GAMBLE: Rule of Cards

CHAPTER 39

“IS THE food good, baby?” Denton asked Donna who was lively eating. All the family members in the dining area were busy eating while adoring Donna who was literally the one who requested for the family dinner. This is Donna’s favorite thing, seeing his whole family eating dinner together. It was a struggle for her to complete his family dinner since a lot of them have work, some of them are studying, and if there’s a chance, she really wanted to go for it. It is a once in a lifetime moment for her that she would treasure for the rest of her life. “I am glad that you are enjoying your food a lot…”

“The food is good, daddy,” she replied. Denton placed his hand on Donna’s head and caressed it a little. “But nothing is more delicious than eating together with the family.” She looked at each of the family members on the table and smiled at them. All of them smiled together at Donna. She is the youngest of the family, so she is always being adored by the people inside that same roof. “I am thankful that you all agreed to have family dinner tonight. Although I know everyone is busy, you still did it. I hope there will be more family dinner soon.”

Denton smiled widely. “I am sure that there will be more soon, Donna,” he said and pointed at the food in front of his daughter. “You should continue eating, Donna. Imelda will be serving our desserts soon,” he continued. “Isn’t this good that we’re eating together like how families should do?” Minutes later, when the majority of the members were done with the main dish, their maid, Imelda, came in with the leche flan she prepared for the dessert. “Thank you for this, Imelda. Let’s go eat dessert, guys.”

“This is so good, Denton,” Sandra said after eating a scoop of leche flan. Denton smiled and gave Sandra a proud look. “This is the first time I tried this, Denton. What is this again? Leche flan?”

“Yes, Leche Flan, a Filipino dessert. It’s made with yolk and condensed milk covered with caramelized sugar. It is a sweet Filipino delicacy. It was first introduced to me by my mother who is a Filipina and I liked it the first time I tried it. It was related to the Spanish flan, since you know, my country was once colonized by Spain. Good thing that Imelda is a Filipina and knows how to cook this,” Denton replied. Even Paul agreed, saying that the dessert was actually good. “I am glad that you enjoy eating this one. Just tell Imelda that you want one if you want one.”

“This is so good, dad,” Denise said. Denton just smiled at her and was pushing her to eat more of the dessert. “I want to visit the Philippines one day, dad… if you have time. I searched on the internet and it said that a lot of places there are natural and look good. It makes me want to visit it more.”

After the dinner, everyone finished and went to their own rooms after. “Good night, baby,” Denton said as he placed Donna on her own bed. He even kissed her forehead before turning into Denise who was already laying down on the bed. “Good night, Denise…” he uttered as he placed a kiss on his older daughter’s forehead. As he got up from the bed he was sitting on, he walked towards the door and slowly closed the light of the room.

“Good night, dad,” Denise’s sweet reply before seeing his dad leave the room. Denton replied with a sweet smile though he does not know if Denise saw his smile. Denton is not a perfect guy, but he does everything to provide Denise and Donna the best life they could ever have. Since they lost their mother, Denton tries his hardest to let them feel that they are still complete. The lackness of the presence of their mother may not be given fully by their father, they know that their father is really trying his hardest to be both a mother and a father for them.

Denton is a great guy who has a lot of responsibilities and burdens that he has on his back. He is both a father, a brother, a friend and a boss of his own company. Now, his responsibility is even more after being the game head of the game. Denton, for sure, knows how to manage his own time but he often rests only, the reason why his friends worry about him since he works a lot and never minds the rest. He only rests when he has spare time. Denton knows his responsibilities and once he sets his mind to it, he will use his full body strength to give his best while doing those responsibilities.

He sets his mind to all his responsibilities, which is why he won the game. He treated the game as his own responsibility. He was really desperate to win the game to be back to his family, also the reason why he ended up winning it. He has a lot of reasons to stay alive throughout the game, and he did as he desired to do. He did what he set his mind to. He knew he had the ability to survive and he actually did as he thought.

“This day is tiring indeed,” Denton said as he threw himself on his bed. After a couple of minutes of laying on the bed, he found himself yawning. He was lost in thoughts for a couple of minutes, thinking about a lot of things he had to think about. It’s all about his family, his business, his new responsibilities; the only thing he worries about. “I have to be strong for tomorrow again. I have to finish all the errands in my own company so I won’t have to go back and forth from the game hall. Be strong, Denton. You can do it all.”

Denton left all the worry as he closed his eyes and left himself on the verge of sleeping. Denton was too tired from all the errands that he was running all day. After a few minutes, he was there at the dining table again, eating his first meal of the day. “You are early awake, Denton?” Sandra said as she approached Denton who was peacefully eating his meal on the table. “Why? Do you have a meeting with the former game head and his spokesperson again?”

“You should sit and eat with me already,” Denton replied as he smiled at Sandra who seemed to be forgetting something. “I bet you forgot it…” Denton smirked. Sandra just raised his brows, acting like she was really not forgetting something but Denton insists that he does. “I have a board meeting today, Sandra. Did you forget? You were the one who told me that. Yesterday. You should eat already and let’s just wait for Paul and let’s go there together, so we’ll be there together at the meeting.”

“Oh, and yeah, I totally forgot. I was really happy yesterday that I kept on forgetting this. Fortunately, my body clock woke me up, or I’ll be late for the meeting,” Sandra replied. “It’s the last time that the board called a meeting. I don’t know what’s up with them. However, I guess you will be the one who will lead the meeting, right, as the CEO? What’s up? What will be the main agenda?”

Denton smiled. “Let’s just reveal it at the meeting later. Let’s eat already and prepare ourselves.”

Sandra shrugged her shoulders like she had no choice but to let Denton keep it as a secret. “Oh, f**k, I am sorry, I woke up late,” Paul muttered as he was approaching both Sandra and Denton who was on the table. “How come you are not prepared yet? I thought we’ll be having a meeting at ten? Last time I checked, it’s already nine?”

“Are you nuts, Paul? Maybe you saw nine as six, when you look at your phone totally reversed,” Sandra replied. Paul just sat on his chair, scratching the back of his head. “You stayed up late? What are you up to? You know, for sure, that we have a meeting today, right?”

“It’s not as if it’s my fault,” Paul replied with a rolling eyes. “I have a presentation today and some of the details that I need were submitted last night. I have no other choice but to stay up all night and finish it before the sun rises or I’ll be damned. As the head of product management, I have a lot to do as well. I finished all the calculations and the feedback in one hour. Ugh, I can’t really complain since I got this position as I agreed to it.”

“You really can’t, Paul. I could have hated you if you declined my offer,” Denton replied, kidding. “Anyway, you could have just told me that you were running some errands beforehand, so I could have adjusted my presentation and give you more time editing your own presentation. That way, you could get enough rest. Anyway, it’s still six o’clock, if you beg to rest more, please yourself.”

“Nah,” Denton replied before taking a scoop of his food into his mouth. Denton looked confused. “I mean, I would not want to do that. I am a heavy sleeper. Once I close my eyes to sleep, I’d probably take more than four hours to be able to wake up. Anyway, my body would be awake after I take a bath. Only cold morning bathes could wake my body entirely up.” Although Paul looked annoyed, he was still munching his own food. Paul’s like that whenever he wakes up. He’s always in a bad mood once he opens his eyes after a deep sleep, most especially when he wakes up from a short sleep. “Don’t just look at me eating, eat your food too. I’ll finish this food and take a bath. I will still practice my monologue later. I am not as experienced as Denton, so I need to practice not to stutter. It’s embarrassing if it happens again.”

“You should,” Denton jokingly said as they continued on eating their foods. Paul was unable to finish his food and immediately went to the bathroom and took a bath. Denton was left on the table, reading his newspaper for the day, as Sandra left the table, saying she was going to choose a better outfit for the day. It is one of Denton’s hobbies, to read the news in the newspaper to be updated of what’s going on. It is ironic that these news are literally on the websites but he still chooses to do the classic. It is what he grew up living with.

Denton, Paul and Sandra walked out of the house, leaving Imelda at the gate. “Imelda, be sure to wake the kids up to prepare for their school. Also, wake up Jannah and Dennis at ten o’clock, they have no morning schedule for today since today is tuesday. They have an afternoon schedule only,” Sandra told Imelda as she was strolling on her tablet, scrolling up and down, checking all the schedules. “Oh, fortunately, I have all the schedules of this whole family or everyone else will be damned. I guess I am doing a great job being not just your secretary, Denton, but as the secretary of this whole family.”

“You sure are, Sandra,” Denton replied before he got in the car, sitting on the backseat. “Hop in and let’s pray there’s no traffic on the way.” Denton placed himself on the backseat as Paul drove the best among them all. Beside Paul was Denton’s secretary, Sandra, on the passenger’s seat. “Well, I guess this will surely be a long day ahead. I have a lot of things to reveal to the whole board. Let’s pray that this monthly meeting will go well.”