Chapter 39: 39. Promising
Maxwell stirred awake from a call. He groaned frustratedly and reached for his phone from the bedside drawer and without checking the caller's ID, he answered, his eyes still closed from sleepiness.
"Hi Max."
"Lois? Why in the world are you calling by this time of the night?"
"Night? Are you sure you are still in the country? It's 5:45am." Lois replied and giggled.
"Oh...is that so?" He opened his eyes groggily and saw that the day was already breaking. "Its still too early to call. What's the problem?"
"I'm sorry for the worry last night. I don't even remember anything but I just figured I got drunk and you brought me home."
"What did you drink? I remember we were taking juice so when did you drink so much alcohol?"
"I saw a waiter serving a drink to one lady and I told him to get me the same thing. I didn't know it was alcoholic. And when I tasted it and saw it contained alcohol, I thought it had a low content. You know, the lady who earlier ordered it was sipping it ever so relaxed so I didn't think much into it."
"How many glasses did you have?" There was no way just a glass would have made her that drunk. He suspected she drunk at least three.
"Umm...I...I must have had, like...two?" She grimaced.
"You mean, three?" Maxwell chipped in with a stern voice.
"Wait, how did you know?"
"You should know by now how low your alcohol threshold is, Lois. Must you be told all the time?"
"Hey, I know. And I already told you I didn't know it was alcoholic. It was very sweet." She said the last part in a low tone.
"Just be careful next time. You see why I never allow you to drink outside?"
"I know, I'm sorry." Lois apologized. "You act like a mother sometimes." She muttered the last part under her breath.
"Sorry?"
"Nothing, nothing." She quickly replied. "But just to remind you, in case you've forgotten, that I'm older than you."
Maxwell sighed. One thing that brought him and Lois together was when their mother insisted on him being sent to a different city. Lois took that opportunity to visit her brother from time to time. At first, when Lois was a bit younger, Robert would visit her and send her to Maxwell for a visit. Lois was in South city but not close to where her parents lived, unlike Maxwell who was in a whole different city. But when she came of age, she could go there by herself. They have been best buddies since then, with Lois visiting sometimes and visa versa.
"Just be careful next time. You don't go about drinking what others ordered." Maxwell nagged.
"Yes, sir." Lois laughed. They talked about other random things and ended the call.
Right after the call, Lois got a call from her personal assistant, Bradford.
"Hello, Brad."
"Boss, good morning. I hope I didn't disturb your sleep."
"Not at all. I was already up when you called. You called quite early though, is everything okay?"
"Yes, boss. Everything is okay. And sorry for calling this early, but I keep forgetting when I plan to tell you so I thought of telling you right now that it just popped up."
"Alright, what is it?"
"Boss, I found this young guy, he's very talented and promising and I believe he can help in creating designs for fabrics and materials for your collections. I've been in touch with him for almost a month now and I must say, not only is he talented, he is very dedicated to his work. I thought of arranging for him to meet you, and I'll do that once I'm through with some rounds of interrogations. I need to make sure of certain aspects as well."
"Alright, so what am I supposed to do? It seems you handled everything already."
"Oh yes, boss, I want to send you some of his designs and a draft of the project I designed for him."
"What designs, to be specific? Is it like some kind of sketches on clothes or..."
"No, boss. It's more like designs for wax prints and fabrics for designing the clothes."
"I see... And who is this guy? Have you done a background check on him?"
"Yes, boss. He has no idea of the company he's almost getting signed into. I thought of keeping that discrete for the time being. For now, I'll be sending all details to your mail right away. Please let me know if you need explanations."
Lois and Brad talked for a little while about other work-related stuff and the call ended.
---
Miriam kept tossing and turning in bed. She was able to grab some sleep just at the wee hours of morning. Events of last night kept haunting her until now. She couldn't shake the fear she had in her heart away no matter what her dad said. She had a feeling he was either lying to her or left some details unsaid.
After Roland came to pick her up the previous night, they went to a dessert shop to grab some sweets since Miriam insisted she was full and Roland wanted them to have their conversation over a meal.
"So what is it that I need to know?" Miriam asked Roland after she was served some mint chocolate cookies crumble ice cream. Roland was not a fun of sweets so he just ordered some juice.
"Let's enjoy our dessert first, shall we?" He replied and smiled. In truth, he was a bit scared of how Miriam would take whatever news he was about to deliver. He wasn't sure of what he found, but if it was what it appeared to be, then it looked bad. No, it looked worse. And he didn't want to spoil Miriam's appetite for the dessert. She was really enjoying it so he might as well wait till she was done.
Miriam had a feeling Roland intentionally shifted her attention from the main discussion. At least, for the time being. She was beginning to feel nervous for no particular reason. But soon, Roland started small talks to shake off that tense air.
"What did you find, Roland?" Miriam asked when she felt full. She couldn't finish her bowl of ice cream but she had had enough and was still nibbling on the rest so as not to waste it.
"Yeah, so I found a couple of scan reports when I went in there. Apparently he was not the only client who had been there that morning."
"So you confirmed that he came there?"
"For that, I couldn't confirm. And there were no names on three of the reports.Thosse that had names did not have his. So it may be that he didn't come there. If he really came there, then he's doing a great job in hiding all traces."
"So what do you think about the three reports without names?" Miriam asked, now almost forgetting her ice cream.
"One of them is not that bad, just some traces of brain contusions, probably due to some head trauma or injuries." Roland said as he checked the scans sent to his mail as he spoke. Miriam had a confused look on her face but paid rapt attention. "Oh okay, this one is also not as bad as the first one, but the third scan..." Roland paused and kept his gaze on his tablet before raising his eyes to meet an anxious Miriam's own.
"Yes, what is it?"
"Here, have a look." Roland pulled his chair a bit to get closer to Miriam and showed her the scan report on his tablet. "I know you don't understand the readings but you can see this right here..." Roland pointed to a wide irregular mass on the brain scan, circling his index finger on a particular spot, and Miriam bobbled her head up and down in affirmation, her eyes shifting to Roland's face and back to the tablet. She had a bad feeling about this. She hoped it wasn't what she was thinking. In fact, she hoped it wasn't her dad's. Was that...
"We'll, I hope you know that this is not confirmed to be your dad's." Roland said when he saw how tensed Miriam had become. She sat stiffly and seemed scared. Realizing this, she sighed deflaedly.
"I can't help it, Roland. He looked really pale the other day. I'm scared if something is wrong and he's hiding it from us." Miriam said in a soft voice. She was indeed scared. Roland took her hand in his and squeezed it gently, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles softly.
"Don't worry. I'm also hoping this is not his report. But if it is, I'll try my best to help." Roland reassured. "You know that, right?"
Miriam nodded and took a deep breath to calm her frigid nerves. She could only hope for the better.
Their attention went back to the tablet.
"That's a frontal lobe brain tumour." Roland finally said and looked over to Miriam, who now had her eyes slightly widened and looked a bit shaken. "And from the look of it, it is at the severest stage. Trying to remove this tumor by surgery may cause brain damage and death."
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