“Did we do it? Did we just break the love chain?” Gabriel asked Fawn because the way they interpreted Josh and Isabelle’s conversation was that they’d broken up.
“I think so,” Fawn replied.
“Oh, would you two get over yourselves?” Zarif said to the angels.
“You weakened the love chain but it hasn’t been broken. Thank you for making our work a lot easier. A couple more tugs at the chain and it’ll finally break and the Devil will be victorious,” Gentel said.
“If the chain were to break, victory will be God’s, not Lucifer’s,” Fawn argued.
“It seems these two don’t remember what the bet was. Care to remind them, Zarif?” Gentel said.
“With pleasure, Sister. The bet was to see who can break the love chain and end it forever, not just weaken it. End it! End it so that Garin and Hannah would not be reborn into the next generation, end it so their love would not be rekindled in the next life, and if you think that an ordinary break-up is going to do that then you’re a lot more stupid than we thought,” Zarif said.
“The love between the both of them has to be removed and destroyed forever so it does not sprout again. This is far from over but thanks to you two, it just got a whole lot easier for us,” Gentel said and laughed as she and Zarif took their leave.
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The next morning finally arrived after a night that seemed like it had lasted for days. The dawning of a new day usually brought new hope for whoever needed it.
It brought new hope for Jennifer but not for the Clintons and certainly not for Isabelle.
Mrs Helena woke up feeling like she had failed as a mother and that her failures were the cause of the rift within her family. She didn’t do the best she could for her children and now, she was suffering the effects of it. She wondered what she could have done differently that would have made her daughter less bitter, her first son less independent and her last born less complacent. She was always a loyal wife to her husband even when he made the wrong decisions. She supported his choice even when they were wrong. If she had spoken out against him in the past, maybe the present wouldn’t be filled with so much turmoil and maybe the future would look more bright and filled with positivity.
Mr George woke up the same way he always did; carefree and unremorseful. A bland man that had always seen his children as instruments to carry on his legacy rather than…well, his children. There was no hope for him to change his ways, no hope that he’d ever become a better father, and certainly no hope that his first-born son would grant his wish and take over the family business. He didn’t know what to do if Josh never changed his mind. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. Maybe he would give in to Janet and give her the company, maybe he would give it to Sammy or maybe he would find someone else. He didn’t know but he was sure he would figure it out.
Sammy woke up without the hope of much changing. Actually, he woke up with a hangover and his head spun so much he couldn’t stand up for a couple of minutes. He woke up not feeling different than he was the night before. He was still the spoiled last child, the forgotten one, the irrelevant one who could never match up to his older siblings and he was okay with being this. He had more peace of mind than the others and so, he was content. He was going to continue living his life the way he did and not let the petty squabbles in his family bring down his vibe.
Janet woke up feeling just as bitter and jealous of her brother as she was the previous night. All she wanted was for her parents to see her as an equal to Josh but she knew for a fact that it would never happen. She saw today as another chance to prove her worth to her family but she had no guarantees that anything was going to change. She would continue putting in the work and pray that one day, her parents would see that she was the perfect choice. They’d apologize for ever doubting her and give her the key to their empire that she would continue to lead to greatness.
Josh woke up feeling as low as he could feel. The fight he had with Isabelle last night kept playing in his mind. He could still hear the sound of his heart shattering after she said, “Then I guess we have nothing else to talk about”.
That wasn’t exactly a break-up but it had the potential to become one if something wasn’t done to salvage their relationship. He felt that not firing Jennifer was the right thing to do but was it worth losing Isabelle over? He had been with her for only a few months but it was already clear to him that she was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with and he wasn’t ready to lose her.
He woke up feeling down in the dumps but he wasn’t down for the count yet. He was going to fight to get her back and fix the crack in their relationship.
Isabelle woke up feeling like she had made a terrible mistake with how she handled things the previous night. Maybe she was too harsh on Josh, maybe her request that he should fire Jennifer was a bit outrageous although she did deserve to lose her job, maybe she let her insecurities get the best of her and maybe she should have more trust in Josh’s love for her. She had her doubts but the sound of Josh’s voice speaking Jennifer’s name kept playing in her head and it made her certain that Josh felt something for her, something a lot more personal than he cared to admit. She needed some time to think, to figure out what she wanted and if any of this was worth it or not.
Jennifer was the only one in the bunch to wake up feeling more hopeful about the days that were ahead. She woke up with the morning sun on her face and the soft breeze in her hair. She woke up to butterflies and rainbows hovering over her and to the sound of an angelic choir vocalizing hymns of victory that felt like sustenance that would keep her going until the day she became Mrs Clinton. She was ready to bring out the big guns, to go after her feelings for Josh with full force, to not hold back anymore, but, she knew she had to be smart in her approach and not come off too strong. She needed to ease her way into Josh’s heart and she was going to do so no matter how long it took. She would have him.
******
The storm was over and the new day had come. The Devil saw the new day as a new opportunity to break the love chain and rule over all of creation. He was ready to claim the world for himself and now that the love chain was weakened, he would put in more effort to finally end it once and for all.
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Josh was ready to go very early in the morning. As soon as the day broke, he couldn’t wait to get out of this toxic environment that always brought the worst out of people.
As soon as he stepped out of his room, he went downstairs without checking on anyone, not even Isabelle. He went outside and stood beside his car, waiting for Isabelle to come out so he could take her home since he was the one who brought her there.
He waited for a few minutes and after that, the front door opened and he thought it was Isabelle but it turned out to be Sammy.
Sammy walked by Josh without saying a word and headed straight for his Maserati. Josh wanted to let him go without engaging him in a conversation but after what happened last night, he felt he needed to say something to him.
“Sam!” Josh called out and walked over to him.
“Yeah?” Sammy answered with very little enthusiasm.
“I want to talk to you about last night, about our conversation during the party,” Josh said.
“What do you want to talk about? I’ve got somewhere I need to be,” he said hurriedly to his older brother.
“I wanted to apologize for saying you don’t take your life seriously. That wasn’t okay on my part and I’m sorry.” Josh said sincerely.
Sammy looked at him with a raised brow and let himself smile a little.
“You weren’t entirely wrong, though. For too long, I’ve just existed while you and Janet took charge of your lives. I do need to get serious and do something meaningful for myself because nothing I’ll do will serve as much for our parents’ high expectations,” Sammy said jokingly and Josh smiled with him.
“I’m glad to hear that! So, are we good?” Josh asked.
“We’re good!” Sammy responded and they hugged it out.
“Just to clarify something! You didn’t really think that I was going to do anything to hurt Janet last night, right?” Josh asked.
He wanted to know for sure that his brother didn’t still see him as the violent and aggressive kid he used to be.
“Of course not. I was drunk out of my ass and acted like an idiot, as always.” Sammy said in humour at his expense.
“That’s true,” Josh agreed.
“Alright, I guess I’ll see you around,” Sammy said.
He got into his car and drove off. As Josh watched him drive away, he heard the door behind him open up and when he turned around, Jennifer was coming out.
She walked over to him to tell him about how she needed to go home and change before coming back to work for the day.
“Good morning, Sir,” She said.
“Morning, Jennifer. Did you sleep alright?” He asked to be nice.
“Like a baby,” She replied with a smile, “I’m going to head home but I’ll be in no time,” She said and was about to walk to the street to get a cab when she remembered that she forgot her purse in her room.
She went back inside to get it and while she was gone, Mrs Helena came out to speak to Josh before he left.
“So, were you just going to leave without saying anything to me?” She asked.
“I didn’t know what to say, Mom. Our talk last night didn’t exactly go well so I wanted to avoid a repeat,” Josh said.
“I’m your mother, Joshua. It doesn’t matter how many times we argue or how many times we have a disagreement, I will always be your mother and you’ll always be my little boy.” She said and kissed him on the forehead.
“I know, Mom. We should get together sometime again and talk in a more civilized manner. You know, come to a suitable agreement about everything,” Josh suggested.
“I’d like that very much. I’ll call you and fix a date,” She said and went back in.
Josh went back to waiting for Isabelle to come out and after a few minutes, she did. He saw her come out and all he wanted to do was walk up to her and kiss her. He wanted her to forget about last night and hoped they could move on like it never happened. If wishes were horses!
“Isabelle,” Josh called her name softly.
“Just leave me alone, Josh.” She said with a hand out.
“We have to talk about last night,” Josh said.
“There’s nothing to talk about unless you’ve decided to do what you need to do?” She asked with a raised brow.
Josh was about to answer but he raised his head and saw Jennifer at the door and behind her came Janet. He didn’t want to speak about this with the both of them watching so he gestured at her to come with him.
“Come on, let’s go! I’ll take you home and we’ll talk about everything,” Josh said.
“I just need to hear you say YES and everything will be solved,” Isabelle said and waited for him to say it but Josh could not bring himself to agree to fire Jennifer, especially with her standing just a few yards away from him.
“That’s what I thought! You’ve made your choice,” Isabelle said and started to walk away.
“At least let me take you home,” He called out to her.
“I’ll get a cab,” she yelled at him.
“It’ll take you several minutes to get a cab from here which means you’ll have to walk for at least a mile,” Josh told her.
“I’ll manage,” she said.
“You know what?” Janet cut in, “Why not just let my driver take you home, Isabelle?”
She gestured for the driver and showed Isabelle where the car was so he’d take her.
“Tell him to take you wherever you need to go,” Janet said to her.
“Thank you, Janet,” Isabelle said and walked over to the car.
She got in and the driver took her away, much to Josh’s frustration.
“You just had to stick your nose in my business, didn’t you?” Josh said to Janet.
“She didn’t want to drive with you. What was I supposed to do? Let her walk back to the city?” Janet asked and walked by him.
“You could have let me handle it,” he said.
“Yeah, because you were handling it so well. Goodbye, Joshua,” She said sarcastically and walked inside the house.
Jennifer was still at the door, looking like she didn’t know what to do because of the awkwardness of the situation but she was actually waiting to see if Josh would offer her a ride.
“Would you like a ride home?” He asked her and it almost sounded like he wanted to do this just to spite Isabelle because he was angry with her.
“I would. Thank you,” Jennifer said and got into the car.
On the drive, Jennifer could see quite clearly that her boss wasn’t happy and she wondered what she could do to make him feel better and get his mind off Isabelle.
“Forgive me if I’m stepping out of line, Sir but would you like to talk about it?” Jennifer brought herself to say.
“I’d rather not,” he said.
The rest of the ride was mostly silent until they arrived at Jennifer’s building.
“Thank you for the ride, Sir. I guess I’ll see you at work,” Jennifer said and placed a hand on his thigh for a few seconds before getting out of the car.
Josh noticed the touch but didn’t say anything about it. She got off and he drove off as well.