A SURPRISE VISIT

Xavier finished talking to Amber’s parents. He liked them already. They were both friendly and spoke with a lot of knowledge. He stood up from the couch in an attempt to walk them out of the house.

"Take care of my daughter, and remember, no sex until you get married." Mrs. Darlington said, patting him on the back, before walking to her husband and putting her hand around him, helping him out of the house. He narrowed his eyes at them. 

"Is there something wrong with her father? He doesn’t look too well." He thought and ran to them. 

"I will walk you home, mom," he beamed. 

"Oh, Xavier, you don’t have to, but who am I to reject your kind gesture?" Mrs. Darlington said with a playful laugh. Bella was just walking behind them. She was invisible in their sight. 

They walked to the garage. Bella took a seat in the front seat of the car next to Mrs. Darlington and started the car. Xavier was in the back seat with Mr. Darlington, who extended his hand to his wife in the front seat. She took out an inhaler from her bag and handed it to him.

He took it and sniffed it. Xavier moved a little bit away from him to give him space to breath.

"I didn’t know her father was an asthma patient," he thought, gazing at him when his phone started ringing. It was a call from his father. After a long time, his dad finally remembered him. He picked up the call and put it in his ear. He was about to speak when his father interrupted.

"How are you doing, son? I can’t believe you are serious about wanting to spend the rest of your life in another city," his dad said.

"I am serious and I have found the girl of my dreams. We are engaged." He giggled, and his eyes met with Mr. Darlington, who was smiling at him.

"Wow, that’s amazing. Bring her to see me some day, okay?" his dad asked in a happy tone.

"Yes, dad, I will surely bring her to see you." he beamed.

"I want you to take care of yourself and stay out of trouble. I don’t want you to get arrested in another city." His dad advised.

"Okay, dad, take care of yourself." He beamed and hung up, smiling, as he put his phone back in his pocket. The remaining drive was quiet and bumpy. Bella put on some cool music to lighten up the mood. Amber’s father was enjoying the song. He was moving his legs a little to the rhythm of the music. 

Bella drove the car into a classy looking mansion, and Xavier marveled at the interior design as they all started getting out of the car. "Her parents are also rich." He thought with a smile and ran to the other side, helping Mr. Darlington to walk with his hand around his shoulder.

 Mr. Darlington started wobbling with his legs shaking continuously, and collapsed on the floor before Xavier could prevent him from hurting his head. He was already on the floor. It all happened so quickly that he couldn’t move. He froze at the spot with his mouth wide open, but Bella and Mrs. Darlington didn’t look surprised. Instead, they rushed over to him on the floor.

"What are you staring at? Help him up!" Bella half yelled, jolting him out of his trance. 

"O…Okay," he stuttered and squatted, carrying Mr. Darlington in his arms. 

"Be careful, come with me." Mrs. Darlington said, leading him into the mansion, but he was still stunned as to why they didn’t react much to him collapsing all of a sudden. He entered Mr. Darlington’s room with his wife and placed him on the bed. He was quite heavy, but the thought in his head didn’t make him notice.

"Call the doctor, Bella," Mr. Darlington declared. Bella quickly took out her phone and walked out of the room.

"What’s wrong with him? Why did he collapse all of a sudden?" Xavier finally found his voice.

"He faints occasionally. He is in his final stage. His body is too weak to perform its functions. I think this is a side effect of the bone marrow cancer he used to have." She explained. His jaw dropped.

"Is there anyway we can prevent him from dying?" he asked with a lot of concern.

"No dear, there is no way." she said, and tears welled up in her eyes. He walked over to her and put his hand around her, consoling her. "I have accepted it. We all have to leave this earth some day," she muttered and composed herself. He handed her his handkerchief.

"Thank you," she beamed and started using the handkerchief to wipe her tears. 

"Thank goodness, I am here." he muttered, taking out his phone. She looked up at him. 

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I am calling Amber," he replied. She quickly snatched the phone from him. 

"Please don’t call her, she is at work. She needs to focus on her job. I don’t want her to be worried about us. I haven’t found the right time to tell her about all this," she muttered.

"But she has a right to know." He protested. She nodded. "Yes, she does, but not now." she answered.

Daniel dashed into the room with Bella with a worried expression, and his facial expression changed the moment he saw Xavier.

"What is he doing here?" he asked.

"What are you doing here? I asked Bella to call the family doctor, not you." Mrs. Darlington replied.

"I was less busy, so I decided to come when I heard Bella called the doctor in the hospital. I have asked him not to come. I will treat my father." Daniel said and took off his coat, handing it to Bella. She handed him his briefcase. He sat next to his father on the bed and grabbed his hand, feeling his pores.

"Is he going to be okay?" Xavier asked concerned.

"Affirmative." Daniel replied flatly.

Amber was in the factory, supervising the production of the perfume with her secretary, and she couldn't help but ask about Lucas.

"Um, what about Lucas? Why isn’t he coming to see me? Hasn’t he come to work?" she asked curiously. 

"He has. I think he is doing something very important in his office, because he hasn’t left his office for quite a while now." he replied. 

"Hmm, I think he is avoiding me." she muttered in a low tone, but he heard it.

"Why do you think that?" he asked.

"No special reason," she replied, touching a perfume that had been separated from the others. "Why is this one here?" she inquired. 

"It’s the first one we created. We wanted to show it to you. Since you are here, why don’t you test it?" The factory manager remarked. She smirked and grabbed it, spraying it on her hand and also on her secretary’s hand. She sniffed it; it was the scent she wanted. She had a testing department, but she liked seeing the product before they did. 

"This is good; it smells nice," she beamed, smiling widely. She started hearing the screams of her employees from outside and was curious to know why they were making a lot of noise.

"Hold this," she said, and handed the perfume to her secretary, who started walking out of the factory. She sauntered over to the elevator and got into it. "Why are they screaming so much? Is something bad happening?" she thought. Her heart was beating hard in her chest. 

She arrived on the first floor, and someone nearly bumped into her. "Sorry boss." The lady apologized and got into the elevator. She sauntered out of the elevator and sighted Xavier walking in the direction of the elevator holding a pink lunch box. He looked handsome as he walked majestically. All her female employees were gushing over him like they had seen a celebrity. Her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. 

"What the fuck is he doing here?" She muttered, gazing at him. Their eyes met. He smiled widely at her. She didn’t return the smile. Instead, she ran over to him and grabbed his hand, dragging him in the direction of the elevator.

"What are you doing here? We need to talk." She said with a frown. 

"Ma'am, your boyfriend is very handsome," one of the female employees told her, smiling widely at her.

"Shut your trap and get to work!" she snapped at her. They got into the elevator but didn’t start it.

"Why did you come here without telling me?" she asked, looking up at him with a frown.

"Calm down, babydoll, I came to give you your lunch." He said, flaunting the lunch box.

"Why didn’t you ask Peter to bring it for me? That’s his job." She scolded. He chuckled. "I wanted to see how you were doing. That’s why I brought it, but since you don’t want it, I will leave." he said, attempting to walk out of the elevator.

"Wait!" she said, and grasped his hand, taking the lunch box from him. "I never said I didn’t want it, did I? Why do you have to come all the way here?" She said, putting her hand on her forehead, and sighted some employees staring at them.