Chapter 2 BOOK ONE: CHAPTER TWO

Angel escorted Henry to his house and bade him goodbye when they got to his gate. He watched her as she left until she was out of sight. Then he took a deep breath and turned to face the gate. He knocked but noticed that the gate was unlocked.

That was unusual. It seemed that his father unlocked it for him. What could be so urgent? He could not help but wonder. He entered through the gate and began to think of why his father had called him so urgently. Before he got to the door of his main house, his younger sister, Stella came out of the house to meet him, crying.

"Henry, Dad is really mad at you." She cried as more tears trickled down her eyes.

"What's going on?" Henry inquired with a worried look. "Why are you crying?"

"Dad wants to disown you" she disclosed.

"Does that mean I'll never see you again?" She asked as she hiccupped on her tears.

Henry was shocked and dumbfounded. Why would his father do that? What has he done wrong this time?

How worse could today be, Henry? His instincts mocked him.

"Disown me.....for what?" He asked, still confused.

"For trying to ruin my reputation" Mark responded as he moved towards Henry.

In the next few seconds, Helen, Henry's mother and his other two sisters (Maria and Gloria) joined them.

"Listen Mark" Helen intervened. "You can't do that to Henry. He's our only son for Christ's sake!"

"And he thinks he's untouchable because of that. He thinks he can misbehave the way he likes.... right?" Mark asked, unconvinced.

"There must be a misunderstanding" Helen maintained. "Let's give him a chance to explain."

"And that is the only reason why I haven't thrown him out.... yet. But I will soon because I'm certain that nothing good can come out of this boy" He assured her.

"Let us ask him first..... before you judge him, please?"

Mark shrugged and kept quiet. Helen understood that it was his sign of approval and was relieved. She turned to face Henry.

"Henry, the child in Bridget's womb..... is it yours?"

Henry was dumbstruck. Bridget had informed his parents about her pregnancy.

What was she thinking? That he would marry her? He had never seen such a fool. At that moment, he hated her. He hated her more than anything in the whole world. Henry could not answer his mother's question. He only kept quiet.

"You see?" Mark said, not surprised. "He can't admit the bitter truth"

"Henry!" Helen cried. "Please give us an explanation. We trust you son. There must be a mistake........"

"There is no mistake," Mark interrupted.

"From this moment onwards, Henry is no longer part of this family and I don't want any of you to have anything to do with him." He strictly warned.

"No, you can't do that...... I'm begging you" Helen pleaded.

"I've made up my mind." Mark said firmly. "I've tolerated enough insults from this boy." He added as he pointed to Henry.

"Do you have any last words?" He asked but Henry kept quiet. "I see you have nothing to say......then leave my house and never come back" he ordered as he pointed to the gate.

Henry obeyed and left the house. Before leaving, he turned to look at Stella and smiled at her. "Goodbye" he muttered. Then he left.

"How could you be so heartless, Mark?"Helen wept but Mark ignored her.

He ordered the gateman to lock the gate then he went to his room. Helen continued weeping while her daughters surrounded her - they wept and comforted her.

***********

That morning was bright and sunny. Stella foretold herself that it was going to be a good day. She sat on the bed and looked at her sisters who were still sleeping. Gloria was snoring at her left while Maria was sleeping like a log at her right. The three sisters shared a very gigantic bed. It had been that way ever since they were little kids.

Their parents ensured that they change the size of their bed as they grew bigger, to ensure that they were comfortable. The sisters loved it and never complained. Stella came down from the bed slowly in order to not wake her sisters. She went to the parlor and sat down. Then, she stood up again. It was very early and she felt extremely bored. She decided to take a stroll in the garden.

As she moved, she stepped on something. She squatted to pick it and saw that it was a ring. She took a closer look and realized that it was Henry's ring. Impossible! It's been four years since Henry left the house and her father made sure that he got rid of everything related to Henry - but the ring.

Stella smiled and held the ring tightly, close to her chest. It was Henry's last item and she wanted to keep it safe. She looked at it again and memories of Henry flashed into her head. She closed her eyes to reminisce her sweet memories with Henry but was interrupted by a sound.

She opened her eyes, annoyed. She wondered who interfered with her thoughts. She turned and looked at the table, the telephone was ringing. Stella became angry. She was certain that it was one of her Dad's friends. She decided to ignore it to teach the caller a lesson. Then, she heard her father's stern voice.

"Who's in the parlor?" Mark's voice coming from the bathroom was heard. "Answer the phone!"

Stella reluctantly obeyed. "Hello" she said, not in a friendly manner as she clogged her right ear with the telephone.

"Hello......Stella" the caller replied.

Stella could not believe what she was hearing. It was not her Dad's friend, it was Henry!

Her elder brother whom she missed so much was calling her. All of a sudden, she remembered her father's warning. Her father had made it clear to her and her sisters that they should have nothing to do with Henry but at that moment she did not care. She had no intention of disobeying her Dad but she missed her brother so much. She can't always make everyone happy.

"Hello.... Henry" Stella said, almost crying.

"Stella, are you alright?" He seemed to have noticed her crying tone.

"Yes..... I'm fine" Stella said as she wiped her tears. "It's been four years Henry.......four years! I miss you so much. How are you doing? How have you been faring? Henry you have no........."

"Stella, who are you talking to?" Mark cut her off as he walked towards her with a wrapper tied around his waist. She attempted to hang up but her father stopped her.

"Don't you dare!" Mark screamed as he finally got to her.

"Dad.......I was actually......em"

Mark ignored her words and took the telephone from her hands. He placed it on his ear to begin a conversation.

"Hello, who is this?" Mark asked but got no response.

"Hello?....hello?!" He asked again but louder this time, still he got no response. He looked at the telephone and realized that the caller had cut the call.

He stared at his daughter sternly and asked, "Who was that?"

"Dad.....it was...."

"Answer me!"

"It.....was..... Henry" She stammered.

"What!" Mark screamed in disbelief.

At that moment, the remaining people in the house came to the parlor to find out what amiss. Helen was not happy to see Mark shouting at Stella - especially that early morning.

"What is going on?" Helen asked no one in particular. She saw Mark staring at her, frowning.

"Do you know that this daughter of yours was speaking to Henry?" He asked.

Helen was taken aback. "What do you mean by 'this daughter of yours' , she's our daughter!"

"Don't try to change the topic Helen. Stella disobeyed my instructions." He said angrily.

Helen kept quiet. She had disagreed with the idea of Mark disowning Henry but her opinions were overlooked. Mark never cared, he was the boss and everyone must listen to him.

You could voice out your opinion if you wanted but it's up to Mark to decide if they were important or not. If he didn't like them, he would just ignore them. Helen reasoned that arguing with Mark would do more harm than good. Mark was a man with great pride and ego. He felt he was always right.

"Calm down Mark, just calm....."

"What do you mean by calm down?" Mark asked Helen who just looked at him, confused at the turns of event. "By the look of things, it's your fault." He accused.

"What! What are you trying to say?"

"It's because they feel you've got their backs, that's why they keep on disobeying my orders. It's all your fault." He said.

"Stop accusing me falsely Mark. I understand that you are angry but that doesn't give you the right to accuse me." Helen said, trying not to get upset.

"How is it an accusation? It's clear that you are soft on them." He countered.

"I'm a mother, Mark. It's normal I'm soft on them but I also correct their mistakes." She defended.

"I understand that but you are too soft on them." He said, unconvinced.

Then, a noise was heard outside.Gloria moved towards the window to have a look. She saw the gateman talking to someone. The person was facing the gate so she could not see his face but she recognized his body. She returned and faced her father.

"Dad, Uncle Pete is here" she announced.