The Wrong Address

"Sir, I hope there is no problem?" He asked.

"No. No problem."

"Let me call her former boss to check her file, then I will send you the address."

"Thank you so much," Alex said and he waited inside his car. As he waited, he used his right fingertips to hit the surface of his steering.

"I should have told her all this while." He thought. "Was there no need to keep that bracelet in the first place? No. No… Why was I so careless? I need to look for her and apologize. She has the right to be angry. She has become the woman after my heart. I love her intensely."

Then the ringing of his phone broke his thoughts. It was the former manager of Elisa.

"Good afternoon Sir. My friend called me to forward the address of my Miss Elisa to you. I hope it is not what I am thinking Sir."

"And what is that?" Alex asked.

"That she must have taken away some of your valuables or she was careless in handling things. That young lady made us lose millions of dollars because of her negligence."

"Really? What happened?"

"Miss Elisa was given a vital task to perform, a very sensitive assignment. Out of negligence, she didn't submit the task. Also, she didn't come to work to tell her assistant to do the work on her behalf. That was how we lost a big client. Her only excuse was that something beyond her control happened to her. I don't want to go into that."

"Please go on. What did she say? I want to know because she is now someone who works for me."

"Hmm… it was a foolish explanation, Sir. That her boyfriend misled her. That's all."

"Thanks for the information. Kindly forward the address to me."

After the end of the call, Alex relaxed his head on the steering wheel and was waiting for the message. It didn't take many seconds before he heard the sound of a message on his phone. He quickly opened it. After reading the message, he drove out of his compound.

After driving for about forty minutes, he stopped in front of a building. He opened his phone again and cross-checked the address inside his phone. Both were the same and he came down with a rose in his hand and knocked on the door. It seemed he was processing a thought and he nodded his head while he waited for the door to open. Surprisingly, an advanced lady opened the door.

"Good afternoon," he greeted.

"Good afternoon young man." Before she could add to what she said, Alex said,

"I came to see Elisa.

"Elisa?" She waited. "I think there is a pretty lady inside who will love that rose in your hand."

Alex thought the woman must be Elisa's mum and he didn't want more explanation before he said,

"Please, let's go inside," and he smiled.

They both went in and he sat down while the woman went inside. The relatively noisy house became very quiet when the lady left Alex in the sitting room and went inside.

The woman was in her late sixties and she wore a white gown. She entered her eldest daughter's room and said,

"There is a young handsome man in the sitting room. He said he is looking for Elisa. Were you expecting someone?"

"Hmm… no." She shook her head.

"Go and ask your other sisters and come back with their response."

Her daughter left her room and went out. After a few minutes, she came back.

"None. No one is expecting a guest."

"But we can't let this man leave my house just like that. He must pick one of you. You are single and searching, including your sisters. I want to reduce the population of this house. Get dressed and go and meet him now."

Her eldest daughter was in her late twenties. She was in between beautiful and ugly because of her chubby nature and her name was Fiona. Fiona quickly moved to her makeup table and quickly applied some powder on her face and red lipstick. Her mum nodded and they both went to the sitting room.

When Alex saw her, he thought,

"This must be Elisa's eldest sister."

When they came very close to him, he said,

"This is not the person I am looking for. I said, 'Elisa."

"Oh…sorry!' The elderly woman exclaimed. And she sat down and whispered into her daughter's ear.

"Please wait," she said to Alex. Fiona went inside and informed her younger sister to come and show herself to Alex.

"Why keep my special guest waiting without wine? Please forgive me." She stood and went inside and Alex kept watching and waiting.

"Why is Elisa hiding from me?" He thought.

When the elderly woman got inside, she saw that her second daughter was dressing up to present herself to Alex. And the other four ladies were around her. Her mum didn't know that the other ladies had spied on Alex through the curtain.

"He is so handsome!" One said.

"He is so elegant!" Another added.

"That's the man of my dreams," the last born said with so much feeling from the way she dragged her breath.

"You better delay for a while. I want to drug him. He must take one of you home. I am tired of your busybody nature in my house."

"Mom…" They all said at once and they turned to their sister who was dressing up. The elderly woman went to her room and took the drug and put some of the powdered drugs into a glass and went to the sitting room with a bottle of greenish wine. As she was coming closer to Alex and to prevent him from seeing the bottom of the glass cup, she opened the bottled wine and turned it into the glass cup. Seeing her struggling, Alex stood up and took the half-filled glass cup and the bottle of wine from her hand.

"Thank you so much, you must be a good son-in-law." She said and Alex smiled, holding the cup and the wine, and went back and sat down.

"Please, drink it," the woman kept praying in her heart and her eyes were moving from Alex's mouth and the hand he used to hold the glass cup.

Alex looked at the wine and blinked his eyes. He was a lover of wine and the aroma of this wine was so lovely.

"Don't drink. Drunkenness was part of what put you in this mess." He thought and took a deep breath. "What will happen if Elisa comes out and sees me drinking again? Hmm… She will be disappointed. It will be better to settle our differences before drinking." He was still contemplating whether to drink or not when the elderly asked.

"Wouldn't you drink your wine? Use it to calm yourself down. I can see you are anxious from your look. Feel relaxed. Are you not pleased to be here?"

"I am..am. But I would love to see Elisa. I know she is very angry with me. I want to make up with her. Her happiness is my joy.

A few seconds later, another younger lady came out.

"No. This is not the one," Alex said. In the same way, the first lady went inside, the second one did the same and before Alex could adjust his eyes, a different lady came out.

"Not this one," he said. There was optimism on his face.

"Then the remaining of you come out," their mother shouted.

After a few minutes, three younger ladies came out and they were well-dressed and beautiful.

"I said I am looking for Elisa. Elisa is not here. Where is she?"

"These are my only daughters. Elisa, is a woman right?" The elderly woman stood up as well.

"Yes. She is a woman."

"I don't have the exact lady you are looking for. But I have five beautiful daughters who are single. Who would love to walk the aisle with you? Wouldn't you take one of them? I thought you said you were looking for a woman."

"What? I never said the woman. I said, 'Elisa," and he stood up at once and some of the wine in his glass cup almost poured out. "I thought you said I should come in?" He added.

"I never said that. I only said you should come in so that someone will appreciate the rose in your hands. Moreover, you lack some courtesy. You couldn't take a sip from the wine I gave you. You disrespected me. You are such a shame to your mother."

Alex did a fist with his left hand and breathed out. They all thought his gesture meant he would angrily drink from the wine.

"Thank you for your compliment." He dropped the glass of wine on the small table and walked out and when he got to his call, he called Roberson again.

"What type of address did your friend give me?"

"Please, I will get back to you." The call ended. Alex checked the address again and saw that it was the same. Meanwhile, the five ladies admired Alex through the window of the sitting room.

A few minutes later, a message entered his phone and it was from a different address.

"How am I sure this is the right address?" He paused and scanned the address again with his eyes and added, "but I must look for her. She has taken my heart away."

He started his car and drove away. An hour later he stopped at Elisa's former house. As he came down from his car, he smiled and walked toward the door. On the door, there was a writing up. The writing was not clear. When he got closer and closer, he saw the writings and it said,

"Vacant apartment!"