DIRE TIMES

The secretary brought the food up and Lawton devoured it. He had something else that bothered him and it was the situation with his wife's family. But he would settle everything one by one, as time permitted him to.

“Smithson. What exactly happened to father? Do you know?”

“It was a fatal accident, young master. When the private security firm I contacted to investigate

the matter had investigated it, they reported to me that the cars had been tampered with. To kill whoever was in it. Thankfully, it had been just your father that day, as the rest of the family had missed the event.”

The heavy feeling of wrath settled in Lawton. Someone had planned to get rid of his entire family, to wipe them out in one day. He couldn't allow it.

“Your father knows you will handle everything once you've returned. He knows how you ended up with your in-laws. They are powerful enough people, young master.”

Lawton nodded. They were, even though they didn't accept him and believed him to be useless.

“They all call you Lawton so casually these days, young master, it pains me.”

Lawton chuckled. “I couldn't very well keep going with Master Eli. Then someone might guess I was somehow related to the Elijah and Duke family that owns Eden.”

“Young Master, we must reveal your identity now. You have to return and take over everything that belongs to you. Your older sister's daughter has been running wild and she is bound to drag some attention to the family.”

Lawton had an older sister he wasn't so much in good terms with because she had supported their father. But he was good friends with his niece who always wore the most fashionable items and engaged the media all the time. She was a party animal and Lawton often feared for her.

Lawton disagreed with that plan. He shook his head slowly. “I will return, Smithson, but in secret.

The people who are after my family must not know that I am alive and well. They should beallowed to believe that as they have gotten my father, they will soon get the rest of the family, that way we can discover who they are.”

Smithson thought it over and then agreed. “You are right, young master. Your father was right to bring you back immediately. You will handle this better than anyone.”

“So what you are saying is I must not reveal to anyone your true identity, and you will remain a secret? To find your father's attempted murderer?”

Lawton replied to him after he had taken a sip of his coffee. “Yes, Smithson. I will remain as the penniless, normal man, Elijah Lawton. But behind the scenes I will be Master Eli, and I will work to restore my family's wealth and glory and to also find those after my family.”

~

Lawton left the company after he and Smithson had finished conversing, he was in a hurry to get back to the hospital and know of his mother's health.

His real mother was alive and well and he would return home soon to see her and his two little sisters. But for now, he would not do anything too rash. He would allow Smithson to get back to him at the right time for him to visit.

He hurried in through the hospital's entrance and passed the lobby, turning into the side elevator and going up to his mother's floor.

When he got there, he didn't see his wife in his mother's room. He brought out his phone and dialed her number but she wasn't answering him.

He kept the phone on one of the bedside drawers and pulled a chair close to the bed to sit beside his mother.

The door soon opened and Amanda walked in. She was holding her bag in her hand and a document in the other hand. The look on her face was desolate and she looked so much older than her mere twenty four years.

Lawton immediately knew something was wrong. Amanda didn't know how to hide frustration for her life. He got out of his chair and approached her.

He took her hands in his. “Amanda? What happened? Why do you look so tired?”

He drew her to a couch by the window and sat her down, before sitting on the small, round coffee table before her.

He loved his wife. She had had to marry him because Chairman Willis had insisted. Lawton met

him when he was a student and he had had a sort of mysterious encounter with the man. He knew Amanda cared for him.

She sighed and the sound held such a broken heart in it. “My mother has just called the

Managing Director of our company. She said to fire me and the HR manager came to my office and told me that my appointment had been terminated.”

Amanda was running her hands through her hair in an agitated manner.

“But why would she do that? The probation period is almost over.” Lawton asked her, although he already had a sinking feeling in his chest that he knew why.

Amanda finally looked at him. “She wants to make me miserable so that I finally agree to do as she says.”

Lawton frowned, silently fuming. “And is that it? She has you fired without a reason or a clause?”

Amanda gestured towards the documents she had brought in with her. She had dropped them on the space beside her.

“She gave a ridiculous clause that she knew I could never achieve of course because it is just impossible. She is very calculative.”

Lawton grabbed the documents, still looking at her. “What is the clause?”

Amanda nodded to the documents in his hands. “Take a look for yourself.”

Lawton flipped open to the first page. On it was emblazoned the picture of his niece, the Duke granddaughter that his mother in law so adored and revered.

They had stated: Bring Roxanne Duke to work for the family company as a model for the new anti-aging gummies.

Lawton looked at his wife. She huffed out a pained, incredulous breath. “How on earth would I ever get that wild Roxanne Duke to agree to work with us?!”

But Lawton was already smiling inside himself. He was going to play the Williams family game and show them not to mess with his wife.