Cecilia sat in the comfort of her sitting area pondering about how fickle life indeed was. Just the other day, she was a broke woman wandering about and thinking about what to do about her life. Just like that, she found herself entangled with the great George Estiamo. Meeting him on that faithful morning was the best thing that ever happened to her. The transformation her life underwent. Finally, she could live the life she always wanted to live. Start the businesses she always wanted to start. Money became the least of her problems. Oh she enjoyed every bit of her new life with George. Contrary to what a lot of people thought, he was quite the romantic. He paid detailed attention to all her needs and even wants. All she had to do was look in the direction of something and it was hers. Well, he had a penchant for going overboard but he also had to make up for the time he was spending with Maria and his fake daughter. Oh correction, now confirmed real daughter. It used to piss her off a lot. She went through a lot to give him an heir and he would rather spend time with them than her and her son. Well, since Daniella is truly his daughter, she has to forgive him.

Maria has always been a thorn in Cecilia’s flesh. Why does she have to be so beautiful? So put together? So classy? So chic? So sweet? Why? All of these kept George tied to her for so long. She had tried to push him to divorce Maria and marry her instead but he never wanted to hear it. Always made her feel like he could play around with her but no one dared touched the Queen Maria. She had toyed with the idea of walking up to Maria and telling her the truth. But she had also learnt that wisdom is profitable to direct. If she ever did that, George would have flung her aside for good. She could not let that happen. She had come too far to go back to the streets. The streets were not calling her name. Even if she cared little for herself, her son deserved to live the best life money could buy and George made sure he got that. What more could she ask for? What did she really need more of his presence for? She was equally really busy with her businesses that George’s money had financed. They were just fine with their sweet arrangement.

Now George is dead and Cecilia feels incredibly threatened. George never solidified her place in the family before his passing. Martin went all out to make himself known and seen after the death of his father. She could not keep him from doing that. The boy has had to live behind a curtain his whole life. She was not going to let that continue even after George’s death. But that has opened her up to the media now and the ‘extraness’ of being an Estiamo. She is constantly on tabloids these days and she is not always painted in the best light. Nobody in the Estiamo family seems to care about these things. She doubts Maria has the time to read what is written about her in blogs. But for Cecilia, this is very new. From being a secret, to being everywhere in public. The most annoying ones are the ones that try to compare her with Maria. Of course, she is not Maria and if Maria was that perfect what did George see in her? Well, if she is being honest, she really hustled to get George’s attention.  In fact, it would have been impossible without the help of someone special. Oh well! What was meant to be eventually happened and her life was better for it now.

Back to the problem, how could George leave everything to Daniella? Technically, at the time of writing his will, Martin was his only biological child. How did he still leave everything to Daniella? Does that mean that despite everything, he valued her more than Martin? In addition to that, she gets to determine what job Martin can do. Like why would he subject his heir apparent to that? It is very disrespectful. And Peter just sat there and watched him do that. She is going to have to teach Peter a lesson. But what is important now is getting her son comfortable within the Estiamo Empire. He has been carrying on this baby brother act for too long. He better not get sucked up into it. This isn’t fun, this is a competition. This is about taking what rightfully belongs to him. What does Daniella know anyway? She has made sure that Martin was groomed to be a business man. He knows it all and he is probably better equipped to run the business that Daniella is. After all, she is going to possibly get married to Michael or whatever his name is and she can move to the Saint Morgan group of things. But the Estiamo Empire belongs to Martin and that was the goal for her.

She spent a lot of time in that position hatching and plotting on how to establish her son. In the midst of it, her mind flashed to the last time, George came over. He seemed agitated, like he was worried about something. She had noticed but she had also learnt overtime to let him be when he was having a mood swing. So she had not pushed him too much about it. However, she is certain that he was not sick. He was his usual vibrant self and that was just a few days to the alleged heart attack. What actually happened that day? Through it all, she did not have access to his body or even the autopsy. She was not his wife neither was she even a recognised mistress. She was nothing. She had to stay by the sidelines and watch everything all play out until Martin lost his mind and stepped out. What if he really did not die of a heart attack? What if it was something else? What was Maria not telling her? Is it possible that Maria found out what he had done and decided to take him out? She seemed cool at the meeting the other day but such quiet women are the scariest. She would have to be careful around her. Maria can never know what her true intention is. At this point, it is hard to exactly pinpoint what she is capable of doing. For now, Cecilia will let her enjoy playing Queen Mother till she is ready to take over and no one can ever know her little secret. Not even her son.

On the other hand, Martin was just arriving at the Estiamo Company. This was his first official day. He did not have a fixed position yet but he had his own office. Daniella had told him to come around and see what goes on here. Then he could decide what department he wanted to fit into. He could see that although she had the power to assign him anything, she was trying to be considerate. She was actually trying to ensure that he was comfortable here and with what he was doing. Maybe he got himself the best big sister in the world. However, he had some questions. If at the time of dad’s death, he thought Daniella was not his daughter, why did he leave everything to her? Why does she get to choose what he is allowed to do? He had already decided that he was not going to dwell on these thoughts but they kept popping up. He really wished he had spent more time with his dad and understood him better. Maybe he would understand how his dad was thinking when he wrote that will. He does not have a problem with Daniella; he just does not understand why his father did what he did. Even in death, he gave more credence to Daniella.

… to be continued