The CEO’s Substitute Lover

Althena Cockey smiled slightly and gazed out over the courtyard wall into the eerie blue sky, “I want you to deliver a bouquet of cherry blossoms to 68 Maplewood Road for me.”

This strange request left Tredan Davi stunned.

Althena Cockey, with her smile still on, looked at her son and said, “If your plan is carried out, I will be the one who is escaping, right? I know you are thinking of my safety, but even if I am safe, who will I be for the rest of my life?”

Tredan Davi had never thought about that.

Mum and Floyd were not divorced, and Floyd and Ottilie were not married, all of this was unknown to the outside world, Group Davi could not be without a madam, so Ottilie was the acknowledged Mrs. Davi for twenty years on, Althena Cockey was long forgotten. Floyd always felt that by keeping her in this five-star mental institution not divorcing her, he was not abandoning her and still be providing for her. This was the most conscientious way he could be for Althena Cockey and Tredan Davi. It was also for the sake of Ottilie and Eddison since he had always owed them.

“Do as mum says, I’m going to leave here and I’m going to regain my identity fair and square.”

“Regain your identity? You’re going back to the Davi Family? To get rid of Ottilie?” Tredan Davi was surprised.

Althena Cockey laughed softly, “Back to the Davi Family? What for? What am I going to do to get rid of her?”

“But you said that you want your identity back…”

“I am not Mrs. Davi but I am still the Princess of the Cockey Family, although Group Cockey has become Group Davi,” Althena Cockey said with tears in her eyes, remembering the past and filled with remorse.

“So, who is in 68 Maplewood Road?” Tredan Davi felt blissful.

Althena Cockey smiled, reached out and touched the grape leaves above her head, smiled with tears in her eyes, and whispered, “He was my mother’s childhood friend when she was growing up.”

Tredan Davi was petrified.

“Tredan, you don’t have to worry about the rest, haven’t you already done all the paperwork to get me out of the country? Then just wait quietly.”

“But, mum.” Tredan Davi was getting even more worried than before.

“Don’t worry son, mum is sober, and I’ve never been this sober in over twenty years, and as for the reasons for this, mum will tell you when the dust has settled, believe me!” Althena Cockey said calmly and peacefully.

Although full of doubts, he decided to do as he was told.

Anyway, if there were any surprises, he would break the ice and tear himself away from Grimm Drye.

68 Maplewood Road was a small, very old house, a detached three-story building with a small courtyard. The location is so good that the man who lived here must have a hidden fortune, and the house is probably worth over a billion dollars.

Tredan Davi knocked for a long time before the door was answered.

The door was opened by a very old man with no expression on his face, but when he saw the bouquet of cherry blossoms, his eyes lit up and he looked excited.

However, when he turned his head and saw Tredan Davi, his face suddenly went cold again.

“Hello, my mother asked me to bring this bouquet…”

Before Tredan Davi could finish his sentence, the old man suddenly reached out and grabbed the flowers, took a step back, and slammed the door shut.

No matter how hard Tredan Davi knocked, he would not open the door again.

How could this man, who was too old to be his grandfather, be his mother’s childhood friend?

Anyone would go mad at such a bizarre thing.

What was even weirder was that a stranger broke into Tredan Davi’s house that night.

Tredan Davi had been living alone in the old Davi Family home, what was known as the Davi Family House was the one where Floyd took Ottilie and Eddison.

Although the house is old, the security is top notch and Tredan Davi is not in the habit of having anyone wait on him, except for the bellman, who is the only one here, so he never worried about security either.

But this day, in the middle of the night, he was awakened by the sound of an ear-splitting alarm.

When he rushed out of the bedroom and into the living room downstairs, he was frozen on the spot.

Downstairs in the living room stood no less than twenty men in suits, expressionless, and all staring at him.

Tredan Davi had felt as if he was in a gangster movie in his dreams.

“Your name is Tredan?” asked the only man sitting in the living room.

It was also a man in a black suit, about the same age as his father, I think, except that he had a very threatening air about him.

Tredan Davi calmed down; these people could have gotten this far and wouldn’t have let the alarm go off if they were trying to harm him.

“Who are you, people?” He walked down slowly and suddenly caught a glimpse of the bunch of cherry blossoms at the corner of the stairs. Dumbfounded.

“68 Maplewood Road?” he asked.

“Where’s Althena?” The man asked

“Who are you?” Tredan Davi asked him in return.

“She didn’t tell you?” The man was a little surprised.

Tredan Davi shakes his head.

The man stands up, walks over and picks up the bouquet of cherry blossoms, and takes a deep breath, “Do you know the language of cherry blossoms?”

Tredan Davi shook his head again.

“When you get it back, it means I want to know what happened to Althena.” The man looked at Tredan Davi calmly

“I want to know who you are.” Tredan Davi looked straight at him.

The man was slightly stunned, “She didn’t tell you? Then how come you were willing to go and deliver the flowers?”

“My mother asked me to send the flowers to her childhood friend.” Tredan Davi couldn’t help but say it.

“A childhood friend??” the man smiled suddenly, and Tredan Davi felt the invisible pressure in the air disappear all of a sudden.

“I am her childhood friend. Now you tell me what happened to her.”

Tredan Davi believed his words, for no reason, and inexplicably just trusted him.

Tredan Davi spoke briefly about the family situation, his plans, and her mother’s request.

“My mum said she wanted her identity back and not to run away, saying she didn’t need me to worry about it, and then asked me to send that bouquet…” Tredan Davi hesitated a bit.

“Can you tell me who you are?”

But the man sneered as if he hadn’t heard him, “Floyd sure has lived to tell the tale.”

Turning back to the man behind him, he said, “I want to know who the hell that Grimm Drye is.”

Having said that he stood up and said to Tredan Davi, “Kid, Althena won’t let you handle this, so you stay put.”Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

As he said that he walked out the door.

“Hey, who the hell are you!” But before his hand could touch the man’s shirt, he was caught by his arm in reverse and dropped onto the sofa with an over-the-shoulder slam, placing his knee against his chest.

Tredan Davi got anxious and reached for his shoulder. He and Woodrow had studied taekwondo and sparring together since they were kids and had rarely had an opponent, and Tredan Davi was confident in his strength.

“Boy, you should be glad you’re Althena’s son, if you’d followed that brute Floyd, I’d have made your life a living hell.” The man gave a grim smile at the mention of Floyd.

With that, he released him, straightened his cuffs, and gave a smile, “My name is Freeman Gellings.”

Tredan Davi was kept pinned to that unmoving position as if he was frozen in place.

All he knew was that a man called Freeman Gellings was the founder of that legendary Group Gellings, based in the United States. This man had never been seen in public and was a legend.

Tredan Davi gave a bitter smile, it couldn’t be, it must just be the same name, a childhood friend of his mother, how could he be the founder of that Group Gellings, how could he be.

Before dawn, Tredan Davi was awakened again when his phone rang. He had just fallen asleep on the sofa thinking about the man he had just met and almost jumped up when he heard the phone ring.

“Tredan, a group of people burst into Blue Mountains and took Auntie Althena away.” Upon hearing this from Woodrow, he jumped up.

“What do you mean, what people?” Tredan Davi was confused.

“Our men are following them, get up, I’m going to your place now, they’ll keep us posted on the location. Tredan, did you have a falling out with Grimm Drye in the last couple of days? Did Grimm Drye kidnap Auntie Althena? Should we call the police?”

Tredan Davi’s mind was scrambling, intuitively it wasn’t Grimm Drye, it was Freeman Gellings, but where was he taking Mum? Could it be 68 Maplewood Road?

“No, I didn’t flip out Grimm Drye.”

“Then who could it be? Your dad? It can’t be!” Woodrow was confused too.

Tredan Davi darted into his clothes and ran out to get the car, which fired up instantly. But he suddenly froze. Where was he going?

Woodrow called, “Tredan, Tredan, they’ve gone to your dad’s and the others, get over there, I’ll be right behind you.”

Tredan Davi drove to the mansion.

The mansion was already lit up and in a state of chaos, as it would be for anyone to have two dozen men in black in their house.

Floyd, Ottilie, and Eddison were all awakened by this and were angry.

Eddison shouted, “Who are you, people? This is breaking and entering, we can call the police.”

He was being held down by a man in black with a death grip on his shoulders and couldn’t move.

Freeman Gellings didn’t even look at him.

Both Floyd and Ottilie froze when they saw Althena Cockey walking slowly over to them.

Freeman Gellings gently held Althena Cockey’s arm, carefully coaxing her to sit on the single sofa next to him.

Althena Cockey turns her head and smiles at Freeman Gellings.

Freeman Gellings sits on the arm of this sofa, reaches behind him, and immediately a man in black hands him a wad of paper.

Freeman Gellings threw it on the coffee table.

“Floyd, old acquaintance, no introductions?”

Floyd visibly shuddered and didn’t make a sound.

“You know my temper well, and I’ll cut the crap, here are the divorce papers, you sign them now!”

Floyd glanced at Althena Cockey. “Althena…”

“Shut up!” Freeman Gellings interrupted angrily, “You call her name again and I’ll beat you up!”

“Who the hell are you?” Eddison struggled to get up, cursing angrily under his breath.

Eddison crumbled into a ball of pain as the man in black beside him punched him in the stomach.

“Son, son! You can’t hit my son.” Ottilie lunged to protect Eddison.

“Althena Cockey, you bitch! Where did you seduce that wild man from…”

“Slap, slap,” Ottilie was slapped twice.

“Bitch? How dare you say that word to Althena, it suits you more!”

Ottilie was dumbfounded and looked at the tough, arrogant man in front of her with fear, covering her face and not daring to speak.

“I’ll sign, I’ll sign.” Floyd took a trembling hand and signed the Divorce Agreement in front of him with a pen, which he saw Althena Cockey had already signed.

“Don’t you even want to read the terms of the divorce?” Freeman Gellings snorted.

“How dare you do such a cowardly and wimpy thing, did you think I, Freeman Gellings, was dead!” Freeman Gellings raged.

“No more looking, no need to look, Althena wants it all, I’ll give it all to her, give it all to her!” Floyd didn’t look up.

“She wants your life, will you give it?”

Floyd looked in horror at Althena Cockey, who was just surveying the room and not looking at them.

“Don’t worry, your life is too dirty, we don’t want it,” Freeman spoke sarcastically.

“Althena doesn’t want anything because she doesn’t need anything, and you’re a nightmare.”

Freeman Gellings let the Divorce Settlement be collected, picked up Althena Cockey, and left, turning to see Tredan Davi running in panting.

“Mum!” Tredan Davi was in shock and relieved to see Althena Cockey. He bent over and put his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath.

Freeman Gellings looked at him and turned back to Floyd: “Floyd, Althena Cockey is no longer with you. But just because Althena doesn’t care about the past doesn’t mean I’m going to let you off the hook. The day I think of you and get upset, I’ll come back to you.”

Avoiding Tredan Davi, he helped Althena Cockey to walk outside.

“Mr. Freeman, where are you taking my mother?” Tredan Davi asked as he caught up.

“To where she belongs!” Freeman Gellings said coldly.