Back to Reality

It had been a week since Tom and Daisy moved into their new house. The housewarming party was rendered cold by an unexpected event. Rosaline, Rupert's daughter was found missing from her home by the staff and Rupert was informed immediately. As Daisy later came to know from Tom their relationship had been strained for a few months since Rosaline's grandmother died. The nature of the discord was not known among Rupert's friends but they suspected something severe when they found that Rosaline, who had been dying her hair with Henna from the tender age of 8, in an attempt to look more like her father, had chosen to bleach her hair back to their natural blonde colour. As soon as Rupert and Henry left to sort out their family issues a lull had fallen upon the party, partly in anxiety and partly in awkwardness.

Bartoli was jealous. He always had Tom's best interest at heart but seeing Tom in the confines of his newly built home made the reality of his loneliness even more profound. Coming from the Italian background he had grown up with a lot of siblings and cousins, all of whom had been alienated by his action. Right now Tom was in better terms with his own family than he was and it all came down to a woman.

Cecilia was nothing to him in truth. She was a maid in the house where he had grown up. However, when he had witnessed the maid being tortured in the basement one afternoon as he hid as a part of a childhood game, the reality of what his family was, became more real to him. Frederick was eleven at that point in time and he was scared. He did not dare to tell any of his friends and family about it and then after a few days, it was heard that Cecilia had left the household the child in him was convinced that she was murdered by his own cousin. A decade later he did find out the truth though. Cecilia had managed to run away from the torture chamber that was their basement with the help of a member of the gang who was enamoured with her. The end was not a sweet elopement and happily ever after.

Jasper was loyal to the Bartoli household and he knew that Cecilia was suspected of being a mole in the house. He did not wish to bear the wrath of the family and yet he could not let the woman he fancied be tortured repeatedly before his eyes. He did what any hot-blooded man would do in his stead. He raped Cecilia and shot her between the eyes, thus sating his desire and giving her an early respite.

It was Alexander who told Frederick the truth. Alexander was the cousin responsible for interrogating Cecelia who had, in fact, served the enemy. But she claimed to have taken refuge in their household because of the Mariposa clan harassing her on a regular basis. Alexander had convened a meeting of the elders to decide whether to trust Cecilia or not. The next day he returned to give her back her freedom when he found her dead body and Jasper claiming that he had killed her while she attempted to run away. Alexander had taken one look at the close-range shot between her eyes, and one on her ravaged clothes and swollen lips and had returned the favour by shoving a gun up his throat and blowing off his head. The splatter of blood in the basement ceiling remained for a while to remind the next suspect of what turn interrogation took place in the room.

Bartoli tried to keep his past buried but he couldn't help wondering that if his life would have been different had his past not been the one he was alotted with. The glass of scotch in his hand was untouched. The touch on his shoulder brought him back to the present. 'They deserve this Frederick'. It was not Julia whom he expected. It was Stella. 'I don't know what Daisy has been through but I can tell you that her life has not been easy. The way she smiles, like she is afraid that all this will come crashing down any moment, tells me that she isn't used to being happy. Even right now she is more focused on Rupert's daughter than anything else. One day you will find this too.' she assured.

'It's difficult for me to find this Stella. The one thing that keeps me from having a home is my name. I can never know who from or outside my family wants me dead at any point in time. That is not a baggage that Tom ever had to bear. I don't mean them ill. It is just that I wish I could have it this easy.'

***

Tom had by now returned to work and so had Daisy. The awkwardness and tension between the Chairman and the CEO had ebbed to quite some extent. No one found out anything on Rosaline though Rupert called off the search after five days. He had been extremely silent on the matter and only Julia and Frederick knew what was going on and they being the psychiatrist and lawyer respectively was bound by a confidentiality agreement.

Daisy was enjoying her new position in the company. She found out that Frederick doubled as a CFO and legal advisor on an on-off basis for the company. Tom brought in external firms only when the project was of an extensive nature as in the case of Melinda International. Tom had a peculiar way of maintaining his property. None of the hotels he owned formed a chain. They were all individual units under a specific name like Melinda or Marylin or Miranda, each one of them was a woman's name starting with M. No one knew the reason why Tom named them such however each of them was identified by a different style and theme.

"I have scheduled the appointment for tomorrow", Tom suddenly said while barging into her cabin. Daisy was startled out of her thought at his sudden intrusion. Her heart loudly thumped as the adrenaline struggled to settle.

"Tom, you can't barge in like that un-announced," Daisy complained.

"And you can't expect me to knock at the door of someone who is both my wife and employee." Tom countered.

"I meant you could call me to your cabin." Daisy didn't like arguments especially when it involved Tom's already fragile ego.

"Why? Can I not pay you a visit?" Tom asked, his eyes turning dark.

"Come here, Tom." Daisy got up from her desk and invited him with open arms for a hug. The mischief in Tom's eyes already told her that it would be much more than a hug.

After an hour or so Tom was sitting on the couch kept at a corner in Daisy's office with her seated on his lap. "What was the appointment that you were talking of then?" she asked leaning on her back into his chest.

"We are meeting Andrew tomorrow. We have a child to conceive, remember?"