CHAPTER 3

The last time I set my eyes on Daphne she was still so little, 10 years old Daphne and the one that was right in front of me were very different. I burst into tears and gave her a really tight hug. I missed her so much, I missed my family so much. I was only sixteen years old when I left home and abandoned my family and everyone who had been a pillar of support to my existence, and now that was the biggest mistake of my life. Eight years since I lost contact with my family and every single day I've had to live with the burden of knowing that I abandoned my little sister for a boy and robbed her of the opportunity to have a big sister to look out for her and be there to support her. 

“Oh Daphne! You're so grown now”, I said, wiping the tears off my face. 

I was so happy to see her but I guess she wasn't happy to see me. She stared at me in surprise but she kept her distance from me after I let her off my embrace. 

“How's everybody at home, does mom still have her garden?” I asked with tears still streaming down my face. 

“Mom says you left us because of a boy. She says he'll ruin your life and you'll regret it. Well if you're still with him, I hope he ruins your life and makes you regret it because you ruined our lives too, mine especially”, Daphne said and hurriedly walked out of the restaurant. 

“Daph-”, I tried to call out to her, but it was of no use. 

If only she knew that Marcus had indeed ruined my life, maybe it'll have given her the satisfaction she hoped for. 

I had lost my appetite all of a sudden and I asked the waitress to pack up my meal so I could take it home. 

Later that night, I set an alarm to wake me up by 5am the next morning. I couldn't afford to be late on my first day on the job. I picked out an outfit as well before going to bed. 

“Excuse me, Excuse me, Excuse me”, I was running late already and the Street was bustling with people in a rush to get to wherever they were going. I overslept and even the alarm didn't wake me up. I had less than 15 minutes to get to the office and the traffic was something else. 

Two minutes before the clock struck 8am and I was at work already. I felt so relieved.

“Hey good morning”, I responded to the greeting from the lady at the front desk. She handed me my work ID card and I hurriedly went to take my position at my desk. Lucky me, the boss wasn't in yet. I settled in and set up my laptop and went through the work overload from the last secretary. Everything seemed okay with a few lapses here and there, but that wasn't a problem for me. 

I could hear voices faintly greeting from a distance and I was certain the boss had arrived. My anxiety began to build up, I hadn't forgotten what his prying grey eyes looked like and occasionally, thoughts of how good looking he was crossed my mind. Lost in thoughts, I didn't realize when my boss got to my desk. 

“Seen a ghost?”His deep seductive masculine voice brought my mind back to reality. 

“Good morning Sir”, I said feeling slightly flushed with embarrassment. 

“Any meetings on my schedule?”

“Yes sir, a meeting with the new artist that was signed last week for general briefing and acknowledgements”

“Ohh scratch that, attend to him when he gets here. Everything he needs to know is in the folder that was sent to you already, it doesn't have to be me to do it”

“Sir? Me?” I mumbled. 

“Yes, you. Any problem with that”, he asked with an eyebrow raised above the other. 

“No sir”, I simply responded. 

“Good, if anyone comes for me off that schedule, I'm unavailable, I'm attending to very serious work”, he said sarcastically. 

“Okay sir”, I responded, almost letting out a slight chuckle. 

At the due time, the artist arrived for the briefing and I had to attend to him as instructed by the boss. 

“Your recording sessions have been scheduled for three hours daily. The studio team will be very glad to work with you, considering how good you are”, I said, rounding up everything I had to say to him. 

“Thank you ma'am. So please when do I get to meet the boss? I was told I would be meeting him here today”. 

“Oh well, the boss is very busy attending to urgent work so your meeting with him would have to be rescheduled for another time. That would be all’, I said hoping to dismiss him 

“But ma'am, there are some very important things I need to discuss with him, do you mind getting me at least five minutes with him, I won't be long I promise”, he said persuasively. 

“I'm sorry there's nothing I can do about that, the boss’s instructions were very-”, and before I could finish my sentence he had walked into CEO Dante's office uninvited, I immediately rushed behind him. 

“I'm so sorry sir, I made it clear to him that you are very busy and wouldn't be able to attend to him, I had no idea when he walked out on me, I was focused on completing the file share on my computer”, I said apologetically. 

“Leave my office now”, the CEO ordered and we both made our way to the exit. 

“Hey, just the boy, not you”

I immediately turned expecting the query that would come after. 

“Come here”, the boss ordered and I walked over to the opposite side of his. I was slightly scared he would yell at me, I had heard him yell a lot over the phone that morning. 

“I'm really sorry sir”, I further apologized. 

“Well, since you can't do your job properly, I think I have a better offer for you”

Oh well, I just knew I was about to get fired.