Man of his word

Truth hurts

EMMA POV

Despite all the distractions, we finally make it out of our house on time, this man will be the death of me but some how today he looks deeper in thought than usual. I wish I could read his mind, I have this nagging feeling things are about to change today.

Soon we arrived at my parents villa and dad is already at the gate waiting to receive us which is very odd, as we pack the car I notice another car in the parking lot. It seems my in-laws are also joining us but what catches my attention is the increase number of personnel in the compound and the house. David seems to be getting more agitated as we near the sitting room area.

"Mum" I call out to her, she is slouching on the sofa covering her eyes like she is crying. Now am getting scared, what the hell is going on and why do I feel like am the only who is not informed? My mum lifts her face and as I suspected, she is crying, I quickly run to her and hug her.

"Mum what's wrong? Are you ok? Are you hurt?" she does not answer me but keeps hugging me and crying more and starts mumbling, "am so sorry baby, am so sorry"

"what are you sorry about?" I can feel my blood pressure rising

All this time David is just standing there in the lobby looking at us with sad eyes that I cannot decipher whether he feels sorry she is crying or he knows why she is crying. I try to console her but I seem to be making it worse because now she is wailing.

"ENOUGH"

I turn to the sound and I see my father-in-law has just walked in

"Pull yourself together Maggy" he tells her assertively

Wwait......Who is Maggy? I do not know any Maggy or there is another woman someone losing her marbles too like my mother? This is starting to scare me

Mum seems to have calmed down and turns to me

"Am sorry I lied to you, I am not who you think I am, please do not hate me after I tell you everything"

"Why would I hate you" am puzzled why she would think that..

"You are not who you think you are, we have kept your hidden for over 24 years and it is time you knew who you are" she continues and looks behind me. David seems to have walked to the balcony with his dad and my dad.

"What do you mean?" my heart starts beating fast

"As I tell you this, just keep an open mind and know that everything we did was to keep you safe" I nod and she begins

"My real name is Maggy Tailor and my husband's name is Timothy Tailor, we are the assigned caretakers to protect you until you turn 30 after which we are to present you the Elites council to official claim your birthright"

"Your mother's real name is Stella Mathews and your real father's name is Hellion Strass"

"HUH" am in shock and let go of her hand and I can feel anger boiling in my chest

"Before you get mad, let me explain"

FLASH BACK - MAGGY POV

"Maggy....Maggy" shouts a lady who is running into the villa

"Yes Maam"

"Go to the stables and get your husband now and hurry, I do not have much time" she speaks in a hushed tone.

"Yes" I quickly run to the stables and find my husband still cleaning up the stables.

"Tim, Madam says her bath is clogging up again, I think the silt problem has started again"

"But I just unplugged it last week" he frowns

"Well clearly you did not do it well and it has reoccurred, hurry up Madam needs to leave for the factory and she cant take her bath," I drag him out the stables as he quickly grabs the tool kit near the door of the stables. As we near the villa, Tim stops in his tracks and turns to me and asks "is it really a bath problem?" and I just push him, I cant reply because you never know who is listening. Especially now that Madam's family seem to be just dropping dead like flies for unknown reasons and so she has become very nervous and suspicious of everyone.

I knock her door and she quickly opens and ushers us in, she checks the corridor before closing the door. She hands me a piece of paper and says "Maggy, kindly arrange for the following supplies for my trip to Madrid and this time do not leave out anything like last time" I begin to read it as she turns on the water in her bathroom. The note reads

"My room is bugged and so I cannot speak out loud, I want you to take my baby Emma and leave with her immediately and head to the southwest corner of the ranch. You will find a black rope hanging from the walnut tree, pull it and wait for a man called Stephan to come get you, I have attached a picture for you to know how he looks. I have already given Emma a sleeping portion that will keep her asleep for at least 24 hours. Hurry now, I have put her in the bath bucket to help you carry her out and whatever happens do not look back. Everything has been arranged for you so do not worry about your belongings." I tap my foot and I start giving Tim instructions

"Tim, there is sludge that came out of Madam's bath this morning and I already scooped it and need you to dispose of it before we begin to fix the bath drainage, it really stinks" I lament pinching my nose.

Tim follows me to the bathroom that is still immaculate apart from a dirty looking bucket in the bath tub, I signal him to take it and instruct him to follow me and I will show him where to dump it. At this point my husband is looking confused but decides to play a long and picks the bucket and follows me. Madam grabs my hand snatches the note quickly lights it up with a lighter and ensures it burnt completely and tosses the ashes outside her window.

I want to ask her more questions but at the moment I decide to just follow her instructions and ask questions later. We had just turned the corner when we bumped in to Sir Strass who was looking pissed and almost spilled the content of the bucket on him. He looks at us and sneers, "what are you two low lives doing in my quarters?" eyeing the bucket suspiciously "and what is that?" before he can reach for the bucket.....suddenly the fire alarm goes off

"FIRE" "FIRE" Sir Strauss quickly turns and runs upstairs where the smoke is coming from, I took this as my cue and whispered to my husband

"we need to run now, quick, move it" 

"What is going on Maggy?" he asks as he starts running

"I will explain later but we need to get to the walnut tree near the stables now or we will be in big trouble"

"Ok" he replies "Then I should ditch this bucket them to increase my speed"

"NOOOO YOU i***t" I shout when he is about to toss it, catching the attention of some grounds men "You will stink up the field with baby Emma's poop, do not be careless or we will get punished by Sir Strass" responding nervously hoping no one offers to come take the bucket. Luckily everyone's attention is now drawn to the increasing fire in the main house and I quickly drag him and whisper to him, "that bucket is the reason we are running, hurry we are almost there." I can see the walnut tree and I run ahead and pull the rope.

Am crossing my fingers that we do not have to wait for long but as we are waiting we hear a loud explosion and a large smoke bellows in the air. The explosion distracted me from noticing a door opening from the ground right next to my feet, yelped when I heard someone calling my name and my husband.

"Maggy, Tim hurry up we do not have much time, hand me the bucket first" I look down and I immediately remember the picture Madam showed me and I quickly take the bucket from Tim and hand it to him before we begin to descend into what looks like a huge rabbit hole. I can feel Tim's patience wearing out but I guess by now he must have connected some dots, after crawling for what seemed like for ever, we come out to a clearing in the forest and we hear another explosion in the distance.

"Maggy what is happening?" Tim now turns to be me very annoyed, "what have you gotten us into? Did you steal something" but am still in shock trying to take in the fact that Madam is now dead from the explosions.

"Please Tim....not now....just trust me...lets get out of here now." I urge him as tears start flowing down my cheeks as realization of what has just happened in the last one hour sinks in. When I woke up this morning I had planned to tell Tim that we needed to leave that cursed estate and now we are stuck with the only true heir of the Mathews estate and he does not even know it.

Stephan's voice gets me out of my thoughts, "if you two are done, we need to get you to your flight now, you will be briefed while aboard the plane on your next move, until then do not talk to anybody and do not ask any questions." we both nod and follow him to a tinted jeep. Once we get to the flight strip in the middle of the forest that I never knew existed, Stephan carefully unloads the bucket content to reveal baby Emma soundly sleeping below in a secret compartment, it hits me that clearly Madam Stella has been planning this for a long time, and here I was worried about all the sludge getting in to her baby lungs.

As we board the private jet, Stephan says goodbye and leaves us in the hands of Marion the flight attendant who is a sweet old lady probably in her fifties but I cannot be sure. Once we are up in the air and the pilot switches the no seat belt sign on Marion comes back, baby Emma has now been strapped in a crib and is still sleeping soundly. She still has another 20 or so hours before she wakes up. I can still see the shock on Tim's face when he saw baby Emma being removed from the bucket and now trying to digest everything."

"Ahem" Marion clears her throat to catch our attention

"Am sure you have many questions of which I will answer shortly, first let me introduce myself. My name is Marion your transit and extraction consultant for the Elites. As you have noticed, in the last 4 hours the two of you have just been thrown into a s**t storm of sorts to protect the last true heir of Mathews family, I was asked to relay the message that should you make it to the plane I should let you know that they are eternally grateful for your sacrifice and you will be duly rewarded for this. With regards to your identities, you can now not go back home or contact any one from your past, you shall assume new identities and take up the role of parents of the heiress. The organization will always be at hand incase of any eventuality that your covers are blown to protect the Heiress of the Mathews. Any questions" looking at Tim who asks,

"So what will we do for a living, we have never been to school and all we know is how to clean homes and stables and with the way we left. all our identification documents are back in our cabin so we cannot even look for jobs"

Marion replies, "we have put in place a shell company that will handle all matters related to the Mathews estate so you do not have to worry about finances. To keep you busy, you will be in charge of maintaining and running the house you will live in which is an ungazetted Mathews family property and ensure baby Emma lacks for nothing like her mother would have done. An assigned wealth manager will be visiting from time to time to ensure that all is in order. At no time should she ever suspect you are not her parents until she turns 30 when she is to take her rightful place in the Elites organization, in return they will ensure your life is as comfortable as it can be to make up for disrupting your lives without raising any eyebrows."

At this point am curious, "when was all this put in to place and why did Madam Stella select us as the ideal couple to take care of her daughter."

Marion replies, "I cannot answer that but maybe one day you might get to ask her," to which I break down and cry clearly she has no idea that Madam is already dead so we will never get to know

"Oohh" is all Tim said

"Now that we have that out of the way, we move on to the next matter at hand, your change of identities. Do not worry, we already collected all you identification documents this morning from your cabins and any thing that can be used to identify you in any way. Your call history, education, health and any other background are now sponged clean to ensure your safety. From today hence forth you will be known as the Baileys, Terry and Stanford Baileys," she says as she hands us 2 envelopes, "kindly go through your new identities and familiarize yourselves with the details". Once she is done speaking the seat belt goes on, Marion then turns to us and says, "I hope I will meet you in better circumstances another day, all the best." She turns and goes back to the cabin.

END OF FLASH BACK

"And just like that, our lives changed" Maggy finishes speaking

EMMA POV

I need to get out of here, I need to go away, I need to leave, I just need to go........how has my life just taken a 360 degrees turn. Not only am I not a Bailey, am  a heiress to a very rich family I did not know about and on top of that someone tried to kill me.

"So why are you telling me all that now, am only 24 years and still far from 30 years" I ask

"Because your father has found you and knows where you are," I hear David's voice, apparently they had come back into the house a long time a go.

I turn to David's father, "how long have you known my identity?"

"24 years, my deceased mother Marion White and deceased father Stephan White personally extracted you, they were close allies of the late Vincent Mathews your grandfather and did not trust any one else with the task. At that time I only knew you as project X highly classified. Before my father passed on he told me to always watch over the Baileys and handed me a key of a safe deposit box that he said at the right time only a true heir would be able to open it. So when David mentioned you as the woman he wants to marry I just thought how lucky could I be. I have been looking for you for many years but my grandfather hid you well that I never found you until you came to our doorstep and I knew it was just a matter of time before your identity became known" he replies

I turn to David, "Did you know about this?"

"No, I just found out like you yesterday when your real father confronted me and dad finally told me the truth about you," he responds.

"Ohh" is all I could say

"So does that mean that David and I are related?" I shuddered at the thought that I slept with my cousin or even brother

"No child, not in any way apart from marriage"

"So what now?" I ask

"Well we are now at high alert Madam Emma and our first priority is to keep you safe," responds my dad formerly known as Stanford Bailey 

I felt something snap in my head "DONT YOU EVER CALL ME MADAM....YOU ARE MY FATHER AND I DO NOT CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS....NEVER CALL ME MADAM...NEVER....YOU ARE MY DAD AND SHE IS MY MUM" I scream at him as I head to my room crying my eyes out

"Baby...." I hear my so called mum call me but I keep running up the stairs and throw myself on my bed and sob loudly into my pillow. How did things change so fast, first I got married to some guy I hardly know then now I find out I do not have any family and so technically am an orphan.

After a while sleep engulfs me and I fall in to a deep sleep, I can feel my self being lifted from my bed but I do not want to open my eyes. From the body scent I know its David carrying me and after a short while we are back home, he lays me in bed and covers me after carefully removing my clothes.

Soon my stomach is grumbling and I wake up to find myself alone in bed, where did that possessive man go. His side of the bed is cold and I can tell he did not sleep in it. I wake up, thrown a tracksuit and head downstairs to only find Thomas patiently waiting for me near the dining table.

"Good evening Madam"

"Mscheew, there is nothing good about this evening" I snap at him

"Sorry about that Madam, we have some honey garlic grilled chickens and cocktail ready for you to have as we prepare your dinner"

I am about to object then my stomach growls and I quickly accept and sit on the dinning table as Thomas fetches my comfort food.

"Here you go," well that is clearly not Thomas, I turn and see David smiling down at me. "Thought you needed some alone time and bed space after all that happened today" All I could do is just start crying again, like ugly crying with mucus snort and all. David immediately lifts me and places me on his lap and starts rubbing my back softly.

"Hey, everything is under control, here have some chicken" and he hands me one wing which I gladly gobble and in the process smearing some on his t-shirt which he clearly does not mind at all. After I calm down, I ask him how long I have been asleep, apparently its only 7pm, I thought it was later. We continue to sit silently in the dining room as I munch my wings and drink my cocktail. Soon my eyes begin to droop, must be the cocktail and I let it take me away and slip off to a dreamless sleep