CHAPTER 2

The morning greeted with a somber and uninspiring atmosphere as Sonia Roberts laid in bed staring at nothing in particular, drowned in the ocean of her own thoughts.

"How can life be so unfair?" she asked herself not realizing the drops of tears that have dribbled down her cheeks wetting her pillow already, she stood up and walked over to a portrait of her parents that sat on a small table in the corner of her room, she picked it up, and the tears came rolling down uncontrollably.

"How am I supposed to live on without you guys?" she said, asking nobody in particular as she fell to the ground sobbing and clutching on to the portrait. She didn't know what to think, she has lost the two most important people in her life to the cold hands of death.

It's her parent's funeral and friends and relatives have been in the house for two days leading to today, D-Day, the day she says the final goodbye to her parents. She was in her apartment in New York when Nessa, her elder sister had called her to inform her that their parents had been involved in a fatal accident along with their younger brother, both their parents had died on the spot and their brother had been fatally injured and was in the ICU. She had immediately got on the next flight home and what graced her arrival was the lifeless bodies of her parents, she couldn't believe her eyes and she just wanted to wake up from what she so dearly hoped will be a nightmare albeit, it was the reality of things and her parents have gone and left her, her elder sister and their younger brother who is in the ICU with the doctors doing their best and him fighting for his life. Not only that, but she knew she needed to be strong, but she doesn't know how she's supposed to do it.

Sonia Roberts is a beautiful young lady who is a graduate of Thomas Jefferson university school of business, after her studies she had refused to work in her parent's company and had instead insisted on moving to New York, leaving her elder sister to handle the company with her parents. Looking back now, she regrets her decision to leave for New York as she has missed the final days of her parents on earth, she feels guilty and can't stop thinking that perhaps if she was around her parents would still be alive. She has now moved back to Philadelphia to assist her sister with everything here, including the company and the health of their younger brother. After crying for what felt like an eternity, Sonia got up and went into the bathroom to have her bath and get ready for the funeral.

As she stood in front of the mirror looking at her long black dress and the scarf with which she tied up her long, wavy blond hair, she heard a knock on her door and her sister Nessa opened the door and helped herself in, without uttering a word she walked straight to Sonia and held her tightly in a hug

"are you ready?" Nessa asked,

"can anyone be ready for this?" Sonia returned holding back the tears that was threatening to start flowing again,

"no Sonia no one is ever ready to lose their parents this early, but we have to be strong, and we have to do this ready or not… think about Leo in the hospital now in a coma, we need to be strong for him too" Nessa said.

Sonia knew she was right so she straightened her face, squared her shoulders and walked towards the door holding her sister's hand, as they went out to greet the many guests that have come to pay their final respects to their late parents. Sonia and Nessa proceeded to lead the guests out as they all headed for the St Augustine Catholic Church where the funeral service is to be held for their deceased parents.

Sonia stood there next to Nessa as their parents were laid to rest side by side and as she read the words of their tombstones "Beloved Husband, Devoted Father, Forever in our hearts" and "Beloved Wife, Loving Mother, Caring soul, Forever alive in our hearts", tears rolled down her cheeks and she let them out. The inscription echoed the memories of her late parents, whose presence she knew still lingers in the windswept cemetery. With a broken heart she whispered

"you will both live forever in my heart" her voice barely audible above the rustling of leaves. She found solace in the enduring love immortalized in those words, a good reminder that though they may be gone, their spirits lived on in the hearts of those who cherished them. She held Nessa's hand to reassure her that she's not alone and that they will pull through it together, Nessa looked at her and gave her as big a smile as she could force out through the agony she felt. Their parents have now been laid to rest, and all they could hope is that they rest in peace.

Sonia watched from the porch as Nessa greeted the last of the guests that came to pay their tributes, they still had the lawyer and a few of their parent's business partners seated in the house who had insisted on holding a meeting with them immediately after the funeral. They both went in and had their seats for the meeting to commence. The lawyer spoke up first

"ladies and gentlemen, Nessa, Sonia I'm sorry for your loss. It's no surprise the love and respect that has been shown to your parents by everyone seated here, and so it is a crucial time for this meeting to hold",

Nessa spoke first "on behalf of myself and siblings, I want to say thank you to you all for the love and support you've shown us in this hard time, we duly appreciate you".

The lawyer continued, "so ladies and gentlemen, let's officially commence this meeting.

We're gathered here today to read the last will and testament of Mr and Mrs Roberts, I barrister Spencer Jonas, as the executor of the estate, will be reading the will. To our beloved kids we leave our entire estate including the buildings, and equal shares of our financial assets including 30% owned shares in the company, to be divided equally among them. Additionally, we appoint barrister Spencer Jonas as the executor of our estate, and we request that they carry out the instructions outlined in this will. These are our final wishes, thank you." Mr Spence finished reading out the will.

"Thank you very much Mr Spence, we've heard our parents wish and we'll see to it that we follow their wish" Nessa said after the final words of the will was read out, Sonia sat quietly staring down at all the men and two ladies dressed in suits seated in clusters whispering words she could not decipher.

Finally, one of the men who she recognizes as one of her parents business partners spoke up

"thank you, Spence, for reading out the will, but the situation on ground now is that Mr and Mrs Roberts before their unfortunate demise were knee-deep in debt, the company is owing as well and the board is looking to seize their shares in the company until their debts is paid, or they allow the company sell out their shares to the highest bidder in order to pay off loans collected in the name of the company"

the man finished, and another continued

"we had this conversation with them in a board meeting, and they promised it will be sorted, but unfortunately they are no more" he finished.

"Thank you everyone, as you're all aware our younger brother is still in coma and we're paying for his hospital bills, can we be afforded time to deliberate how we can come up with a solution for all of these?" Nessa responded calmly to the surprise of Sonia.

The first man was the one to reply "my dear we asked for this meeting to hold now because we need an urgent solution in order for the company to not be shut down completely, so whatever deliberation that needs to be done, needs to be done here and now"

Sonia saw the panic on her sister's face for a split second and she knew she had to speak up,

"how much are we talking about here?" Sonia asked, speaking for the first time and all the eyes in the room were suddenly focused on her.

The first man again was who responded "your parents owe the company 200 million dollars in debt", having the information she had, Sonia knew that the 30% share owned by her parents would not be sufficient to write off this debt because she wasn't willing to give up everything their parents worked for, so she called her sister aside for a private talk.

Sonia saw tears in her sister's eyes, and it broke her heart,

"Nessa do you trust me?" she asked,

"yes I do, and you know that" Nessa replied,

she does know it because they've both been inseparable since childhood and her sister is her best friend, but for what she's about to say in there she needed to be certain her sister will have her back.

"just follow my lead in there and I promise everything will be fine" Sonia tried to reassure Nessa, and they both walked back into the room with all the heads following their every movement until they had their seats, and Sonia spoke up

"we have made a decision that we'd give up 20% of the shares which is that of my sister and I, while our brother's share remains intact because we cannot decide for him as he's in a coma – ",

"But that won't be enough to pay off the debts" she was interrupted by one of the men,

"well if you had let me finish you would have heard the rest of the plan" Sonia retorted, and she could see her sister from the corner of her eye seated uncomfortably trying so hard to remain calm, she added immediately

"we are willing to also give up the estate owned by our parents excluding this house and their financial assets, and before any of you come up with another interruption, I want you to know that our parent's estate is worth over a 100 million dollars so in addition to the shares, a significant part of the debt will be settled and should buy us time to clear the tiny bit remaining", they all turned to Nessa for her confirmation

"you heard the lady" was all she said.

"You can all find your way out, thank you and good day" she added sternly. And with that they both left the room.