It was a crappy week, Aemilia was very worried about Gloria. Which was understandable, but that meant no nightly games. She was back sleeping in her own room, again it was something he could understand. The bodyguards he had hired didn't help either, but she knew that they were there to keep her safe. He sighed, Adam stood in front of the office. As usual.

"Morning Adam, no there is no news." He said, Adam nodded and put on a brave face. "I let you directly know when there is contact."

"Thank you, Sebastian." Adam replied. He no longer called him boss and his adequate had changed a lot. Maybe they were getting closer because of this. He hated the fact that it needed a kidnapping. "How is Aemilia holding up? The two of them are so close."

"Look in the mirror and then you know." Sebastian replied. "That came out a little bit hateful, I am sorry about that." Adam lay a hand on his shoulder. They entered the office, some coworkers stopped in their tracks when they saw him. Adam looked at him.

"Do you know what is going on?" He asked.

"I have a feeling that I am out off a job at the end of the day." Sebastian said. They walked into the broom closet that was his office, and Albany was sitting on his chair. Sebastian sighed. "Welcome back, brother. How is Candy?"

"She is doing wonder full thank you for asking. And how is it with my sister-in-law? You know the bride you stole." Albany said.

"It is not stealing when the groom, runs away a day before the wedding. But she is fine apart from the fact that her best friend is being kidnapped." Sebastian replied. "But let's talk about why you are really here."

"A straight to business as usual, brother do you ever change?" Albany asked, but he did not wait for Sebastian's answer. "Candy and I are expecting a baby boy, and I need to provide for my son. So I am taking my rightful place inside the company." Sebastian nodded, he knew full well were this was going. "And for that to happen we need to let you go. You have until the end of the day to hand over your work to me." Albany stood up and walked towards the door. "You knew that this would happen, somewhere down the line. Well, you reached the end."

"I know that, brother. But a heads-up would have been nice." Sebastian said. "And what about Adam, while he becomes off him?" Adam is going through enough at the moment, looking for another job wouldn't be ideal. Albany looked past him, and Sebastian already knew that Adam was standing behind him. Probably with some other employees, waiting for a big explosion of some sorts. But there will be no fire works, at least not today.

"Yes, what about him, that is a good question. Father already has an assistant for me, who currently is getting coffee and getting stuff done." Albany replied. In other words, the man or woman is set up to do all the work. Because, Albany was not an accountant. He was good at setting people to work, but that was it.

"Do not bother, if Sebastian goes, I would go too. It ridicules, the rest of the work force at least gets a month notice." Adam looked behind him. "Many of use are not agreeing with how he got here, being the boss's son and all. But he has worked as hard as everybody here, every time we needed to work overtime." Sebastian turned around and saw others nodding.

"Adam, you do not have to do this." Sebastian said.

"You are wrong, Sebastian. I need to do this." Adam said. He looked at him and then walked towards his own office.

"So the trash, is taking itself out. Good, one day, brother. That is all you get." Albany said when he walked out the office. Employees looked at him in disgust, but Sebastian sat behind his desk and went to work. One female co-worker came in with a cup of coffee.

"Thank you, Helena." He said. "Do you know who has become my brother's slave?"

"I do, it is me. Thank you for referring me as his slave." She said. "But we know both that this will be probably the truth. I am here to say that this is so unfair." He sighed and took a sip of his coffee. "I will not even blame you if you would delete everything, contact every client you recruited to tell them what happened." He nodded, he could do all of these.

"But that would make your life a living hell, and you have nothing to do with this." He said, she shook her head.

"You always carried more about others, Adam, is right. Yes, you entered the company through napertischme, but ever since you got here you have worked just as hard as the rest of use. Maybe sometimes even harder, always the one who clocked out last. At least before you got married." Helena smiled at him.

"You are right about that. But still, I know who would pick up the work, so I am not going to pull some stunt. Besides that, it would not look good when I apply for another job." He said. He winked at her she was one of the few who know about his start-up, she only nodded. The both of them wouldn't put it past Albany to place a recorder somewhere inside the office. "But I better go back to work. These files do not print themselves." She again nodded and left the office

******

Aemilia smiled at the male bodyguard, who had taken up place inside her store. He had often looked at the collection of female neckless.

"Hendrik, how is your wife?" She asked. He never told her this, but the ring around his finger and him looking at the jewelry told her all she needed to know. At least so, she thought.

"My wife past away, a few years ago. Why do you ask, madam?" He replied. She looked startled.

"I am so sorry, you still wear your ring. And you look at the female jewelry, so I thought..." She explained. He gave her a smile.

"It is my daughters' birthday, and she has a keen eye for fashion." He said. "I wanted to ask your help, later today."

"There comes a new shipping in today, all the pieces are Daniel Velvet's latest designs." She said. "If she likes fashion, then she will love a piece off that collection." He clearly wanted to thank her. But she shook her head, there was no need. She liked Hendrik, he was a more parental figure than a bodyguard. Sebastian clearly had listened to her, when she told him about the guards her parents hired for her when she was at collage. Some of the guards were stirring the pot, creating more trouble instead of protecting her. Others took their duties a bit too serious, keeping even Gloria away from her. Hendrik did neither of these things, he kept an eye on her while she worked, even helped a costumer or two. But did not overstep her boundaries, and was overall a pleasant person. The door opened and Daniel Velvet entered the store, with a load of boxes in his hands. "Daniel, what the hell are you doing here?" She asked, while Hector and she rushed towards him to help the designer out.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"What you were suspecting, a delivery of my newest collection." He said.

"Yes, did, but not you. You never visit the store, we always meet in coffee houses or in your studio." She replied. Daniel just shrugged it off and looked at Hector.

"Is this your new employee?" He asked.

"Sort of, he is my bodyguard. My husband hired him after what happened with Gloria." She said. Daniel looked at her with his eyebrows raised.

"Husband?" He asked and she nodded. He knew that she was going to marry, she personally had sent him an invitation to the wedding. "I did not think you would go through it." He looked at he and she got a bad feeling about this. Gloria and she herself suspected that he was the one she had sex with. But he never said anything about it, so why would he do that now?

"Well, I clearly haven't and I love Sebastian with all my heart." She said. "So, let me look at your collection. Hector, come take a look too." She wanted to walk away, but Daniel grabbed her by the arm.

"Mister Velvet, I give you 5 seconds to let go off her, after that I am forced to manhandle you." Hendrik snapped at him, and Daniel to his credit let go off her.

"I am sorry, but I thought we were building something." He said. "After we spend that drunken night..."

"Let me stop you there, mister Velvet." She said, deliberately using his last name instead of his given name. "I am happily married and my husband takes good care of me. There is nothing between use except friendship and the business relationship." She now pointed at the boxes, with the jewelry inside them. Daniel took a step forward.

"Those, he take good care of you!" He snapped. "He might be just another rich boy, who has not worked a day in his life."

"Sebastian, is a hard worker who, besides working for his father's company, runs his own business. So do not talk about him as if you know him, you know nothing about him or of me for that matter. So let's keep it strictly transactual, from now on." She said, went towards the counter. The pieces were fine and from good quality, she would not suspect anything else from Daniel. "Alright, thank you for these." She then looked to Hendrik. "Is there a piece you want to give to your daughter?"

"Are you giving my work, away?" Daniel asked.

"Who said anything about giving it away, Hendrik was looking for a present for his daughter. And I am willing to sell him, one of the newer pieces." She said, and Hector crossed his arms. He looked at the pieces one by one, and then pointed toward a smaller neckless with a small rose on it. It was indeed a nice piece, and it would fit a teenager. She gave him a smile and looked then at Daniel. "What are you still doing here? I made myself clear didn't I?"

"You did." He said in a low voice, he sounded wounded. "I will leave you alone, have a good day Madam..."

"Coleville." She said quickly. He nodded and left the store, Hector made sure that he was indeed gone.

"This encounter will bite you in the butt, madam. I would advise you to tell this to your husband as soon as possible, because I doubt that the young man acted alone." Hendrik said and she nodded in agreement. It was indeed strange that he made his feeling clear to her after these many years, not only that but there is also the fact that Gloria was not with her. Something what happened not that often when she visited Daniel in the coffee shop or in his studio. But Hendrik was right she needed to tell Sebastian about this, their relationship was build on trust and honesty.

"You are right about that." She said.

*******

Sebastian sat on the couch inside the living room, he had turned in all the files Helena needed to do Albany's bidding. He was right about Albany recording him, this was made clear when he spoke with his father when he left the office. His father did not even apologize for the way things were handled, something that he had not expected, but it still hurt. This was his father and brother, his family and they discarded him like trash. He sighed, Kitty lay on his lap and he slowly petted her head. The front door opened and Aemilia entered the house, she was early.

"Hello sweetheart." He said. "You are early." He gave her a smile, which faded when he saw the expression on her face. "What happened?" She opened her mouth to say something when the doorbell rang. Aemilia turned around and went back to see who was disturbing their conversation. Sebastian was not as surprised to see his shark-in-law, she had probably heard about him being fired and wanted to rub this in his face. Trying to use that in her tactic to convince Aemilia to leave him. "Rosetta, what a surprise. Do you want something to drink?" He did not want the woman inside his house, and he knew that Aemilia felt the same way. But there was nothing he could do about it now. Rosetta smirked at him and pushed something in his hands. It were photo's, from Aemilia with another man, inside her store, another man then Hendrik.

"I am so sorry to inform you about my daughters' affair, but as a mother I wanted to inform you anyway." Rosetta said with a honey glaceed voice. He looked at the photo's the man had his hand wrapped around Aemilia's arm and Hendrik was standing close clearly saying something about it. There was only one problem with this, it was clear from the pictures that Aemilia was agreeing with this contact. "And that after the day you already had, being fired from your father's company and all." He sighed, and looked at Aemilia.

"Is this what you wanted to tell me?" He asked her, she nodded. "I gather that this is mister Velvet, and he clearly has feelings for you." She nodded again.

"He confessed being the one." She said, she did not have to go further then that. He knew what she meant, the man was the one she slept with during collage. "He snapped when I told him that I was happily married." He nodded and sighed.

"Well Rosetta this is indeed a clap in my face, after what happened to me. That a mother who is saying that she loves her daughter, is trying to make her look bad. But I need to inform you that I am aware of mister Velvet's role in your daughters' and my wives' life. He is a designer that uses her store to sell his jewelry, a former friend and past sexual partner, although the latter was only for one night. I am aware that she was not a virgin when we married, and you already know that she knew this about me." He looked at the woman in front of him, her smirk was whipped off her face, due to his words. Something he counted on, so he continued. "I excepted this as a part of her history, as she excepted mine."

"Are you kidding me!" She screamed so loudly that he had no doubt that the neighbors had heard her. "You expect me to believe this bull crap?" He shook his head.

"No I am not, but it is the truth. So deal with that as you see fit. Oh, and do not worry about me, being without a job and such. I knew that this was going to happen, sooner then later. So that is why I started my own business. Now that I am fired, I can work less and focus more attention on Aemilia. Maybe even works towards starting a family of our own." He said. "I know I am not the son-in-law you dreamed off madam, but I am the son-in-law you got." Rosetta clearly wanted to say something else.

"Enough, mother. I already told you to stop meddling, and you simply do not listen." Aemilia said, she was clearly in tears. Her own bloody mother had hurt her in every way that was humanly possible. "You know how hard the last couple of days have been for me. My best friend is missing, the kidnappers were after me! But when they couldn't find me, they took her. There is no contact with them so we still do not know where she is, or if she is even alive. And here you are trying to separate me from my husband, who is being my rock during these weeks." She walked towards him and took him by the arm.

"What Gloria is missing, I did not know that." Her mother replied coldly.

"That is a lie Rosetta, and you know that." Aemilia's father entered the room, Sebastian had giving him a key during one of their business meetings. "I told about her kidnapping myself."

"Hector, what are you doing here?" Rosetta said, she was in shock, good.

"I came her to discuss something with Sebastian, now that he is fired from his fathers' company." Hector said. "I didn't expect to find you here, hurting our little girl. And do not dare to tell me that you are the victim in all of these, I heard everything." He looked at his daughter. "I am so sorry, about all of this. I am going to take her with me. Sebastian, I will talk with you inside your new office."

"I will be there, starting from tomorrow morning sir." Sebastian replied. Hector grabbed Rosetta by the arm and dragged her out of the house. Sebastian looked at Aemilia, so now everything was out in the open. But not in the way he wanted it to be.