Chasing the Shrew

Farewell

Amelia hid behind the wall and watched Stephen walk Dustin out the door. When she heard his car door shut and the engine rev, she ran up the stairs and into her room.

She sat on the bed and rubbed her flat stomach, “Baby, please don’t be mad at mommy. Mommy is selfish and doesn’t want to lose you. Daddy has his mommy, daddy, and a sister too. Mommy only has you. Would you please stay with mommy?”

She sniffed and looked at her room. It was her haven for the last year and a half. She couldn’t live here with her belly about to show. The servants here are her family but they had been loyal to the Robert family for decades. Who’s to say they wouldn’t rat her out? She sighed.

She heard a small knock at her door. Mary, the head maid, came in with a tray of food, “Amelia, you must be starving. Please eat something.”

Amelia smiled. She had insisted all of them call her Amelia instead of “Mistress” or “Madame”. She treated them like the family she never had and now she is about to be alone again.

Amelia sighed deeply, “Thank you, Mary. Have you all eaten? If not, I’d like to join you all. I have an announcement that I rather get out of the way.”

She helped Mary with some items on the tray as they walked down to the servant's quarters. They had already started digging in, pausing when Amelia arrived.

Amelia smiled gently at them, “Please, continue eating. I am starving and can’t wait to taste Godfrey’s excellent food.”

The chef beamed and gave her a thumbs up. They all sat and ate in silence. The air was heavy with trepidation. They had prepared all afternoon and the master had left as soon as he came leaving their mistress to dine with the help once again. They all pitied her in their hearts.

When they had their fill, Amelia stood up and cleared her throat, “Ahem. As of today, I am no longer Mrs. Roger. Dustin had just come with a Divorce agreement.”

There were loud gasps and some mumbling of “What a jerk” around the room.

Amelia smiled, “He gifted this villa to me and set aside all of your salaries for the next 10 years. However, I do not intend to live here. I will keep this place here to visit from time to time, and you are all welcome to remain here.”

She sniffed and lowered her head, “Thank you for taking care of me all this time. You are the family I have always dreamed of and I will miss you all dearly.”

There was a series of loud scraping of chairs against the floor as everyone got up to hug Amelia.

“Oh, Amelia!! You will forever have a family to return to! We will wait for you here!”

“Don’t go, Amelia!!”

“F*ck Dustin! If he dares to come back I’ll poison his food!”

Amelia laughed in their embrace, “I’ll come home again!”

One day…I will definitely come home one day!

- Six Years Later -

Dustin rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. His sister, Tana, was going through a rampage at their family house again. Since she found out she was pregnant it was like a switch turned on in her head and she became possessed.

Her husband, Henry Gersling, is a family friend and also his right-hand man.

Henry was currently lying on his couch whining, “You got to help me, Dustin!! She’s driving me crazy. If I knew pregnancy hormones were this bad I would have gotten a vasectomy!”

Dustin suddenly thought of Amelia, who was quiet and reserved during her pregnancy. A soft smile always graced her lips as she hummed lullabies to their unborn child.

“I don’t think all women are like that. Maybe you should take her to see a psychiatrist.”

Henry shot up, “Can you do it!? I’m too scared to go near her. She keeps muttering things like “karma” and apologizing for something or another it’s seriously creeping me out.”

Dustin frowned. He knew his sister was class a pain in the ass and had raked up quite the list of enemies but he never thought she would do something so heinous that it would break her mentally.

“Anyways, her mental state is not good for her baby. You need to try to spend more time with her.”

Henry placed an arm over his head in defeat, “Please don’t make me spend time with my wife. You never spent time with yours. Oh, s**t…”

Henry covered his mouth and looked at Dustin’s cold face. He knew his friend had always been cold and never remarried but he didn’t know the reason why. He had an inkling that Dustin still cared for his ex. Though why he would divorce her remained a mystery.

Dustin’s mouth twitched, “If you are done complaining, get back to work. We have a meeting today with JG Enterprise.”

Henry beat a hasty retreat leaving Dustin alone in the cold office. Dustin looked out the window.

Did he also avoid Amelia like this during her pregnancy? Did it hurt her? He never asked himself these questions; it didn’t matter to him then, why should it bother him now? He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

He had a meeting with the owner of JG Enterprise, an upcoming tech company that had been making waves in the industry. He wanted to talk Partnership or if push came to shove he would go through back channel ways to acquire the company. Their patented tech was revolutionary and was a necessary component for the future development of Roger Inc’s tech.

He heard the owner was a Chinese-Korean man and the inventor of said technology but he didn’t make any headway until he hired a capable secretary and got an angel investor. If he got a chance, he intended to poach this talent. He had many things to look forward to at this meeting.

***

In the parking garage under Roger Inc., a normal Honda CR-V sidled into a parking space. A man sat in the passenger side fumbling with his tie. The woman who was driving laughed and reached over to help him.

The man was Bing Dae-Seong, the inventor and owner of JG Enterprise. He smiled sheepishly at the woman, “Sorry to trouble you, Amelia-jie. I can’t stop shaking! I’m just so excited that we are going places!!!”

Amelia chuckled as she fixed his Windsor knot. Patting his chest she gave him a wink, “Breathe,

DS! Don’t worry! You got this!! You’re going to go in there, knock their socks off, and then earn me a hefty return on my investment!”

Amelia first ran into Dae-Seong when he was at a local park, he was sitting on a bench crying like he lost everything. The young man looked just like her a couple of months back so she sat with him and listened to his story. She learned that he was an immigrant who came to the States to make it big. He believed his invention would revolutionize the solid-state battery technology but he didn’t have the capital to make a prototype. He had wanted to go to some companies to pitch his idea but no one gave him the time of day, treating him with disdain due to his broken English. He was walking around mindlessly and ended up in the park where he found a seat to rest.

Amelia talked to him some more realizing that he was a brilliant inventor but otherwise clumsy. He hadn’t patented his work so it was fortunate that no one took interest in him. When she told him this, his eyes grew wide in horror. Clutching her hands he shamelessly begged her to help him promising that he would repay her a hundredfold when he made it big.

Amelia didn’t have anything better to do and had another four months before her due date so she agreed. She even loaned him $5 million to get his prototype out. Amelia worked hard on his pitch and in a couple of months she secured him another angel investor. Since then the company took off and DS treated her like his own sister. He had begged her to come with him to the talks as moral support and she agreed.

They walked to the elevator to take it up to the lobby. Since they were just a small company making a pitch, she hoped she wouldn’t run into anyone she knew.

One could always hope.