Chapter 4

The elevator opened, and I was faced with workers who looked surprised at seeing me. They all stood, hesitating to get in.

“Come in,” I said. They nodded, but only three dared to enter.

“We will wait for the next one, so as not to crowd you.” A male worker spoke, and they all nodded in agreement.

“If you say so.”

The door closed. Usually, I had used the private elevator I created, but Gina had informed me that it was under repair.

I was exhausted from last night's event. I didn’t even know how I got home, but I had dragged myself to wake up this morning, and for the first time in two years, I took those drugs. I couldn’t bear to stay at home and rest. Working was my dandelion, an escape.

“What happened yesterday? I kept calling you.” Gina's worried face came immediately after the elevator opened.

“I slept off immediately after getting home.” I lied. She followed me inside and stood in front of me while I sat.

“Why? You didn’t sound tired after you left the restaurant, and you didn’t visit the mansion after insisting on it. Tell me, is everything fine? You don't look so good this morning.” She said, her voice filled with concern.

“Stop worrying, mother hen, I'm as good as ever. I'm a businesswoman and I am bound to be tired now. As for the mansion, informed mom that I'll be coming next week.”  I spoke, looking through the documents on the desk.

“Something happened yesterday, right?” She asked again, her eyes not leaving me.

“Do you want something to happen to me?” I eyed her.

“Of course not.” She replied almost immediately.

A knock came from the door.

“Come in.”

Raya, my secretary, walked in with documents. She greeted both of us.

“This is the list of companies we are working with for our upcoming projects.” She placed the document on the table.

“What of M&M, what did they say about the sole collaboration?” Gina asked.

M&M was a rising international fruit company, a perfect collaboration to expand my company internationally, but they wanted a double collaboration with another company, and it wasn’t beneficial for us, as we had all the resources.

Gina has been the one in charge of the board members while I've been occupied with other work.

“They won't bulge, and the deadline is closing in. Everyone at the board has agreed with it.” Raya answered, and Gina rolled her eyes.

“They are just being greedy. They can all agree to it as they want. If you don't approve it, there is nothing that can be done.”

I smiled. “You know that is business. Smaller companies will cling to bigger ones to climb to the top. M&M is doing exactly that, and good for them, they have more than one company to cling to.” I added. “If they won't yield, let's sign the contract since the board has agreed.”

The room grew quiet. I looked up from the now-sighed document to Gina.

“Aren't you wondering which company it is?”

“Nope. As long as it isn’t among my blacklisted companies.” I went back to signing the remaining documents.

“It's cordisR group.”

I looked up to Gina as her words sank in. Stretching my hand, I collected the remaining document from Raya.

 Arthur's image appeared with his company's name on top. I flipped through the pages.

“You may leave Raya.” I heard Gina said.

“What is this?”

“Initially, I rejected the project, but Raphael encouraged the board members to pursue the project. I didn’t disclose this to you as I wanted to persuade the company about making us sole owners, but they are hellbent on making a collaboration with cordisR.”

“This shouldn’t be a discussion. Arranged a board meeting now, I will go speak with Raphael.”

While I was the owner of the company and the biggest shareholder, Raphael was the third biggest shareholder. Father bought shares for him from my once weak shareholders who had sold because of Dad's influence.

I knocked on Raphael's door, but got no response.

Knowing he was inside and probably fooling around to notice me, I entered without an invitation, and I wasn’t surprised.

“Sis,” Raphael said, almost not in shock. The employee, once on his feet, rushed out, fixing her clothes.

“Miss Carly.” She was flushed at being caught.

“It's work hour, what are you doing here?”

“I, I wa .....” She shuttered.

“Don't be so hard on her, sis, I called her over,” Raphael said with a smile. He stood up and signaled her to leave. She nodded, about leaving.

“Mrs Regal.” I read her ID card as she stopped beside me. She was from the marketing department.

“A team will be coming to your department later. ”

Realisation set on her face, and she nodded. She wasn’t the first person to fool around with Raphael and get fired. Though she looked sad, she bowed and left.  While it may appear Raphael was interested in her, he wasn’t, it was to plant a mole among my workers. And if I didn’t see them today, someone would have reported it soon.

Seeing she was out, Raphael walked toward me. “You didn’t have to do that, she did nothin......”

I didn’t let him finish before using the document I had come with to smack his face. He staggered, his eyes realizing what I just did.  I threw the papers at him.

“I´ve warned you before to stop messing with my employees. Why don't you ever listen?”

His brows furrowed in anger as he flipped through the papers. Raphael was younger than me by four years. While we had a striking resemblance due to our father. I couldn’t help but hate him. He act naive and timid, especially when he called me his sister. But that was all a facade, I knew not to trust his actions.

“Why are you taking out your anger on me over this?” He yelled, almost whining. “Father was the one who signed it and spoke to the board, not me.”

 “Why would Father sign with cordisR when it's my project?” I asked, scooting to the floor to look at him. His eyes widened in fear seeing me close.

“I don't know, he said it was a good project and working with cordisR leads us more into international market, and besides, the M&M project is of high stakes now.”

I glared at him. “Then go tell father, if he insists on working with them, he should consider selling his shares out as well as the board members. My team will be ready to buy them all.”