Bowman made sure he took his son through all the activities he had planned but Dion would not do the garden and there was no convincing him otherwise. Often, Liam would curse each time Dion called on him. Liam hated his job entirely but it paid him well and he got to see Daphne. He thought that was enough reason for him stick around.
One morning, Daphne was hesitating on Dion’s door. She had to return his clothes after doing the laundry. It was unfortunate that Liam was nowhere to be seen that morning. Allegedly, he went for his morning jog. She couldn’t get him to pass on the clothes to Dion. And Daphne knew that Thandi would never help her out.
Finally, a knock. He opened. He saw her. He tried to close but she pushed it open. The door hit him bad on his face. She had pushed quite hard. The extra effort was just so she could be sure he that didn’t overpower her.
“Ow, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” she tried reaching for him—
“Don’t touch me!” he helped himself up.
“I’m here to return your clothes, they are clean now.”
He pointed her towards the basket she should put the clothes on—Thandi would fold the clothes into the wardrobe later on. Daphne went and threw the clothes into the basket as told. Now, she was headed out. “I’m really sorry.”
“Just get out and close the door.”
**Serves him right for putting me through the hurt. I wish he gets a bump so, that I can brag about it to the others. It’s your fault, Dion, that I now have turned into a liar. I wish that bump gets a cut, to make things worse, so that a scar remains, and you will remember me with it. I don’t get messed with, boy. **
She had a smirky smile on. She walked through the passage, heading to the kitchen where she would deliver the news. There was a bounce in her step. She started playing music from her phone. She started dancing. Dion had a mirror in his hand, he kept staring at the bump forming on his forehead. Hearing the noise, he opened the door to look and found that it was Daphne, dancing. He got back in and shut the door. The bump was throbbing at this point. He tried pressing it. It hurt.
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That morning had started off quite badly for Liam. Right after his jog, he went up to Dion’s room. It was his duty, he had to make certain that Dion was awake and well. Liam found himself being scolded only for showing concern over the bruise on his master’s forehead. “Get away from me, son of nobody.” Dion went on, “What makes you so worthy to know my business? These are issues faced by people of upper class. A mere peasant like yourself can never understand. I only pay you to be my tail, nothing more. If you feel that I pay you way too much for the little work that you do, do tell and I will gladly cut your wages. You suck at the job anyway. Now turn around and get out.” Though very angered, Liam still managed to scoop up the words, “Yes, sir.”
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In the dining room.
“Dion,” Bowman was amazed at the young man taking a sit next to him at the dining table, “what happened to you?”
Breakfast was well scattered on the table. “Liam, do you care to explain?” Liam only looked down. “Liam, you take care of him. You should know what happens to him at all times!” Bowman did not take the matter lightly. “If you truly value your job, young man, you’ll start working with pride.”
“Bowman, it is still the early hours of the morning,” said Dion. “So, quiet down, will you?”
“Don’t use that tone with me. You’re hurt and he doesn’t know anything? I can’t risk you like that. Maybe, I should get you a better guard.”
“It is merely a bump.”
“Next time it’ll be more than that. I’ve already lost your mother, not you too. Liam, you have to say if Dion is too much responsibility for you and I can find you another position—”
“Alright, enough! I just bumped my head on my door. It was a hard blow. Do not ask me how it happened. Just let it go. Now can we eat? And you can deal with this fool later, just not on my time.”
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The taste of revenge never felt so sweet. Now, that Daphne got her first payback, she wanted even more. She wondered how he would look if he were to beg for mercy from her. In that instant, Daphne knew that she was not done teaching her master a lesson. She got up to a lot of mischiefs; one time she drenched him with a pail of water she had used to rinse bottles of spices, “Oh, would you look at that, sir! Aren’t you too old to be playing with water?”
And, another time she soaked his lettuce salad in grape juice and watched him puke. It was out of curiosity to see what would happen if he had grapes. She had heard that he could not stand grapes. He had no allergies—he just hated grapes.
Dion had a run-around with the devious little woman. He had already made peace that his father would never allow him to fire her and hence, he tried other ways to get back at her. His most ruthless plan was cutting wages of every employee in that mention and had the chef’s license revoked. That way he believed that they would all turn on her. “Try doing that again, little miss, and I swear I will ruin your life,” he towered her when dumping those words on her.
Daphne wanted to talk to Bowman about the wage cuts. All of the other workers had indeed turned on her. It was either they outright lashed out at her or simply tormented her with silent treatment. Everything was out of her control at that point. She hoped that Bowman would step in and resolve everything. She headed to his study and she found him with Dion. She had to turn back. This was something she could only bring up when Dion was away.
Sulking along the passage, she bumped into Thandi and Liam. “There’s the cunning little rascal,” sneered Thandi. “I heard everyone is mad at you. Oh, but I must say that I am a big fan of your work and your rare courage.”
Liam had to condemn what Thandi had just said, “Thandi, how do you support her in this?” he cried. Liam then turned to Daphne and expressed his thoughts on the matter, “You risked other people’s jobs with your silly little pranks.”
Daphne tried defending herself, “I didn’t know he would take it this far.”
“With Dion you never know. That’s why we all back off and let him run the world.”
Thandi sneered again, “Yeah, Liam’s probably right. A happy Dion is a happy world.”
Liam added, “As long as we get paid and paid good, the rest is just history.”
“Okay, stop! You’re both right. Now, stop rubbing it in!” and Daphne stormed off. She did not want to hear yet another person criticizing her, she criticized herself enough. Daphne had to find ways to fix that mess. She had to restore the worker’s full salaries and get the Chef’s license back.
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It was later that Daphne finally had a chance with Bowman. “Mr. Hill…”
“Daphne?” he became concerned seeing her spirit down like that. He stood to welcome her in. Daphne was his princess, he loved her like a daughter. He loved all of his employees, but Daphne was particularly his favourite. He felt a sense of parental responsibility towards her, considering that she was the youngest employee in the mention.
Bowman led her to the sofa into the study. “Sir, I messed up.” She said, “I messed up big time and now the others are paying the price with me. I have to fix this.”
“Then fix it.”“How?”“You know the problem. Get to the base and neutralise it. Do whatever it takes and worry about the consequences later, if you truly want to release the others.”“I should do whatever it takes? Oh, I’ll pay. Dearly.” She got up, “Thank you, sir. You have given me an idea.”Daphne was rummaging through files in Bowman’s study. She had patiently waited for him to go to sleep before she could ruffle through his home office. She was looking through the shelve that marked, ‘Employee Documents’. There, she found separate files of each employee in the mention. The files contained a lot of thorough details of the employee, she almost could not believe how much research Bowman had made on each of them.
“Oh, Daphne, focus,” she said to herself. “You are only here to find the contact details of the company that chef Clark works for. The company has threatened to revoke his license. I need to get in touch with them and explain everything. It was me who messed with Dion’s food, not the chef.”
Daphne did think, for a moment, to actually approach Dion directly and ask him to reverse everything. But she dreaded the thought that he might make her go on her knees and make her beg and grovel for his mercy. She was not about to reduce herself like that. Also, he might actually choose to be stubborn and not listen to her.
“Yes!” Daphne finally found the number to the chef’s company. She made the call. Among many things that she said, she added, “…exactly, ma’am. His right to freedom of speech was not at all exercised—and so, Chef Clark was not given the opportunity to defend himself. Chef Clark was ill-treated and dishonoured as always. In every right he does Mr. Dion Hill looks and creates a wrong. As witness, I have taken it upon my myself to speak for this innocent man.”
Daphne continued, “The news? You wish to go that far? Well, of course, employee exploitation and abuse is a very delicate and serious matter, but I do not think printing it out there is necessary. I just called to only save Chef Jeffry Clark’s license, not to haul up the dust…” Unfortunately, the call recipient was adamant on selling the news to journalists, there was nothing Daphne could do about it at that point.
**I will pay big time for this, I know. I wish I had stayed in my lane. Now look what I got myself into. That’s it! I’ll keep myself hidden until he goes back to Azania.**
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It did not take long until Dion started receiving phone calls. At first, he showed interest to try and find out what the huge mess was about until recently, he went, “No comment,” at every call that came through. Finally, Dion shut down his phone. He went through his tablet; he found an article and it was about him. In that tight hour, few ex-employees had stepped forward to share their experiences in working with Dion Hill.
What is all this? An inside source? Who could…?
.
.
.
.
That scrap!
Dion saw the things written about him on tabloids. His name was tarnished yet again. He had to remind himself that some people really wanted to destroy him, even mere maids. But Daphne’s case was not that at all. It was only ‘one thing led to another and another to disaster’ type of situation. He did not want face Daphne again; he only wanted the next day to come so that he would leave for his country already.The next day came faster than expected. It was the early hours of the morning. Dion was all packed and ready to leave that darned place. Liam and Thandi would follow him as usual. All of their bags were already tossed into the boot. Bowman was rather shocked when he saw the news. It was nothing new to see his son on the news but this time, it had gotten widespread. The people were even boycotting Dion from ever being the next CEO of his father’s company—the International Transport Service Unit (ITSU). That company employed a lot of people and these people were worried for their
Dion walked the halls of the big building, in Metallic Wholesalers. He was too excited. He couldn’t wait go there and show his face as the new CEO of the company. The respect that the people gave him was shockingly amazing. Most, if not all, of the functional managers went rushing out of their offices to welcome the only son of Master Bowman Hill. Sadly, not one of them had a shake of his hand. All Dion did was flash through the passage and look down on every hand that made way towards him. His goal was to get to his new office and there was nothing to stand in his way. They could only try and convince themselves that he was a very busy man, but little did they know that a terrible storm was rumbling above the dark clouds.In his office he found his PA. She was happy to introduce herself. Shoulders back, chest out and a broad smile, she was confident, “Terresa Fourie, your personal assistant.” She had her hand stretched out for his grip, “How are you, sir?”Dion only chose not to ente
Dion entered the premises and it showed. Every person in the building got on their toes. It was jitters and nerves. And perhaps fear. The big ITSU, that took up the largest land of Johannesburg. It was the first branch that Bowman built. He had extended it many times and renovated it many times to finally be as worthy for nominations as one of the land-markers of the town. “He’s back!” cries had begun.“What’s he doing here?”“Oh, no. What if he’s been told that I came in late five times last week? I am sacked!”“What if he knows that Brian and Zack had a fight again?”“What’s he doing here!”It was panic. As he walked through, they made way for him. They sat at their desks and each one as serious as though doing their work with passion. He paid no attention to them this time. He was on a mission. He was meeting Gabriel Wilson, his mentor. Gabriel Wilson was the marketing manager and he was previously appointed by the CEO Bowman Hill to work closely with Dion. This arrangement was don
Felicia was always jealous of Thandi—the personal maid to Dion. She had ideas of him falling in love with her. It was common for billionaires to fall in love with their maids. Dion took Thandi everywhere he went. This was for professional reason, but Felicia did not believe so. She always wanted to get rid of Thandi—she just hadn’t figured out how to.“You went to see your father. Did you take off with her?”Disgusted by Felicia’s insinuation, Dion scoffed, “What?”“She’s pretty. You don’t pay attention to me. Do not be surprised by my insecurities.”“She may be what you say, but she’s not my standard. I don’t go for those.”Thandi was taken aback by Dion’s response. She had no romantic interest in Dion, but it did sting hearing what he said about her. Dion did not care, he had no filter at all. Liam did laugh at her, it was a mimed laughter and he
It was hurtful for Liam realise how Dion did not really care for his sickness. Dion was worried about how he would look keeping a ailing employee working. A tear fell from Liam’s eye. Dion did not care, “Go away, Liam.” Dion said, “Who knows? It could be contagious,” and he walked out of the room.Thandi joined Liam at the table. She received her make-up kit back from him, “I won’t be needing these anymore. He caught me.”“I am glad he did.” Thandi said, “I was getting worried, Liam. It’s not easy seeing my best friend play around with his life like that for some person who doesn’t deserve his sacrifice.”“Don’t hate him. He doesn’t know any better.” Liam had to promise Thandi that he would go home and focus on getting better.They hit fists and she ran out to get back to her work. She found the couple—Dion and Felicia—talking in the car
“Felicia! So, you steal from him? You father has the monies, why would you do any of that?!”“Tasha, relax. Dion has given me his cards to use as I like, so I have to get constructive. My dad won’t do anything for me anymore because I am too ‘lazy and dependant’ he says. Until I prove myself to be constructive, I am all alone. Tasha it’s tough out here. Luckily, my useless boyfriend has become useful now. I just need to act fast before he catches on. I’ve also ordered some cosmetics, I’m opening a salon, slash beauty shop.”……………………………………………………………………Dion was ticking off the delivery list. He was personally training the new operation manager. He was avoiding the mistake done by the former manager whom he had fi
The car finally, made a stop. It went with a loud screech of the wheels dragging on the concrete road. Dave was safe. The car did not even touch him. They all neared, and they saw him in his own blood. They rushed him to hospital.“Now, you see what you did? You see what you did, Dion?!” Felicia would not let him walk out on them at the hospital. He wanted to abandon all of them there. “You are so lucky that the boy lives. You could have had him killed, damnit!”The older brother sat on the bench waiting on the doctor to bring news that Dave was ready to see him now. He sat there, anxious and impatient.”The doctor finally came, “He’s not so bad. He fractured his right arm. It should repair in six weeks or so. And you may need to be very gentle with him, make sure he avoids sudden movements. He hit on his head very badly. He will experience severe headaches from time to time. Just make sure he eats all the necessary food
“You couldn’t help Mother Sonto, but at least help her,” said little Dave to his brother.“I’ll wait for her cries then.”Dion had pulled Felicia to the kitchen. “Dion! Dion, let go!”“What in the universe are those little creeps doing in my house!” he had let go of her arm. She was only glad she was free from his grip.“Dion—”“Don’t ‘Dion’ me, lady, just chase them out!”“You better not use that tone with me, boy! Where’s your respect?”“I do not want demons in my house. I cannot be sailing with demons on my ship!” he started making way out. Felicia knew where he was heading and what he wanted to do. He was going to chuck those kids out, himself. Felicia was not about to let that happen. She grasped on him, “Dion!”“Let go.”“Dion!”“I