Power Games

The rest of the night, we just lay in bed cuddling each other as if we were a couple and I get a sense that Mitch has let go of a lot of what was holding him back in Yellow Peak. “You alright babe?” I ask kissing him on the cheek playing the boyfriend role that he decided for us tonight.

“Yeah totally good, just thinking about how good it is to get away from everything for a little bit and just relax,” he says as I nod in agreeance even though I’m starting to love the pressure-free life in Yellow Peak. The rest of the night we spend between watching movies together, having make-out sessions, and a bit of time in the spa.

I sleep well through the night cuddled into Mitch’s warm, firm, and smooth body, his abs with amazing ripples as I grind against him through the night just feeling so comfortable. The next morning, I wake up curled up with Mitch around me as he kisses me “Morning sexy” he says kissing me deeply, his tongue going down my throat.

I kiss him back making out for a little bit before there’s a knock at the door, “I ordered us breakfast if you want it warm” he says grinding against me before putting on a pair of shorts to take it. He takes the tray out to the balcony and puts it on the table. I go to put my briefs on but he stops me “Who cares what you wear out here” he says laughing as he throws his shorts back into the room. 

Shrugging, I follow him out to the balcony and we sit and have the amazing breakfast spread that he ordered for us “Seriously Mitch can you afford this?” worried that he is going way over the top even though he told me not to worry. “I don’t know who this Mitch is you’re referring to” I roll my eyes and change my wording “Can Jake afford all this then?”.

“Jake totally can for sure, he’s a successful IT start-up founder or at least the resort thinks that’s who he is” a smirk runs over his face, I just shake my head “Look back to something serious for a moment, is there any way that we can see who is the parent company of the shell company, I just have this strange feeling” Mitch looks at me and shakes his head “Doesn’t seem to be another parent company there, it’s just created out of nowhere”. 

I avoid talking about home stuff for the rest of the morning before we check out of the resort and head back to Yellow Peak. “Can you email me a copy of everything that you’ve got because I want to do a bit of digging on my own” I ask, getting this really weird and bad feeling about something in the paperwork. Mitch agrees somewhat reluctantly because I don’t know whether he trusts me to handle this appropriately or not.

Dropping me home, Mitch just shakes my hand in case anybody is watching and I head indoors with my backpack and go inside, I have a look around my place as something feels up but I notice everything is there. Heading outside, I wander across to Adam’s to let him know that I’m back, I knock on the door and he comes to the door “Hey man, you’re back” he says to me opening the door and letting me in.

“Yeah, just got back, nobody came by my place yesterday did they at all” my suspicions taking control of me as I still feel like somebody was in my house last night. Adam gives me a strange look “Only Linda came round this morning, she put some furniture out the back that she thought you’d like but that’s about it”. I nod “All good then, just paranoid that’s all” my face clearly relieved by the fact Adam would’ve seen anybody go into my place had there been anyone around.

Making me a coffee, Adam and I chat for a little while as I let him talk about what is happening at school and it’s nice again to escape from my own dramas again and let him talk about School for a while which I can see makes him happy.

Heading back to my place after a few hours of talking with Adam, I see that Mitch still hasn’t sent me the info which bothers me a bit but assume that it will be there tomorrow. The rest of the afternoon is just putting things away and doing general things around the house.

It’s about 10 pm as I’m just about to get into bed and my phone rings and I see Danny’s work number on display “Hey man, everything alright?” concerned by the fact he’s ringing me on his work phone at this hour. “Yeah, everything is, I just wanted to double-check if you were coming in tomorrow with the first part of the visit” concern in his voice for how I’m going to handle the situation.

“Of course, I am, If I run away from it then they win so I’m going to be there for both visits because I want to prove that I’m not running away from whatever it is they want to put me through” sensing relief in Danny’s voice, he tells me that he’ll be there with me for when it happens.

My night’s sleep is pretty non-existent, just stressing about the fact of who is going to turn up and the fact that I haven’t seen or talked to anybody in my family for nearly a month now is going to bother me. The next morning, I’m up early and go straight to the gym to start lifting. My lifting is now strong as I start lifting more than I ever thought I would, my arms bulging now as I lift them.

Showering in the gym shower doesn’t bother me as I enjoy showing off my newly rebuilt physique which catches more than a few eyes around the gym. Heading home to change, I notice a letter sticking out of my letterbox.

I pull it out and open it:

“You’re not fooling anybody Isaac; you’re just going to treat these people the same way you treat everybody else”

I look at the note and see that it’s typed rather than handwritten, I just screw it up and toss it away knowing that it is somebody still not happy about me being around but I don’t really care. I load up my laptop and see that Mitch has emailed me the information and I decide that I’d rather go through it tonight.

Changing into my work clothes, I quickly head to work and start what I need to do, worried about who is going to turn up as the advisor to prepare for the visit tomorrow. Working through the day, Danny comes in and checks on me “You sure that you’re fine?” he asks me as I keep concentrating on the work.

“Totally fine, I don’t know who is coming today and I can totally handle them” Danny looks worried but just nods “If you say so but any sort of incident today and everybody will come down on your like a tonne of bricks alright?” Nodding I know that I can’t have any incident today and I’m not going to create any issues.

The afternoon drags on until Danny comes into the office “The advisor is here and she’s on her way up” he says as I nod before realising, he said she. “Danny wait, did you just say she?” I say thinking I must have misheard him when he said that the advisor had arrived. “Yeah she is here, a youngish sort of woman not sure of her name, think somebody said it was Sarah,” he says as he walks out of the office and back down the hall.

All enthusiasm of finishing my work today has gone, now in full anxiety mode as it consumes me over who it is, about half an hour later there’s a knock on the door and Michael walks in with someone standing behind him. “This is our afternoon team office, 

unfortunately, Daniel isn’t here at the moment but one of our admin assistants is” he shows the person in as my jaw drops and I see my sister Sarah, who supposedly had no interest in politics at all.

Michael stands there and introduces me “This is our latest employee of the month Isaac, he’s only new here but he’s already made a big impression on everyone” I sit there with a smile on my face and my sister muttering under her breath “I bet he has” as Michael continues to introduce me and goes through what I’ve done.

“Isaac is a part of our safety committee, he has gone through the training program with flying colours, he’s well ahead of schedule acing every module,” he says as I smile and just answer the questions Sarah asks me. Clearly bothered by the fact that I seem popular she walks away and out the door as Danny comes back into the office ‘Well she seems like a friendly bitch” sitting down in his chair.

“You’re telling me,” I say still rattled and taking a drink out of my water bottle “So what is she to your father’s campaign,” Danny asks as I finish my mouthful and take a deep breath “That was my sister Sarah” my stomach churning over what just happened with Sarah considering that she supposedly never wanted to be apart of the political games.

“Wow, just wow,” Danny says leaning back in his chair, “I thought the political operatives in your family were your brothers”. I nod “So did I, Sarah never had anything to do with the politics as far as I knew, she was always more interested in becoming a doctor”. Danny’s face sums up mine as it has all become a total clusterfuck of a situation and that I really didn’t know what was going on under my nose the whole time.

A few minutes later Michael comes into the office “Sorry about that Keppel, I didn’t think she would be so interested in you, do you know who she was exactly”. Danny is sitting there trying to signal to him not to push me on the issue but he doesn’t see Danny trying to stop him from asking. “Doctor Sarah Keppel” concentrating on reading as Michael stands there. “Dr. Sarah Keppel? As in what?” he asks closing the door and leaning on it making sure nobody can get into the office.

“My older sister” my tone clearly frustrated by the fact that I didn’t know she was a part of anything like this. Michael stands there “Jesus, sorry if I had known then I wouldn’t have ever let her in or said anything”. I look across at Michael and shake my head “It’s fine, you’re our supervisor and I should have been honest with you the second I saw her”.

He stands there for a minute before Danny jumps in “You don’t need to apologise, you handled today well, why don’t you take the rest of the day off and just relax to deal with tomorrow”. Michael is there agreeing with him and as much as I don’t want to go home, I reluctantly agree.

I watch as Sarah is sitting in the car and I wander over towards the car and tap on the window as her driver gets out of the car. “Ms. Keppel is busy and would prefer not to speak to random strangers” the tone of voice is one of both disdain for me being a “stranger” and that he probably doesn’t know who I am.

The Back door opens of the car “What do you want Isaac?” the voice says not getting out of the car. I quickly stop myself from going with my first ten sets of remarks that I want to say but go down the dignified polite route. “I just wanted to say that it was nice to see you again Sarah, I hope you’re doing well and pass on my love to Mum”.

Sarah sits there taken aback by what I had to say to her and for a moment she breaks from the frosty bitch routine “Yes I will pass on that I saw you to Mum and yes it was nice to see you too Isaac”. Whether her statement was genuine or not, I’m not fully convinced but I’ll take what I can get as I head back to my car and putting my bag in the back watching Sarah drive off.

I get in my car and drive into town, heading my way to Mitch’s office and buzzing on the intercom. “Who is it please?” I hear an older female voice say, “Isaac Keppel here to see Mitch, he will know what it’s about”. The door unlocks and I go up to the office as the older lady sits behind a desk reading a gossip mag and listening to talkback radio. 

Mitch comes out of his office “Oh hey Isaac, I’m supposed to have a meeting with a client in five minutes” he says as more people get buzzed through the door. “I just need another favour, can you look into a Medical History for me?” I ask as Mitch looks a bit worried “That’s hard work knowing what they’ve had” I shake my head, “Doctor registration, can you look for any Doctors surnamed Keppel please”. 

Mitch writes the name down and nods “Yep I can do that, might take me some time because I’m snowed under at the moment” I leave Mitch’s office as the older lady looks at me “Your the politician’s kid aren’t you?” she says glaring at me. I sigh “Yeah that’s me, Isaac Keppel” she rolls her eyebrows, “thought so, I’m Lorna” before turning up the radio for the news.

I head back home and look through the information that Mitch got and sent me, I look at the names and in particular the name Natasha O’Sullivan. The O’Sullivan’s are my Dad’s biggest donors are directors of the Keppel Foundation but wonder why their daughter is a director of the company. I think about her connection, realising that she was my brother’s high school and then college girlfriend and then it suddenly hits me. “Holy shit” I blurt out as a sick feeling covers my body over what I just figured out.