Whispers of a billionaires heart

CHAPTER 1 You’re twenty two but you move like you’re eighty! Would you hurry up?!” Madame Vee shouted, her voice echoing through the bar. Emily mopped the floor tiredly, ignoring the ache in her wrists. The floor shone faintly but no matter how many times she moved the mop over its marble tiles, the smell of stale wine never really went away. Emily sighed. Another crowd, another night. Soon, the bar would be filled with men and women who wanted nothing more than to drown their sorrows in alcohol. She wasn’t judging, everyone had their coping mechanisms but the mere thought of dealing with drunken laughter and slurred conversations left her stomach in knots. Emily forced a smile but as soon as her eyes drifted to a lady in a crimson dress who had come to drop off supplies, it vanished. The color struck her hard –blood red. It was the last color she had seen her mum wear. It was a night not so different from this -the air was filled with warm breeze and the chirp of crickets. An expected ring of the doorbell got Tracy rushing to get it open. “Hi Tracy, so good to see you again!” Jane said giving her sister in law a tight squeeze. “You’re going to suffocate me if you don’t let go. Good to see you too.” She laughed. “Where’s my brother?” “Parking the car.” Jane said, her red dinner dress glimmering against the warm light. “Alright. Come in, come in, where’s my little angel?” “She should be coming in with her-” “There she is!” Tracy exclaimed as 12 year old Emily ran to hug her with a cheeky grin. “Oh my darling, you’ve become prettier.” “Thank you Aunt Tracy. Mum and Dad say they are going to have adult fun” “Adult fun huh?” Tracy shook her head looking at Roy as he walked in. “Thank you for looking after Emily, Trace.” “I got you.” She smiled. Roy placed a kiss on Emily’s forehead and walked out with Jane. Emily pressed her face to the window watching them leave, one thing on her mind. They’d be back in the morning. But they never came back. It happened all too fast. One phone call that silenced the laughter in the house. “Good evening, am I on to Ms. Tracy Carter?” a woman asked, her voice laced with practiced sympathy. “Yes, you are. How may I help you?” “This is Nurse Agatha from St. Augustine’s Hospital. I’m afraid Roy and Jane Carter have been involved in an accident.” She said slowly, as if giving her time to process the information. “Oh my God! Are they alright –please tell me they are alright?!” Tracy mumbled. There was a pause, then came the truth “Ms. Cater I’m very sorry to inform you ...despite the efforts of the emergency team, they passed away from their injuries.” “No no, it can’t be. It’s not possible.” Tears rolled down her eyes. “I know this is difficult to process Ms. But we’d need you to come as soon as you can. We’ll have a doctor here to speak with you” “I –I’d be there in some minutes.” She stammered. What was to happen to Emily? More tears rolled down her eyes. This had to be a dream –only if she could just wake up. Two weeks blurred into a burial, endless condolences and the suffocating yet lingering smell of antiseptic from the visits to the hospital. Emily clung tightly to the only relative who’d been by her side through it all –her only anchor in the waves of grief. Tracy however, began asking questions, too many in fact. It just didn’t add up. They told her he had over sped under the influence of alcohol but she knew her brother. He wasn’t irresponsible. He would never drink and drive. Someone was hiding something and she intended to find out. Tracy dug for the truth until three years had passed and she finally caught a wind of something. There was another vehicle that night, it was covered up with a single fake report of reckless driving. She knew it. Someone was hiding the truth. One rainy night, determined to make a few phone calls and wrap up her investigation, Tracy drove home. She felt quite uneasy though, maybe it was the rain that seemed to be warning her with its heavy drops. She tried to focus on driving safely but a car came out of nowhere causing her to swerve abruptly. Her car skidded off the road and out of control. No, this wasn’t happening to her. Emily needed a care taker, she was just fifteen. A teardrop rolled down her face as the car tumbled and tumbled until she lost consciousness. She woke briefly to the voices of paramedics “Are you okay Ma’am?” “We need you to stay calm while we get you out.” Tracy’s body ached. However, she wanted nothing more than to see her niece. After being placed on the stretcher, she felt her life slowly slip out of her. “Call Emily. I want to see her.” She said. Nothing the paramedics said made her change her mind. “I want to see her” she whispered again. Emily arrived at the hospital as they were preparing her aunt for surgery. “Aunt Tracy” she broke down in tears. “Rain-” she said. “Don’t talk.” She held her hands. “You’re going to be okay.” Emily looked at the nurses “She’s going to be okay right?” Tracy was slowly slipping away “The Rain-” she said finally before losing consciousness. ‘The surgery went well’ the doctors told her. She would soon wake up. She waited and counted the days. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into years. Her aunt was still on that bed suspended between life and death. By the time Emily turned twenty two, she had stopped counting. She had finished college but found it hard to get a proper job. Her days were filled with shifts from diners, bars and supermarkets, jobs that hardly paid the bills. But no matter how tired and frustrated she was, she would always squeeze those crumpled notes into the hands of the bill clerk. With the hope that her aunt would wake up some day. “Emily stop daydreaming and wipe those glasses clean!” Madam Vee’s bark brought her back to the present. Life never waited for anyone. It was cruel and decisive. Still, now and then, she let herself believe that one day, she’d be happy. --- Across the ocean, in the late hours of the night, a private jet descended on the runway. Many bodyguards filed out of in pairs, creating two fine walls of protection. Eric Rane had just landed in the country. The moonlight accentuated his bodybuild highlighting the precision in his strides. His assistant trailed behind him, attentive in case of any demands. Eric, called out to his assistant “Book a suite in a nearby hotel. I won’t be going home tonight.” “Yes Sir” his assistant replied. As he walked to his car, a voice called out to him. “So you weren’t going to tell me you had returned?” A man with a calm demeanor walked towards him tutting “If I didn’t keep a tracker on you, I would never know!”