His Tempting Widow

Chapter 2: Fates Intertwined

“Where is he? Why is he not still here?” Shaina murmured to herself, brows slightly knitting.

While cross stitching and sitting in a rocking chair at the corner of the small living room of their home, she glanced at the wall clock adjacent to where she was. She knew her husband’s shift was finished at three in the afternoon. He did not say he was going to extend for overtime, so she thought he was coming straight home. But it had been a couple hours now, and he hadn’t arrived yet.

Her heart began to hammer in her chest. She took a quick look at Spencer, who was sprawled on the floor with his little sister, drawing something. Spencer was going to be in his second grade starting Monday, so he would not be able to spend a lot of time with her. It was nice that he usually bonded with Sarina, though there were times he got irritated with her, and vice versa.

Shaina set aside her cross stitch materials to stand up and take her cell phone that was placed on the center table. She hit the number one speed dial, but it said that the customer could not be reached.

“Maybe he’s somewhere and drained his battery?” she suspected.

***

“What the s**t’s going on here?” Vaughn Lee yelled on the phone, one hand on his waist. He was talking to one of the maintenance department personnel while he was in his luxurious office, facing his desk that was filled with folders of documents, a laptop, a family picture frame and an empty blue coffee mug. “Why is the power unstable for the last half hour and now it’s gone?”

The on and off of the recessed lights in his office was giving him a headache. It had been on and off for the past thirty minutes, and he had no idea what was going on. He massaged his temples while holding the wireless phone.

“Uh… We’re working on that, sir,” the man answered. “We’re now checking the main circuit panel.”

“s**t!” He scowled and let out a heavy breath. “How long is it going to take?”

“Some hours, sir.”

“What?” he roared. Another cuss got out of his mouth. He still had a lot to do, but it looked like he was forced to bring his work home if this was the case.

“We’ll run the generator now, sir,” the maintenance personnel informed him. “It didn’t turn on automatically due to some problem.”

It was the first time it happened in his building, and the generator somehow encountered some problem. He must be truly unlucky today.

He finished his call and sat in his brown swivel chair to check his email. He noticed there was a new one, from one of their American clients. He was just done communicating with one of them in Europe, and here was another where he was CCed by the Chief Operations Officer (COO) Zeb Francisco.

Zeb was the next line to his position as Global Printing Innovations’ CEO. At thirty-five, Vaughn was one of the youngest CEOs in the world, along with those that were listed in the technology or service sectors. Well, that was five years ago. Now, he was forty and had at least a couple of rivals who wanted to take his position because they believed they could do better. One of them was Zeb. He was being careful not to be stabbed in the back by this guy. But who knows?

That f*****g s**t!

His eyes narrowed as the sender told him that they would end the contract by next year since they planned on moving the project to Vietnam.

Another cuss then left his mouth, and he squeezed his eyes close. His mind was already reeling how to convince that American client to stay. Surely, lower price per typesetting and copyediting page would solve it since his workforce was competent. But of course, the company would lose some money because of this withdrawal from their services, which was not good at all.

He emailed Zeb and the site director in Dumaguete to have a conference meeting online. Since he had no personal or executive secretary. Zeb already told Vaughn he needed one, but anything the man advised to him just went to deaf ears. And of course, he knew he needed help since he had a lot of things to get in order.

Since Vaughn’s male secretary resigned due to health reasons, he did not hire another, trying to show the others that he could pretty well function well. But who was he kidding? Just himself. Now, he wanted to have a personal secretary, but it would take a little longer to hire the right one. He was too picky.

And that was at least a month ago. Now, he found himself traveling to Dauin, two towns south from Dumaguete City. He was in the backseat of the resort’s van while the vehicle ran fast.

“Why are you in Dauin, Rhoda? You’re supposed to prepare for the wedding!” His voice was high and admonishing. “You said you want this, so why am I f*****g after you here now?” Before he could clearly hear the answer from the other end, a loud crash registered in his brain. Then he felt the vehicle careen and spin violently. He hit his shoulder against somewhere, also bashing the back of his head to something very hard before he felt the pain and his vision blacked out.

***

“Oh, damn it! I shouldn’t have gone with them,” Wallace mumbled as he drove his 150cc motorcycle. He sold his 70cc and changed into this new one when he was promoted as a supervisor.

He only had a few drinks with his colleagues, so he was not really drunk. They had fun together, having videoke and eating some sisig (a Filipino dish that’s made from pig’s face and ears and chicken liver. It’s usually seasoned with onions, ginger, calamansi and chili peppers) and lechon (roasted pig). Because of it, he even forgot to borrow his colleague’s phone to call his wife while his gadget was recharged.

With one hand, he groped his front jeans pockets, discovering that his phone was nowhere and remembering he had it recharged. He was almost at the boundary between Bacong and Dumaguete, but he had to turn back to Raffy’s house to get his phone.

Shaina will surely kill me when she smells I’ve been drinking!

He signaled to U-turn but did not notice that the sand-and-gravel truck behind him was already so close to overtake. He was side swept and was sent flying into the air. The truck driver was shocked and hit the brake. However, it did not work. As a result, the truck also collided with an oncoming white van, which had a well-known resort’s name on the side of it.

Wallace, who had a helmet on, fell and tumbled like a rag doll. He thought he heard a loud crack and believed it was his neck. Then, he could not feel, hear or see anything. And yet, all he could think of and see at that very moment was the face of his pretty wife.

This is not happening! I can’t die. I can’t leave Shaina… my honey…

Then, everything just suddenly became pitch black.