1| Ophelia

12

-CHAPTER TWELVE-
•

“Are you alright, Mr. Morgenstern,” Tony asked with concern lacing in his question.

Ever since his boss had come to work, his mind seemed to be absent almost all the time. Which really was unlike Blake, since he always took his job seriously.

When Tony began to notice his boss zoning out during the meeting with the Executives, he worried that something major was bothering him. 

“Uh yes, Tony. I’m fine. Thank you for asking,” Blake tried to console. Tony was filling out the list of changes that were to be taken in by the Production department and Blake was signing off permissions for the needed shipments.

Tony went through the changes one more time and sighed when he noticed the mistake. “Mr. Morgenstern you signed the wrong document.” Blake distractedly asked, “Uh huh what?”

“You signed the approval of the shipment to Dominican Republic which wasn’t supposed to be signed,” Tony answered. “Mr. Mo- Blake, are you okay?”

Blake sighed tiredly, “Yes Tony, I’m fine. I just…” Tony waited patiently for Blake to complete his sentence. He didn’t like his boss like this, so… disoriented. 

“Do you have a car Tony,” Blake asked curiously. “Uh, no sir. I come here by my Harley,” Tony answered. Blake smiled, “Perfect. Come with me.” With that he left the office. 

“Mr. Morgenstern, what are you doing? We still have a lot of paperwork to go through,” Tony protested. Blake turned around and said, “Pack it all up and bring it down. We’re working from home today.” 

Tony wanted to ask why but knew better than to do so. He knew his boss never answered such questions with a straight answer, and since these few weeks that Tony had worked here, he was finally getting grip of Blake’s character. And to say the least, it was chaotic and unpredictable.

Tony hadn’t expected to ever see the Morgenstern mansion, much less visit it so early in the stage of working at the company. The mansion could’ve easily been mistaken for a castle, for it had a grand metal door guarding the entrance and the most magnificent driveway Tony had ever seen. The driveway split into two after a few meters and between them sat a huge fountain surrounded by a lush green carpet of grass. 

The mansion Itself was surrounded by humongous trees of different varieties. The land, Tony knew, stretched on forever till it reached the electric fence that separated the private property from the public one. Tony shamelessly gawked, adjusting his glasses at the beauty of the sight in front of him. 

Though he wanted a tour, Tony knew better than to ask his boss for the same. They were here to work, not tour. Blake gestured Tony to dump the work on the dining table in the kitchen, where a maid in her late fifties who was working something on the oven, froze in surprise.

“Blake! I didn’t know you were going to be home so soon,” she exclaimed. Blake chuckled and gave Mrs. Ridley a charming smile, “Well, this is what happens when your baby sister is out on a date and you end up stressing the hell out of yourself.”

Mrs. Ridley gasped and smacked Blake on the head as Tony’s eyes widened at the scene.

“Watch your mouth, boy. And don’t worry, she’s out with Elijah! They’re going to be just fine. You know that kid has been in love with her since forever,” Mrs. Ridley gushed and turned around to see Tony, who was shyly watching their interaction. 

“How rude must you be, Blake! We have a guest over and you don’t offer him food or drinks! Is this what your mother and I taught you,” Mrs. Ridley scolded Blake like a boy caught stealing cookies. When Blake tried to speak, the old woman shushed him and made her way to Tony with a big smile on her face.

“Excuse him. Sometimes he forgets his manners, it really is sad considering how we have teenagers in this house who look up to the elders,” Mrs. Ridley reached Tony and took his face in her soft, tiny hands and squished it. “Oof, such a pretty face. How did you manage to make acquaintance with this buffoon?” 

Tony could hear Blake whining at Mrs. Ridley as he gave her a small shy smile, “Mr. Morgenstern is my boss.” Mrs. Ridley exclaimed, “Oh how pitiful! You must be in dire need of cookies and lucky for you, I have just put a fresh batch in the oven! But I need finish another chore before they're done.” With that she scurries out of the kitchen, muttering something about strawberries. 

Tony gave his boss an embarrassed smile but Blake simply chuckled and sat down on his chair, motioning for Tony to do the same. “That was Mrs. Ridley, she’s our cook and housekeeper. She likes to knit and make fun of me in her free time.” Tony took out their work folders and smiled a little, “She seems nice.” 

And to Tony, she genuinely did. It had been long since he had even acquainted with a mother figure and the warm feeling in his gut overwhelmed him. As they set their work down, Blake sighed wearily, “Well now you know why I was out of it the entire day.” Tony gave him a confused look, “About that. I didn’t know you had a sister.” 

Blake raised an eyebrow at him and Tony stumbled over his words, “I- I mean the articles. They only ever said about your brothers. And that too was brief information. I’m just surprised that’s all.” By the end of his sentence, Tony’s voice had dropped down to a mutter, and Blake gave him a pointed look. 

Hesitantly, but surely he answered his intern, “That’s because we didn’t want anyone to know about her. She’s young and clueless when it comes to living in the business world and we just want to protect her.” Tony frowned, “But didn’t she grow up with you?” 

Blake paused. He knew better than to trust a stranger. But Tony wasn’t a stranger. He was his employee. They had been working together for weeks, almost a month together now, and Blake had even admitted to himself of his attraction toward the green eyed man.

Even though they were still in the early stages of building what seemed like a friendship, Blake’s gut feeling told him to relax and trust the young man sitting in front him. 

“Not really. She was sent away to live with a relative in Pennsylvania, so Lia doesn’t really know how everything around here works,” Blake explained superficially.

Tony nodded in understanding. Maybe this was the Morgenstern siblings' weird way to protect their youngerlings. Send them away to live a completely different life in a completely different state, away from the people they belong with. 

They should really know better than to do that. Because living in secret brought a lot of lies. Lies that could destroy an entire empire.

•

After working for almost two hours, taking breaks for coffee and cookies Mrs. Ridley had baked for the pair, Tony asked if he could use the restroom, to which Blake directed him to the common bathroom on the first floor.

The first floor was mainly for entertainment. Rooms such as the game room, the cinema room, the music room and the library were made for the family to entertain themselves with whenever they wanted to.

After Tony had finished his business, a sudden desire to explore the floor filled him, but he knew better than to roam away in his employer’s house, so he quickly scurried off to the staircase, not expecting to clash with a mop of white hair. 

-
i wanted to post a little while ago but my internet was acting up.

anyway, genuine question, what do we think of tony wilson?