LOVED THREE

TWO YEARS LATER

“Welcome young master, the chairman is in the study downstairs” Lisa said as Cade walked into the house.

“Thank you… erm..” Cade lingered as he waited for the young girl to remind him of her name.

“It is Lisa,” she said. She was used to it already, the entire family was basically the same, amongst them all only Cade even tried his best to remember the names of the staff. The rest only referred to them in condescending manners.

Most times they were not even offended, they probably had better things to think about than to be thinking about the name of a house staff. Cade nodded and said. “Thank you, Lisa, please have someone prepare my room”

“Would you be staying here?” Lisa replied with visible fear in her eyes.

“Yes, is there anything wrong?” Cade asked confused why a house staff would show so much fear that he was finally coming home after three months. He had been living in the penthouse at the headquarters building all this while and had just come back from a business trip.

Lisa wished she could tell him that since he decided to move out and live at the company the house had been relatively peaceful. Unlike his brother and cousins, he was the only reasonable and responsible one among them all but he still came with his own trouble.

He picked on house staff so easily, maybe that was why he tried his best to always learn their names. She sighed knowing that their time of peace in the house was basically over, three months was enough for them to recover from a month of him living in the house.

“Of course, they would be exhausted having you around,” Cael said coming in.

Of all the things the staff feared, Cade and Cael having a confrontational session between themselves was the scariest of them all. Cade was far more vocal and expressive but no one could deny that Cael was always the one who started whatever it was they argued about.

“Is that true?” Cade asked turning to face Lisa. She choked on air and began to cough so rapidly. Did these men just bring her to the middle of their argument?

“No sir” she let out in a tiny mouse-like voice before hurrying out of the room leaving her cleaning equipment there and rushing out of the house entirely. As soon as she was out of hearing shot of them both, she bent down hands on her knees as she tried to steady her breathing, if anything she was glad that she was able to leave them with their childish arguments.

“And you expect the house staff to tell you that you are a pain in the ass?” Cael came in blocking the way stopping Cade from moving out of the room.

“I did not come here for you, so if you could get out of the door frame that would be much appreciated” Cade said trying his best to control his anger.

“Can’t a brother greet his younger brother after not seeing him for almost four months” Cael responded. Cade could sense that he was about to start something and he was heavily jet-lagged he could not begin to have the back and forth with him at the moment.

“Grandfather called for me, so I have to get going now” Cade said pushing his brother's arms out of the way and squeezing his way through. As soon as he was out of the way, he pushed down on his shirt to take off the crease from it and then began to walk away.

Cael pushed himself out of the room and went to begin to walk side by side with Cade. “Grandfather called you home didn't he?” Cael asked.

“Yes, he did” Cade responded hoping that answering him would get him off his tail for a moment.

“I hope you would be wise and reject his offer” Cael said causing Cade’s footsteps to falter and stop abruptly.

“It would not be my place to reject his offer, moreover if he thinks you are incompetent then that's on you” Cade said using a finger to touch his chest lightly.

“Get your hands off me” Cael said aggressively brushing his hands off his body. “Incompetence? He is looking for a puppet”

“If you were competent enough there would be no problem with being a puppet” Cade said before walking away.

AT THE DINNER TABLE

“You finally decided to come home,” Abigail said with a frown on her face.

“Someone would think I were your enemy with that frown on your face” Cade said dropping the spoon in his hands to his place before cleaning the corners of his mouth with the napkin.

“I am delighted to see you” Abigail continued.

“Stop it” Charles said dismissing it before it became a big issue between the mother and son, the way Abigail treated Cade one would think he was an illegitimate child. She had always favoured her first son over him and it showed so bad, maybe she did not want to hide it in the first place.

“I have an announcement and it is good news” Charles began after the long silence, he did not read the room and neither did he bother to read it either, he was the chairman and he was going to do whatever he wanted to do. Everyone turned to him with rapt attention.

“I called Cade home for this very important announcement, six months ago, I called Cael, Caleb, Cody and Chase one month apart respectively and asked them to follow my terms to become the next chairman but each of them turned down my term claiming that they have the things they want to do and so with that, I assume that they have given up their rights to inheritance” he took a deep breath and watched the faces of the people next to him.

They all had frowns on their faces, they were not happy with the development, seeing that Cade was sitting at the table with them meant he had agreed to his term and would potentially become the next chairman.

“Cade however has agreed to my terms and that means that he will become the next chairman of Vale Enterprises as soon as he completes the task I will write down his name in my will. The only reason I thought to tell you all about this is because so decided to give you a little respect by hearing it from me and not from the press.

Everyone at the table was angered but they could not show it, Charles had the final say in matters like this.

“Let’s eat”