FOUR

Vida frowned. She did not like the way James fussed over him like he was a child who could not do anything for himself. Axel sat there, staring at her from the other side of the room. Vida took her eyes off him and focused on James. They were having a conversation before they were rudely interrupted by Axel. 

"I was saying," she began in a tight tone with her nose in the air. Both men cast their eyes on her, ready to hear what she had to say. "The doctor was telling me about his guardian, and I don't understand what he meant by that." 

"Oh," James exclaimed, his eyes lighting up with understanding as he nodded. Vida cast him an expression, hoping that it was speaking for itself and that she did not need to ask him to explain his exclamation. 

"Are you not going to explain?" 

"Your father made me his guardian," Axel replied. 

Vida was sure that she had heard wrong, and if that was not the case, maybe he was just saying a bunch of words to see how angry she would get when she heard them. There was no way her father would take her out of being his guardian; she was his only family. How could he take her out and put this random man who popped out of nowhere? 

She was angry, but amusement shone through instead as a strained laugh left her mouth. She stood up from the chair she had been sitting in. "Why?" She asked, taking gentle steps towards him with her hand crossed over her body. "Why would my father entrust his life to you?" she asked. Anyone hearing her could tell she was angry. "You are a stranger."

"Mr. Van Allen does not regard Mr. Manchester as a..." James trailed off, seeing the threatening gaze that she threw at him. 

"I don't know him, so he is a stranger," she sighed and stopped a few steps from Axel. She turned her attention to James. "I know that I shouldn't be saying this when my father is lying in bed like this but I need to meet with the board of directors so I can at least know the state of the business and know what I am meant to do about it," she stopped talking when the expression on James face seemed weird. 

"What is it?" 

James did not know how to bring up the matter with her. How could he tell her that her father had put Axel as CEO before all of this happened, and it was all because they were having financial troubles?

"Are you not going to act on my order?" She asked. If James was not going to talk, then he had to at least do as she said. He should be out in the corridors calling the CEO and directors. 

"Mr. Van Allen appointed Mr. Manchester here as the CEO before he fell ill." 

Vida laughed; she laughed so hard that tears fell from her eyes and dropped to her cheeks. She wiped them off with her fingers and stared at the man sitting innocently in the room. "Him again?" She asked, and the room fell silent; it was like no one dared answer the question. "Well, thank you." 

Axel was shocked by her words, as they did not match her body language.

“Thank you?’ He thought to himself. That was not what he expected to hear from her, considering the way she had been acting towards him all day. She was expecting her to throw hands or maybe some hurtful words at him. 

“Thank you so much for holding the fort while I was away, but now I am back, and that means I can step in and do the right thing for the company,” she announced. 

It was Axel’s turn to laugh; he could not believe that she thought he would just hand everything over to her just because she asked for it. If it worked that way, then all of their businesses would have been overrun by now. “It does not quite work that way,” he said with a smile on his lips. 

From the expression on her face, he could tell she did not find what he had said funny; she pressed her lips together. "Well, how does it work?” she asked and then shook her head and hand at the same time. “You know what? I don't care how it works; all I want is that you give me the CEO rights of the company as soon as you can.”

"I am sorry I can't." 

"Are you trying to challenge me or piss me off or something?" Vida asked with her hand on her waist. 

"No, but things do not work that way; there is a process to follow, and we are going to follow the process." 

"Let us follow the process then."