ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-ONE

SHIMMER'S POV

I don't know which word could have better described my feeling. Was I irritated? Or angry? Or I had a feeling of defeat? Defeated? No. Definitely not defeated. Or was it just tiredness? The wedding had really taken a toll on me. While I was sitting down, some thoughts started to cross my mind. I recalled the time when Ciera came to me, suggesting that she wanted to add Anisha to her wedding list, and that had really driven me up the wall. I hated that idea to the core. Why was my family failing to see that Anisha was not good enough for Dylan? The de Milos. We were the richest family in Lakeworld… the society obviously expected more from us.

Dylan...what was wrong with that son of mine? Many times I saw beautiful doctors, pharmacists, physiotherapists and various others at the hospital. He saw them too; he worked with them, for crying out loud; and yet he seemed blind when it came to them! All his childhood, I had made efforts of always exposing him to the rich people around us. Of course, we attended all those posh dinners; the balls and all the other functions….I had taken him to all of them, hoping that he would find interest in one girl from a decent family.

I hated to admit it, but I was never the type that would like to choose a girl for my son. It sounded too outdated for me; yet Dylan seemed to be pushing me back to the Victorian era, or whatever era it was when mothers used to pick their own daughters in law….Harper; her name continued to pop up in my mind. What had happened between Dylan and Harper? Surely Harper came from a rich family; it would not be embarrassing to introduce her to my friends.

Suddenly the words that Harper told me over the phone came flashing back in my mind…

...To be frank with you, Mrs de Milo; Dylan was never in love with me. He can never be in love with me….Dylan never loved me, Mrs de Milo…..In his heart there is a girl…..Dylan solely and wholly belongs to that girl …All I know about her are her initials, A.M. …. Each time Dylan spoke about that girl; which I must admit was rare, those were the only times I ever had to experience his love. Experiencing it as he showed it to another; but never to me! His eyes said it all, his smile; the excitement that he would have...his whole aura would change as soon as he mentioned that girl….He loved her…..as we sat together during dates; I felt the force of A.M.'s presence. It was like she was the third invisible date, silent, not saying anything, but further widening the valley between Dylan and I….Dylan's heart was taken...by that girl whose initials are A.M. …. woman under the sun, can ever be able to replace A.M. in Dylan's heart….. A.M. was sculptured and fixed permanently in his heart…... he will take her to the grave….

What was it about Anisha that he loved so much? To my knowledge, Anisha was Dylan's first love. First crush, maybe. She was beautiful, very beautiful to be honest, but I had thought that my son was wise enough to know that beauty on its own is not enough when choosing a life partner.

I sat in my chair and told myself maybe it was time to get to know her better. Not that I accepted her, but maybe if I got to know her, I too could pick what it was about her that made Dylan love her so much.

My mind trailed back to the evening of the handover ceremony.

"Who is that pretty girl?"

"Which family is she from?"

"What does she do?"

"Whose child is she?"

My friends had asked all types of questions. They wanted to know who she was. But how could I have brought myself to mention that she was the girl from the orphanage; the babysitter who trended overnight for kidnapping the la Martina son? Why was Dylan failing to understand where I was coming from? Why was he being like that? Was he doing it to spite me…but then, why would he want to spite me? He was my son, and I wanted the best for him.

Roderick and I had worked too hard to just hand over the de Milo empire to some girl who brought absolutely nothing to the table. Although the de Milo group of hospital was a business way older than both myself and Roderick, we had played a huge part in growing it. Roderick's great grandfather was the one who started it with a clinic, and his grandfather expanded the clinic into a hospital. He also built another clinic. Roderick's dad, my father in law, was the one who then built two more hospitals before he sadly passed away. Roderick being the only child of his father, started to run the group. When we got married, I was coming from a rich family.

My father was a well known politician who served two terms as Lakeworld's Minister of Information and Technology, two terms in the Education Sector and one term as a team member in the presidential advisory team. My parents owned various well established businesses in Lakeworld. When Roderick and I got married, he helped us to grow the de Milo Group of Hospitals. My mother was a well known university professor, and she too brought in well appreciated advise in helping Roderick and I to grow the de Milo Group. In addition to planting hospitals across Lakeworld, we had managed to open two hospitals in Hallowcave. We had worked hard. It pained me to think that Anisha wanted to come in and reap it all; while she brought nothing with her. No! No; Dylan had to do better. He had to bring us a girl who could also contribute something. A lady with some business background, someone who understood what it meant to run a successful business. I wanted a lady who had a firm background; solid, rich, well backed. What would happen if the de Milo Group went through some financial problems? Who would help Dylan out?

Ciera had done well. Getting married to Keith Junior Octavia was a very good move. As a mother; I was super proud of Ciera. Keith Junior, a handsome well focused man, was already competing with the giants in the entertainment industry. He was doing very well, and even if his film producing company, K JNR PRODUCTIONS, was to face any financial hiccups, he had Keith and Honour to help him up. The chances of him failing were very slim to none. K JNR PRODUCTIONS had already won an award in film production, during their first year of joining the industry. I found myself smiling when I thought of Ciera. My daughter made me proud over and over. It was just that recently, she had shown signs of warming up to Anisha. This Anisha…she brought too many problems!! Ciera even wanted her at her wedding?! Over my dead body!

My thoughts were cut short when the door to my office opened and my PA entered with a scared face. What was she scared of now? How irritating!

"Why didn't you knock?" I demanded.

"I…I knocked many times, doctor de Milo. I am sorry. I thought you were not in, so I opened the door."

"What do you need?" I wanted her to get straight to the point and just leave me alone.

"Err, a lawyer from the Rockridge Law Firm is here to see you."

"Let her in," I sighed.

The young lady came in and got straight to the point. She handed me the title deeds and two sets of car keys.

"Would you like to see the cars now? My manager was complaining that it shouldn't be my job to facilitate the buying of the cars...but when I told her that it's a request from you, she softened up." The girl smiled.

"She doesn't know what she's talking about. Which cars did we get, by the way? I become forgetful sometimes."

"We settled on the Pagani and Kia Sorento. Very beautiful cars." She smiled.

"Thanks a lot."

The young lady stood up to leave and I walked her out. On my way back to my office, my PA smiled knowingly before saying, "I'm sorry to ask. I saw car keys? A Pagani? You got one, didn't you? Wow, doctor de Milo; you are more than blessed."

"Are you done working on that spreadsheet I sent you?" I snapped at her, and she crawled back to her laptop and started typing away.