Chapter 6 Northhill

• Bianca drove wildly with the intent of eluding all available vehicles to reach her destination without delay, giving no answers to Annie's unending questions.
• Bianca skillfully drove into her compound and parked the vehicle, throwing her head backward with a sigh of exhaustion.
• "Gosh!" The panicked Annie exclaimed, clasping her head in between her palms letting little air flow out of her mouth.
• Resting her head backward with her heart thumping so fast which she tried to control.
• "Bianca, what's this about?" She asked softly.
• Bianca only blinked, fluttering her lashes.
• "It's nothing Annie," she struggled to say.
• Her response triggered hot words from Annie who spoke softly yet in anger. Annie tried controlling her emotions but she was soon speaking out of control busting as loud as she could.
• "What do you mean nothing? You went into the ladies, spent a whole lot of time in there then you came rushing out in panic driving us as fast as possible till we got here and you sit here telling me it's nothing. How best do you expect me to believe that?"
• Bianca yelled in return. "If you hadn't insisted that we leave for the club, none of this would have happened Annie, none! How many times would I tell you I'm fine? I'm okay!" Hitting her hands on the steering wheel.
• "So you blame me for whatever happened now, right? Goodnight Bianca." Finding her way out of the car. The obvious sound from the closed door showed anger in Annie's actions.
• Bianca sighed, shutting her eyes in confusion with her head against the seat. She realized she had spoken out of control to grief Annie, while she tried separating her lips for a speech for an apology, but it seemed heavy. Moreover, Annie had taken a lot of steps away from her.
• She felt depleted and broken. "Fortunately, the kids should now be in bed so they wouldn't notice her weary self." She thought to herself.
• She pushed her weary self into the living room locking the door behind her. She noticed the lights were off, it was the handiwork of no one else but Amy, it was her custom to do that when everyone had retired to bed.
• Fortunately, for her everywhere seemed silent. The kids were asleep. She decided to throw herself on the sofa for a while to catch her breath before heading for a shower. She had barely spent five minutes on the sofa when Anthony came for her in the sitting room.
• "Mum, you are late," Anthony's voice drew her back to herself. Bianca drew her hand to rub his head gently.
• "Mummy will try coming home early next time. Is that okay with mummy's boy?" She asked, feigning a smile.
• "Great," Anthony nodded only to discover a few bruises on her wrist. He immediately became nervous. "Mummy, you are hurt." Even Bianca never knew She was bruised not until Anthony discovered it.
• She was surprised, but yet tried to conceal it by placing her palm on her wrist. "No, it's okay, mummy is not hurt. You only misread the situation." She pushed Anthony into his room. "Alright boy, remember early to bed, early to rise."
• Anthony frowned, but concealed his questions. After coaxing the child back to sleep, she retired to her room and took out the small medicine box to apply a healing lotion on her skin.
• "Damn it! such a jerk. I never knew he hurt me this much."
• She lay on her back staring at the ceiling. She would have loved to see the face of the man who held her wrist. "Even if it were Brant, why couldn't he just come out straight in the open instead of pinning her to the wall in the dark? I wouldn't mistake him for anyone." She mutters to herself with a frown. Remembering the innocent Annie on whom she passed her aggression.
• "Gosh! Annie, I'm so sorry okay," mumbling to herself as she rolled against the bed.
• The next morning Anthony woke up, waking Callan inclusive. "Callan wakes up," he whispered, trying to be gentle so Bernard did not get up inclusive. Luckily, for them, Bianca had left for Annie's house to apologize.
• "Callan, you've got great hacking skills, go investigate the monitoring to see who got mum hurt last night,"
• "Mum got hurt? How?" Callan whizzed in words wiping his drowsy eye with the back of his palm, causing the sleeping Bernard to roll against his bed.
• "Shh Callan, be quiet with your words." The duo got off the bed and hurried to the study room and turned on the computer. Callan sat comfortably in the study chair with his hands clattering on the keyboard. With Anthony by his side, his gaze was enormously fixed on the screen.
• "Anthony, the last place mum went yesterday is the club, I can't tell who got her hurt." The children out of love had carefully implanted a tracking device in their mum's car without her consent.
• Callan played the audio voice from the previous night. The discussion between Bianca and Annie. "Anthony, I guess the only person we could reach out to is aunt Annie." The duo nodded in assertion and carefully crept out of the study room as soon as they heard their names called by Amy.
• Amy already served the quintuplets breakfast. It didn't take long before Anthony noticed his mum walking in together with Annie. "Aunt Annie," he exclaimed from his seat with Annie reimbursing their greeting with a curved smile across her lips.
• "Alright kids, come over. Aunt Annie has a vital piece of information to pass across." The chairs clattered as they each found their way to the living room. Sitting as though they were to be interviewed for a job.
• "Now kids, I'm so sorry it's coming urgent, I'd be leaving for North Hill tomorrow, but I'd be coming home once in a while, so-," she had barely completed her statement when the children rumbled amongst themselves. Aunt Annie had been one of a kind, as she was the only neighbor whom they got the chance to play with.
• "Aunt Annie, are you leaving with Addy too?" Bernard voiced out trying to conceal the pain of not playing ball with the young lad anymore.
• "No, but, he wouldn't be staying here anymore. My sister also got a job, so she will be staying back."
• To Bianca's uttermost surprise, Bernard, the most emotional among the five burst into tears. Bianca drew him close but he refused to be pacified. "Mummy, may I go with Aunt Annie?" Pouting his tongue
• "Honey, you can't follow aunt Annie, she going to work not on holiday." Bernard burst out again with tears trickling down his cheek.
• "Bianca, let him follow me. I'd take good care of him, we both will be fine together." A red flush flowed through Bianca's cheek. She wasn't comfortable with her children leaving her presence; it had never happened before.
• "Mummy, what about us?" Emma the youngest voiced out. Bianca picked her up from her seat to her lap, gently cuddling her hair. "You'll go someday, princess."
• Bernard slept that night talking about visiting another city. His face broadened with a smile when he rose from bed realizing it was daybreak. Rising from bed even before his brothers. "Mummy, it's morning rise," pulling off the duvet from Bianca and jumping into her bed.
• Bianca sluggishly opened her eyes, it was a working day and even she needed to get prepared for work. She grabbed Bernard's wrist, pulling him into her embrace. "Come here little prince, you seem very happy this morning." Tickling his nose influenced immediate giggles from him as she spoke. "You're going to another city, be such a mummy's good boy. Report of you being stubborn and outrageous shouldn't get to me." Bernard nodded with smiles clouding his face exposing his dimples.
• Only Bernard and the girls had dimples, Bianca wondered how she missed that of the remaining boys.
• "Alright boys, let's get you dressed." In a couple of hours, Annie came for Bernard in her car. The honk from her car indicated she was ready. Bianca had already packed all the necessary items needed by Bernard into a suitcase.
• She couldn't help but wave her hands when the engine spluttered in readiness for North Hill. None of her kids had ever left her presence. She had always protected them as a mother hen would to its chicks.
• As soon as she could she pacified the remaining kids, got dressed, and left for work.
• Annie was offered an apartment by the company she was going to work with. She spent the whole day keeping an eye on Bernard and organizing the place.
• At dusk, as soon as she could she put a call across to Bianca who had called severally upon their departure and arrival to North Hill.
• Sooner than expected, she dialed Bianca's line and she picked up in a rush. She spent almost the whole time asking after Bernard. His feeding, welfare, and clothing. Annie could only snicker in return assuring Bianca of her son's safety.
• At dawn, it was her first day at work. She needed to be there on time. "Aunt Annie, would you take me along to the office?" Bernard asked while she got him swathed in a sweater vest and khaki pants packing a bag filled with satisfying goodies for the whole day.
• "Sure, Bernard." Her thoughts focused on leaving him with the receptionist while she deals with her day's work.
• Early enough, she arrived at her place of work with Bernard. Signing in for the day, she leaves Bernard at the receptionist post and leaves for her office. The staff wondered with the thought that the little boy belonged to her.
• Having been bored with playing computer games on his iPad for an hour, Bernard rushed off his seat, seeing a man dressed in a suit walk into the organization.
• "Hey Mister," he kept shouting, running towards the man, and the man stopped abruptly, swerving his head towards the direction where the words came from. He was dressed in a Lapel suit against his athletic black-colored hair, coupled with ocean blue eyes. He could see his receptionist calling after the young lad as she shivered from the CEO's indefinite reaction and slowly turned to the little boy who was now stretching his sweet to the man.
• "Hello, young lad.”