On Sunday morning, not long after breakfast, Emilia was sipping on a cup of her tea when she was checking the news. It was a mistake to have a liquid in her mouth whilst doing so, as she soon spat it out.
'Mr Christopher Hayden announces his marriage' the headlines read.
She opened the article, and indeed, Christopher Hayden's quote was written in the bold letters. It was definitely written by a PR department at Crimson Tech. It was worded in such an unemotional and businesslike way. Almost as if they were speaking of the next product or service, rather than the marriage of their CEO.
Emilia scanned the article for more information. 'A Matrimonial Agreement was signed on Friday 28th April.'
This marriage was the same day as her interview!
She wondered if that was the reason why Mr Hayden was so unenthusiastic. He was stuck with having to interview her whilst he had his bride waiting for him.
Then she started to wonder if this secret wife of Mr Hayden lived in the manor. She wouldn't know. There were so many rooms there that it would take her months if not years to find that out. The knock on the door made her jump. She didn't even realise the passage of time as she read through the news, and she was already overdue in seeing Patrick. She rushed across the room and opened the door.
"Hello, Mr Cosby." She answered with her usual enthusiasm. She had a feeling that Patrick was her only way she could obtain more information.
"Hello, Dr Vincent."
"Thank you so much for coming, Mr Cosby. I really appreciate it."
"I will try to be as much help as I can before Mr Hayden summons me again."
"Certainly. I do not wish to cause you any trouble with Mr Hayden."
Patrick sat down in the armchair by the coffee table, with Emilia sitting down on the opposite chair.
"First of all, your spending card and your account details for your pay." He passed her an envelope.
"Thank you. Could you remind me what I can use it for?"
"Anything that you need. The spending card is for smaller purchases and then there's your own account for which you should receive a debit card soon. In the meantime, you can withdraw the money at the bank or ask me to do so. Latter might be easier."
"So, would it be okay if I use the spending card to purchase stationary?"
"Certainly. As I've said, there's a limit on it and you can spend the money up to that limit."
"That sounds like a trap." Emilia smiled though as she put the envelope to the side.
"Now, ask away and I'll try my best to answer your questions."
"What I am looking for are some anecdotal stories that can show Mr Hayden in the new light. I feel like whatever I could find online and in a public domain was very polished. Too polished. I think it might be good to get some rawness to it. Nothing too big. Just something that may make Mr Hayden seem more relatable."
"That is a challenge. Mr Hayden is a very private person. Even myself, a person who he spends majority of his waking time, I cannot say that much."
"Does Mr Hayden have any odd habits or personality traits?" Emilia asked as she propped her head on her hand, holding onto a notepad ready to take notes.
"I'm not too sure. If he has a particularly difficult problem to solve, he will chew a gum and take his shoes off." Patrick said at which Emilia smiled. "He is a little obsessed with numbers and patters so I can only book hotel rooms for him which have even numbers. He… he is actually very frugal. He still drives a decade old car. He also gets obsessive streaks, like a smoothie diet that he was insistent on a couple of years ago. He likes a very specific brand of Scotch that he gets imported and stored in the barrels in the basement of the manor. He still writes all thank you cards by hand. He is definitely peculiar in many ways."
"Thank you." Emilia had an excited gleam in her eyes as Patrick spoke about Christopher, which was not the reaction he expected. "Could you tell me about his daily routine?"
"Hmm… he hates mornings so he drinks a tremendous amount of coffee. He is also most grumpy in the mornings. I always pity the person that has the first meeting of the day. He tends to be more snappy then. He always has buttered toast and boiled eggs for breakfast as he likes the routine. He is quite active. If he finishes work early enough, he will go for a run. But even between meetings he likes going to the gym. He says that exercise makes his problem solving skills better." Patrick spoke honestly. He thought he was deterring Emilia, but Emilia smiled. It was definitely relatable. "He is very busy. Some days he works for 18 hours straight. He prioritises his business over anything and everything else. He chose it as his life's purpose and that's what he goes for."
"Why?"
"Why?" Patrick repeated the question.
"Why do you think he is so motivated by growing his business? Is it a hunger for power? Ambition?"
"These things are certainly at play, but I think there's more to it. Mr Hayden had a difficult family relationships and I think he shifted his values to something that he had much greater control over."
"How is he with his family now?"
"Well… the last person died very recently."
"Who was it?"
"His father."
"How recently?"
"About a month ago. The funeral was just over two weeks ago."
"That IS very recent. I am very sorry for his loss." Emilia nodded. She didn't want to dig deeper into that topic as she felt like she was infringing on Christopher's private affairs, but also she could sympathise. She lost her own father when she was ten years old. "I hope you do not mind but my next question might be quite sensitive so feel free to not answer it."
"Go on."
"Can you tell me a bit more about Mr Hayden's marriage?"
Patrick widened his eyes and his lips parted. Firstly, he was glad that the press release that he so carefully drafted didn't let Emilia on on the fact that she was the wife. Secondly, he temporarily forgot about this matter, and now he felt a sudden flood of anxieties.
"It's… interesting." He manage to utter at last. He was very careful with what he was saying.
"Could you tell me who is his wife? That is solely my personal interest, of course."
"I rather not."
"Is it someone I might have heard of?"
"Most likely."
"Does she live in the manor?"
"Dr Vincent…" Patrick sighed. He felt despair at where this conversation was going. He was ready to admit to the truth.
"Many apologies. I didn't mean to cross the line. But… if you can't tell me who she is, could you tell me a bit more about what kind of husband Mr Hayden is?"
Emilia rephrasing her question and taking a step back made him change his mind back to trying to maintain it a secret for a little while longer.
"Emotionally unavailable?" Patrick said unsurely.
"I'm not surprised. Do you think there is anything positive about having him as a husband?"
"Money?" Patrick answered half-jokingly.
"Obviously." Emilia chuckled. "I guess if I've got to live in a manor like this, and with the expendable income higher than 99.9% of world population, I wouldn't really care about my husband being distant or having affairs or..."
"No." Patrick interrupted her in a more stern voice. "Mr Hayden is not having any affairs and he is not the kind to have that kind of a relationship."
Emilia looked at Patrick with a glimpse of surprise.
Them staring at each other was interrupted by Patrick's phone ringing. He answered it quickly and signalled to Emilia that he had to go. Emilia was slightly disheartened that their conversation was brought to an end so abruptly but she found out more than she expected.
She tried to imagine Christopher take his shoes off and chew gum in his office while working on something complex. But it was hard. He still seemed too rigid to imagine him anyhow differently than his perfectly polished image.