Chapter Fourteen

"This is the best advice I will give to you,marry Valerie."

"I won't." Albert stormed out of the room in anger.

Smith didn't know what to do. He felt his son was going to listen to him. He also knew it was going to be difficult to convince his son because Albert was a stubborn person. He thought for a while before dialing few numbers on his cellphone.

A COUPLE OF MINUTES LATER:

"You're the closet to my son. I want you to be very sincere to me. " Smith said to John.

"I'm always ready to give you honest answers Sir."

"What exactly is going on between my son and that Sofia girl. Or to be precise,how do you see their relationship?"

 John replied,"The Young Master treats Ma'am Sofia with  care though she doesn't reciprocate the care."

"Do you think he genuinely care for her?"

"I can't really say for now Sir."

       Smith was short of words. He simply gestured John to leave the room. He pondered on what John told him and prayed his doesn't fall in love with Sofia."No he won't." Smith said to himself.

..

..

Albert angrily left his father's room for his bedroom when he bumped into Valerie. 

"I'm so sorry. I was actually heading for your room."

 "No problem."

"It's about our agreement. We'll play around today, right?"

"I'm so sorry. I don't think I'll be able to do that today."

"But why?" Valerie questioned in disappointment. But Albert had already left her. She hissed in anger and left for her bedroom. 

"How dare he turn me down? Valerie was really pissed off by everything. She felt it would be easy to get Albert since he was a womanizer and also a close friend,more like a brother to her, though she didn't consider him as a brother. After much deliberations on how to get Albert's attention,she decided to sneak into Albert's bedroom. Maybe she wasn't looking sexy. A little more work on herself will do. She went to her wardrobe to select sexy wears. 

"But,how do I prepare his meal." Valerie mused.

This thought alone angered her the more. Over there in England,she was like a princess in her father's house. Ordering people around. She gets everything in just a finger's snap. How then could she learn to cook when she had servants to prepare dishes for her? 

"Ahhhhhh" She groaned in frustration." I may lose it because of excess thinking. What do I do now? Should I secretly ask a maid to guide me in cooking the ....Oh no what am I thinking? I can't possibly do that. Else they look down on me."

She then got another idea. This time she'll browse on how to cook the dish. She smiled at her wittiness. But she needed to know Albert's favorite dish. That's the next step. She immediately swung into action;she left the room in search of Albert's personal maid,Eva.

...

..

"Did you see Eva?" Valerie asked every servant she came across till one of them told her that she saw Eva in the kitchen. With the directions given to her, she went to the Smiths personal kitchen. Different from the kitchen where meals for others were prepared. 

"Do you need anything, Ma'am? Eva asked Valerie immediately she saw her enter the kitchen.

"Ehhmm, yea. I want to see you privately."

Eva came out of the kitchen for a tete à teté with Valerie. Valerie enquired about Albert's favorite dish and Eva told her all she needed to know.

"Thank you." Valerie said to Eva before letting her go back to what she was doing.

"Please be fast." Eva said to the maids working at the Smiths private kitchen.

"Yes Ma'am." They replied in unison.

..

..

"Seafood Paella. Sea....fo...od...pa...e.lla." Valerie kept on saying while searching about the food online. "What sort of a food is this? Gosh,a lot of fishes: mussels,clams, shrimps.... Oh my goodness."

She read through the guidelines and marveled at the cooking procedure.

"I haven't cooked my entire life. But I'll try." Valerie convinced herself. Valerie went to meet Eva  the second time to help her prepare the ingredients needed."

"Thank you" Valerie said to Eva as soon as everything was ready to be used for cooking. She had made Eva instruct some maids to prepare all needed for cooking.She was also allowed to use the kitchen per Smith's order.

..

  ..

After all set and done;

"I hope he likes it." She said happily.

Valerie freshened up, she wore a floral dress that exposed her cleavages,a little tightfisted and transparent. She applied some makeups and her best perfume. She looked at herself the last time and left satisfied with herself.

Valerie packaged the food in a flask and hurriedly aimed for Albert's front door which led to several inner doors belonging to Albert and of which,one is the Master's bedroom.

DOORBELL RINGS.

"Good morning Ma'am." A security guard greeted Valerie politely.

“Morning, Please is Albert in ?” 

“Yes Ma’am .”

“ Let me in I want to see him.”

The security guard searched in his mind if John, Albert’s assistant told them of  Valerie’s coming. He politely declined the request.

“What do you mean you can’t let me in?”

“That’s the instruction from our Master. We only let people into his flat on his command.”

“You must be stupid. Don’t you know who I am?”

“I’m sorry Ma’am.” 

The security guard closed the door on Valerie. He wasn’t ready to lose his job. He knew what some of his colleagues went through because they disobeyed their Master.

“Open this door this minute!” Valerie screamed at the security guard.

When she saw he wasn’t going to listen to her, she backed down and went back to her room.

*Graaaaang*

Valerie kept destroying every thing in her room. She was so frustrated by everything happening to her. She wanted to tell her Dad,but No. She’ll implicate the family and finally lose Albert’s attention. 

*Knock*Knock*

A knock came at Valeria’s door. Valerie ignored the knock but the knocker persisted. He continued knocking till Valerie opened the door.

“What the heck is wrong with you?” Valerie yelled at the guard knocking at the door. Her face immediately went blank as soon as she was faced with the owner of the house; SMITH.

“What is wrong with you?” Smith questioned Valerie. Valerie gave no response and Smith walked into her room out of curiosity.

“OMG. Why are you destroying everything in this room?” Smith asked softly. His facial expression was also light. This relieved Valerie a bit because she thought she was going to be sent out of the house.

“Get the servants to clean this room and transfer everything here to another room.” Smith ordered the security guard. He turned to the other guard, “Call a doctor to check on her health and update me afterwards.”

“Yes Master.” The servants bowed politely and left the room leaving Smith and Valerie.

“Let’s go outside.” Smith offered. He wanted Valerie to be calm. He also wondered why Valerie could exhibit such violent behaviour.

Thank you.” Valerie said to the maid who served her cold juice.

“Care to share your problems with me?”

Valerie hesitated for a while before she decided to open up. ’Maybe he might be of help.’ She thought.

“I’m in love with Albert.” Valerie said straight faced.

Smith was stunned for a moment. He didn’t know what to say. This was all he wanted. It was as if everything is working as he planned.

“Wow.” Smith exclaimed clapping his hands. “This is great.”  Valerie was also surprised. She knew Smith cared for her but she never thought he would also want her for his son.

“Have you told him?”

“No. But I tried getting his attention but he rejected me today. I decided to cook for him. But one of his security guards refused let me in.” Valerie narrated. “He even poured abuses on me when I told him to inform his Master and he shut his door on me.” Valerie lied.

“What! I’m really sorry for what happened to you but I promise to get to the root of this matter and do not back down. I want you to pursue my son till you’ve gained his heart.”

“Thank you so much Sir “ Valerie was extremely happy. At least she had a back bone. She was going to return to the Smiths, a different person, ready for war. She thought.

“My Lady, I’m sure of what I’m saying.” Mira told Sofia. “Lucy was amongst the maids that prepared today’s meal. She told me all that transpired.”

“But isn’t she crazy to do that?” Lady Lily added.

“She thinks she could get Albert’s attention with that. Goat-brained.”

All these while a conversation was going on between the duo, Sofia was in another world. Thinking the remedy to the situation she is into.

“My Lady.” Mira called Sofia with a tap. She knew her mistress’ thoughts has drifted into the other world. Full of worry, fear, hurts e.t.c.

"I'm tired. Let me go and get some rest." Sofia said to them.

" Please take care of yourself Ma'am."

           **************

Author's note: I want to apologize to my dear readers for not updating for a long time but I promise a regular update from now.

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