“Hello?” She whispered tentatively after she picked the call.
“Gladys, how are you?” The faraway reply came after a few seconds. It was her aunt.
“I am fine, thank you...” Gladys let out a pent up breath.
“You don‘t sound fine. Did the situation with Edward become worse?”
Gladys sighed; she had put off calling Aunt Isioma after she had discussed with Ola and decided on a way forward. “Aunt Isioma, we‘re at a very bad place now. I was thinking of storming his office just before your call. I‘m totally mad at him…”
“What happened? It wasn‘t like this when we spoke…”
“Edward came back that night and said so many hurtful things. A major misunderstanding led to a shouting match.”
“Is this because he left you alone at home?”
“No, this was far from that. Edward‘s company faces a takeover and he thinks I caused it by selling my shares.”
“You mean the gift of twenty percent stock he gave you last February? But why did you sell the shares, Gladys? I assume he‘s mad because you didn‘t tell him?”
“I didn‘t tell him because I did not sell the shares. When he gave them to me, I promised I would keep them on trust. Why would I go selling them to the highest bidder?”
“So do you still own the shares?”
Gladys sighed again. This was the tricky bit. “I must have made a mistake on one of the visits to my stockbroker. While we were on our trip, the shares were sold on an instruction I earlier signed. I just found out in the meeting I had this afternoon with the people behind the takeover that my account officer had something to do with it.”
“Have you explained all this to Edward?”
“He isn‘t answering my calls. That‘s why I said I would go barge into his office and give him a piece of my mind…”
“Is that necessary? I thought you were to stay with him till I returned on Friday?”
“After the scene on Monday night, I moved back to your place. It‘s been three days now and we‘ve not exchanged a single word. I even left him a note before I left.”
“Edward seems to have this habit of wanting his space when he needs to think, but in these circumstances, I don‘t think that‘s wise. You need to work together.”