“I came here to see Uncle Jonah who has been indoors and has not gone to work since Shantel was kidnapped. I came to talk him out of staying at home,” Ken said, trying so hard to convince Marvin that there was nothing sinister about his visit.

“You left your work to persuade another to go to work?” Marvin asked.

“Yes! Uncle Jonah is your uncle and my friend too. Is there something wrong with seeing that your uncle is okay and getting back to work so that we don’t lose money?” Ken asked.

“So, this is what you do. You came here to tell him about me and my staff. I thank my goodness I did not let you know about my plan with Cass,” Marvin said, trying to outsmart Ken.

It was a nice move and I loved it. It made Ken look like he had been passing the wrong information out to Uncle Jonah. It was now clear to Marvin that Ken was working with Uncle Jonah. Marvin had to be careful around Ken.

“I never thought you would betray me this way, I had so much trust in you,” Marvin said, looking very disappointed at Ken.

Ken stood up and walked towards me. “I know that this is your doing,” and turning to Marvin, he said, “I have done nothing wrong but to serve you. How you take and see it, I cannot influence,” said Ken.

Uncle Jonah and Lucas came out with some drinks and coffee. “I don’t know whether anyone is like me but I would rather do wine than have something hot in the morning,” Uncle Jonah said.

Well, we are not like you, I thought. I asked Marvin whether he wanted anything and not to show disrespect to his uncle. He said, “I will get the coffee please.”

They all watched me as I left the already-made coffee and made a new cup of coffee, took a sip, waited for a few minutes, and gave the coffee to Marvin.

“I am sorry he likes his coffee in a special way,” I said as I handed the cup of coffee to Marvin.

After the drink, which was mostly done in quietness, there was this discussion about business and also about Shantel. It was so obvious that all of them did not know that Shantel was Mr. Ross’s daughter. It also meant that there was something about Shantel I did not know and both Shantel and her father refused to tell me.

When it was time to go, Ken said that he would join us and Marvin said that was okay since we were all going to the same office. My curiosity did not allow me to be quiet as I asked him.

“So where is your car?” I asked.

“I did not come with it,” Ken said, looking very startled.

“You did not come with it! Did you sleep here Ken?” Marvin asked.

“No, I did not, and, like I said, I came to see how your Uncle was doing. He is my friend and a good one at that,” Ke said.

All through the journey to the office, Ken tried to explain to Marvin how he did what he did with good intentions and how he understood that this did not look good but his intentions were pure. Marvin, on the other hand, was tired of being betrayed and could not understand how Uncle Jonah could have so much information about him and told Ken he was an informant to Uncle Jonah.

Marvin also told Ken that he had betrayed the trust he had in him. Ken was angered and was trying to put it all on me. He told Marvin that it was since I came into their lives that everything started going wrong.mI was not ready to be made a scapegoat and, since I was now the new Security Chief of Marvin, I had better start putting things in order.

“Before I came into your lives there had been several attacks. In fact, since I came, you have had three and I was almost killed in those three attacks,” I said.

“You could have planned them all,” Ken replied.

“Like she planned the setup with Shantel?” Marvin replied.

“What do you mean, Marvin?” Ken asked. He was utterly shocked.

“Ken, we knew about Shantel and played along. You only used her to delay me from getting married so that Uncle Jonah could claim the inheritance. What is in it for you?” Marvin said.

“Nothing, Shantel came to me through Uncle Jonah, she said she liked you and would want to be a friend and you know her. What should I have done?” Ken said.

“Marvin, I think you are revealing too much. Can you let this slide?” I asked, wishing Marvin could listen to me and let this go. If Ken knew that we were on him, he would be very careful now and we might lose leverage on him.

“No Cass, let him hear. The man I called my friend and have given everything without objecting to any of his requests is working with my Uncle to take everything I have lived and worked for,” Marvin said, feeling very sad.

“I understand how you feel, Marvin. You got it all wrong. I will never hurt you,” Ken said.

Marvin felt so disgusted at what Ken had just said. “You don’t get it Ken, you are hurting me. How can you even visit Uncle Jonah on a work day without letting me know?” Marvin scolded him.

“I am sorry,” Ken said.

At that point, I felt pity for him. He could be telling the truth but there was every indication he was working for Uncle Jonah. Thank goodness that Marvin did not disclose his deal with Shantel. If not, we will have Officer Page at our doorsteps again. I was tired of that officer.

Marvin was now angry. When we got to the office, the three of us could not look at each other. Marvin led the way, everyone could visibly see that he was angry and avoided him. Ken and I just followed him without talking to each other or greeting anyone.

Marvin sat down and we both stood in front of him in his office. “ I need to change certain things around here,” he said.

“I will be sending my resignation letter to you. I am so sorry I failed you and the trust you had in me. I did not mean for any of this to happen,” Ken said. He looked so apologetic, but I didn’t buy that. It could be his deception tactics and it looked like everyone was now playing that card.

“You are not going anywhere. I do not do that to people I call my friends. You are going to fix your mess,” Marvin said.

It was either he was naive, stupid, ignorant, or he had a fantastic plan, because how can you keep someone you suspect was after your life and was trying to undermine and destroy you? I felt it was a mistake to have Ken around.

“Thank you, Marvin,” Ken replied.

“You will vacate your office and resume your role as the operational manager in charge of the daily operations. All access to my office is at this moment denied. You will only share information with me as others do during our managerial meetings. Is that understood?” Marvin said.

“Yes, Marvin. I get you completely,” Ken said in the most humble way I had ever seen or heard him.

“You may leave,” Marvin said.

Ken left the office and went to his new office. I could see that he felt defeated, but I did not feel sorry for him in any way. He was vile and very offensive towards me.

“Please can you call me the secretary?” Marvin said, turning towards me.

The secretary came looking so nervous, the news that Marvin was angry had gone around the building. Some of the staff were even saying he had sacked a lot of people.

“How can I be of help, sir?” the secretary asked, trembling.

“Are you okay?” Marvin asked.

Yes sir” she said.

“Okay, I am going to send you a couple of emails and I want you to send out the information about the changes we are going to make immediately,” Marvin said.

“Okay, sir.” said the secretary as she hurriedly left Marvin’s office.

“You have not said anything about all of this,” said Marvin, turning towards me.

“What do you want me to say?” I asked.