!", she continued, trying to escape the hold of the seatbelts to reach the unconscious body of her mother lying in the backseat.

Several nurses had already started approaching the vehicle, a stretcher in tow, he had called ahead of time to inform them of the situation and for once, he was excited that they were prepared for his arrival.

"Take her too", he instructed as he pointed towards the screaming girl strapped to his car seat.

" Okay sir", the nurse in charge of the small delegation who had come to retrieve the mother said. They all knew who he was, he wondered whether it was really him or the fact that they knew his father. As the realization hit him, the scowl on his face deepened.

The little girl quietened as soon as she was released from the seatbelts and taken close to her mother, she looked back to frown at Andre momentarily before turning to face her mother as she was rolled into the hospital building.

Andre was at a conflict with himself, this felt like what Paul said, a scam to swindle him out of a settlement, but now that he had driven the woman and her child here, it didn't feel that way at all, he felt pity for the both of them.

"A pain in the ass, isn't she?"

"What?"

Andre had been joined by a sleazy-looking man and his companions, he had been so focused on what was happening in front of him that he didn't give much thought to his surroundings.

"Good afternoon Mr Fernandez", the man greeted, still looking in the direction that the stretcher and the little girl had been taken.

" Can I help you?"Andre retorted, not sparing any niceties in the tone of his voice as he asked the question, he accompanied the question he had asked with angry eyes to let the man know that this was not going to be the friendly conversation he had imagined it would be. 

"I know who you are and I know who she is, I also happen to know that she owes me a lot of money and you knocked her down. What I don't know is how much you intend to pay her as settlement to keep this out of the courts", he sneered, turning his greedy eye in Andre's direction.

Andre was baffled at the temerity this strange man was showing.

" Who are you?", he asked, his voice rising an octave, he had turned to face the man fully irrespective of the fact that the man's "goons" were surrounding Andre, it was obvious now what they were, given how aggressive they looked,.

" I take it you don't leave your father's castle much, so you really don't have any idea what happens on these streets. I'll overlook your lack of respect but I will be around to see what happens, it's best you pay me anything you had in mind for her, it would help her and her little daughter more than you know", the man continued, not deterred by the fact that Andre didn't approve of the conversation he was making.

"This conversation is over", Andre spat as he turned away from the man and started making his way to the hospital entrance.

Several things were going through his head at the moment and even now as he walked towards the hospital, Paul's words came echoing afresh in his mind, this was beginning to look very much like a scam and he was determined to get to the root of it all.

" Mommy are you hurt?", Andre overheard the little girl asking her mother as he walked into the room, the woman nodded at the little girl in response before turning her eyes to Andre who had just entered the room and was staring suspiciously at her.

There was a nurse in the room who was taking the readings of the woman's vitals from the machines.

"You're a bad man", the little girl turned around to say, glaring at Andre as she spoke.

"You almost killed her", she screamed, prompting the nurse to approach her in abid to quieten her.

" Did your mother teach you to say that?", Andre retorted, almost convinced at this time that this was indeed a scam, he wasn't sure who was behind it yet though.

The nurse standing in the room with them turned to stare at Andre, he realized how the whole scene unfolding in the hospital room made him look. It wasn't the nicest Impression he was giving and he was immediately conscious of that.

" Is it possible to see to it that she gets a full physical? Just to make sure she's okay?", Andre asked the nurse who had been watching him closely all this while, it was the least he could do to reduce the suspicion in the woman's eyes at the accusations that the little girl was making.

"Of course sir", the nurse responded with a look of approval as she exited the room to make arrangements.

" I don't think I'll be sticking around to find out the outcome of the results, can I get your number?", he asked the woman who was holding her daughter close ever since the nurse left.

Jane called out the digits of her phone number and waited for Andre to input them on his phone, she seemed as eager as he did to part ways with each other, their meeting had not been on the best of terms.

"Okay then, take care of yourselves", Andre said curtly as he turned to make his exit. He hadn't gotten very far when he came face to face with the nurse that had exited the room earlier.

" Sir, if you'd follow me please. We need to sort out some payment details if you don't mind", she offered politely.

"Of course", Andre responded, following her in the direction she gestured.

Jane was still sitting on the bed and holding her daughter as close as she could when another set of nurses entered the room and wheeled her out for her exam.

" Come here sweetheart", one of the nurses gestured towards Stephanie. The little girl looked at her mother briefly and when the woman had given her permission, she scampered into the friendly looking nurse's arms.

"Is mama going to be okay?", she asked with a little bit of fear in her eyes seeing her mother being wheeled away.

" She's going to be just fine, sweetheart. What's your name?", the nurse expertly asked, in a bid to distract the little girl from her mother's plight, a bright red lollipop from the kind nurse's pocket was enough to achieve this momentarily.

"I'm Stephanie".

Jane felt sore at the end of the exam, she had been poked and prodded and she couldn't wait for when she would be told that she was free to go.

"Are we done here?", she asked, tired of everything already and longing to hold her daughter.

" Yes ma'am, we are".

"Thank goodness", she exclaimed as she got off the bed to stretch herself, it was a bit painful but it was just what she needed.

" You can come back in a day's time, your results should be ready by then", the nurse added as she exited the room. As if planned, the other nurse led Stephanie into the room, the little girl was still so focused on her lollipop that when she saw her mother, she flashed her a very big smile. She had been "bought".

" Let's go home baby girl", Jane chuckled, she fully understood what had happened here and she was not going to hold it against the little girl. Stephanie gleefully jumped into her mother's arms and continued sucking on the lollipop as she was carried out of the room.

Jane was relieved that this was over and that the bills had been taken care of, she couldn't handle being in more debt than she already was, she was alone and the job of taking care of her little daughter while trying to pay of the loans taken by her late husband was more than she could have ever hoped to responsible for. Her thoughts wandered to the restaurant, she wondered whether the nice woman would be kind enough to secure a job there for her, she hoped it would be possible.

Jane hadn't gotten very far when she froze. Coming up the stairs was Adrian, the loan shark. She couldn't tell just how he had managed to find her but he was here. If she knew anything from experience, it was that he had no regard whatsoever for her or her daughter's well being, he just wanted his money, by any means necessary.

Her eyes flashed around till she spotted the elevator, she was in full-on panic mode and she was trying as hard as she could not to alert Stephanie to this, the little girl was still very busy with her lollipop thankfully.

"Where are we going mummy?"

"We are going to take a ride in that big metal box sweety, what do you say?"

"Yippee", the little girl screamed as they hurried towards the elevator.

The little girl's shout of excitement attracted the attention of a few people who smiled at the two of them, it had also attracted the wrong kind of attention, Adrian's.

" Get her!", he yelled, pointing in the direction of Jane and her daughter as his goons rushed forward.

Jane shielded her daughter's face away from the direction of the men as the elevator doors closed and it began its descent to the ground floor, she could feel her heart pounding in her chest as the machine hummed steadily while it took her down. She knew the men would be on their way down too and she could only hope that she would get there before them.

The elevator ground to a halt as soon as it reached the ground floor, the doors opening to let Jane and her daughter out.

"We're going to have to exercise a little sweety" Jane lied as she started jogging towards the car park, she could hear noises coming from the stairwell and she knew that the men would soon come into view, she knew that she wouldn't be able to outrun them once they spotted her, her only option right now was to hide, this was the only viable option for her and her daughter.

She stumbled against the closest car she could find and pulled at the car door, it didn't budge, much to her horror. She ran to the next car and the next after that until in the most unlikely miracle, the next car door she tried opened. She quickly set Stephanie into the car and crawled in after her, closing the door as silently as she could.

"What the hell?" 

There was a man in the driver's seat, and from the way Stephanie was staring angrily at him, it seemed to be that she recognized him. Jane raised her head a bit to look at the man and as their eyes met, they recognised each other.

"You again!! What do you want now? Money?"he asked angrily as he made to open the car door and get down from the car. He froze as he saw tears streaming down Jane's face, she had a finger pressed against her lips gesturing for him to be quiet.

In that same moment, the men came into view a little distance away. Andre recognized them, they were the same men that had met him outside the hospital.

" Who are those men? And what do they want from you?", he asked quietly. Jane could not bring herself to answer, at least not yet.