"What colour of panties are you wearing?"
"Excuse me?" She countered
"I won't repeat the question again"
"Red. They're red" she swallowed
"Reach below your gown. Pull it. And hand it over to me"
"Why would you want it? It's just a piece of material...
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Raven stepped out of her steaming bathroom, where she'd just had a more than relaxing bath with a water so hot, it was closed to scalding, and entered her room, clad in just a bathrobe. Her feets were bare and her hair lacked the protection of a head towel around it.
Quickly, she discarded her bathrobe, toweled herself dry, sat in front of her vanity mirror and blow dried her hair, before applying the necessary lotions on her skin and hair.
The time was just 4pm, and the evening had just begun. She and Charlotte, had come home from work an hour early today, - the bank officially closed at 4pm, but they'd left at 3, mainly because Charlotte hadn't been feeling so well, and Raven could have done with a little rest herself.
It had been just three days since that confrontation at the office. The one involving Raphael and Charlotte, and so far, Raven now had the hope, that all was going to be well after all, and all was going to go back to as it should be.
It was also the eve of her birthday. Tomorrow, she was going to turn twenty six. She'd left all the party planning arrangement to Charlotte, as per Charlotte's request. So really, Raven didn't even know what was planned for her own birthday, if there was a party or not, and what kind of party it was going to be.
Today marked it two weeks, since Mikhail had left Philadelphia, and her arms. Also two weeks since he'd last spoken to her.
She'd taken her mom's advice, she'd been willing to play the vulnerable role in her all-consuming love, and had basically called and texted Mikhail like a bazillion times each day, for the last couple of days, and wham! No reply. Not one speck of reply. Infact if she didn't know better, she'd say she was calling a dead man.
He didn't pick her calls, didn't reply her any one of her countless voicemails, didn't deign a single reply to her millions of text messages...
It was disheartening and heartbreaking to find out through this way, that the man she'd thought loved her above all else, didn't really want to be with her, couldn't even answer a simple phone call.
And it shamed Raven beyond all else, that her calls, and her texts, had made her look...no, sound desperate. Vulnerable. When she so badly wanted to claim the high ground, and pretend that his silent treatment hadn't affected her in the least, the next time she saw him. He was coming back home in two weeks time, after all.
Unless he now despised her so much, he was willing to stay there longer, just to be away from her...
Raven started to doubt if there was ever really any business trip to Africa to begin with. Or if he just simply wanted to use that means to take a break from her, and get rid of her. Well his plan worked perfectly. She was tired of worrying, mulling and crying over a person who'd stopped wanting her.
She was reluctant to discuss her fears with Charlotte, because Raven was determined that her conversations with Charlotte as from now on, were going to be about the both of them, and less about Mikhail or any other males. She'd seen first hand, what bringing too much of an outside into their relationship could cause.
While still deep in thoughts, her phone rang, and she went to pick it, putting it on loudspeaker, so she could continue dressing up, even as she was listening to whoever was calling.
"Good evening Miss Edens. I hope I'm not calling you at a bad time. I'm Maverick Davenport, the acting CEO of Stanford Bank, until the return of the present CEO"
"Oh, oh, good evening Sir. This is such a surprise! To what do I owe the pleasure of your call?" Raven was frankly bewildered, never dreaming for a single moment, that a man as high up the rank as this, would ever call someone like her, way low down. Just the manager of one bank.
"Sadly, this is not a pleasurable surprise Miss Edens. It's a distressing one. I'm going to ask you some questions, and I want firm straight-to-the-point replies from you. Are we clear?"
"Yes sir" Raven paused in her act of dressing up, and rubbed her now sweaty palms together, suddenly wondering if she was in trouble, and what was going on.
"You are the current manager of the Stanford Bank in Philadelphia correct?"
"Yes sir, I am"
"Three days ago, a client was entrusted into your hands, for business purposes, correct?"
"You'll have to be specific about that Sir, for I'm entrusted with very many clients, daily. I am the bank's manager after all, in Philadelphia" Raven muttered uneasily.
"That, Miss Edens, was not a direct answer. But I will clarify like you said. I don't think there's need to play games. We both know the busines client I'm talking about after all, is Raphael Nathaniel Constantine. And so, I ask you again, Miss Edens. Was the aforementioned client, entrusted into you care, to close a financial deal with, there days ago?"
"Sir, we're both in the system. You know it's simply not that simple sir..." Raven started to defend, uneasily
"For a second time since our conversation began Miss Edens, you've failed to give me a direct answer. The third time you do it, I'm going to end this call, and you're going to find yourself without a job, come Monday morning" he replied harshly, and yet quietly, from the other end of the call, his voice holding that much power and resolve, he didn't even need to raise his voice to produce the effect it now produced.
"I'm— sorry sir" Raven stammered out, mentally trying to calm her nerves and sound more composed
"I'm sorry is not the answer to the question I asked, although your apology's taken into consideration. I asked you Miss Edens, if the client was entrusted into your care, to close a deal with, three days ago"
"Yes sir, he was entrusted into my care, to close the said deal" Raven finally, firmly replied, steeling her features for whatever he was about to say next.
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A/N: New chapter up! Don't forget to Vote, comment, follow me.
Alright you guys🤣 Y'all are so Amazing... A lot of you gave comments and sent messages to my page, about chapter 24 that got posted, and yet refused to open... It was a mistake from me. I decided to type a few chapters down, to chapter 25, but by a slip of my hand, I mistakenly pressed the publish button on chapter 24, and it got published. I had to quickly unpublish it before you all viewed it, and suddenly, everyone started sending me messages about the missing chapter, as if it was supposed to even be there in the first place😅.
We weren't even supposed to have any updates today at all, remember? But I was just typing them down, in case I get too lazy in the future, to do so. But since, everyone started raving about a chapter today, because of the mistakenly posted chapter, I just had to finally post one of them up for you guys...🤗
