Cracked Sources – B01 E03

The overhauling process was over, no one
was found wanting of any aggravating crime; but lots of changes were in
immediate effect. Among many, Anna was no longer a paralegal for Patrick’s
keep, but now for Andrew. Patrick didn’t find it funny.

It appeared Patrick valued Anna more than
he had ever let known. According to him, the reason he always gave her a tough
time was to build her into the soldier-kind of lawyer he knew she could one day
become; he wasn’t going to let her go just like that, without a fight. He went
to Mark’s office to tender his displeasure over the overhauling of Anna as
against the other paralegals he had as statistics under his tutelage. He walked
the distance, and arrived the office with a strong face and bottled up anger to
aid his venting, but refrained from speaking when he saw Andrew comfortably
seated over tea with Mark.

“I was about to send for you, I
guess like minds work together,” Mark beckoned him to come join them.

He resisted the invitation and tried
desperately to hold onto his bottled-anger, it was his catalyst to speak his
mind at this moment. He maintained his stance to go first and bare his mind
with an uneasy voice.

“Go on,” Mark opined.

Patrick took his time to narrate how much
time and energy he had put into training Anna, and how much he was yet to reap
from this long time sown fruit, and so he could not just let her slip away from
his hand into Andrew’s.

“Shut up!”

Andrew rebutted instantly. He claimed to
have always watched from the distance how Patrick treated all his paralegals
like rags.

“Anna had it worse from the start,
simply because she refused to go out with you!” He dropped a bomb.

Fate had delivered Anna into his hands
and Patrick couldn’t hurt her anymore. Mark, who had been watching keenly as
both men argued ceaselessly over one girl, had his fill, he cut them short,

“The girl stays where she is,
Patrick.”

Mark proceeded to introduce the reason
why he called both men, who were amongst the few senior attorneys in the firm,
and two of the three his father trusted with the most of his secrets. Mark took
a moment to think about his father and how he was enjoying his retirement
vacation. The meeting couldn’t wait for his nostalgic feelings before it
continued.

After the meeting, Mark sat alone with his
thoughts, he had often wondered why his father picked all three very different
men to be his most trusted advisors in the firm, and today, understood his
father’s choice. Andrew was the most intriguing of all, at 32, he was the
youngest of the three, arguably the most intelligent, but obviously the most
creative. Patrick had a thing for numbers, and even the slightest fluctuation
in finance couldn’t escape his detective-like notice, the last man, Mr. Sanni,
53 years of age, but with the energy of a 30 years old man, he had the wisdom,
experience, and particularly the gift of foresight, he could smell trouble a
mile away, he was the major reason the firm had always avoided cases that
finally went wrong in the hands of firms that later picked them up. With this
team, he was sure he would do well, he had nothing to worry about.

***

Patrick’s walked the path to his office
from the elevator in silence. He took the peace he got by letting go of his
anger offered, and admired every place he passed by as though he was a new
staff. His moment was interrupted by his ringtone;

Pick
me up, pick me up boss.

“Wife,” He repeated after the
caller ID

“How long will you let my call ring
before you pick it?”

“Hello to you too, wife”
Patrick said after his brief pause, he ignored her question.

She nagged, threatening that he’d have to
contend with her when he got back if he kept spewing trash from his mouth.
“You’ll come to this house na! Shey?” She reiterated her threat when he didn’t
play along, she accused him of messing around at the office and he willfully
ignored her to ask who keeps feeding her head with such nonsense. He would meet
her when he got back.

“Could today get any worse?”
Patrick asked himself after the dead tone, he needed to find the person feeding
his wife’s paranoia as soon as possible; in the past he had hoped to one day
stumbled on evidence that implicated the person pulling his wife’s strings, but
at this moment, he’ll give anything to discern the person.

***

Andrew went to the 13th floor to announce
to all his paralegals their new Chief – Anna. He boldly asked her to meet him
in his office within the next five minutes.

Anna arrived wearing a loud smile, she
couldn’t help but brush off her long hair threatening to cover the beautiful
smile she wanted Andrew to see. She tied up the hair when it kept resisting to
be held back.

“This overhauling process turned out
a blessing,” Anna said.

“Yes it did.”

His reply was hasty, he wanted her to
understand they didn’t need to hide in the abandoned floor to do the deed
anymore; as his Chief-Paralegal, she had unlimited access to his office. He
grabbed her butt, and pulled her towards him. He levered himself by resting on
the front side of his desk. They kissed ferociously causing lots of items on his
desk falling to the tiled floor including a mug that sounded like a blast.

The door swung open, and in came Agnes –
Andrew’s 40 years old secretary – She thought something terrible had happened,
because of the sound of the mug, “Hope all is well?” Her voice asked
before her face showed up.

“My Lord!” She exclaimed when
she entered and turned away quickly: Bare-brea$t-Anna buried her face in
Andrew’s chest. The two-way female shame caused Agnes to run out as fast as she
came in.

“She’s gone baby,” Andrew
offered comforting words. He could feel Anna’s shame at the moment, and assured
he was here and nothing would go wrong.