Chapter 2 THE VALDEZ

CHAPTER 1

It was late in the afternoon. Though the warm sun blazoned above, and the interiors of the Valdez's mansion was warm, his wife was shivering terribly. The humidifier was turned on too. Jason Valdez watched his shivering wife with pity. The blanket meant to keep her warm seem to be doing a better job now. But that did little to stop the pain she was in.

The private nurse he paid to attend to her round the clock, checked her drip and quietly left the room. His wife turned slightly and he was by her bedside instantly. He helped her up a little and sat down with her. Her smile was pained. He swallowed pitifully, short of words to soothe her.

Ellen Valdez smiled at her devoted husband, "You should be at work."

With a dark grimace, Jason looked at her. The sadness he felt in his heart was masked with a courageous smile. He shifted uncomfortably under her piercing gaze. He didn't want her seeing through the facade.

"Work can hold. I won't leave you for that. You know that." His grumbling stomach reminded him the last meal he had was brunch, yesterday.

She let her hand pat down his stomach, "Please eat. You cannot really take care of me if you faint." She teased, pressing the bell beside her, the sound could be heard echoed in the other room.

The nurse rushed to her room immediately. "Please tell Cora to get my husband served a voluptuous meal here." The nurse nodded and left immediately.

"You must eat here, if you want me to stop worrying about you."

His love for her burned in his face. He smiled down at her. This was one reason he loved her. Ellen was a bright soul. He had met her at a very dark period in his life. Raised as the sole heir to the Valdez umpire, growing up had been lonely. He had no siblings to play with and no friends. His parents were hardly home. They were always on business travels or family gatherings.

At age six, he had been shipped off to boarding school. Though the Valdez was feared, the little heir was seen only as a tool to amass great wealth. Many had become friends with him just to prey on him. His named alone opened series of doors for him. But that could be both good and bad.

The seniors looked for every way to get him in a corner and collect whatever he had on him. Nothing was spared, his money, his gold chain, even designer shoes. They were sold and cashed outside the school by buyers no one knew of. A kind teacher had picked interest in him and scared off senior bullies, but didn't help. He wasn't always around to fight for him. And to the young boy, reporting after the deed had been done was barking up the wrong tree. The bullies might be punished but what had been done, had been done.

Nobody could help him. In his desperation he had told his dad who was bent over his laptop one evening.

"They sell my things."

But it had been something strange to say, apparently. The school's walls were as high and strong as anything. No one knows how the buyers came in and how the things were sold. So, naturally his father had assumed he was lying so he could change his school.

"Who's buying them?" His father asked, laughing deeply but still concentrated on his work he had been doing.

"I don't know how, but they sell....stuff. My gold chain was taken and I searched everywhere for it. It just vanished. Even my Rolls-Royce wristwatch."

"Then you didn't search everywhere. It must have been hidden somewhere."

He continued to rant in his father's ears until exhausted, the man had screamed that he would do something. "I'll change your school, okay?"

The sad boy had busted into tears. Surprised and frustrated, his father had asked, "Isn't that the whole point of all this? I'll fix it." He promised.

Nothing had been done about it. The torture continued until three months after when he lost both parents. It had been a fatal plane crash that claimed lots of lives.

Though they hadn't been much help while alive, their death was a blessing. He became the sole owner of chains of businesses. And he was to assume ownership immediately. And so little Jadon Valdez was forced to grow up at such tender age. The first thing he did was changed his school.

The school were disappointed and reluctant to let him go. They did all they could to hold him back until he threatened to expose the misdeeds going on in the school. It worked! And so, at a young age, he had learned to fend for himself.

He had learnt mastery of blackmails and threats in cutting deals. If the Valdez family was feared, the young heir was feared more. He bought a harem of hefty security men and ran the businesses using the internet as his guide. Sometimes he erred greatly, but he learnt as he grew.

His father had been kind enough to document every business deal and gain. He wrote down how to deal with some clients and the percentages accorded to certain customers. Leaving this behind in a big ledger helped. Jason employed the best Tutors and was home schooled. He learnt the business gimmicks from the father's ledger and online. His tutors were from all over the world.

He became fascinated with developing software. One of his tutors turned him to a Ukrainian developer who helped him put his interest to good use. He became one of the best developer ever. At age fifteen, he developed a software that translated his father's secret letter entering that had been coded. He didn't trust anyone to translate and not steal off his company. He worked at getting his own translator and succeeded.

But even the Almighty Jason who was successfully running great business chains failed to master the tricks of the heart. When he turned twenty, already with the physique and prestige he carried, he became a popular face.

As a developer, his works brought him into limelight. Women flocked around him. He partied hard and worked harder. And then he'd met his first love; Kelsy. Just like that, everything he'd learnt over the years went flying into the woods. He fell in love hard. Over the years, he had made some pretty bad enemies as a business tycoon.

It was too late to realise Kelsy was the daughter of his number one enemy; Jonah Hill. Kelsy Hills was on a mission to get his latest gadget and was successful. It had been a huge blow.

Like every lesson learnt the hard way, he had been taught not to love women. He used and discarded them at will. Never letting anyone in. He was in that dark moment when he had met Ellen. She was employed by his company extension in the lower level and they had met in the elevator. He rarely used the staff elevator. That evening however, he had mindlessly strolled down the lower floors and his security had assumed he wanted to, so they had followed him obediently.

Ellen's bright smile and demeanour had caught his attention instantly. So he began to monitor the lower floor and see what was going on there since he didn't want to ask his PA or PI looking into it.

At first, her sweetness was a turn off. He hated women who acted all innocent and sweet. Kelsy had been that way when they first met. But Elle was just being who she is; herself. It took a long time to realise she was real. And the moment he saw her as the light he needed in his life, he pursued her relentlessly.....until he had fallen sick.

A strong cough brought Jason back from his dive into the past. He stood up to get tissue for the blood that was sure to accompany that terribly disturbing cough. Another vigorous spasm shook her again and he reached over to clean the blood. Her face was tightly squeezed in pain.

"It hurts." Ellen said, unable to bear it anymore, "I'm sorry, Jase...you have to let me go."

It felt nice to be able to breathe in the cool air. Evangeline Swiss smiled as she walked down the short driveway to her Maserati. She was dying for a hot blast of Los Angeles cool air. Nothing like having the cool air fanning your face. She started the car and drove out into the heavy traffic typical of Los Angeles.

The city was boisterous with activities as usual. Horns blared everywhere. It wasn't unusual to see people gathered in a corner. They were probably marketing stuff. Evan rolled down her glass and let the cool air blow her face. She smiled while letting her left hand dangle down the side of her car.

The cool air blew it. "Yeasss." She yelled and wind up the glass again. As the traffic light turned red, she stepped on the brake. A little girl was being helped across the road. She turned and smiled at the elderly woman who waved her off. What attracted her was her hairdo. It was full and nicely rolled up.

It reminded her of her niece, her sister's chatty twin. Remembering her sister had called earlier, she reached for her iPhone and quickly scanned through the several missed calls.

A couple calls had been left by her sister, "Siri, call Adriana."

As the phone rang on the other end, Evans wondered why her sister left her several calls just out of the blues. Adriana wasn't one to call more than twice. But today, she had left close to ten calls and four messages all saying the same thing: "Call me."

"Finally, Evan. What the heck is wrong with you? Are you okay?" Adriana said in rushed tone. She must have been eating.

"Am I okay? Girl you literally blew up my phone. What's going on?"

The swift intake of breath on the other end made the hairs on Evan's neckline stand. Something wasn't right. "Adriana?" She called.

"What's going on? Are you eating? Are the twins okay?"

"Yes. I'm having lunch. The twins are okay too. It's you I'm worried about." Adriana replied from the other end a little reluctantly.

"I'm fine. I've been busy closing up a huge deal. It took almost a week. And you know how that goes for me." Evangeline tried explaining still feeling uneasy. Adriana was skirting around a particular problem and she was trying hard to figure it out. If it had to do with her, she wonders if the deal she had just closed had a clause she hadn't seen it. But aside her PA, Audrey no one else knew about the deal.

"Yes, you shut the whole world out." Adriana muttered sadly jeering Evans back to the present.

The other cars behind her blasted their horns angrily. Evangeline started the car and started driving. "You say that like it's wrong."

"You know how I feel about it. Only dad does that and look what it did to mom."

"Well. I'm not dad. And I don't have any spouse to hurt," she dismissed her concern as she smoothly navigated the car into the mall.

"Maybe not this time. What about Logan? Have you tried to know if that hurts him?" Adriana asked again.

"He's a busy man Ad. He's got an empire to run." Evan dismissed stepping out of the car. "I'm heading towards his apartment after shopping."

"When was the last time you went online?"

"Oooh, what did I miss?" She started to reach for her phone.

On the other end, Adriana realised that was a mistake, "No, no. Don't do that." Adriana was screaming on the other end. "There's something you should know." She was saying but she could sense her sister was no longer with her. She knew even before she heard her say "Siri, show me recent online updates."

Evan would be seeing the ghastly pictures right about now. "Evan? Evangeline? Evan?"

Evangeline stared in shock at the pictures on her phone. She jerked as she heard her sister shouting her name. Steadying her breathe, she spoke into the phone in a raspy voice, "Ad, let me call you back." Then disconnected the call.

"You've got to be kidding me." She said, slumping in the car. She took her time going through every horrid picture. When she was done beating herself up mentally, she turned off the car, locked it and stepped out. Calling a cab, she gave the driver Logan's address.