"Birthday party?"
The black and gold invitation card was like an April Fool's Day prank as his mother personally handed it to him. "But it's the middle of May...?" He uttered in confusion while anticipating the missing punch line.
Checking the calendar, he wondered if he had remembered the dates correctly. As expected, there was nothing wrong with his memory.
"Mom, are you sick, or something?" Did his mother hit her head and become forgetful? "Do you have some kind of dementia? Do you want me to take you to the hospital?" Questioning his mother's state of mind.
At that moment, his mother was not making any sense.
"I'm not sick. I definitely don't need to go to the hospital." His mother, Dianne, moved closer to his desk and tapped the surface with her knuckles to catch his full attention. "Listen to me, you obstinate, hardheaded, stubborn boy."
Of course, he had to, or else his mother would probably add more adjectives to describe what she deemed to be his unruly behavior.
"But, Mom, it's not even your birthday. So, why throw a party?" He didn't understand the logic, but when it came to his mother, her actions didn't require justification.
If she wanted things done, there was no one who could stop her, not even his father, the former Mafia Don. If anybody asked, he would say that his mother truly was the one who held the power in the Morton family.
"Because I invited my future daughter-in-law to the party." She plainly said. "I needed an excuse to convince her to show up."
"Please, Mom. I already told you that I don't like Honey. Even Caleb expressed that he didn't want her in our family." Hoping that his mother would stop forcing that woman on him.
"Honey?" Dianne knitted her brows before shaking her head. "No, she's definitely not Honey or anything like Honey." Then, his mother gave him a satisfied smile. Suddenly, she looked like a Cheshire Cat who had just eaten a canary.
"Then, who are you talking about?" He asked, curious. Confused.
His mind reviewed all the women his mother had set with him, but no one stood out. Each one was no different from the other.
"I'm talking about a woman I met at the hospital yesterday, as a cleaning lady. She's stunning, amazing, kind, and incredibly brave." Clearly, his mother was smitten with this woman as she described her with high praise.
"A cleaning lady?" Again, what the hell!
"Yeah, she saved me from that arrogant woman whom I initially thought would be perfect for you, but that woman turned out to be cruel and mean." Her mother rambled on and on.
Too excited. Too engrossed with her story about her savior.
"Mom, you have to stop this obsession with finding me a wife." He threw the invitation on his table.
"But I truly found the woman perfect for you and Caleb." His mother ultimately let the waterworks flow, allowing her tears to trickle down her face.
"You know that I blame myself for everything that happened between you and Hazel." Dianne's voice trembled as she spoke.
"This time, I just want to fix my mistake. To make things right." Gently dabbing her cheeks to dry her tears.
"Mom..."
Sadly, these old antics still worked on him like a charm. No matter what, he couldn't stand seeing his mother cry.
After all, Dianne almost died giving birth to him. He owed his life to his mother, and the least he could do was to make her happy.
"Fine, what do you want me to do?" Eventually, he conceded to his mother's whim, lifting his arms in the air in surrender.
"You just need to meet her. That's all." But the triumphant smile on her lips told him that he had just fallen again into a trap.
"Okay, I'll meet her at the party, but I'm not promising anything more." That would at least keep his mother off his back until then.
"Oh, that's good enough for me." Dianne crossed the distance between them to give him a kiss on his temple. "I can't wait for you to meet her." Then, she walked out the door, looking more excited about her upcoming fake birthday than her last celebration.
Wait!
"Who is she?" He guessed he would just have to meet her at the party.
First, Caleb. Now, it's his mother.
If it had been up to him, he would have preferred to be single.
It had been six years since Amelia broke his heart. But he still felt the pain as if it had just happened yesterday.
Since the day that he first saw her, he knew that she had captured his heart. He had tried to deny it, afraid that their relationship would not be acceptable, especially to his family.
Although he pursued her, unable to keep himself away from her, he still kept her a secret. He had hoped that as time passed by, whatever he felt for her would eventually fade away.
But when months turned to years, "I love you, Amelia," he finally admitted. It was the truth that he could not hide anymore.
As he spent more time with her, he only loved her more. The more he learned about her, the more he wanted to stay by her side.
Eventually, on their fourth anniversary, he had realized one thing. He would never love anyone else as he loved her. There was no one else for him but her.
He bought the ring, planned a weekend getaway, and decided to confess everything to her, including how much he could not live without her.
But Amelia betrayed her.
For days, he had drowned himself in his sorrow. Alcohol had become his bestfriend, his companion, his confidant.
It was the only way to numb the pain and forget her. Even if it was just temporary.
Until one morning, he woke up in somebody else's bed, with a woman who wasn't her.
Several months later, Hazel Smith returned from her long trip with a baby in her arms. His son.
Caleb gave him a new reason to live. To give his son a stable family, he married Hazel. After a year, Hazel asked for a divorce. She chose her career over her family.
"Fine." Honestly, he was more than happy to grant her wish. He never liked how she had raised their son. Truthfully, the nanny was more like a mother to Caleb than Hazel ever was.
More than that, he had never learned to love her. To be fair to her, he had set her free. He even gave her a more than generous divorce settlement.
Now, it was just him and Caleb.
For him, Caleb was enough. He didn't need a wife. But apparently, his son didn't share his opinion.
Caleb wanted a mother.
But could he blame him?
Still, could he allow another woman into their lives?
"Stop it, Oliver. Don't be a fool."
Sadly, he was a fool.
Despite what Amelia did, he could not deny the fact that she still resided in his heart.
As much as he hated to admit it, he had never moved on. He had never forgotten her. He believed that if she ever came back and asked him to forgive her, he would probably do it. In a heartbeat. No questions asked.
In his dream, he lived with her, their child, and Caleb. Just like a one big happy family.
"Excuse me, Sir." Ray interrupted his musing. "I found the information you wanted about the woman in the hospital elevator."
His assistant hastily handed the folder to him, making him snap back to reality.
"Sophia Maddison." He read out loud the name in the profile. "Sophia?" He repeated, finding that name quite familiar, as if he had heard that name somewhere before.
Of course, he remembered that Caleb mentioned Sophia in their conversation. But there was this nagging feeling that he might have already met her.
Where?
"Sophia Maddison, who are you?" He asked, believing that the answer was on the tip of his tongue. He just had to remember.
Reading her basic background, he learned that she was an only child, but her parents were already dead. She was single, but it didn't mean she was not in a relationship.
Wait! Why was he even bothering with her status? It wasn't like him to care about some random woman. It was not like he planned to marry her, just like what Caleb wanted.
Still, he had to know everything about her, especially when that woman had managed to get close to his son. She was a threat, no matter how he saw it.
"Sir, Sophia Maddison was the same woman who crashed your meeting with Mr. Kingsley yesterday at the Rose Garden restaurant." Ray illuminated yesterday's fiasco.
"Oh, I remember now." It was as if a light bulb just turned on brightly inside his head. "She was the representative from the Sinclair Group."
"Yes, Sir. The same one that Mr. Kingsley turned away because of her little infraction." Ray confirmed what he had already suspected.
Now, it made sense why he felt that he had heard her name and seen her face.
The woman Caleb wanted to be his mother was the same woman he had seen at the restaurant.
What a small world!
Or was it a mere coincidence?
But he never believed in chance meetings.
For him, things happened the way they did for a reason.
"Sir, one more thing..." Ray spoke to him with slight hesitation. "If you want to know where Ms. Maddison is, I happen to know that she is on the tenth floor, at Mr. Kingsley's office, waiting for another appointment."
"Hmm!"
Another coincidence?
This time, he doubted.
"I want everything you can find about her. What does she do with the Sinclair Group? Her connections? Her family ties. Her intimate relationships?" He wanted all the nooks and crannies of her life dissected into tiny pieces.
As far as he was concerned, no one just showed up randomly in their lives.
What did this woman want from him, his company, and his family?
Sophia Maddison was now not just a nobody, but a person of interest.