Chapter 3 Devon Meets Katherine

As the winds were blowing Katherine was watching in front of ehr as if she was looking into an abyss. She felt like her world had crumbled right in front of her. She pulls a chain in her neck and holds the ring in her hand. Suddenly memories of the day she exchanged the rings came back to her and her head started to pain her. She closes her eyes to forget everything and then comes inside and sits on the sofa and starts crying.

Speaking to herself she says 'Why, Devon? Why did you never contact me? Dad always told uncle I was not fine, did it not matter to you? Why? Why? How badly I waited for the day you would come and put the ring back but now I don't want to see you. I can never forgive uncle, never, never. Mom-dad, I miss you. I'm all alone. I'm scared. What do I do?'

Just then she gets a call from her receptionist. Taking the call she says "Yes, Dorothy?"

Dorothy says "Katherine, sorry to disturb you but they will come tomorrow for the loan, what do we do?"

Katherine says "Dorothy, don't worry. I'll arrange something. Take care."

Before Dorothy could say anything, Katherine disconnects. Then she dials a number.

As the person says 'Hello,' Katherine says "Hello, uncle, It's me Katherine, I was wondering if you could lend me some money. I'll return every cent....hello...hello"

She dials another number and says "Hello, I'm Katherine Jiles from Sunrise Resorts. I would like a loan of...Yes, I know the resort is not doing good business right now, but...it's ok, thanks."

One after another, everyone rejects helping Katherine. As she gets up, she walks over to a painting. It's a painting of Sunrise Resorts. Jin painted it on the day the resort was inaugurated. Seeing the painting Katherine says 'Father, I will save our resort and bring it back to glory. I swear.'

When she fell asleep she didn't realize until she woke up in the morning to her phone's ringing.

She sees it's Clive, her manager. Receiving the call she says "Good morning, yes uncle."

Clive has been the manager since Robert began the resorts. Katherine practically grew up in front of him and has been calling him uncle since then,

In the morning Devon gets ready. As he picks up his engagement ring, he places it inside his pocket. Then he orders breakfast and as he is waiting for his breakfast he goes through the daily paper. He sees a lot of people have posted condolence messages on the sudden demise of his uncle. Then his breakfast arrives. As he finishes his breakfast, he dials a number and hires a car for his travel.

Then he decides to take a drive and look around. As he comes over to the reception and hands his keys. Taking the car keys from the receptionist, Devon drives off. After driving for a while, Devon sees a young girl is pleading to some men, while a man probably in his early 40s and a lady of about 30+ is standing behind the girl and also trying to plead with the men, who by the looks, are probably loan shark men.

As Devon is looking at them, suddenly he realizes they are standing in front of Sunrise Resorts. Devon takes a closer look at the young girl and realizes it's Katherine. She is exactly as he thought she might look. Beautiful brown eyes with brown long hairs, Katherine always fantasized having long hairs. A complete replica of her mother.

So, Devon drives over and as he gets out of the car he can hear a man say "Look, I know you don't have the money. So, just sign over the resort and everything will be over. Look, don't make us the bad guys hurting a young girl, ok."

Just then Devon steps over and says "You're taking this young lady's resort and yet you claim, you are not hurting her."

Katherine looks towards Devon and for a moment is spell-bound. Then she says "Ah, sir, it's my problem, I don't want anyone hurt so, please."

Smiling Devon says to the loan shark men "How much does she owe you?"

One of the men looks at Devon and says "Look, since you're wearing a suit and boot, we are letting you leave with a face. Now, this ain't a playground and neither we have a video game arcade here so..."

With a stern look Devon again says "How much?"

Just as the first man was about to speak, the other one stops him and says "Twenty million, her dad owes us twenty million. You gonna pay?"

Devon reaches for his checkbook and is about to sign 'Clement,' but remembering Katherine won't accept if she knows it's him, he signs 'Osborn' instead and hands it over.

"You can get it transferred tomorrow," continuing Devon says "Now I hope you won't bother the lady."

One of the men takes the check and says looking at the sign "Mr. Osborn, thank you very much. And, of course, we have no reasons to bother her anymore. Nice doing business, miss."

As they were about to leave, Devon stops them and says in a stern dominant tone "Papers."

One of the men says handing over a file "Oh, sorry Mr Osborn, my bad, my bad."

As the loan shark men leave, Devon hands over the file to Katherine and says "Please check if the papers are complete."

Katherine takes the file and smiles saying "Yes, thankyou Mr..."

Devon says "Devon, Devon Osborn, and you are."

On hearing him say 'Devon' Katherine's heart skips a beat and then she says "Mr Devon, thanks for your help. I'm Katherine Jiles. Please would you come in (she points towards her resorts), I would like to assure you I'll pay back every cent I owe you..."

As Katherine was speaking, Devon could not resist but look at her. She had brown eyes, blonde hair and flawless skin. He could see tear stains on her face, meaning she was crying a while back. At that moment Devon wished he could go over and hug her and say he's there but he knew he couldn't.

Then Katherine says "You said your name is Devon, is that really your name? I mean I know you're not the only Devon in the world, it's just that apart from him I never met any."

Devon is literally smiling in his heart as he realizes she acknowledged him and says "Well, yes my name is Devon Osborn. Do you know someone else by my name?"

Taking a deep breath Katherine says "Yes, my fiance (she removes the chain in her neck to show the engagement ring), he's out of the country."

Devon feels so happy inside as he hears Katherine just said she has a fiance and is wearing their engagement ring in her chain. That means he still has hopes, she will be his one day. But for now, Devon knew he must win her trust and then her heart. And in between all this, he has to clear his father's name and catch the ones responsible for killing his uncle and aunt and for making Katherine cry.

Katherine again says "So, lets go inside and have a talk, Mr Devon."

Smiling Devon says "Ah, Mr Devon is kind of too formal, Devon will do, if you don't mind."

"Of course, and you can also call me Katherine," continuing Katherine says "Oh, he's Clive, our manager and family friend."

Devon smiles and shakes hands with Clive. As they are entering a man probably the same age as Devon comes over and tries to block Katherine's way. Ron comes in the way.

Seeing him, Katherine says "James, I made you the PR cause you needed a job, and you are my collegemate so..."

Humphing James says "Collegemate? Honestly? I'm or at least was your boyfriend..."

Intervening Katherine says "James, can't you see we have someone here?"

Scoffing James says "Mitchelle, are you not the secretary? Should you not know when someone comes, he should be taken to the visiting room and ...."

Katherine intervenes and says "Not when he just paid 20 million dollars and cleared Sunrise Resorts debt with one check. And, he's my guest. Mitchelle, please, two cups of coffee."

Katherine opens the door and says "Please, this way."

Devon and Katherine enter Katherine's office and as they get seated, Katherine seems to be at a loss of words.

"So, Devon, how would you like to have me repay, I mean...I do have to return the money and as of now....well...ah... you see, Sunrise Resorts is..."

Looking as calm as possible Devon says "Katherine, please calm down. We are practically the same age so, I don't think we need to be formal or uncomfortable. Since those guys were here for the loan, I can presume Sunrise Resorts is not doing well at the moment."

Katherine says "Yes, unfortunately over the past few years, there has been a decline. And, now that my parents have passed away."

Devon quickly reacts "Oh, sorry for that, what happened?"

Katherine looks at her hands and fidgets (Devon recalls she had a habit of fidgeting her fingers when she would be nervous. At that moment he so badly wanted to say it's ok) a little. Then she says "They were victims of a hit-and-run. And, the person responsible had a good alibi so, he's free."

Devon instantly understood she meant his father. And, that also meant she now hates him, but Devon wanted to be a bit more certain so he could act accordingly.

"Ah, Katherine, I don't know if I can ask, but I'm taking the liberty of asking, it's a hunch but for some reason I feel it's more than just a debt. Were those people really here for money and nothing else? I saw the daily and when I came here to stay at the hotel, the cab driver also told me about your father's death. So, maybe..."

Getting a little emotional, Katherine says "Yes, actually it's cause of a years old incident. There is someone who was blackmailing my dad, but he never spoke about it. The money he took, the one you paid for, he gave it to someone. To whom, I don't know. Oh and one more thing. My uncle, who left, like years ago, came back a few days back and it was his so-called stolen car that was used for killing my parents."

Devon says "Katherine, one thing I know right now is you need to get the resort back on the top. And, looks like I came at the right time."

Surprised at Devon's words, Katherine says "What? Right time?"

"Yes, right time cause I'm the CEO of Osborn Events Enterprises. We Osborns have organized thousands of international events across the globe. The reason I came here was for an exhibition. I was looking for a location and those guys bugging you so, had to stop. And, now I think I have found my location."

Just then Katherine gets a call "Yes, oh (She gets a bit hyper) no, no, I didn't forget. I'll pay you back as soon as possible. You know the condition of the resort is not much good, but I promise..."

Devon takes the phone receiver from Katherin's hand and says "Hello, we don't know eachother but I'm Devon Osborn, CEO of Osborn Events enterprises, and Miss Katherine's business partner. How much does the resort owe you?"

The person on the phone says "Oh, Mr. Osborn it's a pleasure to meet you. Actually Mr Robert took ten million dollars from us and..."

"My number must have come on your ID, so could you please send me your account details. I'll send the amount asap." Devon says, looking at his phone's display. Then he types something and says "Please check your account."

The person on the phone says "Oh thank you Mr Devon, thanks a lot."

Smiling Devon says "Great! Now I hope you won't bother Miss Katherine."

The person on the phone says "Of course not, definitely not sir, thanks once again."

As the call disconnects, Katherine says "Great, now I owe you thirty million dollars, and why did you tell you're my business partner? Now, you'll be in trouble."

Devon dials a number and on the phone says "Rodrick, get a business partnership contract ready. 80-20, between Sunrise Resorts and Osborn Events Enterprises. Send the soft verified copy over at (Devon takes a notepad and writes 'email address' and pushes it over to Katherine. As Katherine reads it, she writes the resort's email id 'sunriseresorts@gt.com') sunriseresorts@gt.com. Check your email."

Surprised Katherine checks her email and she sees she just got an email from Osborn Events Enterprises and an attachment as well. On downloading the file, she sees it's a verified contract.

Devon says "Download it and sign it. Our business partnership will begin."

Katherine downloads the document and reads it, then she says "What is this? A business partnership, and you're taking only 20, like for real?"

"Well, as a business person, it won't look good and people will presume it's a personal contract so for other's we can say 50-50." says Devon in a calm tone.

"Devon, I don't know who you are and I don't get it, why are you helping me?" Katherine says getting a bit worried "Are you...do you want something from me, (figuring out) I WON'T GIVE THE RESORTS."

Devon smiles and says "I think you didn't read the contract properly, and as a business person, that is very bad."

Katherine picks the contract and reads it again and sees a clause that says 'I, Devon Osborn will never claim the 20% shares as mine'

Devon says "I presume you've read the clause so, overall I'm only helping you and I can at no cost take the resorts from you. And as for not knowing me, well my name I already told you, the contract proves I am the CEO of Osborn Events Enterprises, and I'm from Eden West. You can check on the map. My home is on the top floor of Osborn Enterprises."