Man of his word

Who is David?

David POV

For the last 4 years I have not had time to myself and I feel like am going to snap, Dad just decided he is stepping down without any handover warning. Who knew running a logistics company was this time consuming, I always thought its just ship that here and move that there.

ARRGHHH and to add to my stresses, my family is now on my back about settling down. Every time my mother calls, she keeps asking the same question and its starting to get into my nerves

"Hi Mum"

"Hello dear, how are things?"

"Good, managing"

"So Sarah's daughter has just completed her masters and I was wondering if you would like to attend her graduation party?"

I roll my eyes, "Mum am sorry you know I do not have time to attend such mediocre hook up parties, remember Sharon the nutcase?"

"Son, you cannot write off every young girl just because of one crazy one?"

"Sorry I have to go"

"You say that every time when you want to avoid a topic, anyway you still have to come home for the annual family get together"

"But mum....."

"No buts, your butt better be here or I will have your dad kick your butt back here.....your choice, do I make myself clear"

"Yes mum" she cuts off the phone, I can tell she is pissed.

I press the intercom "Get in here"

I hear a knock on my door and I press the button to open the door to let my assistant in.

"What did we get my mum last year?"

"We got her a diamond encrusted bracelet"

"Ok, think of something that says I missed you and I am sorry" my assistant looks confused

I signal him to leave as I get back to the paperwork on my desk.

Stanley has been with me since I took over and he is very reliable and bonus I do not have to worry that any scandal will start between us. That is where my father went wrong, having a female assistant in our line of work is dangerous. With the amount of work hours we put in, its easy to get feelings for your assistant that can lead to conflicts.

Getting respect from our business partners has been hard since I was unknown but after making a few examples of some way ward partners no one dares to cross my path. In the process I caught the attention of a group I never wanted to be known by, they are known as "The Elites". Nothing moves without their knowledge, it consists of 4 families i.e. Whites, Barnards, Lyons, and Mayan's, they used to be 5 but one family, the Mathews, just disappeared and no one knows what happened. There are rumors they were assassinated but no one knows for sure and my father never speaks about it. I once tried to investigate the matter and my own father almost killed me, literally put a gun to my head, since then I have never pursued the story again

My father has always wanted me to take up the helm but am really not into organized crime, I just want to lay low and do my business without their involvement. This has always led to numerous arguments between my father and I. Currently the Mayan's are holding the helm but they want to handover to the next generation in the next council meetings and our family is next in line. Apart from my lack of interest, it also has a caveat that one needs to be married with at least 1 heir or heiress, so you can imagine the amount of stress on my back. My father does not want our family to be passed over and so he is constantly on my back to accept the post especially now that the council feel they need someone like me who is ruthless and calculative

It is 2 days to our annual gathering, I can already feel a migraine coming on. I press the intercom and tell Stanley to wrap my mother's gift and alert the pilot I will be leaving tonight, I want to arrive a bit early this time to appease my mother. It is going to be a long week

After 6 hours we finally land and I cannot wait to stretch my legs, do not get me wrong my jet is spacious I just do not like being in enclosed spaces. As I step down I can see my mother is already in the lounge area waiting for me, may be one day I will have my wife waiting for me there.

My mother gives me a big hug once I get into the lounge area

I chuckle, "Mum kindly loosen the grip a bit"

"But I missed my little bear" she whines as she hugs me tighter, I can hear Stanley snickering behind me.

"You need to stop calling me little, you will spoil my rep"

"What rep?" she sneers "you barely even bring a fly home and declare as your wife and you are worried about rep.s" then she looks over my shoulder and sees Stanley and whispers, "or do you prefer the same team?"

"WHAAAT MUM COME ON" pulling her away briefly,

She shrugs her shoulders "What do you expect me to think, hmmm, you spend a lot of time with him and between you and me" she leans in "he does look a bit fruity" I burst out laughing. My mum has a problem saying the terms gay and homosexual, she prefers to say fruity because she says they look sweet and happy like fruits - her words not mine.

We are now in the car headed home, mum has not stopped talking since we left the airport. Kindly note, I have just been away for 3 weeks and my mum is behaving like I have been gone for a year. I have learnt never to interrupt her otherwise I will be given the cold shoulder for a whole week. We finally reach home and I can finally lie that I need to rest and lock myself in my villa.

"David bear, Mary is here for lunch, kindly say hi"

"Has she come with another friend for me to see?"

"Well I did not tell her you are here so she has come with her best friend Emma"

"Fine, am not coming out"

"Please bear for me, I want to surprise Mary, she has really missed you" she keeps quiet like she is listening if I am still there "will it help if I tell you her friend does not like male attention."

"Fine am coming" I can hear her squealing with joy, I suspect my cousin's best friend has no idea she is being introduced to me. This should be interesting

As I walk down the garden heading towards the main house I can hear laughter and I see a figure near the window that catches my eye. I have never seen such purity in my whole life, I immediately. feel warmth in my chest that I never thought was there.

I give myself a pep talk as I walk towards the door "Ok calm down David, we cannot let mum see we like this girl and besides she is still in school and she might not like you...play it cool." I open the door and walk in and suddenly someone jumps on me screeching in my ears.

"Mary you are too old for this, get down" I roll my eyes

"When did you become so cold?" she shrugs sadly and motions her friend towards us

"I want you to meet my best friend Emma" she turns to her friend "Emma this is my cousin David, he usually stays out of town and is visiting for the annual gathering."

She does not seem amused with Mary and whispers to her, "We talked about this, no more hook ups"

"You know I can hear you" I interject, she looks at me and stretches her hand to greet me "forgive me for my rudeness I shall be leaving now." She turns and heads towards the door with Mary following her.

All I can think of is how I can make her submit to me, one thing is for sure, I have finally met my wife and I am willing to chase her. I quickly turn back to my villa before my mum notices any thing off with me. The gathering goes on well but am disappointed that Emma did not come and I could not ask Mary because she would know that I like her friend and get my mum's hopes up.

The week passes on fast and I have to head back to work, at least mum loved the scarf and am forgiven for now. Dad is still pitching for me to reconsider my stand on the organization but am still not budging. The moment I land I instruct Stanley to get details on Emma's college schedule and any thing else he can find. Stanley looks shocked that I am interested in a female species and he excitedly replies that he will get on it.

I look at the files on my desk, one has all I need to know about Emma's school matters and quickly peruse through it. Hmmmm she is doing her final exams in 3 months time, I check for detail on boyfriends and there is none, this makes me smile. She is majoring on Business Administration and specializing on data analysis as an elective. I quickly put aside the file and get down to work, I have a lot of back log for the one week I was not around

Time really flies, its already 3 months and I some how end up with a meeting back home. The meeting takes longer than expected and we decide to wind down at one of my clubs. I remember Mary calling to ask if they could host their party there and I agreed. Ok I will be honest, I proposed going to the club hoping I will get a glimpse of Emma, I have missed her sarcasm. As I head to the private room where my clients are, a door suddenly opens and a lady kisses me.

I feel like time has stood still

I look down and I see.......EMMMA, she is kissing me and I find myself kissing her back. She tastes of rum, vodka, gin....she must have drunk some of those shitty cocktails women love but somehow it tastes like heaven on her lips. Behind her I see girls cheering and Mary is looking at me with wide eyes and tries to get her friend from stop. Am determined to see this through and see what this is all about. The next thing I see is her giving her phone to some friend and they start recording.

First I thought she was going to fall and then I realized she was going down on one knee. Is she doing what I think she is doing? I can feel my heart fluttering.

As I walk off, I can not believe it, she proposed to me and told me to look for her after 2 years. I know she is drunk but I do not care, she is going to be mine and I will remind her when she is sober. I walk in to the private room and everyone is wondering why am smiling but that is for me to know.

"Mum, Dad we need to talk" they look startled because they were not aware I was at home and secondly I am never willing to have talks with me.

"I have met the woman I want to marry" I swear I could here an ant running off on the grass due to the silence in the room.

My dad speaks first, "Who?"

"Emma Bailey" at this point I hear a cup drop and break, I turn and see my mum had dropped her cup. The shock on her face is beyond words as she processes the news, then finally she screams and leaps off her chair almost toppling over and rushes over to me.

"I knew it, I knew it, I knew it" as she is hopping around me like a small girl, my dad is more aloof like he is in deep thought.

"Carol can you calm down" he says sternly to my mother who looks like she is about to faint from excitement. "Son, lets go to the study" we walk off to the study and he closes the door.

He heads over to his desk and opens the bottom drawer and removes 2 cigars, and hands one over to me and says, "congratulations son, you are moving on up now" and he pats me on the back. We then take a sit on the sofa.

"So how do you want us to do this?"

"Well I am assuming you need to meet with her parents to begin the process"

"Hmm true" he nods as he blows smoke in the air "We will arrange as soon as possible to meet them."

"I already told Stanley to do a background check on her, I do not want any surprises"

"YOU WHAAAAT!!!!" shouts my dad, he suddenly looks pale "How much have you found so far?"

Am shocked at my father's reaction, I thought he would be happy am doing due diligence to ensure I do not end up with a psychopathy or a spy.

"So far only her education background" looking confused

"That better be all, do not dig any further"

"Why?" I ask

"I will tell you in due course, just be patient with me, I promise I will tell you everything when the time is right" he extinguishes his cigar and walks out in a huff. Whatever I have done seems to have spooked my father, I follow him and see him outside in the garden talking on the phone, seems agitated. My mother joins him outside and she covers her mouth in shock. Why are they behaving like this? What are they hiding?

I am seated in the foyer when I hear the car leave, am tempted to dig more and find out why they do not want me looking into Emma's file but I will obey my father and wait.

My parents have organized for a get together specifically for them and Emma's family to meet, to ensure she does not run off we lied to Mary that am not around. Apparently she is avoiding me and I do not like the sound of that but I understand, I can be a bit intimidating especially with the scar on my brow. The party is going on well and finally she arrives and I cannot hold myself anyone more. I direct Stanley to get her and bring her to the back garden, as expected she freaks out, it takes all my will power not to take her there on the verandah, but I do not want to scare her more than I already have.

I watch her run off after I let go of her and laugh at what I had just done, when did I become this reckless? I rub my temples as I head back to the party, I am looking for her but I cannot spot her any where. One of the guards finally sees her running off to the exit, I decide to let her leave but have one of my guards tail her. I get hold of Mary and get her to give me her number and I quickly send her text just to agitate her, I chuckle to myself and leave to go see my parents who seem to be getting drunk with the Baileys, at least they are getting along.

I decide to give her some space and return my focus on my work, after awhile I get a message from one of my spies monitoring Emma.

WHO THE HELL IS SAMMY

"Stanley, get in here"

"Yes, Sir"

"Offer this Sammy a job in our engineering department and ensure to triple his workload and also triple the pay."

"Yes Sir" and he leaves

Everything is going as planned until I realize they are very determined to be together

"Stanley, how is Sammy settling in?"

"He is actually very efficient Sir"

"Hhmm I think the other branch needs his expertise, transfer him there"

"Ok Sir, any thing else Sir"

"Yes call Stella, tell her she is to get close to him as soon as possible"

"Sir" Stanley asks in a shocked voice

"Do not be a prune, am safe guarding my interests, and it will be in your best interest that no man comes near my wife"

"But you have not married her yet Sir so you ca....."

"Its clear you do not value your life" I cut him off in a menacing tone "do as I have told you or face my wrath"

"Yes Sir, right away Sir" he quickly shuffles out of my office

I know she will be sad but I have to protect what is mine.

To ensure she does not stray, we put out warning notices that no one is to hire her until I say so.

"Sir, don't you think you are being too extreme, there are other ways to keep men away from her,"

"I do not care, I will break that stubborn streak of hers and do not question my methods again"

I can see Stanley shaking his head and smiling, hmph what would he know...he has never found someone he desires so he does not understand what I am going through.

I have been having back to back meetings for the last 2 months and I have not been checking up on Emma, the most I know is that she has a jogging buddy who is one of my spies so am not worried that is until I receive a photo of my Kitten entering a restaurant with my spy.

HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN.

I quickly get in to my car and drive to the edge of town and storm in to the restaurant, and there they are looking at each other with so much desire.

OH HELL NO, NOT ON MY WATCH

Stanley has also just arrived and I do not have time to listen to him, all I can see is red, he manages to hold me back because am about to storm in and punch that double crossing rat. How dare he touch my kitten, after calming down, I head in to the restaurant.

As I head to their table all I can think of is how am going make this Tim pay for his disrespectful behavior, no one touches what is mine and I mean no one