#A_CRAZY_LOVE_2
©Sir Zach
EPISODE 101
“Markus, wait a minute. I need to talk to you about something serious.” Grandpa said to Markus once Kizy was gone.
Markus nodded in response before following grandpa to one of the rooms located on the first floor.
“What is it grandpa?” Markus asked in a serious tone, knowing that Grandpa definitely had some serious issue to talk about
“What happened in the Imperial Nation?” Grandpa asked only one statement, straight to the point.
“Grandpa, I will tell you all the details, but not now. In fact that is the reason I have asked everyone to wrap up the party fast. I will be discussing all the details about my mission tonight cause we can not delay anymore.” Markus said, his tone grave.
“Okay.” Grandpa said, nodding.
He knew that if Markus had already thought about something, then he need not to worry.
“If there is nothing else, I will leave now. I need to renovate our home.” Markus said.
“Yes. Actually, no. I have one more question.” Grandpa said, unable to stop himself from asking.
“What grandpa?” Markus asked politely.
“When do you plan to hold your wedding with Kizy? You owe her a grand wedding, Markus. We Evans have wronged her a lot. Thus I feel that she has every right to deserve the wedding of the century. Plus she is pregnant with your baby as well. So when do you plan to do this?” Grandpa asked.
Usually he wasn’t the one to interfere in such things like weddings and other celebrations, but when it came to Kizy, he knew that they had taken her for granted too much. In fact she was carrying a child for Markus in her womb, yet she wasn’t expecting any sort of celebration from them, not to mention a grand wedding. Thus grandpa felt that it would only be right to give her what she deserved.
“Grandpa, I don’t want to let her live this way as well. But I have my own plans. I don’t want her to undergo our wedding rituals while worrying about some crazy professor, or fearing some other enemy of ours who wants to see us dead. I want to see her as the most beautiful bride, who will enjoy her own wedding to the fullest. So no matter how much time passes by, I will not settle for anything less. I only know one thing, and that is I want to give her the best.” Markus said, expressing his honest feelings from the bottom of his heart.
“If you have already planned everything, then I won’t interfere. But don’t make us wait for long.” Grandpa said before both the men left the room and joined others for the preparation.
*12 PM, MARKUS’s HOUSE*
All the family members and friends were seen seated in the hall, with Kizy and Markus sitting in the centre.
They had decided to first present their gifts to Kizy and Markus, then play some light games and chat before ending the celebration with lunch.
Grandpa and grandma being the eldest, were the first to start with the gift ceremony.
Grandpa gave an envelope to Kizy, which she confusedly opened and read, only to open her mouth wide in surprise.
It was the letter stating that both Kizy and Markus now owned 50-50 percent of the company, making both of them president of ‘Stardust’.
“Grandpa, this isn’t needed. I don’t want the company. I just handled it for sometime because Markus wanted it. Don’t-” Kizy was still speaking when Markus interrupted.
“Thank you for the gift grandpa. I can not be any happier. At least I will get to have some rest now.” Markus said.
“Punk. You both will be working equally. Don’t you dare slack off. And Kizy, I had decided to do this the moment I had seen your performance. I am not someone who believes in passing the throne to your heir, but passing the throne to the deserving one. All this time Markus has worked hard to bring the company to this heights, and your work only added more glory to it. I can not find anyone more suitable for the role than both of you.” Grandpa said before shifting a little to let grandma give the gift.
“Here.” Grandma said before giving two boxes to both Kizy and Markus.
They both opened it to find a lockets with a beautiful eye symbol pendant attached to it.
The couple looked at grandma expectedly, knowing she wouldn’t give a meaningless gift.
“I know you youngsters don’t believe in prayers, good and evil anymore. But this is for my satisfaction. I got a renowned priest to bless you both with power and out of reach from evil. He gave this to me. And though I know this may sound silly to you both, I would truly want you both to always wear it.” Grandma said, knowing the kind of danger both her grandson and granddaughter in law had to face.
Kizy and Markus just looked at each other before instantly wearing the lockets, not wanting to hurt grandma’s sentiment cause they knew that she only had the best of thoughts for them.
With that both grandpa and grandma went back to their seats while Mary came ahead.
She had bought endless dresses for Kizy to wear during pregnancy. The dresses looked stylish yet comfortable, perfect to wear even when she would be carrying a huge baby bump.
But what surprised Kizy was that, along with her clothes, Mary had also bought many children’s clothes for both boys and girls.
Of course an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. She could now understand where did Markus’s overly preparative behaviour came from.
“Thank you mother.” Kizy said with a smile while Markus amusedly started unboxing all the clothes for children, a foolish smile pasted on his face.
But what everyone didn’t fail to notice was that Markus after opening all the clothes, just threw the ones for boys carelessly, while the ones for girls were neatly folded back and even repacked in their respective boxes.
“Why do I see discrimination over here?” Kizy asked while raising one eyebrow.
“Huhh?” Markus asked, not understanding what Kizy meant.
Kizy thought that maybe she should talk about this later on as many people were still waiting in line to present the gifts.
Next came Nicole with a small box. Kizy opened it to find a coffee mug with a couple along with the child drawn over it. The man was looking affectionately at the woman, while the woman was looking at her sleeping baby.
And it took her no time to realise that the painting was done by Nicole herself.
“Thank you so much for this beautiful gift Nicole!” Kizy said happily.
“You most welcome-” Nicole was still speaking when Markus cut her off.
“What kind of gift is this?” Markus asked in an unhappy tone.
“Brother, do you have some problem?” Nicole asked.
“Yes I do. Why is she not looking at me and is instead ignoring me while looking at the baby?” Markus asked and all the members burst out laughing hard.
“How can you all laugh at this! You people are evil.” Markus said, especially looking at Nicole.
But Nicole just kept laughing before taking her seat.
Next was Jason who came ahead with a polite smile that was truly reaching his eyes.
“Congratulations.” He said before giving the gift to Kizy.
She knew that Jason would have thought deep before selecting this gift within such a short span of time.
And true to her expectations, there was a mini lamp along with a beautiful music player and a plant.
“Listen to these songs in your free time. The lamp adjusts its brightness with the type of song you play. And the plant grows in lamp light.” Jason explained before going back to his seat, knowing he would fail terribly at explaining the meanings of these things.
The music player and lamp were there to symbolize mother. The whole plant was representing the child. It showed that good growth of the baby depended on the mother.
“Thank you Jason.” Kizy said with a smile.
Next came Victor who unlike others, didn’t give the gift to Kizy but instead went towards Markus.
“This is for you.” Victor said while giving a book to Markus.
And yes, it was the same book that Anna had kept for Victor, when she wanted to surprise Victor with the news of their baby.
Markus accepted it with a smile, unknown to the dark times this book had witnessed, or how much the book meant to Victor.
But all others, including Kizy, BLACK COMMAND and Nicole knew the story behind this book.
This was probably the last thing left by Anna for Victor, especially the only thing related to their baby.
The burnt cookies and decorated room were gone ages ago, but this book, this single book was the last memory that he had been carrying about Anna and their baby.
But, just the way he had decided, he felt that it was better to let someone use it for real purpose instead of keeping it unnecessarily with him. He knew that letting go of someone or something was equally important as loving it.
Hence here he was, gifting the last memory from Anna to Markus.
“Thank you first brother.” Kizy said with tears threatening to fall down from her eyes.
“Anything for you.” Victor said with a smile, feeling light, as if some burden had been lifted off.
But the person who almost cried at this was none other than Nicole. Thankfully nobody was paying her any attention, resulting in no one noticing her little action of wiping tears, except one person – Grandpa.
Soon came Rose who had a frame in her hand, but the frame carried a picture of a baby seen by sonography. Kizy, who hadn’t seen the reports until now, felt immense happiness, especially while she was showing the picture to Markus.
Next came Harry, who was scratching his head.
“I know that I should have gifted you something related to your pregnancy to the baby, but I was unable to come up with something in such a small period of time. Hence this is what I bought.” Harry said while giving his gift, a notebook.
“What is this?” Markus asked curiously.
“How to hack top notch security softwares.” Harry said casually.
But both Markus and Kizy were delighted to know that.
“Thank you for the gift!!” Markus said immediately.
“This is for me. Not you. Don’t raise your hopes high.” Kizy said while securely keeping the book away from Markus’s reach.
“What use will you have of this book during pregnancy? Let me use it.” Markus replied.
“I will use this book to upgrade my rank from third best world hacker to second so that I won’t need to share my rank with some random person anymore.” Kizy said exaggeratedly.
“Why are you acting as if you feel that I am beneath your level? We both stand on equal footing.” Markus said, feeling sad.
“Yeah but not anymore. Just wait for a month, and you can keep the third rank for yourself.” Kizy replied.
“Let’s see who upgrades the rank. You wanna bet?” Markus asked, feeling that Kizy was looking down on him now that she notes from the best hacker in the world.
“Both of you stop now!” Grandpa exclaimed, not believing these were the same Markus amd Kizy who were being inseperable just last night.
And suddenly both Kizy and Markus were reminded of their old days, where no moment would pass without their bickerings. Remembering that, both of them first smiled and ultimately started laughing out loud.
The gift presenting event went by cheerfully, before it was announved that the lunch would be served within half an hour.
All the members engaged in small chats, talking about anything they could think of.
Victor was busy talking to Rose and Nicole when he felt a peircing glare being thrown at him. He turned back, only to find the owner of this gaze, still looking at him with the intent of boring a hole in his body.
