03: Missus in your life

•Draven•

“You’re late.” A grumpy masculine voice greeted me as I stepped into my penthouse.

“Who let you in here?” I narrowed my eyes when a whirring sound filled the room, and in the next second, an elderly man sitting on an electric wheelchair appeared in front of me.

“Boy, I own this city. I can enter anywhere I want.” Grandpa William said with a gruff tone, the smug look on his aged features deepened.

“I’m not a boy.” I kicked my shoes off and walked into the house, going past the man like he wasn’t here with me.

“Where are you going?” Grandpa William yelled after me.

“To sleep.” I halted.

“Why?”

“Because I’m made of organs and blood vessels that have been pumping energy all day and need a break.” A snappy response to the question rolled out of my mouth.

“Sit down. I have something to tell you.” Grandpa William drove his wheelchair to the sitting area, expecting me to follow him.

I didn’t, at first. I watched him wait on me till his glower penetrated through my skin and began pricking me in an uncomfortable manner.

“What is it?” I said with a sigh, plopping down on a chair.

He grunted, then fished an e-cig from his breast pocket as well as a neatly folded paper. He handed the paper to me without a word and sucked on the e-cig.

I stared at him suspiciously before unraveling the paper to read it.

“Went to the hospital recently, I have lung cancer.” Grandpa William puffed out a circular cloud.

“What the fuck?” I jerked up from the chair I had just settled down on. My eyes went wide at the medical report in my hand and the words that just went through my ears.

“Mn, Doctor said I won’t last long.”

“... How long do you have?” My voice softened. My grip on the report tightened, squeezing the sides of the paper in the process.

“A year, two years, maybe three if I stop smoking now.” Grandpa William snorted, then puffed out dense fumes.

“You’re shitting me, aren’t you? How could you have cancer and be so lax about the fact that you’re going to die? What the hell is wrong with you??” I flung the report to the ground in anger.

“What do you want me to do about it? Cry? I did enough of that when your wench of a grandma disappeared with half my fortune and some youngling.” Grandpa William’s face contorted darkly at the memory.

“I also didn’t tell you about it so you can lecture me about how to live my last days…” A pause set in.

I suddenly had a bad premonition.

“Boy, I need you to clear up your act and start your own family.” Grandpa William put away his e-cig.

My facial expression crumbled up.

“Don’t make that face. With me gone, you’ll be the only Lockwood in the city. I can’t risk the fate of the company in your dirty hands alone. Get a wife and a kid before I’m six feet under.”

“I should’ve known. Old man, this medical report should be fake, right? You just want to get me married by all means so you can—”

“Cough cough,” a breathless cough interrupted me. Grandpa William wheezed and gasped for air for a few seconds before stabilizing.

“The report is real. So is my desire to have great grandchildren. I’m counting on you, boy. By the end of this year, there should be a missus in your life. You hear me?” Grandpa William spoke in finality.

“It’s the least you can do for me before I go.”

The medical report lying on the floor entered my eyes at that moment. My fists clenched unconsciously, then a particular image appeared in my head, provoking a small smile on my lips.

“I hear you...”

:::::

•Odette•

“They took away my house.”

I got a call from my mother, and had told me to hurry down to the family house.

I foolishly thought she missed me and that we were finally going to spend quality time with each other after everything that’d happened recently. I was wrong.

She’d only wanted me to come so I could hand over my house key to Silver. Why? Because Silver needed it. It was closer to the office and much more spacious than her room in the family house.

Apparently, she needed lots of space to be creative and do stuff now that she was joining the company.

I couldn’t even defend my home because it wasn’t completely mine. It had been a gift from my mother. If she wanted to give it to someone else, there was nothing I could do.

“I know they took your house away, Odette. You’ve said it like ten times since you walked in here.” Nikki cozied up to me on the lounge chair.

Now that I had found myself without my favorite house, I didn’t feel like doing anything. I just happened to turn up at Nikki’s older brother’s bar so I could calm my nerves.

“I still can’t believe it, and each time I say it out loud, it seems to sink in a little.” I explained.

“It’s going to be fine. Just have a drink.” Nikki poured wine into my glass and handed it to me.

I only took a sip before setting it on the table. “Soon enough, she’s going to need my organs and they’re going to give it to her with the way things are going now.”

The plot of a dogblood drama cooked up in my head.

“Stop it, Odette,” Nikki laughed. I wasn’t telling a joke.

Silver had ‘needed’ one of my cars the other day and got my parents to hand her the key. Before that, it was a jewelry box that Dad had gotten me.

She needed it too.

What next? My kidney?

“I’m not kidding. It’s so frustrating.” I pushed my hair back and took a sip of wine.

My bladder suddenly acted up, and I rose from my seat.

“Where are you going?” Nikki questioned.

“Restroom.”

I stepped out of our cube and headed towards the ladies’ room. The clothes on my body weren’t really bar casual and instead work formals. So it took me a while to get them in order so I could pee.

After I was done using the toilet, I sprinkled water on my face and stared at my reflection in the mirror.

Ever since Silver came into my life, I’ve not had a good night’s rest. Traces of dark circles were underneath my brown eyes and my cheekbones appeared more pronounced.

God, I was losing weight.

I sighed and looked away from the mirror. I couldn’t let Silver keep taking things from me. I needed to get myself back.

I strutted out of the restroom, and I hadn’t even completed my first step when my body went rigid because of a familiar figure hanging close by.

“Hello, Odette Valmont.”