"Ha! Here you are Maria, have you delivered the coffee to—" Madam Dorothy paused as she saw sad Emily looked as she washed the dishes.
"Yes," Emily answered in haste, feeling no need to let the world know that's he was upset. "I'm sorry," she added, feeling embarrassed with the tone of voice she had used on Madam Dorothy.
"I see you're upset; I hope he was not mean to you?" she asked her. Emily looked up at Madam Dorothy, and this was the first time in the day that the older woman had shown her motherly side.
"It's not him; in fact, I delivered the coffee, but I did not wait for him," she confessed, and Madam Dorothy's eyes widened as though Emily had committed a heinous crime.
"Why not?" she questioned her, and Emily was almost certain that the older woman looked scared at the thought of Emily not waiting for her employer to have his coffee.
"Some woman walked into the room and started yelling at me; she said she was his fiancé" Emily explained, only for Madam Dorothy to break into a smile.
"Then that's okay. Her name is Fiona Winfield, and she is soon to be the madam of this house" Madam Dorothy explained with a slight smile on her lips.
"You mean mansion," Emily corrected her, which earned her a smile from the older woman.
"Yes, sometimes I forget just how big this house actually is"
"I can tell that Fiona does not like you," Emily commented just enough that Madam Dorothy paused.
"What makes you say that?" Although she was slightly hesitant about telling Madam Dorothy, Emily felt that she had to at least say something.
"Well, let's just say that she has plans of getting rid of possibly everyone once she becomes that madam of the house" she blurted out. She had expected Madam Dorothy to look sad, but she seemed unconcerned.
"Oh, that's nothing new; she makes threats like that all the time" she waved it off, grabbed a dish towel and began wiping down the remainder of the wet dishes.
"But aren't you scared?"
"Of course not; our boss is the nicest man that I have ever met. He has his days when he's slightly moody, but he would never fire us just because Fiona wants it. So no need to worry," Madam Dorothy assured her before walking away. Emily smiled just thinking of the sweet words Dorothy had used in describing a man who demanded his household be managed as though they were on a military base.
**
"You just missed him!" Emily turned around, only to see Sam jumping up and down like a schoolgirl. Emily, like the others, was getting ready to go home now that she was dressed properly.
"Missed who?" She questioned Sam.
"Our boss, he just got into his big, black, bulletproof Jeep, and they drove him away." Sam squealed so loudly that Emily covered both her eyes and ears as her head throbbed with pain.
"Okay, I get it," Emily responded, seemingly uninterested. She removed her hands from her ears and opened her eyes, only to find Sam staring at her. "What?" she questioned Sam.
"You don't seem interested."
"Why should I be?" "As far as I am concerned, our employer is just like all other rich men: arrogant and power hungry," Emily blurted out in shock as the face of Angelo Sorrentino flashed before her eyes.
"But he has a bulletproof car," Sam emphasised, like a child who had just met their childhood hero.
"That's the problem; who needs a bulletproof car unless they are someone of importance or a criminal?" I'm no genius, but I'm pretty sure that our mystery employer is the latter," Emily responded before walking out. The last thing she needed to do was waste time conversing with Sam rather than rushing to fetch her son from day care.
**
Emily stood at the entrance of the day-care, slightly nervous, feeling as though a swarm of bees buzzed in her stomach as she waited for her son to walk out. Suddenly she broke into a smile as she saw her son waddling like a happy penguin all the way to her.
Swooping in for a hug, Emily wrapped her arms around her little boy and kissed his cheeks. She finally let go of him, at the sight of the paleness in her son's face, Emily's heart sank to the pit of her stomach as panic gripped her.
"What's wrong, my son?" She asked, but before he could answer, his teacher appeared behind him.
"Good afternoon, Ms. Rosette, I'm glad you're here."
"Good day, teacher, what happened to my son? He looks pale." Emily questioned the teacher, yet even though she was worried, she needed to stay calm for the sake of her son.
"Gorgio complained of a headache not so long ago, but as you know, the school cannot administer any medications to students," the teacher explained. Emily simply nodded her head in agreement; Gorgio's illness was more than just a headache, and she understood that.
"Thank you so much, I'll take him to the pharmacy," she responded before taking Gorgio's hand in hers as they both made their way towards the pharmacy. The entire time she held her son's hand with an iron grip, for the fear that she might lose.
After walking only two blocks, Gorgio began displaying signs that he was tired, which led to Emily carrying her son in her arms. They both waited until the traffic lights turned red, signalling for them to walk.
Halfway down the road, Emily quickly turned her head just in time to see a huge vehicle heading their way. Her heart stopped as she realised what was about to happen. She shut her eyes and wrapped her hands around her son in a protective manner until she heard screeching sounds and the smell of burning tyre, and then everything went quiet, like the dead of night.
**
All of a sudden, the urgency did not seem so urgent after all when the car brakes was pressed, lunging Angelo forward so hard that he hit his forehead against the back of his drivers headrest, spilling the contents of his glass into the air.
"Mr. Sorrentino, are you okay?" Both his driver and Tito, his bodyguard, questioned him in unison. Angelo shook his head from side to side and cracked his neck in the hopes of bringing himself some comfort.
"What just happened?" he asked.
"We almost knocked into a woman, sir," his driver answered. Anger filled him as he realised that the slightest delay might cost him a lot. Without waiting for his security guard or his driver, Angelo flung his door open and exited the car, with Tito quickly running out through the other door to be by his side.
Angelo angrily stomped towards the woman with anger that radiated throughout the city, the closer he walked towards her he noticed that she had her head buried in her son's jacket.
"Get out of the damn way!" he yelled at her, angrily. The woman lifted her head, and their eyes met. For just a second, Angelo was beyond lost for words and now it was him doing all the stuttering and yet no words could escape his lips.