Chapter 6

Mimi Ann looked around the school yard for a long time until she finally found a quiet spot, the indoor basketball court. She took out an A4 book of plain pages from her bag and a pencil then started drawing oblivious of the fact that Zach had just received news of her bunking class.

In a tall building in an office in one of the top floors a middle aged man stood in front of the floor to ceiling window all morning with a thick cigarette between his fingers and smoke rose in the air when he blew out.

There was a knock on the door bringing him out of his thoughts and a middle aged man walked in and bowed respectfully, "Sir, the lunch with Mr Shen is in just a few minutes. We'll need to leave soon."

"Prepare the car, Zayn." He said without even turning around. His eyes seemed lost and he just couldn't stop thinking about the commotion in his house in the morning. Was there even a way to solve his family issues without hurting any of his children?

Even he had been shocked when Mara Jane suddenly called him a few days ago and asked him to take care of their child. She had disappeared for more than seventeen years and now she just passed away leaving a child stubborn as himself to deal with. That girl was full of bitterness and it was going to be difficult to get through to her. Now the children he had raised himself were difficult to convince too.

How would he ever explain to them that this situation was also new to him and he never expected it?

Q hotel…

Half an hour later…

The two middle aged men sat in the private room with a table full of food and a bottle of a vintage wine that the waiter poured in their glasses before he left. The man sitting across Zach was Matthew Shen, a businessman just as Zach. The men were almost the same height, tall and looked to have really been handsome men when they were younger, looking even a bit younger than their age. "You had a daughter with Mara, huh?" Matthew smiled sadly looking at the red wine in his glass. "When are you planning on telling her family that she had a daughter? Do you know how much they missed her when she left those years ago?"

Zach released a long sigh, "They weren't even at the funeral. Mara called me before she died. If she wanted them to know about her daughter she would have called her parents instead of me, or maybe even her brother right?"

"You're her father but that doesn't mean you should be selfish with the girl."

"Why not? Do you think I'll ever see her if they find out?" he shook his head, "The Muza family is too powerful, I won't be able to fight them alone."

The man narrowed his eyes, "Do you even care about the girl? If she finds out that you are keeping her identity a secret just so that her mother's family won't find her do you think she will be able to forgive you?"

"She is my daughter." He shrugged, "I'm not doing anything wrong by keeping her."

He scoffed, "Zach, that's a piece of Mara Jane that everyone wants."

The other man shrugged, "Well that's my baby and she has my DNA. She may be stubborn and we may still be a bit awkward with each other but she will come around. I just need for the Muza family to stay out of it until she is of legal age. In the meantime I'll try and build our relationship." He said, "I wanted to ask you for a favour. If the Muza family finds out about her existence please help me protect her."

Matthew nodded as if he had been expecting his friend to make that suggestion. "I'm capable enough to do that but why would I get involved?"

"You owe it to Mara Jane. You know that you owe her big time." Said Zach, "You can make it up to her through her daughter."

Matthew furrowed his brows, "Zach, you owe Mara Jane just as much as I owe her."

"We can protect her daughter to make it up to her."

"But I want something else from you in order for me to protect her." Said Matthew, "I want you to get her engaged to my son."

Zach hadn't expected Matthew to make such a suggestion especially with their history. "What? You want your son to get engaged to my sixteen year old daughter? They are children, why would we burden them with engagements at this age."

"You know how stubborn my son is. He needs someone more grounded to keep him in check." He said, "It's your call." The man took a sip on his wine, "I told you, Mara Jane's daughter is someone a lot of people will want for different reasons. I assure you that for me it's just because she is Mara Jane's daughter but for most others it will be because she is part of Q and part of the Muza family. My proposal is just the first. Wait till her identity reveal itself and you'll get even more proposals."

Zach didn't even seem like he needed to think about it when he said, "It's not my nature to get my children engaged. I want them to be free to choose their own partners. My family is powerful enough, I don't need any alliances for my business." He said, "I thought as friend you would help without me having to pay such a high price."

Mathew smiled, "If only it concerned anything else." He cleared his throat, "Think about it, my son is just about two years older than her plus there everything to win if we join families too. Think about it, Mara Jane, you and me in one family. Wasn't that our dream when we were young?"

"Nothing to lose but her freedom to make her own choice. Plus with her personality, my daughter will hate me even more." Said Zach, "I'll think of another way."

"If you find that you may still need my help I'm a phone call away. I'll alert my son." The middle aged man said. Looking a bit upset he said, "I heard she had cancer?"

"She did, she knew it was terminal yet she never let her find out." Zach sighed looking troubled, "The kid has a lot of pent up anger and bitterness as it was too sudden for her which is why I can't risk her getting even angrier by getting her engaged."

Matthew nodded, "I understand."

The two men started discussing other things as they had their lunch even though Zach was still very worried about Mimi Ann and the Muza family.

*

Mimi Ann concentrated on her drawing as she sang along to the song Butter that she was playing on her phone. She couldn't help shaking her body slightly and nod when the song was coming to an end. She hadn't even noticed that the basketball team was walking in even though she was sitting in the middle of court.

"Hey, short stack." Tao leaned on the wall with his hands in his pockets and smiled when he saw that he had startled her.

She pointed at herself, "Are you calling me?" With her height, Mimi Ann had never been called 'short' ever. It sounded so weird.

The boy smiled, "Who else is short here?"

She looked around as she got up to her feet and surely she was the shortest person around the basketball team. "Why are you calling me that though?"

The young man shrugged, "Because you're vertically challenged?" It sounded like a matter of fact.

"I'm one hundred and seventy seven centimeters tall! I am actually considered a tall human being."

Tao smirked arrogantly then walked to her and bend his back so that he looked at her face, "Little freezer, this is the basketball court not a studio. Go sing somewhere else, ok? Your singing is cute by the way."

She gritted her teeth and decided to just ignore him then stomped out muttering, "Little Freezer? What's with his nicknames?"

Tao laughed along with his teammates, "Because you're a little duckling, I have to bend down to talk to you face to face... Like I do when I want to take something from the freezer." he chuckled and watching her stomp out looking even angrier.

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