Chapter 4 Four

ARIA

I sat on a stool at the balcony, looking below at the people parading the vicinity. My laptop was open, my earphones plugged in but I was in no mood for movies. Rosco sat beside me, his head in my lap in solidarity. He seemed to always know how I was feeling even if we could not communicate verbally. Carol, my personal attendant, was cleaning my room and had sent me away. The middle aged midget, who had a thing for Iggy, was despicable. Thankfully, my father reshuffled the staff biennially to prevent any of them from getting too familiar with the surroundings. I could not wait to see her leave and never return.

My father was not home, lucky for me. I was not a very convincing liar and if he had asked for my own side of the story, I would have sang like a partridge. I was at my favourite balcony, the one facing the east wing of the compound when I heard Ignatius talking to someone on the phone and soon enough, Iggy became quiet and the person at the other end kept yelling, unwilling to listen to reason. Only one person could keep Iggy mute....my dad! He must have found out what happened somehow!

I picked Rosco's collar off the floor and tugged him into the nearest room, my laptop underneath my arm. The obedient animal complied with my urgency, bounding after me. I locked myself up in my room. Ignatius might be a ruthless man when the occasion arose but he was also loyal to the miniscule cell in his body to my father that no matter how he messed up, he would still make a report, disregarding the consequences. It was probably why my father had so much confidence in his methods and preferred to leave some decisions up to him rather than one of his own sons. My model pseudonym was A.I.R, an acronym made out of my initials but I was anything but. All I could hope was that Iggy was alright.

My laptop beeped close to me and I jumped in fright, my senses heightened for no reason. I closed my eyes tightly, opening the device slowly and drawing closer to the screen for proper scrutiny. It was Madelyn, requesting for a video call.

I accepted her request and her face appeared all over her screen, her narrow nose looking even more narrow. Madelyn looked the part: an ambitious red-head, an independent, accomplished agent who made the knees of her opponents wobble including so called chivalrous men. She was everything I was not which made making her my modeling agent perfect. She would handle the stingy companies, intimidating them to make use of their cheque books, doing all the negotiating on my behalf and all I had to do was show up to the set.

Madelyn Ava Guerrero was a formidable goddess even without the overrated public view of beauty and at 41, she was unmarried because according to her, she was yet to meet a man who could handle all the fire in her and honestly, I didn't doubt her. I secretly envied her independence and she had contributed greatly to my successful career. Where my father's connection could not get me into, she would fight her way in, arguing until I was given a chance to dazzle. I had been Page Three's November's Miss Immaculate all thanks to my agent's tenacious spirit. While I had been on my break, she had been in England, making preparations for my next doll job. I was resting and she was doing her job nonstop. Bless her soul.

"Have fun but not too much fun," she had admonished the last time we saw each other. In other words, she meant: Stay on your guard. Though she talked big and could challenge a lot of high-ups, she still believed in being careful and between her, Iggy and my father, I was as safe as a sheep in its fur. The only person she respected a lot was my father. They conversed like playmates at times, she occasionally poking him in the chest jocosely and he holding her by the waist sometimes. If they had slept together in the past, I was not surprised, neither was I interested in the details.

"Hi, Maddie," I hailed, trying to sound cheerful.

"Hello, munchkin. I was speaking to Iggy just a few minutes ago and he told me you have met Mr Walters." Oh, she had been the one talking to Iggy but was Iggy scared of her? My eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"I have indeed met him. What a cultural man," I managed to let out of my mouth, shoving down the words I badly wanted to describe him with.

"Mm-hmm. Well, I have some bad and good news. First, we cannot make use of the company private jet because it is undergoing some major maintenance procedures and your father is making use of his. But fortunately for us, Mr Walters has granted us the privilege of using one of his private jets so we can have a safe flight to England. You are to be at the airport with Ignatius at 7:45 am tomorrow morning, not a second late."

She was a continent away and she was still dropping orders like she owned the place. Maddie had not lost her touch. However, it was not Maddie I was thinking about; it was the billionaire who had just lent us one of his private jets. Why was he pulling wool over everyone's eyes? Why didn't he tell my father that I had been rude to him? Instead, he had kept my secret, even doing me favours.

"Will Mr Walters be meeting us at the jetport in England?" I wanted the audience to thank him personally.

Madelyn laughed in the fullbodied manner I was used to.

"Is someone longing for a certain billionaire?" She juggled her brows at me, misunderstanding the reason behind my question.

"No!" I quickly shut her down. "I mean, what would he even want with someone like me? I'm not the type of girl Calvin Walters would want on his arm." By the time I was done talking, I was heaving big breaths like the winner of a marathon race.

"Why you would think you are below his station is beyond my understanding but I will reserve my comment till I see you in person."

She grinned widely, her green eyes reminding me of Alice's Cheshire cat. "A pleasure talking as always, munchkin," she mocked and ended the video call with a push of her index finger on a button on her laptop.