Felix's POV

I sat in my office, impatiently tapping my feet on my carpeted floor. To say that I was restless was an understatement, since I had arrived at my office, five hours ago my mind had been at home. I have been thinking about Cindy and all the horrible things that she could be doing.

Would she run away and report me to the police station? Shit! In addition, if she does that then I would so screwed for the rest of my life. My thoughts taunted me.

I got up from my leather office chair and shut my laptop. I walked out of my office and took a stroll down the hallway, not really paying attention to my employees but I did notice them staring at me awkwardly, this sending a panic within me.

Why would they not look at me? I hardly remembered the last time I ever walked and looked at what it was that they were doing, rather I just stayed cooked up in my office like a stuffed turkey in an oven. Now that I thought about it, I felt like the worst boss on the planet.

As I walked further down the hallway, I came to an abrupt stop. I hid away from view as I eavesdropped on the conversation that my employees were having, they were discussing me as I heard my name mentioned.

"Did you know that Mr. Felix is actually doing rounds around the building?” The one girl said, sadly I did not know her name, certainly one more attribute of the terrible boss I was.

"I wonder what brought about this change. He never ever does rounds?” The other male staff commented, pausing to drink his coffee.

"Maybe he's looking for a mistress" The female employee joked, this setting off in me that I could not identify.

"Oh please Felicia, we all know that our boss is gay. I mean for the past two years he's never been caught sneaking a woman in his house and he hardly seems to notice all his secretaries that work for him" The male employee commented and this shocked me that they would think that of me.

Me. Gay? I asked myself, as I wondered why they would jump to that conclusion.

After listening to them a while longer, I decided to go back to my office and think about what my employees said about me. After trying to work for another half an hour, I had finally given up because their words kept replying in my head.

My phone rang and I was not in the mood for this call or any other call for that matter.

Please do not be a client! I consciously begged that it was not a client. I retrieved my phone from my pocket and looking at the caller ID, I saw that it was Kyle.

Damn it, he is worse than a client is. I thought. I answered my phone and put on the best and calmest voice I have ever used.

"Hey Kyle” I responded to him, hoping that he had not let me down with regards to taking care of Cindy.

"Hey dude promise me that you won't be mad at me or blame me?" Kyle started with his sentence, a million thoughts went through my head almost at once and I concluded.

Cindy ran away. That was all that I could think as adrenaline ran through my body.

"Felix she ran away” Kyle informed me, confirming my thoughts.

"What? How did you lose her, Kyle? She is an entire human being and not a kid in a candy store!" I yelled at Kyle as I thought of the implication of Cindy, running away would do to both Kyle and me.

"Look Felix, I've searched the entire neighborhood for her and still nothing” Kyle informed me but that was not what I had wanted to hear from him.

"Look, I don't want you to search the entire neighborhood. I want you to search the entire Earth and even if you have to turn the world upside down, I do not care, just find her” I ended the call, packed up my stuff and let my office.

The entire time whilst driving, I prayed that Cindy had not gone to the police station, and spilled the beans, otherwise, I would be done for. I kept thinking of how I had to rebuild this law firm, because my father had miserably used up most of the money made by our law firm, always spending it on women who wanted more of his money than him himself.

Felix you are probably going to become your old man, a useless good for nothing. My mind continued to torture me but deep down I knew that I was better than my old man was.

Stop it Felix you are nothing like your father. I reminded myself; I repeated it to myself until I began to believe that indeed I was nothing like him.

I stepped out of my car, quickly, enraged and ready to put Kyle out of his misery for losing Cindy. As I approached the entrance of my house, I saw Kyle standing there, as cool as a cucumber.

"Kyle you mother fuc —"He cut me off before I could finish talking by raising his hand as a sign of surrender and smiling at me.

"Relax Felix okay. I found her” Kyle informed me. I did not know why but this was the best news that I had ever heard in my life. I breathe out a breath of relief.

"Where was she, how did she get out, did she tell the cops?” I asked Kyle frantically but Kyle taking his time to answer, only infuriated me.

"Well she didn't exactly run away, she was in the basement cleaning up the place" I stood on the spot stunned at what my friend had just said. I did not know whether to smile at Cindy’s gesture or to cry about it.

"Why the hell would she be cleaning up my basement?” I asked, smiling in the process.

"Well for one, she did not only clean up your basement but she also cleaned up your entire house in the time that I was sleeping” Kyle confessed.

"You were sleeping?" I asked him, seconds away from strangling him for that foolish mistake.

"Hey no need to get mad okay, I did the job, she didn't run away and plus you actually do need a maid ,this house was way too dusty for its own good" Kyle confessed, he put on his coat, tapped me on the shoulder and left me as he walked towards his car and drove off.

Kyle truly left me standing at my front door like an idiot. I walked into my house only to find Cindy cleaning the top shelves of my cupboards.

"Good afternoon—"

Just before I could finish my sentence, Cindy fell of the stool, which she was standing on and I caught her just in time before she plummeted to the ground.

"Need to talk, now” I finished my sentence, all this whilst she was still in my arms, bridal style.

I put her down and she sat down on the couch. I did the same, on the couch opposite to her. I ran my hands through my hair, a sign of stress and stared at before speaking. I tried to study this young woman as I did all the criminals I did in court.

"Cindy I— What I'm trying to say is thank you for cleaning my house; it really needed cleaning but also that... Cindy I feel that I really don't know you as a person and I would really like to know you better” I confessed to her. I really did not know much about this woman sitting and facing me. Yes, my friend shad clearly brought her but she was still a stranger no doubt.

She nervously played with her hands, looked up at me and answered.

"What do you want to know about me?” She asked nervously. I breathe out a sigh of relief, knowing that she was at least letting me in and not fighting me.

"Well, first of all I just want to know why you're here and how you got sold as a slave” I asked her, keeping the question short as not to overwhelm her.

"I ran away and" She answered me with a simple sentence.

Flash back

I remembered getting into the truck, as the driver started the engine and drove away. I remembered my best friend, she was handed something and she looked disappointed with what it was that she had received. That was the last I saw of my friend.

“Hello earth to Cindy” I called out to her, I waved my hands in front of her that she could snap out of whatever spell that was holding her.

"I was sold, my best friend sold me” Cindy told me. She then broke down and began to cry her eyes out. I closed the space between Cindy and I, held her in my arms, and stroked her back.

"Look Cindy you don't have to tell me if you don't want me to know, but I just wanted to ask you if you could work for me?” I asked her. She quickly wiped her tears and gave me a weak smile.

"Cindy, I hope this is not inappropriate but I'm sure you've seen the state of my house and it's quite dirty I'd say. So would you Cindy please become my maid?" She nodded in agreement and smiled at me. Deep I knew that this was not a permanent solution to my problem but for the time being, this was the only way to keep Bailey from reporting Kyle and myself to the authorities.