"Did you complete the parcels?" Harriet asked her secretary, Jane Redd, closing the last button of her coat. Jane wasn't very beautiful, she wasn't ugly either. She was a short, seventy-two–kilogram woman in her mid–twenties who wore prescribed glasses, and dressed like a high-school nerd in suits.
"Yes," she retorted, standing up. Her eyes were red and heavy from lack of sleep. She hadn't slept because the package came late and they had to parcel it before the program starts at 12:00pm. "I checked the guests list, schools list, and orphanages list. Everything will go as planned, Mrs. Blade."
"Good." Harriet stared at the archaic brown clock on the wall, wondering what was taking Luther so long. He was usually the first one to get through with getting ready. "What about the security? Did you check that thoroughly?"
"Yes, Ma'am." She nodded.
"You know we are hosting lot of children from around Liberia, and many adults, too. Don't take security lightly, because anything that goes wrong will be our fault. You know that, right?" She watched Ashley come down the stairs already dressed in her new white dress that she bought yesterday.
"Yes."
"Check the list again. Umm...you already preview the venue, right? Everything is all set, right?" She knew everything was ready. Harriet didn't sit idly and let Jane do all the work, she, too, moved her ass around like crazy too.
Jane answered and went straight to her tablet to check everything from top to bottom, and bottom to top, so she wouldn't skip any thing. She knew how important the charity program was to Harriet, and those children.
"You look so sexy in this suit, mother," Ashley stated as she reached her mother. She kissed her mother's cheeks. "Old age isn't getting the best of you."
"I know what you're doing. You want me to relax a bit. Don't worry, I am relaxed, no need for flattery." Her eyes were on the staircase while she spoke.
What was taking him so long?
Ashley smirked. "Despite me wanting so bad for you to relax, those words were honest, just like you've always been to me— honest."
Harriet felt a lump form, and disappear in her throat quickly like it had formed. Though it didn't stay long on her face, Ashley saw the expression that she couldn't decipher on Harriet's face before Harriet could replace it with a smile.
Luckily, Thomas walked in from outside and interrupted the moment that was about to get emotional. He greeted Ashley and was about to greet his mother when she, almost screaming, said, "You aren't dressed yet, Thomas? Where are you from by the way?" She halted him at the verge of embracing her.
"Good morning, mom." He ignored the question.
"I'm sure I asked you a question, young man. Why aren't you dressed yet?" She wasn't angry. "You know how important this is to our family, Thomas. Your father is a presidential candidate. We have to stand firmly by him and do what we can to help him. That's what family is far." She didn't yell with those words, she said them calmly, wanting for it to reach her audience.
"Calm down, mom." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "I know how it has been on you these days. If you'd ask me, I'd say you need a vacation. We all do."
"I don't." Ashley raised her hand up like a school girl. "I'm already plane sick. You guys can go ahead."
Removing Thomas' arm from her neck, she said, "Go get dressed now young man and stop talking bullshit. You kids really act like you gave birth to me," rolling her eyes.
Thomas was going upstairs when Harriet stopped him and asked where he had gone off to early in the morning. He told her where he'd gone to promptly, not wanting to say much about that because he promised Rachael he wasn't going to tell anyone else about Jeremy.
"Speaking of Rachael," Ashley began, "she said she is attending the program today. I tried to stop her, but she didn't listen. You know how your daughter is," she added when her mother glared at her. "She's persistent like you."
Harriet wished that was true. But it wasn't. A part of it wasn't.
"You aren't blaming me, are you?" Harriet asked.
"I'm just saying. You should be glad Rachael is like you. We all are hardheaded like you..." Ashley stated.
When it was something negative, Harriet thought, they always claimed to have inherited it from her. But when they do something positive, it was from their father.
"Whatever." She rolled her eyes, waving it out. "What's taking your dad so long?" She asked Ashley impatiently as if it had been Ashley and Luther who had slept in the same room. "You all are really getting on my nerves," she said with gnashed teeth.
"You should be up there helping your husband get dressed, not down here getting mad at the world." Ashley legs were tired so she sat down. She grabbed her phone and began replying to a message she'd received.
"Ma'am, there's a problem," Jane said when Harriet was going upstairs to check on Luther. Harriet didn't bother coming way back down; rather, she stood where she was and shot Jane a look that said 'what's the problem?'. "We won't have the desired security for about forty-five to fifty minutes." Harriet didn't need to ask. Jane needed to answer. "The police chief sent me a message saying that the funeral of those officers who were shot dead during the robbery two weeks ago was taking long because of the tributes from people. They might be late. But he already sent few men to be there until the others come," Jane explained, barely taking a breath.
"That's fine. I will have some of my men occupying the position until the police comes." She was turning to continue her journey when Luther approached her. He was smartly dressed in a black suit, white undershirt, black tie, and shining black shoes.
"I was just coming to get you," she said, smiling. Luther didn't bother to fake a smile back, because he knew hers was fake. She couldn't quarrel in front her employee, even if she could in front her children.
"Why?" He asked her, walking past her down the stairs.
Why? What did he mean why?
"I'm sorry, Harriet, but I have an appointment by 1:00pm. I can't start the program with you." He waited for her to meet him down the stairs. "You have to go ahead of me."
Oh...she was Harriet now. Wow.
"I don't remember seeing that on your list of today's appointment. You don't have any until tomorrow." Even though she took the arm that he offered, she felt like she wasn't standing right.
"I decided not to put it in there," he said. "Because of you." The harshness was sensed in the calmness of his voice. "This one is classified." Jane excused herself immediately when Harriet gave her the look. She walked outside. She didn't need to be told
"When did you start attending unscheduled appointments?" Harriet asked him, keeping her voice natural. She actually wanted to break down. To start crying. He saw her go pale and come back to life in split seconds.
"I'm not ready to go over this with you again, Harriet,"he stated, rubbing his fingers together to calm himself. He didn't know why, but she abruptly developed an aura that he disliked.
Harriet wasn't backing out just yet. The whole program was for him, in his name, then, suddenly, he wasn't going to be there. "I asked you a question, Luther." She breathed out deeply, withdrawing her hand from his. "When?"
"I'll be waiting in the car." Ashley knew the conversation was going to lead to something else that she wouldn't like to see her parents do, so she excused herself.
They stared at her leave and waited for the door to close before looking back at each other.
"When, Luther? When?" She could get mad now. Her daughter wasn't looking. "Goddamnit, don't just stare at me like a dummy, Luther. Tell me when you started attending unsched—..." She stopped, stunned, when he interrupted her.
"When you decided to make me look stupid in my own house!" His voice was over the roof now. "When you stopped telling me things that I should know, when you became selfish!" The veins in his neck and his forehead stood hard when he spoke emotionally. Maybe it was better they get it off of their chests.
"Selfish?" She blinked fast, twisting her head, consuming the captured word—selfish. "How can you say I'm selfish when everything I've been doing is for us. This charity program is for you, Luther." She felt like hitting something, so she punched his chest as she stressed her words. "What do you think people will say when you don't show up today?"
♦️♦️♦️♦️
A/N
I'm really sorry that I didn't mention this in my previous chapter (chapter 31); it was after I posted it that I remembered that same day was Good Friday. Better late than Never, right? Happy belated Easter from here in Liberia.
Please, Liberia is a real country full of many beautiful, talented people. And, according to hearsay, it's not known by many. I'll appreciate if you can text me on any of my social media and ask me questions about my country. Thanks.