Chapter 2: Memories (2)

CHAPTER 2: MEMORIES [2]

   "I believe this will be the end of the meeting for today. You are dismissed." A loud voice ordered and everyone stood up as quickly as possible, their feet hurrying up out of the conference room as if they were being chased out; precisely though they were being ordered out by their boss, the only Raphael Theophilus.

Raphael Theophilus, the name that most people in the company were afraid of. He was the middle child of his family and the second son of the Theophilus family. 

The Theophilus family was known for being involved in different businesses as long as it brought them the profit they wanted. They were known as the JACK OF ALL TRADES.

The leadership mantle fell on the Chairman of the DEE THEO GROUP OF INDUSTRIES, the one, and only Michael Theophilus. A man of experience in business and underworld activities. Many praised him for being who he was while a few saw his riches as being obtained from dirt but either way that it was, he did not mind.

Michael Theophilus remained the Chairman but hardly did not miss any meetings, instead his first son, Vegas Theophilus handled everything as he ought to as this was his duty as the first child.

As for Raphael, he recently turned cold and reserved after the incident that struck him three years ago. It was a well-known incident that spread like wildfire all over the country, the famous second son of the family was scammed by a lady that he claimed to be in love with. It was such an embarrassing season in the family as this only made the distance between the father and son grow and also made Micheal despise him that much.

When the incident happened, Raphael had pleaded not to pursue the lady in question and that he would work for it again. Since then, he automatically turned 180 degrees in his attitude and behavior.

   "Have you been able to get all the information that I told you to?" Raphael asked coldly as they walked past the buildings into his office. His assistant, Jeremy, adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat.

   "Not yet, sir."

   "Not yet?! What do you mean by that? Do you know how long this has been pending? It's been a whole f*cking three years and you have still not been able to find anything about her?" Raphael yelled at him and Jeremy took a few steps back.

He waited a bit for his boss to enter the office and settle down before approaching him again but this time, he came to meet Raphael with a glass of water. He placed it before him.

   "I heard your yell from afar, don't pressure the young man, Raphael. You are certainly just looking for a ghost." Someone spoke and turned the swivel chair around.

It was no other than Raphael's best friend, Omega Dan. The last and spoiled child of the Omega family.

The Omega family was known for one thing though in the whole of Country A and that was the shipping of products; both importing and exporting. This was the family business but Dan's siblings were allowed to go into any profession they wanted except the first male child. 

   "Omega, what are you doing here?" Raphael sighed as he faced his childish friend.

   "I came to pay a long-lost friend a visit." He replied innocently.

Raphael glanced at Jeremy, "You may leave." He ordered.

   "Thank you, sir." He fled immediately.

Dan pulled his chair towards Raphael who had started going through his work. He brought out two sticks of lollipops, he stretched one towards Raphael but the latter only eyed him and snorted.

   "Do I look like a five-year-old to you?" He asked.

   "Telling me you don't want it would have been better." Dan sulked and tore one of the lollipops open before putting it into his mouth. 

   "You know that Jeremy not being able to find your mysterious girl isn't his fault right? How can someone help you look for a person if what you gave as a description was only oral? Is he a magician or what?" Dan questioned.

   "Moreover, I still don't understand the reason why you are so determined in finding this girl. I believe that she must have moved on already or might have even given birth to her fifth child." Dan said and Raphael glared before looking away.

His friend was somehow right. What if the girl didn't really care about him or wasn't concerned as much as he was right now?

THREE YEARS AGO.

   "Boss, we couldn't find anything about her." A man informed Raphael with nervousness and Raphael threw his champagne glass in frustration.

   "Haaaaaa." He screamed and hit the table violently. What trouble had he gotten himself into in the first place? What were all these? Was fate playing a cruel trick on him? 

   "Run a background check or anything." He ordered.

   "Boss, we have already done that but it seems like Miss…your ex-girlfriend isn't really what she is physically." The second man replied.

   "And what is that supposed to mean?" Raphael asked slowly as if expecting another automatic bomb to explode in his brain.

   "She is a disguiser. When she was with you, that was all a facial disguise so we don't really know what she actually looks like in real life. It seems she is a pro in stuff like this." The second man explained as he diverted his attention towards the computer again.

Raphael's blood was boiling. He grabbed his car keys and bolted out of the room without paying heed to the calling of his men. He got into his car and zoomed off in anger.

He had been searching for his ex-girlfriend for about a month now and only got to discover recently that she duped him financially. All the excuses that he had been giving to his parents on behalf of his failed relationship were that his girlfriend was on a vacation meanwhile she was totally gone with the use of a sudden 'abracadabra'.

His mind was not fully settled that he had to hit the steering wheel once in a while and groaned. Once he got into the hotel, he parked his car and went straight to the receptionist. 

   "Welcome…"

   "Keys!" He ordered and the woman gave it to him quickly and watched Raphael climb the stairs.

   "Why is he suddenly going all King Kong tonight?" She whispered and faced her front.

Raphael unlocked the door and entered. He took off his clothes and went in to take a bath before leaving the room again but this time, it was unlocked.

He went to his exclusive region in the other part of the hotel and got himself drunk into a stupor. He could hardly think or do anything. It was fortunate that no one was able to witness the son of Theophilus go all cranky and crazy that night, well, who wouldn't?

His ex-girlfriend was probably one of the smartest people he had come to bow down to after this incident. She did it intentionally…everything that he had worked for was taken away from him, leaving only a few to cope with. How would his family, especially his father deal with this?

This would probably be one of the cruelest jokes ever pulled up on him. In his drunken state, he brought out his phone and searched for her number again with the ray of hope that she would probably answer but the hope soon faded away when it only had to become unreachable again.

He chuckled…then scoffed…then laughed mockingly at himself before finding his way back to his room.

   "You are a goner, Raphael." He said.

On getting to his room, he saw a ray of flashlight and then a sweet voice.

   "Jade, is that you?"

Unable to cope with what he was seeing or hearing, he replied unconsciously.

   "Hmm."

   "Oh. I have been trying to find the switch…"

He grabbed the person, causing a collision between them. Her body was quite warm and that seemed to have woken something up in him. He pushed her onto the bed, in the dark. It was quite surprising to him that the person in question was willing to cooperate with him but because of his drunken state, his rationality was gone and all he just wanted to do was to enjoy this moment without no interruption.

BACK TO THE PRESENT.

   "Hey." Dan snapped his fingers in front of him.

   "Are you even listening to me at all?" He asked.

Raphael blinked and sighed. He stood up and started packing up.

   "Where are you going?" Dan asked.

   "Home."

   "Want me to tag along?"

Raphael carried his suitcase and raised his eyebrows at his friend.

   "If I say no, will you stay?"

   "Definitely not," Dan replied with a cheerful smile and tagged along with his friend. He couldn't stop talking about the number of girls who wanted to collect his contact information because of how handsome he was.

   "Trust me when I say this, the girls are blind." Raphael interrupted and walked away while Dan's face turned ugly for a second.

   "What a party pooper! No wonder you are still single at your age!"

   "I heard that." Raphael half yelled and Dan ran to catch up with him.

TBC…