6. The Trip to Fulfilment 1

At Dover.

Denise arrived at his company clinic in trepidation. He ran in and came out with two nurses pushing a wheeled stretcher. They wheeled Olivia with the stretcher into the Intensive Care Unit while Denise looked aimlessly into the space, and reminisced the meeting he had with his Godfather earlier on.

“Could she be the one? I have a thing for her already.”

Then, a nurse at the reception, who attempted to open a file for her, turned to Denise, who was standing and panicking beside her, and asked, “Boss, permit me to ask, what is her name?”

Instantly, Denise looked at her, and hesitated, but the nurse attributed his hesitancy to confusion, and said, “Mrs. Denise, Right?”

Without waiting for his response, she wrote it on her card, did more writings and stood up to join the doctor at the ICU while Denise stood at the reception, speechless.

“Mrs. Denise? Funny,” he muttered. After a few minutes, when he got tired of standing, he took a seat and continued waiting. Before another thirty minutes, the doctor walked up to him and announced, “Mr. Bailey, can we talk in my office?”

With apprehension, he followed the doctor obediently to his office, and he signaled him to the visitors’ seat and said, “Kindly sit down.”

The anxious Denise took his seat and waited for the doctor’s comment. Then, the doctor began, “I'm sorry to inform you that she had a miscarriage of about two months. She needs some rest. In the next one hour, she would be fit to go home. Kindly take care of her.”

However, Denise showed worries, but the doctor comforted, “No need to worry, Mr. Bailey, the two of you are still young, you can still have as many children as you wish. My condolences.”

“I appreciate, Dr. Harper,” Denise managed to say.

At Denise's Apartment.

Denise, had moved out of the Bailey's Native Home at the Bailey Close and was residing at the Executive Quarters of the Bailey International Conglomerates. After one hour of waiting as the doctor advised, he took Olivia home. As he drove into his compound with Olivia in the passenger’s seat, his security man opened the gate and greeted, “Welcome back, boss.”

“Thank you, John. How are you?” Denise asked when he got out of his car.

“I'm fine, boss.”

Then, he opened the passenger's door, and helped Olivia out. Thereafter, he walked her into the house.

“Kindly come out. You will be fine,” Denise urged.

“Thank you,” the drowsy and bewildered Olivia appreciated. When they got into the house, he guided her to the bedroom and made her to sit on the bed. They exchanged glances while Olivia laid on the bed, but her eyes were still weak. Within a short while, she slept off. Denise stood by the bedside and reminisced his meeting with his Godfather earlier that day again. A few seconds later, he regained his consciousness, took another look at her and smiled.

'She is pretty,' he thought. After he removed his walkout wears and changed into his casual wears, he walked to the Kitchen to prepare a meal for his guest. He decided to do that for his special guest by himself because he would not trust his janitor with that. At last, he served the food at the dining table, returned to his room and rested on the couch. After some minutes, he began to prepare for work. In the meantime, he carried out most of his activities carefully in the bathroom and parlor so that he would not disturb her sleep.

“It is so unfortunate that I am on Night Duty today. I wish father would permit my absence,” he thought. Although, it was his family company, he was careful not to take his father for granted by abstaining from work at will. When he was set for work, he walked back to the bedroom only to discover that she was still sleeping soundly, and he was scared. Then, he walked back to the parlor, and gave the doctor a call.

“Hello, Dr. Harper,” he greeted after he picked.

“Hello, Mr. Bailey. How is she?”

“I'm scared, doctor. She had been sleeping since we returned.”

“Yes. She needed to sleep. She had been under acute stress, and antidepressants drugs will cool her nerves.”

“Are you saying that the sleep is normal?”

“Certainly.”

“It is all right, thank you, doctor.”

“You are welcome.”

At that point, he walked back to the bedroom with a pen and a notebook. Then, he reminisced his encounter with the nurse at the hospital, and chuckled.

“What could be her name?” He asked himself, but when he could not get an answer, he shrugged his shoulders and dropped a note for her all the same.

(Please, dear, I would have loved to keep you company, but I have to be at work. Your food is on the dining table. In case you need my attention, call my security or the janitor, and they will reach out to me. Take care of yourself. Denise.)

Afterward, he walked back to the parlor, looked around for the janitor to instruct him on what to do in his absence. When he could not find him, he walked to the veranda, where he met John, called out, “John.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Where is Caleb?”

“Let me get him,” he volunteered, and walked to the boys’ quarters while Denise stood patiently and waited for them. Soon, John arrived with the janitor.

“Boss, you sent for me.”

“Yes, Caleb. We have a visitor, and she is just out of the hospital. You must not be far away from the house. Whenever she wakes up, attend to her and give me a call. Did you get me?”

“I got it, Boss.”

“That is good. I will be on my way.”

At 3:30 pm, he left for work, hoping to get to the office by 4:00 pm.

At Sevenoaks

To Louis, the waiting period seemed like an eternity. Soon the call came again through the security landline, and the officer picked.

“She is not around,” the janitor pointed out.

“Thank you,” the security officer appreciated, and looked at the young man before him, whom he was sure must have heard what the janitor said, and informed dismissively, “Young Master, she is not around. Have a pleasant day.”

At that moment, Louis's condition became worse than when he came. He thanked the officer and walked back to his car. Presently, he was sweating profusely under the cold, and had no clues of where she could be. Likewise, he could not explain how he drove back to his house. Then, he lamented, “What came over me? The woman that I had waited for three years to be out of school before I went to bed with her. The girl I loved with my life is missing with my pregnancy.”

Evening—At Louis House

Louis, was lying on the floor of his bedroom, and was a shadow of himself because he had not had any food, coupled with his missing love. By his family upbringing, he was not the sociable type. That was why he had his first girlfriend at twenty-one – his penultimate year in the university, and maintained her until date. He had the same character as Olivia, and that made the two of them.

Now, he recalled how he met her, and rushed her to the hospital. After she was discharged that day, he drove her to the grocery shop and got enough fruit for her before he took her to the hostel. He never asked her to be his girlfriend, but she naturally became one. After his graduation, he was still visiting her in school.

That day, part of him was gone, and he did not have any friend he could confide in apart from his cousin, Denise, whom he would not want to discuss such a dicey matter with.