Chapter Eight: Crossing Paths!
1328 Words
The air Serena inhaled brought back a lot of memories, bad memories!
The last time she was at this airport she was half sane, heartbroken, devastated and pregnant, but today she walked triumphantly on the same soil that almost destroyed her, you know the saying, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Serena felt stronger than ever now.
"Mummy look, those ladies are dancing" Emily threw her index finger towards the dancing strangers and pulled Serena with her other hand.
"Emily, don't point at strangers, hold on to your brother and keep moving" at this point Serena wished she left the kids back home with Sam, they were too energetic and they always exhausted her strength.
Serena walked briskly through the airport reception, she finally saw a tall dark man in a suit holding up a signpost that had her name 'Serena Donalds' boldly inscribed on it. A small smile appeared on her lips as she moved towards the man.
The man furrowed his brows at first, he sure wasn't expecting Serena to show up with two kids, but he soon mirrored the smile on Serena's face.
"Good day ma'am, I'm Moses and I'm your chauffeur for today "
"Thank you Moses" Serena handed her language over to him and worked behind him, they got to the entrance of the airport and he increased his pace, he moved towards the car and opened the door to the white limousine.
"Fancy" Serena whispered to herself
"Woah!, this is cool" The kids jumped into the limousine first, and then Serena.
The chauffeur closed the door and drove straight to the hotel.
At the hotel:
The first time Serena visited this hotel, she signed the papers to a contract marriage with the man she thought she could trust, who in turn scattered her heart into a million pieces.
Today she was here again to sign another contract, although the terms of the new contract were not similar in any way, she was still going to be involved with Alessandro.
The mere thought of his name made her sick to her stomach, she could feel her stomach turn and her heartache. She felt sad, but she did a good job in maintaining composure and wearing a straight face.
"Good evening ma'am "
Serena took her eyes off her kids for a second to respond to the warm greetings from the stranger in formal attire, she stretched her hand and obliged his handshake.
"I am Mr Daniels, and I'm the head of the promotion committee"
Serena maintained her smile as she shook her head, at least someone other than the kids
"Ma'am I am aware you've had a long day. Your bags have been sent to the Royale suit already, but you need to be present for the board meeting right now"
"Ok no problem, but I need a vigilant person to watch over my kids"
"That would be arranged for ma'am" Mr Daniel although very formal also had a smirk on his face, he gestured for Serena to move to the elevator first, but before he turned his back he threw two of his fingers to the staff present at the lobby and dropped the fingers on the kids and mouthed the words "watch them", with that he got into the elevator with Serena.
Ding!
Serena walked into the small conference room, the exact place where she signed her marriage contract, she subconsciously searched for Alessandro, but he wasn't there. His big black chair was vacant.
Mr Daniels opened the chair directly opposite Alessandro's chair, Serena without any hesitation sat down.
The meeting commenced immediately, and the board briefed her on the commercials, and the locations for shooting, they talked about everything and concluded that would start shooting the commercials tomorrow.
"Alright Miss Serena, we carefully selected the finest makeup artist in the whole of Las Vegas" the second board member added
"I hope there will be a professional on ground for my hair tomorrow" Serena didn't want any mistakes,
"Yes of course ma'am, our team made sure.........."
Mr Daniel's speech was cut short as Alessandro walked into the room.
"Good evening sir" the five men chorused
Serena kept mute, she tried to keep her head down but her neck betrayed her, she raised her eyes and immediately they caught a glimpse of Alessandro's eyes.
Her eyes followed Alessandro till he was balanced on his chair, she didn't break her stare until she noticed he was staring at her too, she felt a shock wave travel from Alessandro's eyes to her whole body.
She broke the stare. She couldn't keep staring at him, even though Alessandro managed to look even hotter than he was five years ago.
The silence in the room echoed inaudible screams, a thousand words were spoken but not a single word uttered.
The stern look on Alessandro's face evenly matched the sure burning in Serena's eyes, but the two of them said nothing to each other.
"Mr Alessandro, this is the model, Miss Serena Do........."
"I know" Alessandro interrupted coldly. Seeing Serena again brought back a lot of memories and mixed feelings, he wasn't sure what to say, she wasn't even looking at him, yet he had his eyes glued to her.
"Damn," Alessandro didn't know he was audible enough for the whole room to hear.
They just noticed the looks on the board members' faces change.
Serena still had him hooked in, he wasn't going to admit to it verbally but his eyes gave him up already.
"I guess this meeting is over" Serena stood up, throwing her purse over her shoulder.
"Yes it is ma'am, but I guess our boss wanted to meet you personally today, before any other thing" Mr. Daniel couldn't figure out what the obvious tension was about, but he knew he had to keep it formal.
"You can all leave" Alessandro ordered. The men didn't waste one extra second, they all rushed towards the elevator and stuffed themselves inside it, Serena could have joined them but Alessandro? held her by her arm.
Serena waited for the elevator to close. She yanked her arm out of Alessandro's grip.
What audacity!
"We aren't enemies, are we? "
"We aren't friends " Serena rolled her eyes and silently cursed herself for not getting into the elevator.
"Serena it's been five years, let's just leave everything behind us and start afresh"
"I don't know what you're talking about" the elevator dropped and she hurriedly pressed the button and stepped inside, she wasn't fast enough to close it.
Alessandro stepped in right after her.
Serena sighed a heavy breath, she couldn't tell what was turning in her stomach, anger, irritation or the sour soda she drank at the airport, it could be one of these three.
The tension in the Elevator heightened with the eerie silence, it was quiet but the silent screams were ear-piercing.
"Serena, we don't have to be like this" Alessandro couldn't cope with the silence, at that moment he wasn't worried about the many things he had to say, he was worried that Serena had nothing to say, better still, she didn't want to say a single word to him, she just kept her head up, back straight and her eyes fixed on the door.
"Serena, you can't keep me quiet forever, let's just pretend..........."
Ding!
"Mummy, mummy, we've been waiting for you" Esekel jumped on Serena, and Emily grabbed onto her legs, she mirrored the smile on Esekel's face.
Alessandro managed to step out of the elevator, but he couldn't move further, he was ice cold, he never knew Serena had kids, he tried to reach out to her the year she left but he got no response from her, since then he hadn't heard from her till today, only to see these kids that had a tricky resemblance with him.
"Serena!, are they mine?"
"In your dreams, jerk" Serena hissed loudly, she grabbed her children and stormed out of the lobby.
- Writer
