The night guard and the runaway.
Chapter 8: The past still hurts.
Javier had told Mike about what happened last night. As expected, not only was Mike appalled by what he heard, he was also sympathetic towards Emily. He knew what it was like to be abused by someone, both physically and mentally. Mike choose not to tell Emily everything, there was something Jonathan had said about his Mother and reason as to why he had been abandoned by his family and raised by Aisha instead, but he told her everything else that he felt comfortable with.
In return Emily gave them more insight about the vase incident whilst Javier was making some inquires with his Mother. The day after the incident the vase hadn't been picked up and, as part of her parent's demands, her Mother made her pick it up all by herself. She told her that, seeing as she wouldn't amount to anything, it would better for her to start practicing to be a house wife. Seeing as the pieces were so small, Emily recalled cutting her hands on the pieces. When she was finished she asked her Mother if she could stop the bleeding. Mrs Porter refused to help her and told her to do herself.
"How long has this been going on?" Mike asked her when she was finished.
"At least for a while. The birthday party happened back in March. I was looking for the teddy bear back in May. The incident with the vase happened last month." Emily recalled.
"And how long have your parents been arguing for?" Mike inquired.
"I'm not sure. Over a year, maybe? They would have little arguments with each other but they started getting more violent one day." The brunette replied. "They never took their anger out on me but, things changed after March. Dad had been like that for a while. He was always moody, especially when he got back from work. Mum just told me he was having a difficult day at work. She would always try to make me forget about it by buying me gifts or promising me treats. If it wasn't for that then it was because I had seen something I shouldn't have."
"Like what?" Mike asked.
"Mom was having an affair with another man." Emily told him. "I saw them on the couch one day. She was on top of him, kissing him or his neck, whilst he was touching..."
"Okay, okay, okay. No need to go any further. I get the idea." Mike interrupted. "You should never have seen that, Emily."
"Why? Don't you and Javi do that all the time?" Emily puzzled.
"Emily, your... your six years old, you shouldn't be asking about things like that." Mike spluttered, clearly embarrassed by what his heard. His face was turning red and Emily couldn't help but laugh at him. Thankfully, Javier was nowhere near the room or he would be teasing him about it.
Emily on the other hand...
"Then why are you are you going red? Are you embarrassed?" Emily teased.
He refused to answer her, having turned away from her instead. No, they didn't do stuff like that. Just kisses and cuddles because Mike didn't feel ready to take to take it to the next level. That's wasn't the only thing either. He was afraid of getting hurt again. He knew Javier would never hurt him, but he just got so used to people hurting him that he was afraid of what Javier would do to him if they decided to take it to the next level. The worse thing was Javier didn't know that. He should just tell him about it, it was silly really, but he had never been good at admitting his feelings to anyone.
Mike shook his head. He shouldn't be talking about these types of things anyway, lest of all thinking about them.
"Mike?"
"Emily, please, just drop it. I don't want to talk about it." Mike insisted.
"Oh, okay." Emily said. That's when she remember the conversation she had with Javier before she went back to bed. She had brought up the idea of how to ask Mike about certain things and Javier told her that it wasn't a good idea to to that. Because of the abusive he had a difficult time opening up to people. Instead, he recommended talking about other things. Like something to lighten the mood. "Um. We can talk about something else if you want."
Mike nodded, already catching onto what she was trying to do. "Alright. Oh, how about I tell you what happened during my shift last night?"
"What happened?" Emily asked.
"Lets just say we're keeping Foxy and Bonnie away from the paints from now on. Poor Freddy got drenched in white paint and Foxy gave him a new name. He's now Freddy the polar bear." Mike replied, doing a dramatic wave once he revealed Freddy's new name.
"That's just silly." Emily laughed.
"Well, blame Foxy. He's the one who came up with the idea." Mike said.
"Am I missing something here?"
They turned to the doorway. Javier was standing there, in his hands as a piece of paper. He walked into the living room some more. His eyes kept shifting between Mike and Emily, looking for any signs of mischief. Mike's face was natural. Emily was trying really hard to remain calm but her eyes were betraying her, and she was giggling a lot.
"So? What's going on then?" He asked them.
"I was telling Emily about what happened last night." Mike told him. "There was an incident with white paint last night, and Freddy was completely drenched in it. We're keeping Foxy and Bonnie away from the paints from now on."
"I see." Javier commented. Ah well. He'll get them another time ."Anyway, I think I've made some progress with the vase. Not much but at least its something."
"Did you contact your Mother?" Mike asked.
"Si and, whist we didn't find out more out the vase, she did, however, tell me something interesting." Javier replied. Next, he turned to Emily. "Emmy, do you know what your Mother's maiden name is?"
"Maiden name?" Emily frowned. "What's that?"
"Its your Mother's surname before she married your father." Mike told her.
"Oh" She thought about it for a moment, thinking back to the conversations she had with her Mother - The more happier ones, that is. She realised that her Mother never talked about her family, expect for her Grandmother. But, she never gave Emily her name. "No. She didn't like talking about her family. Which was strange because she told me the vase belonged to her Grandmother."
"Hmm. I thought as much. Well, before she married your Father, your Mother's full name was Sarah Annabelle Hendrix. She is the Daughter of Edward and Colette Hendrix, and is the sole successor to Mr Hendrix's company." Javier revealed. "They are your Grandparents, Emily."
"My Grandparents." Emily said.
She never thought she had any. Her Mother never talked about them, never told her anything about them. She just presumed that her Mother was no longer in touch with them. Did that mean she lied to her then?
"So what your saying is, should anything happen to either Sarah or her Grandparents, then Emily will become the successor of Mr Hendrix's company." Mike said. "Well, unless he choose to hand it over to someone else."
"Exactly." The brunette agreed. "Although, there is that rumour... "
"Rumour? What rumour?" The redhead questioned.
"Before she married Mr Porter Sarah went missing. She wasn't... capture and held for ransom money. She just disappeared on the day on the incident. Her parents didn't disclose any information about the incident but, apparently, there was some sort of argument between Sarah and her parents." Javier told him, being careful with his words. "Don't you find it a bit strange that Sarah has a vase in her possession that belonged to her Grandmother but has the Hendrix symbol on it?"
To emphasise his point, Javier showed Mike and Emily the piece of paper in his hands. On the piece of paper were two images. The first was a vase produced by the Hendrix company. The second was an image of the Hendrix company's logo.
"Oh. That's the vase Mom has." Emily said.
Javier smiled. "Thought so."
"But, Javi, How did the vase end up in Sarah's possession in the first place if she has no contact with her family?" Mike questioned.
"Hmm. That is a good question, Miguel. Me and my Madre couldn't figure that one out either." The brunette replied. "That's why my Madre decided to set up a meeting with Mr Hendrix."
"What? Really?" Mike gasped.
Javier nodded. "Mr Hendrix and my Madre have had a few dealing in the past. Sometimes he has a few antique that come into his possession and she appraises them for him. I don't know how much he's willing to tell me but we need all the information we can get on Sarah Porter if we are going to have a chance at getting Emily away from her Parents."
Mike nodded. "Well, at least its something."
Hopefully, Mr Hendrix would be able to listen to him. They needed more information of Sarah and, as of right now, Mr Hendrix was the only person who could help them.
Jeremy had decided to show his findings to Scott and, needless to say, the manager was fuming. Jeremy didn't blame him, though he had never seen Scott so wound up before. Usually, the manager was more relaxed but though lately he seemed to be more on edge. Because he didn't know what will happen next, none of them did. They were waiting for Vincent to make his next move and, by the looks of things, it would be this horror attraction whenever it opened up.
Jeremy watched as the brunette started pacing around the room. He was trying to process the newfound information, trying to figure out why Fazbear Entertainment would stoop so low as to open a horror attraction dedicated to the unsolved mystery's at Freddy's. It was sick, and disrespectful towards the deceased.
"Just how low can they get?" Scott wondered as he took a seat in his chair.
"It could be worse. We don't exactly know what the horror attraction will look like yet, least of all know what exactly they will be using it for." Jeremy replied. "They might not end up using the kidnappings for their own advantage."
"They won't use it, Jeremy. If they do then its going to make them look like hypocrites. They refused to believe that there was something wrong, and they ended up denying everything that happened. That, or they blamed it on something else." Scott remarked. "No. What they will end up going doing is recreating the hauntings as best as they can. They'll probably end up treating it like some sort of haunted house."
"How are they going to do that then?" The brunette inquired. "They would need some kind of serious equipment to do something like that, won't they?"
Scott nodded. "Well, they will need some serious lighting effects. Something to create projections. I don't think they will end up fully recreating a Pizzeria, it probably be something smaller. I can seeing them using bits and bobs from the old Pizzerias. They wouldn't actually use actual animatronics. Unless they had someone create something demonic, they would probably use props instead. As we both know, the Toys wouldn't work. They're far too colourful to be used in a horror attraction."
"...That could work, actually." Jeremy mused. "If they put some serious work into then they're going to have a successful business."
"Yes. And, that's what concerns me." Scott sighed.
Jeremy frowned as he heard that. Was there something else Scott was worried about? There was no way Fazbear Entertainment were going to set this up the horror attraction straight away. It would take months to create something like that and, if they were going to base it off unsolved mysteries at Freddy's, then they need to find items relating to the Pizzeria's. There again they could just use said items from the warehouse but why damage good equipment if you can just get it from another place? Besides, they probably move a lot of that stuff around anyway and just give it to another Pizzeria. That way they don't have to spent a lot of money of buying or making new equipment or animatronics.
"Scott, is there something wrong?" Jeremy asked.
"I'm worried about our reputation. I didn't exactly tell them about the improvements that we made." Scott admitted. "We spent a lot of time fixing this place. We were the ones who did it. Not Mr Johnson, not Fazbear Entertainment. If Fazbear Entertainment actually manages to pull this off, and they turn this into something its not, then what's going to happen to us? If they end up using some fake narrative or twisting what really happened, then the what will the customers think of us?"
"We don't know what's going to happen, Scott. Its probably going to be some sort of interactive horror show with a bunch of jump scares." Jeremy replied with a shrug.
"Is that meant to make thing better?" Scott deadpanned.
"Um. Maybe?" Jeremy beamed.
Scott just shook his head as he turned attention back to the article Jeremy gave him. He knew the night guard was just trying to be make things better, but it didn't help in a time of uncertainty. Maybe there was nothing to worry about and this horror attraction would be nothing more then a haunted house knock off. But, at the same time, he couldn't shake the feeling that something horrible was going to happen.
Something that should of remained buried.
"When it does open, someone will have to investigate it." Scott decided. "Maybe I'm just beiing paranoid but I can't shake the feeling that something is going to happen inside of that horror attraction. Trouble is I can't tell if its Vincent or the Marionette."
"About that, Mike doesn't want any involvement in it." Jeremy told him, remembering the conversation he had with Mike the night prior. "He's worried that, when the horror attraction does open up, Vincent will hear about it and end up visiting the place. And, if Mike ends up being the one to investigate the place... Well, you know. He's worried that he's going to get kidnapped again ."
"He doesn't have to worry about that. I'd rather have Mike work the night shift here then go into that that place. At least he'll be protected by the animatronics. If Vincent does decided to come back here then Mike can hide in the basement and Goldie will be able to seal the doors until he has been dealt with." Scott assured him. That's when he remembered something. "Ah, that reminds me. I was thinking about something last night that would be beneficial for all of us."
"Really? What is it?" The brunette asked.
"Well, since we are waiting for Vincent to make his next move, why don't we use that for our advantage and get some training in." Scott explained. "Maybe a few self defence classes, some disarming lessons in case we end up getting attacked from behind. Oh, and we will need some sort of meeting place in case something happens to this place. Goldie's been complaining about the basement getting messy again, and I don't think we can all fit down there."
Jeremy hummed. "That's a great idea, Scott. It could be our base of operations."
"Exactly. That way we would be able to monitor the Freddy's locations without anyone finding out. I'd rather keep all of this a secret then having the higher ups finding out about it." Scott said. "If there is a problem with another Freddy's location, and Fazbear Entertainment won't do anything about it, then I guess its up to us to figure out the problem."
Jeremy agreed with him. It made sense. They needed something bigger then what they were currently working with, and they needed to keep it away from Freddy's. It would be nice to have a place where they could escape from their problems, where they could just be friends without having to deal with some much chaos - to escape from their burdens. Working at Freddy's wasn't a chore but, in some cases, it could just be so stressful at times.
When was the last time they were all able to hang out without being interrupted by something or someone? Jeremy couldn't remember, and he really wanted to work on his friendship with Mike. They made some progress last night but they still had a long way to go before they could become best of friends again. In fact it would be beneficial for Mike as well. Apart from his home with Javier and Freddy's, Mike didn't have a lot of places where he could feel safe. He could use another place to go so that he could feel more safe.
…It would be nice for him to have a place to go to where Vincent would never find him.
Oh, right, speaking about that...
"I think I've a way of finding out what Vincent's planning next." Jeremy said.
"Oh? What it is?" Scott inquired.
"We could always ask Mrs Schmidt for help." Jeremy told him.
"Mrs Schmidt? You want to ask Samantha for help?" Scott questioned.
Jeremy could sense the uncertainty in his voice. Truthfully, it wasn't a bad idea - it was the only idea they had at the moment - but he could see why the manager was reluctant to ask her for help. It was the idea of Samantha seeing her husband again that Scott didn't like. Would she be able to keep her emotions in check whilst she was around him? Much like Scott and Fran, Samantha had been appalled at what Vincent had done. She practically went into Mama bear mode and told them that Vincent would pay for what he did. Mike had to beg her not to go after him.
She promised she wouldn't... for now.
"Yes. I feel like she's the one who could get close to Vincent without alarming him - You know, since she is in a incorporeal state like the missing kids. She wouldn't have to get near him, of course. Just close enough so that she would be able to gather some evidence." Jeremy clarified. "Besides, I wouldn't want to put the kids in danger and Goldie is busy looking for the Toy animatronics. It would make sense to have someone go in who Vincent wouldn't expect."
Scott nodded slowly. "I would've to think about it. Don't get me wrong, Jeremy. It is a good idea but I need to know what Samantha and Mike think first. It wouldn't be fair to make decision without having them present."
"That's fair. I just suggesting the idea. It wouldn't be right if we didn't include Mike's input." Jeremy said.
Because he wasn't making the same mistakes again. This was a fresh start for the pair of them.
The door to the attic was open.
Emily had been looking for Mike when she noticed it. Javier had already left for the Hendrix company, and Mike had told her that he needed to fetch some paints from upstairs and Emily was reading on the couch. But, that was twenty minutes ago and Mike hadn't come back yet. He should've been back by now. The brunette decided to investigate and had found a ladder leading up to the attic.
Curiosity got the better of her and Emily made her way up the ladder. The attic was surprisingly tidy, the one in her house was always messy and it was difficult to find something. There again there wasn't a lot of stuff around her. Just a few boxes. She found Mike on the other side of the room. He was sitting down and there was a carboard box in front of him. She couldn't see much, although she could see some clothes on the floor. Emily went in for a closer look.
Mike had a surprising large collection of teddies bears. Emily was tempted to snag one of them but she decided against it. The redhead had allowed her to stay in his home, it would've been disrespectful to take something of his without asking for it first. There was another, more small box next to the carboard box. The clothes she saw were a black tailcoat jacket, a red winged collar shirt and trousers and a brown belt. There was also a collection of photographs with various people on them.
"What's that?" She asked.
"Jew a few memories." Mike replied.
Strange, he wasn't startled by her. He hated surprises - unless they were ones where he had some sort of inkling of what they might be. (So, basically, every time Rachel visited.) Maybe he just got so used to having Emily in the house that he wasn't surprised by her anymore. That, or he was just so caught up by the memories, that he hadn't fully noticed her yet.
He hoped he wasn't being rude towards her.
He picked up one of the photographs. The one was of a women with long red hair and blue eyes. Though the recollection was very faint, Mike knew exactly who she was. Her name was Samantha Schmidt. She was no longer amongst the living, having being killed a year before the children went missing (another investigation that had never been cleared up.)
"She's pretty." Emily said. "She looks like you"
Mike smiled. "That's my Mother." He turned to her and ruffled his hair slightly. "You didn't think I got this from someone else, did you?"
"Maybe." Emily replied.
"Hey, don't worry about it. I didn't tell you about my family anyway so there's no need to get worried about it." Mike assured her.
Actual members of my family. Not him.
He searches through the photos and pulls out a few of them. One of them was a photo of two men, both of which Mike recognised straight away. One of them was Scott. The other was a brunette with black eyes and freckles. That was Uncle Fran. They were both wearing tuxedos. It had been Scott's wedding day and he had asked Fran to be his best man.
"So, this is my Uncle Fran. He's on vacation at the moment with his daughter, Rachel, and her Mother, Aisha. And, this is Scott. He's my Godfather. We'll meet him tomorrow." Mike said.
"Tomorrow?" Emily frowned. "Why? Where are we going?"
"To Freddy's, of course." Mike told her. "You'll get to see the place during the day, maybe interact with our animal friends if they're not too busy, and we could arrange a playdate with Alison? If you want to, of course."
Emily squealed as she started to jump up and down. It was the best news ever! She really wanted to see Foxy again, and Chica, and Bonnie, and Freddy. She really wanted to meet Alison too. She needed to thank her for allowing her to have some of her clothes. She wanted to get to know her better and maybe, just maybe, become friends with her. It would nice to have an actual friend. Kyle had told her that Alison wanted to be friends with her So maybe after they spent some time together, shared interests and did some activities together, then maybe they can become friends after all.
"Aw. Thank you, Mikey. Your the best!" Emily thanked as she hugged him, not really noticing that she used that nickname for him.
Mike didn't seem to notice either.
"Hey now. No need to get overexcited. Save that for tomorrow." Mike said.
Emily just grinned sheepishly at him before sitting down next to him. Mike carried on going through the photos again, telling her that whilst he had collection of photos of his family, he also had a collection of photographs of his friends too. He told her about his friends, about Javier's family. (expect for Carlos, of course. That was for him to decided whether or not he wanted to tell her about him.) He didn't tell her everything, there was just some stuff that was far too personal to bring up, but he was able to give her a general idea of what his friends were like.
When they were finished Mike neatly placed the photos back into the cash box before closing the box and using a key to lock it. He placed that box into the carboard box. Then they decided to move onto the teddy bears.
"So, why do you have all of these teddy bears?" Emily asked.
"Most of them were... belated birthday presents." Mike replied.
"One for each of the birthday's we've missed."
Mike shook his head. No! That was a long time ago. He can't get to you now.
"Most of them?"
"Yeah. Its sort of hard to explain but, when I was younger, I think I had some sort of teddy bear collection. I'm not really sure, I never asked about it. There were some more recent ones as well." Mike said. "I don't know why I still keep them. I've been meaning to give them away but I just haven't got round to it yet."
That's when he got an idea.
"Would you like one?" He asked her.
Emily's eyes lit up. "I can have one?"
"Of course you can. I know it wouldn't replaced the one you're currently missing but you're welcome to take on if you like. Like I said, I was only gonna give them away anyway and I'm guessing that you don't have any toys of a cuddly variety."
Emily shook her head. "No. Just the one teddy bear."
She was running her hands through the bears fur. This one was of a light brown colour and there was yellow bow tied around it neck. It was so soft, much better then the one she had at home. Home. She hadn't thought about it since last night. She wasn't home sick by any means and she loved spending time with Mike and Javier. But, she couldn't help but think about her parents. Surely, they were angry with her. She ran away from home. She disobeyed them when she was promised she would be on her best behaviour and told Mike and Javier everything that had happened to her.
That's when Emily realised that she didn't want to go home. She wanted to stay with Mike and Javier.
"I want to stay with you and Javi." Emily said suddenly.
He turned to her. "Y-You want to?" Emily nodded. "Why?"
"You've been so nice to me, and Javi too. I don't want to go back home. My parents treat me horribly, and this is the happiest I have been in a while." Emily replied. "Can't I just stay here with you two? Can you be... My Dad?"
"It doesn't work like that, Emily. There's regulations we have to go through first, and we haven't dealt with your parents yet." Mike told her. "Besides, your Grandparents might want to meet you, and they might end up gaining custody of you."
"But, would you?" Emily pressed.
Mike bit his lip. He couldn't answer her, he couldn't give her false hope like he had been given before. Yet, part of him wanted to adopt her. The more he kept hearing about how Emily was treated, the more he wanted to take her in and give her the life she missed out on. However, the other half of him was reluctant to do so. Not because he didn't want to but he was afraid to do so. He had no experience in raising a child. He had babysat before but there was no predominant figure in his life to guide him.
(Vincent definitely did not count!)
And, that wasn't the only thing either. If he did decided to adopt her when this was all over, what would happen if Vincent found his and Javier house? If was only by pure luck that he hadn't found them already - Somehow, no matter where he hides, Vincent always found him. But, what would happen if Vincent found them and Emily was there as well? He... He wouldn't hurt her, would he? Mike wasn't sure. He didn't think he would. If he knew that she was Mike's daughter then there was no doubt in Mike's mind that he would dote on her completely.
If... If Emily was taken from him then... would he... would he... trade places with her?
"Its... okay. You don't have to tell me anything."
"Huh. No, Emily. Its not you... Its just..." Mike said. "You are a sweet kid, Emily, and I wouldn't mind adopting you when this is all over. But, I'm afraid to do so"
Emily watched him careful as his hand lingered on one of the teddy bears. This one had a purple bow tied around its neck.
"When we went through the photos I told you about my Mother, my Uncle, my Godfather and my friends. But, I didn't tell you about my - " He hesitates for just a moment. He know what's he's going to say. Its on the tip of his tongue yet he can't force himself to say the word. It just feels wrong to call him by that word. Yet, he knew that he had to be strong. He had to tell Emily what had happened to him. "I didn't tell you about my Dad."
Well, now that she thought about it, Mike didn't bring it up. There was no photos of the man.
"He... He's a horrible person, yet I can't bring myself to hate him. There's a lot I can tell you about the things he's has done but its not appropriate for someone like you. He has, however, hurt people. Myself included." Mike went on to say. He wrapped his arms around his body. "He kidnapped me a few months ago, he knocked me out with a sleeping gas and brought me to somewhere where neither of my friends or Javier would find me. I remember waking up in a bedroom. This bedroom... was a boys room. The doors weren't locked so I had almost entire access to the building he put me in. "
"So, its not all bad, is it?" Emily said
Oh, bless her heart. "No. But, it gets worse. The building was a part of carnival and it was more of a mansion. A haunted mansion, if you will. Anyway in the different room there was some sort of puzzles or riddles that needed to be solved. Stupidly, I decided to do those puzzles and riddles thinking that, if I could complete them, then maybe I could find a way out whilst I was working on them. But, in the end, nothing happened. He gave me false hope. Then he told me the real reason as to why the mansion was built in the first place." Mike told her. "He did it all for me. He did all of that just to make me stay with him, telling me that we could have this every single day and that I would never have to return to the cold reality beyond the mansion's doors."
"I had learnt from Javier that there were cameras in each of the different rooms... including the one I was using at that moment in time. He was watching me sleep." Mike revealed. "One night I was having trouble sleeping, and I noticed the door opening slightly. I heard movement but I decided to just pretend to go back to sleep. The bed lower behind me and I felt arms wrapped around me. It was him. I think he just wanted to hold me, to cuddle with me. I'd never felt so trapped before. He's obsessed with me, Emily. And, if he finds me again, I know he'll kidnap me again and make it harder for Javier to find me. And, that's why I'm afraid to adopt you. Because if finds me then I'm afraid of what he's going to do to you. It might be... much worse then what he did to me."
They were hugging each other now. Emily was telling him that she was sorry that he had to go through all of that. Mike smiled slightly, telling her that she didn't have to apologise for something she didn't know about. He shouldn't have told her everything but he needed to give her a reason as to why he was afraid of adopting her. And yet, the part of him that wanted to adopt her and risk it all still lingered in his mind. He would never put a child in danger, and he would do everything in his power to protect her.
But, how can he protect Emily from the one who hurt him the most?
Javier was outside the Hendrix company. He had to admit it was a fairly nice building. It was more to do with a showcase room instead of a building where they actually made ceramics but it was where he was meeting Mr Hendrix. His Madre told him that there was person waiting for him on the ground floor. He was to look for a women named Cindy Fletcher.
Miguel had advised him to dress smartly for the occasion... And had practically helped him pick out clothes because Javier didn't have a lot of them. He was wearing a dark red, buttoned up shirt with long sleeves and a winged collar, dark grey trousers with a black belt and black shoes. The Brunette smiled. He would've to do something nice for Miguel in return. Ideas were already rushing through his head. He couldn't wait to spoil him rotten. For now though he kept those ideas at the back of head. There was work to be done.
He made his way into the building. There was a bunch of people dotted around the place, all of them where viewing the displays. There was a women standing one of the displays. She had short blonde, wavy hair and brown eyes. She was wearing the company's work uniform, and in her hands was a black tablet. There was name tag on her uniform. He could see the name 'Cindy' on it. That must be who he's looking for. Javier walked over to her.
"Can I help you, sir?" The women asked, looking up from her tablet.
"My name is Javier Jones. I have an appointment with Mr Hendrix." The brunette told her.
"Ah. So, your the person I've been waiting for. My name is Cindy Fletcher. I'm Mr Hendrix's assistant." Cindy replied. "Please. Follow me, Mr Jones. I'll take you up to Mr Hendrix's office. His board meeting has just ended."
Javier nodded. "Thank you, Cindy. You've haven't been waiting for me too long, have you?"
"I haven't, Mr Jones Your right on time." Cindy said.
He followed her to the other side of the room and through the door that was marked 'Employees only'. They went up the stairs and onto the second floor. Mr Hendrix's office was the third door down. When they were outside of the door, Cindy knocked on it and waited for Mr Hendrix's response.
"Who is it?"
"Its Cindy Fletcher, sir. Mr Jones is here to see you." Cindy told him.
"Ah, yes. Send him in then."
She gestured to the door in front of them, allowing him to head on inside and muttered "Good luck" Javier thanked her, knowing full well that he was going to need all of the luck he needed if he was going to get information the information out of Mr Hendrix. The brunette opened the door. The board room was fairly nice as well, with blue carpet and white walls. There were a few windows on the right side of the room. In the middle of the room was large, rectangular table with a few swivel chairs around it - they were very nice ones too.
On the left side of the wall was a projection screen, and Mr Hendrix was sitting in a black leather chair closet to it. Mr Hendrix was an late middle age man with brown hair. but there were a few grey streaks in it, and black eyes. There was a pair of reading glasses on his face. He was wearing a black business suit. Javier walked over to him.
"You must be Sierra's Son. Javier, right?." Mr Hendrix noted. Javier nodded, and shook his hand when Mr Hendrix reached out. "Edward Hendrix. How is your Mother doing? I heard about what happened to Carlos. You have my condolences. What an awful way to die."
"Thank you. She's doing better, but I think we're all just trying to move on." Javier said, whilst trying to remain calm. This was the last thing he wanted to hear today. But, for Emily it was worth it.
Edward gestured to one of the spare seats in front of him. Javier chose to sit down on the chair on Edward's right.
"So, what can I do you for, Mr Jones?" Edward inquired.
"I wanted to know more about your daughter, Sarah Hendrix." Javier told him.
"My daughter." Edward looked at him suspiciously. "Why?"
"There was an incident last month in her house. She had a vase in her possession with your company's logo on it. What I want to know is that why does she have that vase if she doesn't have contact with you or your wife." Javier explained.
"Maybe she brought it." Edward suggested. "We do work with pottery too, Mr Jones."
"This isn't going anywhere." Javier thought. "I need to tell him the truth. Maybe that way he would be more willing to talk about his Daughter. If he realised what Sarah was doing to her Daughter then maybe that would cox him into talking about his Daughter's past."
"Mr Hendrix, I had learnt from Sarah's daughter that she the vase belonged to Sarah's Grandmother. The vase had been damaged last month, yet the incident was not accidental. Sarah's daughter had been shoved into the table it was standing on by her husband. She also told me that the money was wasted on her, I'm guessing that Sarah has access to large amount of money." Javier revealed. "She treats her horrible, Mr Hendrix. The worse thing is Sarah slapped her her daughter, and yelled at for doing nothing wrong. She's been treated horribly by her Father as well."
"I.. I have a Granddaughter..." Edward muttered. "I never knew..."
Javier nodded. "Her name is Emily. Please, Mr Hendrix, its vital that me and my partner find out more about Emily's Mother. I believe that this incident can help us. We want to remove her from that toxic environment. They are abusing her, Senor, and she ran away from home a few days ago."
The brunette watched as Mr Hendrix leaned back in his chair, his left index finger was tapping the table whilst his right hand was resting on his chin. He was contemplating something. Perhaps it was was knowledge that he had a Granddaughter - one that he definitely did not know about, poor fellow. Or, maybe it was the information he needed about Sarah's past. He seemed so... reluctant to talk about. It made Javier wonder what exactly did Sarah do to her Father.
"Alright, Mr Jones. I'll tell you what I know." Edward sighed. "I had commissioned a set of vases for my wife's birthday. All of them were worth a lot of money, except for one because it had been damaged in the moving process. I hide that one away and gave the rest to my wife. Sarah had been in the room at that moment. She was angry with me. She said that she had never received any expensive gifts from gifts. Don't get me wrong, Mr Jones. I gave her gifts, birthday presents and whatnot, but I didn't want to completely dote on her. I didn't want to buy her affection."
"That's understandable, Mr Hendrix." Javier replied. "But, what happened next? Apparently, there was some sort of argument."
"That's right. Sarah had wanted to be more involved with the company. She always had an eye for business. She once told me that she wanted to take over the business once I retired, I probably would've allowed her if she just waited. I didn't want her to rush into things. Yet, Sarah refused to stop talking about it and she started to take matters into her own hands. She started to making investments in the stock market. I don't know how she got the money... Until I found out what she did." Edward explained. "Somehow Sarah managed to gain access to companies' account. I had no idea about the money going missing until Mrs Fletcher brought it to my attention. It was a hefty amount of money, Mr Jones."
"How did you react to the news?" Javier questioned.
"I was angry, but I also felt betrayed by what Sarah did. If she had just talked to me about it first I would've considered the idea. But, she lied to the accountant, having told him that I wanted to make those investments in the first place. When I confronted her about it she tried shift the blame on me, saying that she only acted because I won't allow her to be more involved with the company. I told her that it wasn't the right time to give her more control of the company and that she betrayed my trust by going behind my back. But, Sarah wasn't having it. She has always been so stubborn." Edward told him. "That's when she retaliated with the vase."
"It was my wife's birthday. Me and my wife, Colette, were celebrating at home. Sarah told us that she would visit later. I had asked her where she was going but she didn't tell me anything. Later on I found out that my office had been broken into and the vase had been stolen. Whoever did it had been careful in the process. The security footage had been deleted, they were wearing gloves." Edward revealed. "...Eventually, I found the vase in Sarah's room. It wasn't hard to put two and two together."
"What did you do after woods?." Javier inquired. "Clearly, you didn't go to the police about this because Sarah still had the vase."
"No, I didn't. I couldn't do it, Mr Jones. Despite everything she was still my daughter. I had hoped Sarah would've apologise for what she did, and eventually pay back everything she stole from me, but... I was wrong. Sarah didn't regret anything. She told me that I should have put in a secure place and should of had better security. I just couldn't take it anymore and I told her to leave the house." Edward replied "After that she went missing. We didn't tell anyone because we had no idea where she went. We tried her phone but she had the number changed. To make matters worse Colette told me that everything in Sarah's room had been removed."
So, that's how the vase ended up in Sarah's possession. It didn't belong to Sarah's Grandmother. It had actually belonged to Emily's Grandfather, until he was going to hand them over to his wife. She had stolen it from her own Father. She probably didn't get rid of the evidence because she couldn't sell it after woods due to the cracks on the vase. So it was beneficial to her that the vase ended up shattering when Emily was shoved in the table. So, why did she decided to keep it for so many years? She could of easily hid it in her house but she decided to display it. Maybe, seeing as she couldn't get rid of the vase, she just decided to keep it and put flowers in it.
And, since she had some shares in the stock market, maybe that how she got all that money. Maybe she and Eric decided to keep it all for themselves and only spent money on Emily because they had to.
"Javier, what's going to happen to my Granddaughter? Edward asked. "You said she was being abused, right?"
"Si. I think the next step is to remove her from her parents entirely and have them arrested." Javier replied. "She might end up in the care system but... I think she wants to stay with me and my Boyfriend."
"Are you sure about that?" Edward questioned.
"I think so. She hadn't been very subtle about it but, she's a lot more happier then what she has been. I rather have her live with us then go into the care system." Javier said. "There's something about that girl that just makes everything better. She brings so much joy to us, especially Miguel and he's been hurt for so long.
"Children will do that. If you can make your child happy then you will receive happiness as well." Edward replied. He paused for just a moment. Again, he was considering something and when he made up his mind his mind he nodded his head. Content on whatever decision he made. "Javier, if you and your partner managed to adopt her, then would me and my wife be able to see her? I wouldn't mind getting to know my Granddaughter a bit better. And I for don't think its fair that me and Colette haven't been able to see our Granddaughter."
Javier opened his mouth but then he closed it again. There was no doubt in his mind that he would give Mr Hendrix the opportunity to see his Granddaughter. But, he couldn't predict the future. He couldn't predict what might happen next. And, the biggest factor he had to consider was Miguel. The more he kept thinking about it, the more Javier wanted to adopt her when this was all over.
But, what about Miguel? Would he want to adopt her?
"I can't promise anything, Mr Hendrix. I would allow you to see your Granddaughter. But, it just depends on what Miguel wants to do."