Chapter 5 -5

Alexia woke up drenched in sweat screaming at the top of her lungs. It was barely 1:00am far into the night, but she was awakened by a horrifying nightmare. She was panting profusely with bids of tears drops flowing down from her eyes. Engulfed with fear, Alexia held the bed linen tightly with her eyes still shut refusing to let go, gradually her fears were coming back to her and the things she painstakingly tried to burry deep inside her heart were all resurfacing.

"Let go..let me go.." she screamed opening her eyes.

Alexia laid on the the bed staring at the ceiling, lost in her own world, for some moment she couldn't recover from the shock of the nightmare she had. It's the third time she's having nightmares since she got back to the city. Silently crying she laid on the bed, an excruciating pain was coming from her head as a result of how much alcohol she consumed the previous night, however she didn't care. She placed her palm on the left side of her chest and wailed bitterly .. this time she shouted and cried so loud - as though trying to let out all the pain she was feeling. She reached out under her pillow and brought out an old picture she stared at the picture with pain on her eyes while running her hands through it. It was a picture of a man, a woman, and a very little girl all dressed in Disney costumes in a children's pack smiling widely.

"Mum..dad.. I'm sorry" Alexia said

After a while Alexia stopped crying, and just then she discovered the pain in her head wasn't getting any less, she struggled and rolled endlessly on the bed before finally getting up. she knew she had to take something to relieve the pain, she got up and found her way to the kitchen. Getting there she found her Butler pouring some liquid into a cup

"Charles?" She called

"Yes ma" he responded while turning to face her, he gave her the cup saying "this will help with the headache"

when Alexia got home the previous night she recked of alcohol, he knew she was drinking and hence would wake up with a headache the following morning so he thought of fixing her something to help reduce the pain as soon as she got up.

"thank you" Alexia said talking the cup from him

"Charles.." she called

"get me a new place to stay please, a place closer to Cobb company preferably" she said moving towards the garden

Few years back, whenever she feels down she comes to this home. It was a house her mother had given to her as a gift on her eighteenth birthday. It garden was so big and beautiful. It had all of her favorite flowers planted in a circular pattern with a big fish pond at the middle of it. The reason she loved and frequented this home often was cause of the peaceful serene it has it was far away from the main city making the whole place so quiet like it in a different oasis ..

Time flew and it was 5:00am already. She knew she had to leave early to avoid been late cause the drive from her Villa to the office is more than an hour drive. She entered into the bathroom, and stood in front of the gigantic mirror, she stared at the reflection of herself in it and seeing the big eye bags underneath her eyes she sighed.

The nightmare she had yesterday came flashing before her sight and she wept bitterly, her legs couldn't carry her anymore as she eventually fell on the floor of the bathroom still weeping profusely.

Time and time again she felt like just giving up and ending her miserable life but thought against it. She had to take her own pounce of flesh from the people who made her this way, someone had to pay for her mother's death.

After spending forever in the bathroom and dressing room, Alexia finally got ready to head out. Dressed in a fitted black pants, black turtle neck top and a navy green blazer, she packed her hair In a very neat bun and applied an ample amount of makeup to hide the big eye bags underneath her eyes, she headed downstairs

"Good morning ma" Butler Charles greeted as soon as he saw Alexia coming downstairs

"Good morning Charles" she responded

"Breakfast??"

"No Charles am late for work" Alexia responded while walking to the large coffee table in the living room. She picked up her car keys and just before she left she turned around towards Charles and said

"I won't be coming back for a very long time"

In the CEO's office, Elliot was sited very uncomfortable and disturbed with Harry standing beside him. He picked up the file in front of him containing everything related to Alexia and stared at it for the third time.

"You say you couldn't discover what happened in the 5years she went missing?" Elliot asked

"Yes sir... Do you want me to check again" Harry responded

"No don't bother about it" Mr Grey said. He knew if he wanted to find out anything about anyone he could, but for some reason he decided not to bother about the missing information for now

"That would be all" he said dismissing Harry

Just then the door flew open, both Harry and Elliot looked at the direction of the door to see who it was

Seeing a disheveled looking Alexia standing by the door Elliot sighed

"Really ..miss Brooke" Grey said acidly

"Em.. am sorry sir ..I was caught up in traffic" Alexia responded

"Mrs Luna said you requested to see me"

Harry saw Alexia entered into the office and thought - wasnt she the lady from yesterday and then realization trucked in. "No wonder boss was so interested in her turns out she's the new assistant" Harry subconscious spoke

"..you are late" Elliot snapped

Just then he discovered Harry was still in the office hesitating to leave like he had something to say to him

"Speak" Elliot said

Harry, sensing it was him Elliot was referring to spoke

"Sir, about the retirement and house warming party of your uncle. The invitation card's on your desk too"

"Oh.." Elliot said picking up the invitation card from his desk. His uncle Nathan Cobb who just relocated from the state was throwing a retirement and house warming party and invited him to attend. However, he wasn't planning on attending, he wasn't ready to hear all the talks about him getting a wife and settling down.

"Harry, you know I won't be going" Elliot said putting down the card

"Why not" Alexia suddenly asked

Oh shit Alexia!!!

Alexia's subconscious screamed scolding her as soon as she spoke

Hearing her speak, Elliot stared at Alexia, this look lasted for less than 3 seconds before he looked away not bothering with her

"Emm..am sorry...you don't have to answer that" Alexia said trying to Savage the situation

"No one is permitted to go alone, that's why I won't be going" suddenly Elliot spoke surprising both Alexia and Harry. No one expected him to reply

"Let me come with you then, I'm your assistant after all" Alexia said looking expectantly at Elliot

"......" Elliot was left speechless. Firstly he wasn't expecting to hear such request from Alexia and secondly he needed a wife or someone to act as one going with him to the house warming party not an assistant

"Harry you can leave already" he said dismissing Harry.

Turning towards Alexia he said "Miss Brooke I will need you to always be fully aware of whatever it is you want to do before doing it, don't you care a little about yourself, you might really be putting yourself in danger. It seems like you have lot of free time on your hands, I would pretend I didn't have this conversation with you"

Elliot knew how he's family could be, he had never brought a woman home for any occasion whatsoever and now if he did, he knows they would read meaning into it and even though they won't have the courage to question him if he says they were just boss and surbodinate they would surely come after Alexia interfering in her life. That was the danger he was talking about.

Alexia stood perplexed, she couldn't understand this man sited in front of her - gosh why does he gets so angry every split second, is that his hobby? She thought

"actually, I just heard it's a house warming party organized by your uncle how dangerous can it be" Alexia said looking confused

"How can someone be so stupid" Elliot said faustratedly while rubbing his fingers on his temples "Miss Brooke, I need a wife not an assistant"

"..oh" Alexia said in a whisper realization dawning on her.

"You can leave now. Get back to work" Elliot said dismissing Alexia

Alexia got into her office and stood against the door

"if he wants a wife, he should get one already why are you channeling your anger towards me you gay guy" she said

Suddenly she busted into laughter "I wonder what the reaction of Mrs Susan Cobb would be when she finds out her only child is a gay. Stupid men" she said acidly

It was almost closing hours, Elliot was done with his work for the day but was still trying to tidy up a few things before leaving when his phone rang.

"Hello Uncle Nathan" he said into the phone

"Hello Elliot" Nathan responded

"Hope you're done with work already cause the party will begin at exactly 7:00pm and you can't be late. Your mother complained about not seeing you for the past one month and she's super excited she'll be able to see you today...don't forget you're not allowed to appear single. See you soon.." he hanged up

As soon as the phone disconnected Elliot smirked - this is so like his uncle, just doing the talking and hanging up without giving him a chance to say anything. "You'll never change uncle" he said

Elliot picked up his intercom and placed a call. "I'll pick you up by 6:00pm tonight" he said and dropped the call.

Alexia in her office received the call and said while sulking "why is this gay guy always acting like a pregnant woman, always having mood swings"

Even though she was pissed, she was excited she would be attending the party - that should keep her busy for at least half of the night. She couldn't afford to go home to sleep cause she wasn't ready for another nightmare .

Just then there was a vibration from her phone indicating an incoming text message, she picked up her phone which read 'incoming message from annoying gay boss' what does he want this time she thought.

she opened the message and it read "send me your address"

After a moment Elliot phone vibrated indicated an incoming text message. He knew it would be from Alexia, he picked up his phone, saw the message and his mouth presses in a hard line as he stared at the content of the message.

"Peace community estate" if he remember correctly, peace community was an estate just about four kilometers away from the office, he also knows that that's a commercial property for average citizens as the price of houses there are relatively low.

This was totally in contrast and very different from the enormous Villa he saw her go it last night. If the file containing her life history wasn't sitting on his desk this moment he would have felt that maybe the villa doesn't belong to her but as long as he's concerned, she has no family so it definitely her's - then why is she living in a place like peace community and working and interning as his assistant when he could tell that she was not lacking financially. He really needed to fine out what happened to her in the 5 years of her life when she went missing or he won't be able to fix this puzzle but he wasn't going to do that just yet for reasons best known to him.

Somewhere in an estate near the south of Zea city, in a moderately sized Villa you could see everyone busy walking to and fro trying to put the villa in order in preparation for the retirement and house warming party. Miss Elisa Cobb, Nathan's daughter was busy dishing out orders to the staffs on what to do and what not to do. Meanwhile in the garden just outside the main house the 2nd generation of the 'Cobb's' family were sited chatting and catching up on a few things. Ethan Cobb, Elliot's father and his wife Susan Cobb were sited side by side with Nathan Cobb sited opposite the couple. They were sited at what looked like a round table in the garden.