The CEO’s Substitute Lover

Poof!… The GM’s comment startled Octavia Gills and almost spit out the water she was about to swallow. Stunned, Olivia looked at Eddison and smiled and said, “General Manager, you’re just not an average joker!”

“Is that so?” Eddison looked meaningfully at Octavia Gills in faint response.

“Eat up, don’t get hungry!” Delicately handing Octavia Gills a small piece of steak already cut into small pieces.

In fact, the GM is very attentive and considerate as well as sassy, and his future girlfriend will be very happy.

“Thanks!”

Tredan’s birthday is coming up! I wonder what to do to celebrate his birthday? And what kind of gift should I get him?

Octavia Gills put her hands on her cheeks at this agonizing search. This was the first birthday she will spend for him as his lover, and she wanted to give him a precious gift; she wanted to leave a very nice token or memory of each other. She took out a pen and started making caricatures of those times they spent together, that were filled with happiness and joy. Each scene becoming a picture, she wanted to string together the images of this time between her and him into a story and draw a cartoon that only belonged to her and him as the main characters. It was the best gift she could give him. Only, Octavia Gills didn’t know that day was the beginning of a turning point in her love life.

On the morning of Tredan’s birthday, she had taken time off from work to plan an elaborate surprise for Tredan’s birthday at the old Group Davi residence. What she didn’t know was that every year since Tredan became Group Davi’s president, his father had asked him home for dinner on his birthday. As the chairman of Group Davi, this kind of party is certainly not just a family dinner, but usually involves inviting people with close interests. So, Tredan didn’t long for his birthday either!

Octavia Gills pretended to do nothing and sent Tredan out to work as usual before she slipped away to get fresh ingredients. She also bought some candles, lilies and other decorative items.

The Davi Family Villa, several times larger than the old house, was the most luxurious and extravagantly designed villa in the country! As in previous years, there were two or three luxury limited edition sports cars and extended Lincolns parked at the entrance. Tredan walked in with his usual expression on his face, but with a smile.

“My nephew is back! What a handsome young man!”

“I’ve heard a lot about you, Grand Prince of the Davi Family, and I finally meet you in person today.

“Tredan, you help your father run the company so well, a young man with a lot of talent after a long wave!”

“Chairman Davi, you make me envious, look how proud your son is!”

The walk from the door to the hall was a walk that Tredan knew by heart, except for a small smile, a nod and the occasional polite response of “Thank you! He didn’t communicate much either!

Tredan searches the bustling crowd for Chairman Davi, ready to check in with his father, who only has eyes for profit, and to say hello. Eddison doesn’t understand why Tredan must be so indifferent to him, can’t he really have the same kind of brotherly love in a family like this? How he wanted to call Tredan his brother, how he wished he could be accepted by Tredan, that he would not steal the family business from him.

Eddison? Tredan looked at him in disgust, if that woman hadn’t come along with him back then, his mother could not have been admitted to a mental hospital? How could he have been sent abroad at the age of three? He hated them for destroying his family, for breaking up his home and taking it for themselves! Tredan looked at Eddison with hatred.

When he came to his father, he said hello without any warmth and moved to leave.

“Wait a minute, is the boy still as blind as ever after all these years? Say hello to Ottilie!” Floyd Davi said in a stern but subdued tone to Tredan, who was now in an arrogant mood.

“My father takes care of me, but I haven’t even called my own mother. As the eldest son of the Davi Family, how can I break the rules of the Davi Family and wait before I go and say hello to my own mother at the mental hospital. This way, I don’t break the rules of our Group Davi! Right? Father!” Tredan said to Floyd Davi without fear or favor, his face expressionless, but his eyes fixed on Ottilie Berkes, who was dressed in a voluptuous way and stood in his mother’s place.

“Bastard… you… if you keep being so? I’ll…” Floyd Davi was so angry he almost had a heart attack. He knew the boy resented him for what he had done back then, and that was why he had left the company in his hands all these years and put the old Group Davi house in his name, and today he was still so insensitive! This is outrageous! If he hadn’t been in the presence of so many guests, he would have slapped this ungrateful son.

“Honey, take it easy!” Ottilie Berkes, all whiney and smooth, stroked Floyd Davi’s chest in a pretense of generosity to calm this customary storm.

“Tredan is a stubborn child who is determined to die, and his mother has not been around to teach him since he was three years old. I am responsible for it!” It was only a few seconds before Ottilie Berkes’ eyes were not only red but also filled with tears, and Tredan thought to himself that it was no wonder his kind and gentle mother had been defeated by her and ended up in such a miserable state.

“Tredan?? ah?? because of your birthday?? these days?? ah?? I almost went crazy. I knew you didn’t need anything, but when I was shopping, I saw these shoes, a limited edition from the International Fashion House.” Ottilie Berkes opened a gift box for Tredan like an affectionate mother.

“Interesting! The local elders usually say that you should never give a gift to someone with a shoe, as it means “go away.” Looks like the fox’s tail doesn’t want to hide a bit. Want to tell him to go away?” Eddison commented.

“That’s very kind of you! I’ll give you and your mother back two pairs of gifts sometime! You’ll have a good trip in them!” Tredan didn’t say anything more than to let his assistant take them and turned away to deal with some company heads.

Floyd Davi, who feels guilty about Tredan, can only look the other way and pretend to be busy with something.

It’s not a birthday party, it’s a business reception, and Tredan is standing in the corner of an outer corridor with a tall glass of champagne, leaning against a pillar, depressed. Lighting the cigarette he’s holding on his lips, closing his eyes and inhaling deeply, then slowly exhaling a wisp of white, ethereal smoke. He is unhappy, unhappy.

He doesn’t feel like a whole person!

He sipped the champagne from the glass as he remembered the year, he was three years old.

In those years, my parents argued all day long, and whenever my father came home, he would always argue with my mother, and then he would quickly slam the door, while my mother would look around the house and throw everything she could at the floor, and then looking at his father’s picture, she would point her finger at his face in the picture and say, “In the beginning, you pretended to adore me in order to get help from my mother’s family, but now that you have saved your kingdom, I am worthless to you. I’m worthless to you now that you’ve saved your kingdom… What a heartless man, with your first love, with your child, how can you be so cruel and heartless to me!” Unable to bear his father’s betrayal and indifferent treatment of her, her mother chose to commit suicide, fortunately found in time to rescue her, the doctor said that the she was safe, but suffered from an extremely serious depression. If she stayed at home, there is a tendency to commit suicide any time, and recommended admitting her to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. She has been there for more than twenty years, but never came out!

It was then that his father brought Eddison and his son home and told him, at the age of three, that Eddison was henceforth his brother, and that he was to treat Ottilie Berkes as his mother. He hated them and rejected them so strongly that Floyd Davi sent him abroad to bring peace to a family that had never had peace in their lives.

The more Tredan remembered, the darker his face became, even angry. Taking the wine in his hand he tilted his head and drank it down in one gulp.

At the age of three and spoilt for choice, he was often teased by his classmates at school and often sat alone in a corner crying and thinking of his mother! Luckily, the Drye Family arranged for their only daughter to stay with him for two years. Lilian Drye, who is two years older than him, took care of him every day, always standing in front of him when others bullied him, fighting for him and even taking action.

Apart from his mother, Lilian Drye was the only person in the world who cared for him as much as she did. When Tredan thought his whole life was grey, Lilian Drye gave him light. When he was scarred and his parents rejected him, Lilian Drye brought him warmth like sunshine. She was the one who told him, “Don’t let anything make you feel like the world is grey, you have to believe that if you are strong enough, you can create warm sunshine for yourself, the light is in your own hands, if you believe, the sun will appear after the storm!”

Five-year-old Lilian Drye pulled Tredan, who was closed off and reluctant to talk, out into the sunlight.

“Here, open your hands to feel how warm the sunshine is! Remember how warm it is, it’s up to you to accept it!” Lilian Drye took Tredan’s hand and stomped along, telling him, “I felt like the sky had fallen and the world had gone grey when the person I loved most passed away. I was depressed for a long time and I remembered that before he died, he told me to watch over those I loved, so I remembered what he always told me, if you don’t feel warm, find a place where there is sun, the sun shining on you is as warm as a parent’s embrace!”

“You have to be strong! At least you have me here with you now! Come on, I’ll be here for you!” Five-year-old Lilian Drye’s voice echoes in Tredan’s mind.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

With the empty glass in his hand, Tredan threw the cigarette in his mouth and stomped on the floor, stepped out into the shaded corridor, closed his eyes, opened his arms and let himself be completely bathed under the sun.