"Hidayah Loh Mei Ling! What are you doing here? You are supposed to be resting at home!" Erika shrieked when she saw her best friend in her bed. Hidayah rolled over to the other side and covered her head with a pillow.
"Hid! What are you doing here?" Erika probe her again.
"My husband came home…" her reply muffled under the pillow.
"F*ck, Hid! What do you mean your husband came home? Since when were you married?!"
"Aawww, Erika… Let me sleep a lil bit more, please…" Hidayah whined.
"No! Tell me when did you get married!" Erika rocked her body hard, waking Hidayah up. Unable to sleep with all the racket, Hidayah sat up with her eyes closed…
"Remember the guy I told you about? The one who saved me that night in City K?"
"Yeah…"
"Well… apparently, instead of filing for the annulment, he insisted on keeping on with the marriage. In fact, he already met my father last year…" After saying all she could to explain, she lay back down on the bed.
"D*mn... So all this while your dad has already known about this?"
"Yes"
"F*ck…"
"Yup, f*ck... "
After thinking through the information acquired, Erika started to laugh. For so long they tried to keep this from the Lohs, in the end, the cat got out from the bag itself!
After laying back on the bed for half an hour, both ladies got up and got ready for work. Hidayah made herself a cup of espresso while waiting for Erika in the shower. She then turned on her phone to check her messages. As expected, she had 4 missed calls from her grandfather, 10 missed calls from Hidayat and 1 message from her father commanding her to come home.
Not wanting to hear any further condemnation, she messaged both her father and grandfather telling them that she was currently at Erika's place and will be going to the office with Erika that day. She also messaged the assigned driver to fetch her at the office at 7 in the evening; in compromisation to her father's decree at the ward before she was discharged.
Once Erika was done getting ready, both of them made their way to the office, stopping by the drive-thru Starbucks for their morning boost. Erika ordered Caffe Mocha while Hidayah ordered Caramel Macchiato with triple shots of espresso instead of her usual hot chocolate. That day, she needs all the help she can get to get through the day since she was away for about 2 weeks. Plus, the promised holiday was coming close and she still had not made arrangements as promised with the group on the day she was involved in the accident.
Her secretary was shocked to see her show up in the office since she was informed that Hidayah was to have bed rest for the next 2 weeks.
After Hidayah settled herself on her desk, Hidayat strut through her door. "Are you crazy? You know you are supposed to be at home right now! And why the h*ll did you not ask for the driver to pick you up in the morning! And why did you take my car?!" He hollered.
Hahaha, Hidayah knew the main point of Hidayat's confrontation was about the car she took in the morning. She knew that if she were to drive her own car, the guards would have informed her father immediately and blocked her from going out of the compound.
Despite staying in a luxury residential compound that houses 26 families, the security forces are the Loh's men. In fact, it has always been the Loh's enforcement team being in-charged of the compound's security even before Country C was founded.
This residential compound was one of the oldest sectors in the country. The families staying in the compound have had their homes for generations. These are all 'old money' and the chances of getting new neighbours are close to zero… Take Dragon Mansion, for instance, it has been the Loh's family home the past 10 generations and was remodelled when Country C was newly founded by the 46th patriarch who had a rather unique and futuristic foresight.
While maintaining the traditional eastern architectural design, it was skillfully infused with a modern outlook. For example, the mansion itself has a total of 9 levels. 2 underground levels that house the 'Punishment Halls', formal meeting rooms and archive rooms, they also have 7 above-ground levels that accommodate the family.
The 46th patriarch also remodelled the garden to 2 halves. The south garden has an oriental landscape with a bamboo forest and a floating patio above the koi garden. The north garden has an English landscape with a man-made lake, sweeps of gently rolling lawns set against groves of trees and greek-inspired-pillars-patio, designed to recreate an idyllic pastoral landscape.
The estate also has a separate building for a function hall and kitchen that was constructed by Loh Liwei when he became the 48th patriarch. And when Kamari took over, he renovated the mansion after his siblings moved out of the family home to its current grandeur.