Finding Something More

25

Sylvia was in a car, along with her assistant, and they were heading back to her aunt's place. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and they had just rounded up with the fashion exhibition that same day.

Sylvia couldn't contain the feeling of joy and great achievement that was engulfing her whole body. Apparently, her company had received one of the best reviews from prominent fashion icons during the exhibition, and that alone had gained her a lot of potential business partners. Her team had also managed to sell out every single design they had put out.

Just before they had left the venue, Jason once again went over to ask her out for another opportunity to have dinner with her, something he had been bringing up consistently after the last one they had that turned out far from what he had planned, but she had politely turned him down. She was not ready to jeopardize her marriage because of him.

"Joanna you were telling me about some fashion media houses and magazines that wanted an interview with us right," she said to her assistant as she recalled when Joanna had brought up the matter earlier.

"Yes. We have about five from here in New York and two that are based in Nigeria, and I'm pretty sure the number would increase after today," Joanna replied her boss.

"Okay. I would get to you on the dates I would make available for the ones here first," Sylvia said.

"Alright. That's okay with me," Joanna replied.

Sylvia had already spent more than two weeks in New York City but she had decided to extend her stay for at least a month, as a result of the interviews she had to meet you with, and some other business meetings too with her new business partners in the City.

The driver made a slow turn as he drove into Mr and Mrs. Williams' large compound, and finally stopped the car. Sylvia helped Joanna carry some of their things into the house.

Mrs. Williams immediately went out to greet them the moment she noticed their presence.

"How did it go?" she asked Sylvia the moment they all went into the house. Joanna had gone ahead to drop her things in her room, after briefly exchanging pleasantries with Mrs. Williams.

Sylvia answered her with a happy smile.
"It went very well, even better than I expected. I have a lot of business proposals already from some firms, and again we were able to sell out all our designs."

"That is really some good news dear. I'm really proud of you," Mrs. Williams said as she suddenly got infected with Sylvia's joy.

"How about your husband?" Sylvia asked her, as she had not seen Mr. Williams anywhere around the house.

"He went out to play golf with some of his friends. He would be back in the evening," Mrs. Williams replied her.

"Alright. I should go upstairs and change my shoes, they are really hurting me right now," Sylvia said as she excused herself and went upstairs to her room.

Her phone immediately beeped the moment she successfully removed her shoes. Taking out her phone from her handbag, she took her seat on the bed before opening her new message which read:

Rachael needs you around, more than you could ever imagine. Please make time out for her.

Sylvia was taken aback by the message she had received. She was beginning to wonder if maybe Rachael got herself into trouble, and the fact that she had not been picking up her calls made her even more scared. Not like she called her daughter that much though.

She went ahead to identify the sender but she discovered that the sender was not on her contact list. She decided to call the number to find out who it was but it wouldn't go through.
Picking up her phone with her, she left her room and went to knock at the door of the room where Joanna was.

"You once told me your fiance was a tech guy right?" she immediately asked Joanna the moment she entered into the room.

"Yes, he is. Any problem?" Joanna asked.

"I need him to track a number for me. I want to identify the user of the number. I can pay him if he wants," Sylvia desperately said.

"Okay. I can talk to him for you, just let me have the number," Joanna replied and Sylvia went ahead to give her the number she had received the message from. Sylvia left the room for the living room, still wearing a worried and gloomy look on her face.

Mrs. Williams who was seated on a couch noticed Sylvia's look as she walked into the living room. "What is wrong Sylvia? You look so pale."

"I'm worried, and a little bit confused too," Sylvia said with so much frustration, before slumping into the closest seat.

"Why is that? Please talk to me. I want to help," Mrs. Williams asked, cajoling Sylvia into speaking to her.

Sylvia was silent for a while before finally pulling herself together to talk.
"You know when I arrived here, and you were asking of Rachael and Davidson, I had told you we were all okay. That was not entirely true, we actually had a huge disagreement before I came here." She stopped.

"And what was the disagreement about?" Mrs. Williams asked with concern.

"They both insisted that I waited for Rachael's birthday before coming here, but I tried to make them see reasons why I had to be here. I feel like they don't understand me and the decisions I make. It's like whatever I want is always conflicting with what they want and I'm really confused because I don't know how to fix everything," Sylvia said, almost breaking down in tears, while Mrs. Williams went ahead to lightly pat her back.

"Recently, Rachael had not been picking up my calls and it's getting me worried, and now I just got an anonymous message some few minutes ago," Sylvia revealed.

"What did the message say?" Mrs. Williams asked.

"It was about Rachael. The sender asked me to be there for her. I'm honestly doing the best I can do aunt, she is attending one of the best schools in Nigeria, I give her everything a normal teenager would love. I buy her whatever she asks for, as long as I can afford it. Isn't that enough?" Sylvia paused and asked Mrs. Williams.

"Have you ever asked yourself if she was looking for something more than everything you've just listed?" Mrs. Williams gently asked.

"I don't get it. What more could she need in her life that she doesn't have?" Sylvia asked in despair.

"Sylvia, I've seen you put in so much time and zeal into your business. I get that you want to build a fortress for your business, but trust me, you don't want it to be at the expense of your family. Rachael is still young and she definitely needs you to be around her. She needs more than the money, the gifts and yes, even the big school she is in," Mrs. Williams began, while Sylvia listened carefully to her.

"She needs your time, she needs you to be there for her physically and not just materially. Take for example when she asked you to be around for her birthday, you had declined and I'm sure it had really hurt her," Mrs. Williams continued.

"But I needed to be here to make things ready and perfect, and that was exactly what I told Rachael and Davidson," Sylvia protested.

"But I'm sure it was not yet time for the project, but knowing you, perfection had always been your watchword, and I can see where you got that from. You have gotten it from your dad," Mrs. Williams told Sylvia the truth she had been running from.

"Take a look at me Sylvia. I have been married for a couple of years now, much more than the number of years you have been married to Davidson, but I'm still not able to give birth. And I need to be honest with you, it deeply hurts. I want to be able to have the same opportunity as you, and there are still many like me out there that would do virtually anything at all to have a child. You have that opportunity on a platter of gold, don't let it be a waste. Give your daughter the attention she deserves," Mrs. Williams said before pausing. Sylvia could see the pain in her eyes and voice as she spoke. She truly felt sorry for her aunt.

"And Davidson, don't you think he needs you too? I'd seen the way that Jason guy looked at you the other day when he had come to pick you up. You really need to drop all the unnecessary distractions and be there for the ones who really need you. Davidson is a good guy but you could actually push him away if you keep paying less attention to him. I'm sure you don't want that to happen. Do you?"

Sylvia shook her head. "No I don't."

"Then fight for them. You can still win them back. It's not too late to do that," Mrs. Williams advised Sylvia.

"Thank you so much aunt. I really needed this. You've given me a ray of hope," Sylvia said as she pulled her aunt into a hearty hug.

"I'm glad I could help you. You're like a daughter to me and I really want the best for you. Now, let me go and set the table for our meal. I'm sure you are already hungry, just as I am," Mrs. Williams said before leaving Sylvia to the kitchen.

Sylvia was truly glad that she had opened up to her aunt. She had always thought that she was on the right track all this while. She desperately saw a need to talk to her husband so she dialed his number up. After some few seconds of ringing, Davidson picked up and said, "Hello."

Sylvia felt sad at his response. He didn't feel excited like other times when he had picked up her call.

"I was calling to check up on you and Rachael," she said, trying to sound a little bit cheerful.

"We are both fine," Davidson replied, his voice void of any emotion.

"Okay. I'm so happy to hear that. I would be taking the next available flight to Nigeria and hopefully, I should be home on Monday," Sylvia announced, hoping that it would make her husband a little bit excited but she was disappointed when he replied with, "Okay."

She sighed inwardly at his reply before saying, "See you on Monday then. Bye." Davidson had already hung up on her before she said, "I love you."

Walking upstairs to Joanna's room, she slowly opened it before entering. Joanna turned over to look at her boss before hearing the most unexpected news from her.

"Cancel all the interviews I'm supposed to have. Tell them we would schedule a new date but they shouldn't hope too much because it might take at least three months."

"Are you sure about this?" Joanna asked, still surprised at Sylvia's decision.

"Yes, and again, we can go back to Nigeria together. I'm no longer staying behind," Sylvia finally dropped another unexpected news to Joanna who just sat there surprised. Her boss was never the type to cancel anything business related for whatsoever.

                                ~•~