The day after the counter case was filed, Henry came into my office looking a bit concerned. I looked up from my work expecting him to speak up since he was already in the office but he said nothing, instead he glared at me. “Young master, there is something you must know.” He started. Something I must know?Whenever Henry sounded like this, it was important. He always came into my office with a straight face ready to work but I could see that he was trying to be careful as he spoke to me. “What is it, Henry?” “Lily's birthday is coming up in two weeks.” “I know that.” I said dropping my pen wondering if there was something new about Lily's birthday coming up. “I'm well aware that you know. I'm only here to inform you that I wouldn't be available to assist in the planning of the party.” I closed my document and stared at him. In the few months that I have known Henry Abott, he had never been unavailable for anything. He planned meetings, he managed board meetings and literally

With Lily's birthday part coming up and the counter case filed, I knew I had to be extremely careful. We had to be mindful of the people that were to be invited. It was a kids party so the children were going to come in with their parents and it would be strictly an invitation. I was still going to talk to Henry about the security and how tight I want it to be. This birthday party was planned to be small but I knew that reporters would always be reporters. They didn't care about anyone but just themselves. The planning started this evening after I spoke to Lily. Sue must have ran to Yemi to tell her what we concluded. She had called this meeting at the kitchen table. Lily sat between me and Yemi with a notepad she had brought from her room.The notepad had a butterfly on the cover and was purple in colour. She pointed at it and told us specifically that she wanted the theme of her party to be like.My laptop was open and Yemi was looking up some things on the Internet. She said sh

I called Gerald on a Monday morning.It was early but Gerald was already at his desk which did not surprise me. Gerald Thompson was the kind of man who arrived at his desk before the city fully woke up."The counter case," I said when he picked up. "Where does it stand?""We filed it four days ago," Gerald said. "The court has acknowledged receipt. We are waiting for a hearing date." He paused. "The other side will have the opportunity to respond to our filing before the hearing. That will take approximately two to three weeks.""And when they respond what happens?" I asked."They will try to find holes in our counter case," Gerald said. "They will look at everything we submitted and try to argue against it. The hospital competency assessment will be their biggest problem because it is an official document signed by an independent psychiatrist. That is very difficult to argue against." He paused. "However they will try.""How?" I asked."They may argue that the assessment was done six

Lily's birthday party came and the party started at about 6:30am. Literally because she came knocking in my room and when I didn't open up the door, she walked in on herself and tapped my shoulder. I looked at her. She was dressed in purple even though it wasn't in her party dress. She wore her everyday dress with a wide smile on her face. Her hair was packed in a pun which meant that she had done that entirely by herself or she had asked help from Mrs. Pack which seemed impossible because she'd be very busy with the preparation. “Do you like my hair? Wake up, brother. Today is a beautiful day.” I still felt sleepy but I dared not stay in bed when I had Lily on my neck and for the fact that today was her birthday. I felt bad that I wasn't the one standing over her bed with a cake. After everything that happened with the party planning coupled with the Hargrove case, I was so tired and needed to get some rest. “I'm awake. I'm awake.” I said. Lily was jumping now by

The bouncy castle arrived at nine and took forty five minutes to inflate.It was purple as I had expected. I had never seen a purple one before and it seemed like the delivery men had clearly never installed a purple one before because they glared at it like they were having second thoughts about it. Lily stood in the garden and watched the process. She looked like a project supervisor overseeing her work only that she was overly excited. At some moment, she'd point at something and laugh. Then she came to me when everything was finally set up. “This is perfect.” She said, “I love it.”“I'm happy that you love it.” “Can I go in now?” “But your party starts at 12.” “That's too far away. I just want to jump into it now.” She said and I could notice her body literally shaking because of that. She looked at the bouncy castle. Then at me. Then at the bouncy castle.I still