We arrived in Boston shortly after 4:30 in the afternoon on Friday August 19th, arriving at the university shortly after 6 in the evening. The line at immigration was empty, and we were the first ones to pick up our luggage. When we arrived at the university, we chatted briefly at the reception area making plans to meet at 7:30 in the evening for dinner. When I got to my room, I turned on my mobile to check for any missed calls and messages, there was one voice message. I pressed and listened, "hey sweetie, sorry we have not been able to get in touch lately, your father and I have been quite busy lately, but all is going well and we are doing quite well. We are currently in Europe but shall be flying to Asia next week. We know you are back in Boston, soon to be starting school in a week. We wanted to wish you all the best, stay strong, take care and we will see you soon, love you lots, mum and dad." That was the voice message received from my mum and dad. I was quite relieved hearing from them and knowing that they were both doing fine. The good thing was that I knew where they were and where they would be heading to next. I listened to the message one more time, smiled and placed my mobile on my desk.
At 7:30 in the evening, Chris, Jaime, Anderson and I met for dinner; we decided to have a quick fast dinner which was McDonalds that was within walking distance from our university. We each ordered our usual and enjoyed it at McDonalds. While we were having dinner, I played the voice message I had received from my parents; after hearing the message, they were now more than ever convinced that my parents were doing well and that there was nothing to be worried about. I nodded my head in agreement with their view and continued eating my dinner. By 9PM, we were walking back to the university, arriving at our dormitory, Chris and Jaime went back to their rooms, while Anderson and I were still chatting outside. I mentioned to him that I wanted to go to Chase Bank on Monday morning to open a bank account and deposit the money that I had which was already over $30,000 and also take care of other errands. What was interesting and coincidental was that Anderson, Chris and Jaime also banked with Chase Bank, was laughing and smiling just knowing that fact. I said to myself, "We seem to be unable to stay away from each other, even banking with the same bank," very funny, I thought in my head. The boys had time to accompany me to the bank on Monday as they also had some financial matters to settle with the bank as well. Anderson escorted me to my room and once at my door, we both hugged and kissed each other goodnight with plans to meet up over the weekend. Once in my room, was too exhausted to do anything I just showered, jumped into my bed and slept till the next morning.
With two more weekends left before the start of school, I decided to use this weekend to clean up my room including the bathroom, windows and laundry as I was having my second cup of coffee for the day with my favorite pastry. I checked in on Chris, Jaime and Anderson and they were also cleaning their rooms, they were going to take longer than I because before they left for the summer holiday they hadn't cleaned their rooms or done their laundry so it was going to be a busy day or house cleaning. I told them that lunch will be on me, and it would be late pizza lunch at my place at around 2PM; thought by then they would done with their housework. At 1:00PM, I placed the pizza order (four large pizzas) with drinks and extra snacks, requesting for delivery to Boston University at 2PM, after the confirmation, returned back to finishing up the washing and preparing my room and the utensils for our lunch. At 1:45PM, the boys arrived at my place and they were not only looking exhausted but were quite hungry; pizza was delivered shortly after 2PM, thank goodness as I was not sure how I was going to control three hungry boys. We had a wonderful late lunch, relaxed while watching movies until 6PM, thank goodness there was still left over pizza, which we would warm using my microwave and have for dinner. The boys decided to hang out at my place till 10 in the evening which was lovely as they not only wanted to keep me company, but we also wanted to have fun and spend time together which was very cool, exciting and thoughtful of them.
On Sunday, it was a peaceful day in Boston; at around 9:30 I went to the archery club to reactivate my membership card for my third year. I also practiced a few shots for two hours; while I was practicing I was examining the various bows and arrows they had and asked if they were available for purchase, which they were and decided to buy two sets of the recurve bows and thirty arrows. They were quite pricy but were worth the price, these were going to be my new practice equipment for archery, my very own special bows and arrows. I practiced my archery skills using my new equipment and they were stable, slick, smooth, quick and light; felt very comfortable using them. I thanked the staff for their assistance and left the club heading back to the university. When I arrived back in my room, looked at my precious archery equipment once again, and then placed them on top of my closet, the good thing they came in a great bag which would prevent them from getting dirty and dusty. I made myself a cup of coffee, and then began browsing on the phone. I replied to the texts and emails, called to check on Chris, Jaime and Anderson, they were all doing well, spoke about our day and all that had been going on.
For the rest of the afternoon was spent going over the Moodle school website for the upcoming school year. I noticed all my third year courses were listed including the names of the professors, and the scheduled times for the courses; would be taking ten courses. Before the end of my second year, I met with my academic supervisor Mr. Everson to discuss and select my courses for the third year. He had mentioned that the courses to be taken in my third year would be more in the second semester than my first semester; hearing that I asked if I could move two courses in my second semester that would be available to be taken in my first semester and surely enough there were actually three courses from my second semester that were also being taught in my first semester. I thought about taking all three of them, adding the eight to be taken would be a total of eleven courses. I did a double take; thought again, looked at Mr. Everson and decided to take two courses, add on the eight for the first semester would be a total of ten courses including Chinese language; that was more than enough. I told myself let me take as many courses next semester, then when it comes to the second semester of my third year will have less courses and less work and shall be able to have time to focus on my own personal things. We both agreed, and a schedule was well prepared with no conflicts and all my classes would end at 5 o'clock except Fridays ending at 3:30 in the afternoon. As I looked through my schedule, the days and times of my courses, was quite happy and pleased with the layout; printed five copies of my schedule; one for my room, one for my backpack, and the remaining three for Chris, Jaime and Anderson. As was in the past, we would give each other a copy of our schedules so if we needed to find each other especially during class times we would know where to find each other.
As I sat on my bed, reading through my schedule, the information on Moodle, I started glancing at my courses and saw that pre-readings, assignments and introductions were already posted with some of the work expected to be completed before the start of class on Monday August 29th. The good thing was that I had one more week to prepare, do all the printing and reading of the pre-readings with the questions and complete all the introductions. I decided to get all the documents, research papers and the pre-readings printed, stapled and organized on the desk for the week. At around 7:30PM there was a knock on my door, wasn't expecting any visitors, I opened the door and it was the boys who had dropped by to have dinner at my place. They had ordered pork ribs and French fries with salad and ice cream for dessert; it had been a while since I had eaten pork ribs, and I was hungry. As we were talking about how our day went, I placed copies of my schedule for them to take when they leave, and reminded them to take it before they left. They had also received their schedules, with classes running from 8 in the morning till 5 in the evening. The only day they would be finishing early was like me on Friday afternoon at 3:30. That was a huge relief for them, as they were able to have an early start to the weekend, and get some of their work done, but most importantly they were able to get a nap and rest before kicking off for the weekend.
At 9:30 in the evening, we decided to call it a night; we talked about meeting tomorrow at 09:30 in the morning to head over to the bank. I hugged Chris and Jaime, gave them a copy of my schedule and they left. Anderson and I were still chatting but he left not long after, gave him a copy of my schedule, hugged and kissed each other and we would see each other tomorrow morning. I returned to my room, prepared myself for bedtime, prior to that, organized all my school materials, set my alarm and charged my phone, finally took a shower, brushed my teeth, dressed into my pajamas, turned off the lights and rolled over to sleep; it was already past 11PM.
The next morning as scheduled, we were ready and waiting downstairs at the reception for Anderson who arrived five minutes later. With the wonderful weather, we decided to walk to Chase Bank as it was also not far from Boston University. When we arrived at the bank, was shortly after 10:30 in the morning, there weren't quite a lot of people; we got a number and were asked to wait in line. There were three lines and we each stood on one line, except Anderson and I stood on the same line. First one to be served was Chris; he was depositing money into his account, as he was waiting Jaime was also being served, he was depositing and withdraw money from his account. As we were watching them being served, the banker teller was asking them questions, next minute, the manager of the bank was called, the manager asked them a few questions, and they were then ushered into the VIP Lounge and we never saw them again. Anderson was able to be served by the teller in the next counter, while I was waiting for the person in front of me to finish being served. After two minutes, I walked up to the teller, greeting her and presented my ID and passport stating that I want to open a bank account. The teller smiled took my credentials and started typing my name, when she looked at me saying, "You already have a bank account with us madam," I said, "how is that possible, I have never been to this bank before." Then I thought and thought, looked at the teller and asked, "Can you check who opened the account and when it was opened, and how much was deposited into my account please?" "Sure, one moment", she replied. Five minutes later, she returned telling me that my account was opened by my parents back in 2019 with an amount of $500,000 deposited into my account. I had a heart attack and froze, my hands started to shake. The teller looked at me asking, "Are you alright Miss Diana?" I was unable to respond. I looked around for Anderson, Jaime and Chris but they were nowhere to be found. I composed myself, looked up to the teller asking if I was able to withdraw the money and was informed that I could withdraw anytime. I closed my eyes to think for a minute, then finally said, "Can you help me deposit this money into that account, and I would like to apply for a debit card please?" Before I could continue, the manager came towards where I was standing and asked me to follow him into the VIP Lounge. I had no idea where we were going and was already nervous and scared especially when I was unable to find Anderson, Chris and Jaime. However, when I got into the VIP Lounge, I found Anderson, Chris, and Jaime all seated in the VIP Lounge as well. The manager asked me to have a sit while he went on his business. Chris asked, "What is going on, why are we all here?" I replied, "I am not sure, but I think it has to do with the money in our bank account." I continued, "I just found out that my parents had opened a bank account for me back in 2019, when I started studying at Boston University, with a deposit of half a million dollars, and they never told me anything." Anderson and Jaime said, "What, you didn't know anything about this account or the money in your account?" I replied, "I knew nothing until today." I was told I could withdraw the money anytime; I requested to deposit the money I had and would like to apply for a debit card, that's when I was asked to come here."
As we continued chatting, the manager came back with files, documents and with our IDs and passports. He introduced himself as Mr. Morris, the bank manager of Chase Bank, stating that he was going to be our Bank Relationships Manager who will be handling and dealing with our banking affairs. I like Chris said, "So what you are saying is that we are VIP clients and you will be our Relationships Manager" interrupted by Jaime, "So you will be handling whatever banking services we will require when we come to the bank?" "That's correct, but you don't always have to come to the bank, just give us a call and we will be able to process whatever banking services you require," replied Mr. Morris. I was already in a confused state of mind and was not sure what was going on at all. Nevertheless, as alarming and overwhelming everything was, I decided to go along with what was going on and once I got back to the university would call and discuss this with my parents. We were given some forms, asked to read and sign them; the forms were for opening our bank accounts, application for debit and credit cards. The forms had been previously filled out by the staff working at the bank. I read the forms with keen eyes, paying attention to the details, the spelling of my name; whether the ID and passport numbers were input correctly, and my mobile number. All information was well documented; I signed the paper and returned it to Mr. Morris. I looked at everyone else and they all sensed that I was beginning to worry and panic again with tears almost coming out. They all came to where I was seated to comfort and assure me that all was going to be OK. Anderson added, "Maybe it was money that your parents wanted you to have while you were in university as they didn't know how much you would be spending." I replied, "But they didn't mention anything about it which is what I found quite weird and it was never like them at all." "Hey everything is going to be fine, Diana, after this we shall go back to the university and call your parents and who knows they will probably tell you the same as Anderson said," said Jaime. "You are right; I could be over thinking or worried for no reason." I replied. A few minutes later, Mr. Morris returned with our signed, stamped forms, gave us our credit cards and platinum cards. All we needed to do was get them activated and in ten minutes we were not only VIP clients, but also platinum and credit card holders of Chase Bank. We thanked Mr. Morris, who extended his hand for a hand shake, giving each of us his business card in case we had any questions, concerns or if we needed any banking services done, we thanked him again and left the bank.
It was already one in the afternoon; we were already hungry, grabbed lunch at the deli café which we enjoyed, and then walked back to the university. When we got back to the dormitory, we decided to hang out at Chris and Jaime's room, it was then I called my mum's phone but no answer, and then called my dad's phone and no answer either. I left a voice message on both phones, so that whoever hears my message would be able to call back as soon as possible. I didn't want to freak out, so relaxed and calmed down telling myself, all is OK, they are just busy with work, visits and other things, and they will call back.
The week went by which I spent preparing for the start of my classes on Monday. I was working on the assignments and introductions on the Moodle website which was quite a lot considering I had ten courses this semester. Nevertheless, was able to complete all the assignments, questions and introductions on Thursday morning. On the same day in the afternoon, did the pre-readings circling, highlighting the important sections; all the textbooks I had ordered had also arrived later in the afternoon. I took a nap as was feeling sleepy with all the reading, the thinking, my head was exhausted. I hadn't seen the boys in three days, as they were all quite busy preparing for Monday, but we did text, voice and video call each other every morning and evening. They asked if my parents had called, told them had not heard from them yet, and again I assumed they were still busy with work and other issues and that they would call back.
Our last weekend of the summer vacation had come to an end, it was already Sunday evening in Boston University, and the campus was once again noisy and vibrant with everyone's return looking fresh and ready to start the new school year, new semester on Monday August 29th, 2022. The boys and I met up for dinner, we decided to go for dinner off campus not far away from the university, and then we would walk back and hang out on the campus lounge area. The four of us sat on the grass area; I was lying on Anderson's thighs as we were talking about the courses for the semester, plans for activities and events we could participate on campus or off campus. For sure the weekends would be busy because of the course work, assignments and preparations for the classes the following week. Even though there may be days we may not be able to meet or go to the gym, but we made sure to always meet after classes on weekdays for dinner and Sundays for lunch for this semester. I requested if they could accompany me to the archery club every Friday afternoons from four in the afternoon till seven in the evening. They had no problem and were happy to adhere to my request; this put a smile on my face as we continued relaxing and chatting in the lounge.
At 9:30 in the evening, we returned to our dormitory, I hugged and kissed Anderson, and then watched him as he entered his dormitory building. Chris, Jaime and I entered our dormitory building and returned to our rooms for the rest of the evening. Once in my room, I began putting away my school materials and textbooks and binder. I packed the materials and textbooks for tomorrow's classes, had a lemonade drink, showered, washed and blow dried my hair and brushed my teeth. I set my alarm for 6AM, and also checked if my parents had called or left any messages. By 11, I was already in bed with lights out and rolled over to sleep.
Monday morning of August 29th, our first day of classes at Boston University began. I waited for Chris, Jaime, and Anderson at the reception area where we would always meet at 7:30 to walk together to class. They all arrived shortly after 7:35, and we started walking to our classes; we all looked energetic, refreshed after a good night's sleep. Chris, Jaime and I were starting our third year while Anderson was starting his fourth year at Boston University. Although it was once again going to be a very busy intense school year, we were determined to make sure to ace through the first semester with good standing grades and then ready to take on the second semester and complete it with flying colors. As summer was over, August was coming to an end, the first week of school also came to an end, and we had hit the month of September. We were having a long weekend including no classes on Monday September 5th as it was Labor Day; we would resume classes on Tuesday September 6th. Whenever the month of September rolled in, the season of autumn was around the corner and it was also the month we celebrated Anderson's birthday which was on September 15th. Every year, I would not only give him a gift, but also take him out on a nice, elegant and romantic dinner back in Chicago and in Boston. For this year, I was not sure what gift to get him, as I had pretty much given him all the gifts one could give to a boyfriend. I started thinking and thinking and needed to come up with an idea fast, so that I could make dinner reservations and buy his gift before September 15th. I finally came up with these arrangements; will get him a birthday card, dinner reservations at one of the five star hotels and the gift will get him a watch, not sure the brand but will make sure it will be worth his birthday gift, In terms of preparations, the only time I was able to get all these arrangements done was on Saturday September 10th, early in the morning and have everything arranged and planned by the end of this day.
As September rolled in, the classes started getting busier and busier more than ever, but were now beginning to get even more worried as I had not heard back from my parents ever since I called and had left that voice message. Normally in the past years of my classes, I never took my phone to class as it was never needed and didn't often get any phone calls or messages, but this time I took my phone to all my classes just in case my parents called or there had been an emergency that I needed to not only answer the phone but fly back to Chicago. I had left two more voice messages on my dad and mum's phone, once again in the hope that I would hear from them sooner rather than later. I also decided would give them another month and see if they would call or message me, and if I didn't hear from them, then I would have to contact Cynthia and take it from there.
Anderson's birthday was getting closer day by day; I had already made dinner reservations at the Boston Marriot Cambridge, bought and prepared a birthday card and a classic male watch brand called Furlan Marri. I had bought it from one of the designer stores in Boston as it had just arrived in shop; it was original and genuine with a very good offer. I had it wrapped as a gift and placed in a gift bag where I had placed the birthday card. On the day of his birthday, I surprised him at his room before going to class, wished him a warm happy birthday with a big hug and kisses. I told him not to make any plans and to be well dressed and ready at 6pm as we were going for dinner. I had ordered a cab to pick us up from the university at 6pm as our dinner date was for 7:30pm. Indeed he was ready by 6pm; our car had arrived shortly before 6pm, and we were looking very elegant, both dressed in fancy semi formal attire. Anderson was already curious asking where we were going, what was happening; told him all will be revealed when we get to our destination. It took us almost fifty minutes with traffic to get to Boston Marriot Cambridge hotel, but we made it. We were well received and welcomed by the restaurant manager who had reserved the best seats in the restaurant with a wonderful view outside the hotel. We were given the menu and the drink menu; we took our time to order, told Anderson it was his birthday so he should relax, order what he wanted and enjoy the night. Once we had placed our orders which included wine, I gave him the gift bag. He looked at it then at me, asking "What is in the bag?" I replied, "Open and you will find out." He opened the bag, first read the birthday card, smiled and then took out the gift; he opened the gift, when he saw the watch, his facial expression was speechless, as he didn't know what to say, he was very touched and moved. He stood up, walked up to me, gave me a hug and kissed me saying, "thank you, this is the best and wonderful gift, loved the words in the birthday card, very special and I love them so much, I love you, love you so much Diana." My response, "you are welcome and glad you like the gift." He started bragging about his new watch, and how it will be his new best friend, every time he wears it, will be thinking of me!! I had to laugh at his statement, always making me laugh with his funny jokes. We enjoyed our wonderful fine dinner with a great appetizer, steak, chicken fillet, salad, great red wine from California and topped it up with some fine dessert and coffee. As we were enjoying the dinner, his parents called wishing him a wonderful happy birthday, asking him how he had planned to celebrate it, he told them of the birthday surprise dinner arrangements I had made and were currently having dinner at the Boston Marriot Cambridge hotel; he also showed them the birthday gift I gave him. His parents thanked me for helping them celebrate their son's birthday and for the wonderful gift. He continued speaking to them briefly, and then mentioned he would call them when he got back to the university. We continued having dinner, talking about us, our relationship, and the wonderful view from the hotel; he also mentioned that Chris and Jaime had also texted and called wishing him happy birthday; he was of course very happy to receive their wishes and thanked them dearly. By 11:30, we had already finished dinner, a bottle of red wine and were now enjoying our dessert that was in a form of a cake and coffee, he turned twenty two years old today Thursday September 15th, 2022. We left the restaurant shortly after midnight, with a car I had reserved from the hotel to take us back to the university as I knew we were going to finish dinner late and getting a cab was not going to be easy. We arrived shortly after 1AM, tipped the driver and thanked him for bringing us back to the university safely. Before Anderson returned to his room, we sat outside for a bit and continued talking; he kept on thanking and thanking me for a wonderful birthday as he did in previous years but for some reason he said this birthday felt very special to him and one that he would never forget. We kissed and hugged each other goodnight, and then went back to our rooms. He called the minute he arrived in his room to let me know he's in the room, we chatted for a few minutes, exchanged kisses and said "love you, goodnight and sleep well" and hung up the phone. As I was about to place my phone on the bedside table, I saw a red flash on my phone that there was one unread or voice message. I quickly dialed the phone and played the voice message; "hello sweetie Diana, how are you? We received and heard your voice messages and I know you have been very worried about us. I am very sorry that your dad and I have not been in touch since August. It has been quite a very long busy business trip for your father and I and we are still quite busy and not sure when we shall be coming back to Chicago. We might have to spend a few more months in Europe and Asia in order to complete our contracts and business. But just so you know, your father and I are doing great; we are healthy, keeping safe and warm. We miss you so much, we love you so much." The phone cut, I then dialed my phone and played the second voice message this time it was my dad's voice; "Yes, sweetie, we are truly sorry for not keeping in touch or calling you, but as your mum said we are doing very well and the businesses are going great. We hope you are well and doing well in school. We truly miss you and love you very much. Don't worry too much about us, we are and will be fine, take care, bye for now." The voice messages ended. I didn't know what to make out of those two voice messages, but I decided to first have a shower, brush my teeth and then listen again to the voice messages before going to sleep.
I listened again to the voice messages as I was in bed and was just not sure whether to believe everything was OK with my parents and not think too much about it, or was there something going on that my parents didn't want me to know, also why would they not call like they way they used to before when they travelled for business. Something was just not adding up and as much as I was telling myself not to over think or assume the worst, I decided to go with the voice messages received from my parents, taking it with a grain of salt and believing they were OK, safe, happy, healthy and their businesses were going great. I placed the phone on my bedside after setting the alarm and leaving it to charge for the night, switched off the lights and went to bed. The next morning at six woke up, and prepared the coffee as I prepared for my classes. The voice messages I had received from my parents were repeatedly playing and playing over and over again in my mind and they were beginning to bother my mind; my gut feeling was telling me something was not right, something was wrong, but I couldn't figure it out, felt like something was missing, didn't sound like my parents were telling me the truth about their businesses. I didn't want to be late for class and it was already past seven, so I hurried up, got dressed, did my hair, and finished my breakfast. I left the room at 7:30 sharp, as I was heading to class, sent a good morning message to Chris, Jaime and Anderson, told them of the messages from my parents but would need to talk to them about the messages after class.
After I had finished my classes at 3:30pm, waited for Chris, Jaime and Anderson, and we walked back to my room. I then played the first voice message from my mum, and then played the second voice message from my dad. Chris, Jaime and Anderson didn't find anything strange with both voice messages; in fact they thought my parents' voices were normal as always when we talked to them on the phone. Then I raised some questions; I said, "OK since you claim to say nothing is wrong, why they didn't voice or video call? Why send voice messages? Also they didn't mention where they are, which they always do whether its voice, video or text messages, they will always let me know where they are and in details. These two voice messages had no details. With those questions in mind, the boys were at a loss of words and were not sure what else to say to those voice messages. They did suggest something very interesting though; "send your parents a voice message replying to your message and request they call or video call you, not text or send you a voice message," if they call or video call you then there will be nothing to worry about, but if they continue sending you voice messages and text messages then we will have to really find out what is going on which would mean going to your dad's company and speaking to HR, and then take it from there," said Jaime. He continued, "Does that make sense?" I replied, "Ok, sounds good."