9
Third Person’s POV
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Brandon snatched the cotton from his father’s hand and started applying it to his injury on his own.
“Brandon, I need your phone because customer care will share the detail of that transaction only if we will call them with the registered number.”, Bruce said, on which Brandon rubbed his forehead, not knowing where his phone was. And wherever it would be, it would be switched off for sure.
“Do you think that he will have any idea where his phone can be?” Brandon’s father asked. “We will have to search his phone on our own,” he added. “Brandon, don’t you dare leave from here and a for a while, just for a while, use your mind instead of drinking whiskey, okay?” he asked Brandon, on which he didn’t say anything.
Logan sighed, and both of them walked toward Brandon’s room in search of his phone. And the moment they left, Brandon stood on his feet again and started walking toward the bar. He grabbed a bottle of whiskey again, and after trying to open it for a while, he finally succeeded.
She sat on the stool near it and started drinking it again, but at the same time, he was thinking about Bruce’s words.
Who said that he couldn’t use his mind while drinking?
He had been drinking alcohol for the last five years, so his brain was now habitual not to get unconscious or dizzy or tipsy just after a few peg, but yeah, weakness could be a topic on which could be the topic on which he could discuss.
Now coming back to what Bruce had said.
It was Bruce who had seen her jumping from the bridge. And he couldn’t doubt Bruce because he couldn’t ever lie to him. If he had seen her jumping from there and Sophia indeed had jumped from there. It took a while, but after a while, he took jumped from there to find her, but he never found her anywhere. We just assumed that her body might have flown away from there because of the wave of the river.
And knowing that she didn’t know swimming, there was a high chance that she would have died.
Everything. Everything was just an assumption based on the theory.
But now, the sudden use of the card that Brandon had given to Sophia had opened two questions for everyone.
Did someone steal that card from Sophia before she jumped in the river, or did something happen because of which that card ran into someone else a hand? OR
Was Sophia still alive?
Brandon had written the PIN number on the card because of the situation in which he had given the card to her. She would never have remembered the PIN. So, in case someone would have that card for this long, then indeed, he or she would have used it for sure.
There was only one person he knew that didn’t give a damn about his money, and that was Sophia. Only she could be the one for keeping the card for this long and not even using it for this long. That was his Sophia, who loved and hated him in her own way.
‘You can leave forever. And NEVER EVER return back to me for any reason because the contract is already OVER.’ He winced, recalling his own words.
‘So, she is alive in any part of the world and will never come back to me because I ask her not to.’, Brandon concluded. ‘But then, why did she use the card all of a sudden knowing that I would figure out her location?’ he questioned himself but didn’t get the answer to this question.
Something was there that he was not able to decipher. Sophia was innocent and naive but not stupid enough to use the card and share her present location of her.
OR, the person who used the card was not Sophia.
The part of the case was SOLVED, and the rest would be solved tomorrow because it was alright too late. He doubts that any bank representative can help him at this moment.
He finished the bottle and then started walking toward his room carefully so as not to fall from the stairs again. By the moment he reached the room, his best friend and his father were still looking for his phone. Little did anyone know, searching for anything in Brandon’s room was like searching for a needle from the dump yard because his room was filled with used cigarettes and alcohol bottles.
No one dared to come into his room because he kicked everyone out from there,
“Sophia is alive, but the person who used this card isn’t Sophia.”, Brandon said, concluding before falling on his bed. When he didn’t receive any response from Bruce and his father for a while, he looked at them, who was looking at him warily like he was lost his mind because of excess alcohol in his body.
“Just because I have stopped using my mind doesn’t mean I had forgotten using it.”, he said and closed his eyes. “Now, LEAVE my room. You guys won’t be able to do anything at this hour.”
“Just like you’re saying, if Sophia is alive, then what are you going to do?” Bruce asked.
“Let’s discuss it tomorrow morning.”
“Okay, Good night and Happy new year, my friend. Hope this year brings a lot of happiness in your life.”, Bruce said before leaving the room.
“Brandon, you haven’t eaten anything today. At least eat something. If Sophia is alive, then are you going to face her in this look?”
“I want chocolate cake.”
“Cake? When I said about eating something, I mean some food.”
“Chocolate cake or nothing.”
Logan sighed, knowing his son how much he loved eating chocolate. But He hadn’t eaten that in the last five years. He loved the chocolate cake so much that when he was a kid, he used to steal it from the fridge late at night.
“Okay!!”, Logan agreed. Just news of Sophia was showing a positive sign in him. After all, he was asking for something he loved the most.
*****
Next Morning!!
*
“Jake,” Brandon yelled one of the names of the housekeeper of the house, knowing that from today all of them would return from their tiny vacation of a week.
“Yes! Yes, sir!”, After a while, Jake entered his room, holding a bottle of whiskey. He quickly opened it and prepared the peg in the fresh glass just like Brandon liked.
Brandon took the glass from his hand and took a sip instead of drinking it all at once. He tried to stand on his feet, leaving the bed, and it took more than a minute for him to stand on his feet, and finally, he did.
Brandon, for the first time, realized that his condition had gone worst in all these five years.
“Ask Martha to prepare porridge for me in the breakfast.”, he ordered before taking another sip.
Jake looked at his boss in confusion, wondering whether his ears had stopped working or what?
What was he hearing ‘porridge ‘ instead of ‘peg’?
OR his boss was so drunk that he spoke another porridge instead of the peg. Jake was the new staff of the house. He was hired last year as a caretaker. He thought he had to babysit babies, but he had no idea that he would be stuck with thirty-four years adult men.
Then the thought maybe that adult man would be mentally ill or something, but the story was totally different when he finally joined his job. Since the salary was too good to be true, he didn’t leave the job but prayed in his mind to make him a caretaker of kids instead of an adult man who knew nothing except drinking.
“Sir, Martha is our cook. She … she doesn’t prepare peg.”, he corrected Brandon.
Brandon glared at him. “And I said PORRIDGE, not peg.”, he hissed and drank one more sip from the glass.
“Oh! I … am so sorry, sir.”, Jake apologized.
“And ask someone to clean the room.”, Brandon added. Jake kept looking at his boss like Brandon would have grown two horns in his head without blinking his eyes. “Didn’t you hear me?”
“Yes, sir!! Yes, sir!!”, He nodded his head, “Umm… sir, you really said to get your room clean, right? Or, I’m hallucinating the things?” he asked.
Brandon threw the glass near his leg, scaring the poor guy. “If you haven’t come out of his hallucination until now, then next time, I will break it on your head.”
“Yes, sir!! Yes, sir!!” Jake said in fear.
****
Finally, the cleaner found Brandon’s five years old iPhone 7, which was switched off for god knows how long. Jake charged that phone, not knowing what got into his boss’s body today. Instead of drinking for an hour and seeping for a few hours, he was doing activities like a normal human.
Like taking a bath, wearing fresh clothes, and having breakfast, it wasn’t that he wasn’t drinking. He still was but taking a sip at every interval of some time, instead of finishing the whole glass in one go!
“This is the transaction of a toy shop in Manaus, Brazil.”, Bruce informed.
“Toy shop?” Logan muttered in confusion. “Why will Sophia purchase a toy for anyone? And the transaction amount is too low, and she can have paid this amount in cash instead of using the card.”
“It’s not Sophia, dad.”, Brandon said before taking another sip of his drink.
“And last night, I did some research on the possibility of Sophia being still alive.”, Bruce said. Even though he wasn’t asked to but he did because he knew how important Sophia was in everyone’s life. He also knew that she couldn’t forgive anyone from her past for whatever happened with her and Caroline, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t give anyone a chance to apologize to her and make things right. “I guess everyone remembers Sophia’s favorite brother, Oliver Weasley.” he paused, throwing the newspaper on the table. “Here, he is getting married to his girlfriend, Rebecca Cornell, whom he has been dating for five years.”
(I hope you would have read the first chapter carefully, where Sophia mentioned, ‘I thought he killed you.’ This was the taking about that incident.)
Logan grabbed the newspaper and read the news. “Now, I get it why the hell the former queen of the werewolf saved his life that night for his daughter, Rebecca. Because Oliver was her boyfriend.”
“Exactly, Uncle. Now, the question is, when Rebecca was capable enough to save her boyfriend’s life on her own, then why did she send her mother to save Oliver’s life? What was more important for Rebecca than that she wasn’t there to save Oliver’s life?”
“Rebecca wanted to save Caroline and Sophia.”, Brandon said.
“Exactly. She missed to save Caroline’s life, but my guts feeling is telling me that she managed to save Sophia’s life.”, Bruce concluded.
“In that case, Sophia will surely come here to attend the wedding of his brother, and then …” Logan was speaking happily when Brandon cut him in between,
“We can’t even go anywhere near her if she reaches here.”, Brandon said, knowing that it would be almost impossible to meet Sophia under Rebecca’s nose. “But before that, find out the person who used this card which should have been with Sophia. Did someone rob her or something?”
“I’m into it. Within a few hours, we will have CCTV footage of that toy shop and….”
“Prepare the jet.”
“WHAT? WHAT?”, Both Logan and Bruce shouted in shock.
“You heard me.”, Brandon pointed out.
“But you’re not in the state to travel anywhere.”, Bruce pointed out. “I’m sorry to say, but you look no less than Thor of avengers endgame. The only difference is that he had gained weight while you lose your weight and damn too weak to go anywhere.”, He added.
“That doesn’t change the fact that THOR was still THOR. So, please don’t teach me and prepare for the private jet because there is no direct flight from here to Manaus. I don’t want to travel for straight eleven to twelve hours to get there. The sooner we will reach there, the faster all the things will get cleared. I have already spent all these years thinking of her as dead. Not a day more.”, Brandon said, leaving no room for argument.
“Jake,”
“Yes, sir!!”
“Pack your and my belongings for a few days. We are going to Manaus.”, Brandon ordered. Jake opened his mouth to say something but then quickly shut his mouth, seeing the glass in Brandon’s hand.This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.
‘I’m not hallucinating anything,’ He said to himself in his mind. “Okay, sir!!”
****
After a few hours!!
Even though Brandon, Bruce, and Jake had taken the private jet, they had to wait for eight our straight to reach Manaus. Jake was looking at everything in Aww because this was the first time he was seen any private jet from inside, while Brandon was sleeping like a dead person after finishing one bottle of Alcohol while Bruce was busy with work and was waiting for the CCTV footage from the person whom he had asked to arrange it as soon as possible.
Once his work was completed, all of a sudden, an idea popped out in his brain to search for Sophia over the internet. Though he knew she wasn’t some famous celebrity or businesswoman, he knew he could get any clue about her on Facebook or Pinstagram (I have changed the name because **** this symbol appears on the mention of correct spelling).
At first, he tried to search for her with the name ‘Sophia Haysbert’ but didn’t find anyone with a knowing face with this name. Then he searched ‘Sophia Weasley,’ the surname that Sophia used to use before marriage, and his eyes widened when he saw a knowing face and a Wikipedia page with that name.
Holy shit!
‘Sophia Weasley (born 25th April 1995) is an American business magnate, chairman, managing director, and the second-largest shareholder of C & C Ltd., a Fortune Global 1000 company and Brazil’s most valuable company by market value. According to Forbes and Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Weasley’s net worth is estimated at US $27 billion as of December 2021, making her the richest woman in the world.’
After that, he read about her early life, education, career, awards, honors, and, at last, Personal life. There wasn’t any detail of her personal life except for the part, ‘Weasley keeps her personal life away from the outside world. But she gives the credit for all success to her family.’
*
Bruce couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and he remembered The Sophia he knew, who used to be scared of the dark, afraid of a wolf howl, scared of rats, god knows whatever other things. She used to cry for an hour, a small pain. Now the same Sophia was a businesswoman and also a billionaire. Maybe Rebecca would have helped her in the beginning, but now, whatever she was now, she was because of which she was here in this state.
Bruce looked at her Instagram profile and checked all her photos.
‘Wow! She really changed a lot.’, He thought and then searched about her company, C & C Ltd. The full form of this name was not mentioned anywhere but the company was about knitting business. Not just that, the company also used to train and educate household women and women with rural side.
Bruce kept reading about her business for god knows how long, and he was highly impressed with her and proud of Sophia.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t impressed with her before. He was, and this was also the reason that he had developed feelings for her even though he knew that Sophia loved Brandon. But when he felt that Brandon shared the same feeling for Sophia, even though he didn’t want to agree, he chose friendship over any other feeling.
He didn’t realize it when he landed in Manaus by thinking and reading about Sophia.
****
On the way to the hotel!!
*
“Here, you should read this.”, Bruce said, showing Brandon his laptop. Brandon wanted to drink, not read anything, but knowing that Bruce wouldn’t have suggested, which was not necessary to read. The car halted when the traffic signal at the same time. Brandon was going through Sophia’s page with surprise, and Bruce’s eyes were on him. While Jake was enjoying all the things out of the car, that’s when his eyes landed on the two identical kids who were crossing the road. He smiled, looking at them, wondering how their mother could recognize which one was the first born and which one was the second born because he couldn’t find any difference in them.
They were cutely waving their hand at all the cars that were standing because of the red light. Immediately Jake stopped smiling when he realized that those kids were the carbon copy of his boss; if his boss got his short hair and got clean shaved.
He had seen his boss’s previous pictures, so; he could relate those kids’ facial structures to his boss.
“Sir…” Jake tried to gain Brandon’s attention so that he, too, could see those kids.
“Not now, Jake. I’m busy.”, Brandon dismissed without even lifting his head.
Jake really wanted him to see them, but then he didn’t dare to go against his boss’s wishes. Soon, the traffic light turned green, and their car started moving. Jake kept staring at those kids till the moment they were visible, and after that, he sighed, feeling disappointed.
“Yes! What is it, Jake?” Brandon asked after a while.
“Sir, do you have twins sons with some one night….” Jake was immediately cut in between by Brandon.
“Mind your language, Jake. Or I will have to throw you out of the car right here.”, Brandon said in a dead cold tone. Jake lowered his head and slapped mentally for asking something like that with his boss. When he didn’t hear anything from his boss for a while, he looked at his boss through the rear view mirror and found him still glaring at me.
“The day we will return back home will also be the last day of your hob.”, Brandon said.
“I’m sorry for that question, sir. It’s just that those kids look like the younger version of you. I apologize for even thinking like that.”, Jake apologized, but nothing in the world was going to change Brandon’s mind. He started regretting saying something like that, but what was done could be get changed now.
*
“What happened to that CCTV footage?” Brandon asked once they reached the hotel. Throughout the journey, Bruce got himself so busy reading each and every detail of the Sophia that this matter totally slipped from his mind.
And also, in the car, at first, Brandon was busy reading Sophia’s detail, and then Jake’s words pissed him off. He was not a playboy-type person, and everyone knew about it, everyone who knew him.
“Sorry! That part totally slipped from my mind. Let me check my email where that person was going to send me the footage.”, Bruce said and opened his email and cursed mentally seeing the mail in his mailbox two hours before, from the person to whom he had given the task of arranging the CCTV footage.
Bruce sat beside Brandon and started watching the footage. They waited for a while until a kid of three to four years entered the shop.
They saw them picking up a couple of toys and then walking toward the counter. The shop owner said something before he gave a black card to the shop owner.
“What the hell? The person who did this is a kid.”, Bruce screamed in shock. Well, even Brandon was quite shocked to see this. “Kids nowadays are so smart. I wouldn’t be surprised if they would sell even someone for money.”
“Shut up! Bruce.”, Brandon hissed and watched the rest of the video. After a while, an unknown lady entered the shop and picked that kid in her arms, and then she started having a conversation with the shop owner.
“I think this lady manipulated this kid to use the card. Nowadays, evil people do that to small kids to get their things done.”
“This footage is of no use!! All I can see is the black of that kid and back of that woman.”, Brandon said in frustration.
“Well, the CCTV is adjusted in that shop in such a way that no one can see the face of the face of person, all we can see in the back of the customer.”, Bruce explained and avoided looking at Brandon. Because he was already pissed by the question that Jake had asked in the car, and now this. “I will personally collect all the information on my own tomorrow instead of asking someone else to do this.”
“You better.”
******
“Mom, please tell us more about dad.”, Calvin requested, snuggling close to his mother’s chest.
“I told you how he does look yesterday night.”, Sophia pointed out.
“But Mom, how did you two meet? Were you two girlfriend boyfriends like Uncle Oliver and Aunt Rebecca?” Colton asked with interest.
“No. Our marriage was arranged by our parents. Approx seven years ago .….”
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#TBC