C18 Chapter Eighteen

Early in the morning and Mc was in the expensive gym lifting some weights after a good number of pushups, it was awesome to have such facilities right in his home and it'd become a daily routine for him to walk right into the gym after waking up. "Yeah I see you getting bigger," He spoke to his muscles as he raised the dumbbell up and down while heavy music played through his headphones, he was so taken away with workout and didn't know Emily had taken a pause from heading to the kitchen to look at him for a while, she she got lost looking as his sculpted physique glistened with sweat, accentuating the well-defined muscles that rippled with every movement. The result of dedicated gym sessions was evident in the chiseled contours and toned strength, showcasing a body that exuded both fitness and confidence. She liked what she saw, but a thought crossed her mind "Easy there Emily, he's on a higher class, rich guy with lamborghinis can't go for a cook like you."

She knew she'd admired for too long when Mc called her name two times and she didn't even hear him.

"Hey Emily," He called for the third time smiling, he knew that the beauty standing right in front of him was checking him out.

"Oh sorry I uh.. I didn't..."

"It's alright, you seemed to be looking a lot so I thought you wanted to try lifting some of these?" He stretched the dumbbell in her direction and she just smiled "uhm... No, I would definitely fall if I tried to lift that, too heavy for me, ha ha, too heavy." She placed her palms together in front of her and Mc could tell she was shy around him. Emily who was scared and uncomfortable around everyone else in the house wasn't scared of him but rather shy, he sensed something.

"Oh come on, just come over here and I'll show it's easy," He approached her with the dumbbell and she moved closer too, just as he was about to place it in her hand, his phone rang and he went to get it.

"Yeah, who's this?" He asked the caller.

"Oh wow, it's been so long that you even deleted my number?"

"Just tell me who you are. I'm in a thing here." He wasn't interested in any phone call games.

"And you really mean to tell me you can't guess by my voice?"

"Are you gonna tell me who you are or not?" He turned to another side of the room and Emily slowly walked out to the kitchen leaving him alone.

"Mc, it's me Melissa!"

"Mellisa? Are you serious right now? Everyone...," he lowered his voice "everyone thinks you're dead."

"Yeah, but that wasn't me, it turned out that I had a twin sister and she was the one who got arrested, and then got killed in prison."

"Wow, that's quite a twist, but how are you gonna live your life now? The cops won't let it go when they find out you're the real one they wanted."

"Oh Mc I know but that's not why I called."

"Alright, you wanna talk about something?" He sat just close to the punch bag and drew imaginary lines on it as he spoke.

"Mc, it's been a long time since we talked, a long time since the bad things happened between us. And I'm not really good with apologies but, I just thought I'll say this the way it comes, I'm sorry love."

"Sorry? For what?" He knew what she was talking about.

"You know Mc, I didn't really make a great partner, I made a lot of mistakes and I'm not happy about that. Me failing to see your efforts and calling you names, and... And... The Jeremy thing."

"Mellisa, I'm over that! I don't even know when last I thought about any of that. It's cool to just forget about it and live your life okay? It's cool."

"Well the point is... Mc the point is..." she couldn't say whatever it is she wanted to say, for some reason, the words were just too heavy for her.

"The point is what?"

"Mc, I'm not over you. I... I still," she paused and no one said a word, she contemplated before finally letting the words out "I still love you!"

*****

"You knew that girl was here all this while and you let her slip through your fingers? You are shit Anderson!" The angry voice of Becky hunt echoed with so much disappointment, she was the person behind the death of Jeremy, she ordered for the murder of the playboy because he broke her daughter's heart too, and since Melissa was the prime suspect, Becky thought it was a good idea to find Melissa, hand her over to the cops and avoid further investigations. However, their search paused after everyone believed Melissa was captured and died in prison. She was angry to find out that Melissa was still alive and Anderson had been seeing her all the while.

"You didn't want to tell me Melissa is alive because you've gone falling in love with her!" Becky was angrier.

"I swear to God boss, I fell for her but I didn't know it was the woman we've been looking for all this while, she lied to me, she said her name is Cara."

"Anderson, you have been seeing a girl for weeks, sending love texts and saying sweet shit to each other and you never got to see her face for once? That doesn't make sense!"

"I swear to God if I knew it was her, I would've reported to you earlier."

"No one must know that we are behind the death of Jeremy, No one! If that information leaks, you'll pay with your daughter's life!"

Anderson was shocked! His mouth fell open and he felt his body freeze at once.

"Why are you looking so surprised? You think I don't know that you have a 4 year old daughter living with your grandma? That's one thing you need to learn boy, nothing can be hidden from the boss."

Over thirty seconds after Becky spoke and Anderson still couldn't say a word, he never expected anyone to find out that he had a child he was hiding. "Living on the streets is always a risky lifestyle and it is a bad idea if people know your loved ones because they could easily hurt them to get back at you. Hide your daughter, don't let anyone know you've got a girl, take her to your grams." That was advice from his late friend the day his daughter was born, he thought he did everything right but here he was just finding out that his boss Becky Hunt already knew of his most hidden secret.

"How did you... How did you..."

"How did I know? I always know everything Anderson, but don't worry it's our little secret, unless you decide to act stupid!"

*****

Gabriel sat watching a live football match so seriously and looked not to be ready for any distractions as his team was losing at home to the visitors. "Oh come on you just pass the damn ball!" he yelled, angrily swerving his hands in the air. "Shitty striker can't even dribble the ball, y'all just so pathetic!" he adjusted himself in the seat and took the glass of water by his side but just before he could drink it, he heard his wife's voice "Honey!" she called.

"What?" He wasn't happy he was about to be distracted.

"Have you heard the news?" She walked out the bedroom and sat beside him.

"What news? I'm watching a game here."

"It's Mc!"

"Mc what?"

"He's rich! He's rich now! Boy's got money now."

"You can't be serious, the lottery doesn't pay these days! I don't wanna talk about fake shit you people gossip about" he waved it away and returned to his match

"And who said anything about the lottery? Mc finally got to know his real father and it's Ethan Milburn, one of the richest..."

"Holy cow! Since when?" He turned down the TV now because he was more interested in knowing what Mc had become.

"It's been a while now, he already lives in the popular Milburn mansion."

"I've always wondered how that mansion looks from the inside. Is our daughter aware of this?"

"Yes she's the one who told me about it."

"Oh no we fucked up! We shouldn't have let Melissa split up with Mc."

"We? I didn't make anyone split up with anyone. You did!" She said with a squeezed forehead, it was one of the moments she never allowed herself to take a blame.

"Paula you're not going to do this again are you? We do something together and when it turns out bad, you blame me!"

"I repeat this, I never made our daughter split up with her husband."

"But we all were in support of it, we wanted her to leave him because he had nothing to offer. But then she cheated on him and he left her instead."

"Mutual terms, they can still work it out, Melissa needs to speak to him, she needs to get his love back."

"As a man, I'm not so sure she can do that."

"What's with the negative thoughts?"

"We men, we can forgive even our own killer, but never forget bad treatment that came because of our low status. I'm sure Mc will move on and will never want to go back to the woman who hurt him!"

"I have a plan!" She moved closer to her husband.

"What plan?"

"We're gonna lie to him that Melissa is pregnant with his baby!"

"Perfect!" The old man said in support of his cunny wife, at that point, they were ready to play any game just to become Mc's in laws again. They wanted recognition, the money and the power.