Andre Meyer was losing it too. He was seated in a suite that reeked of the smell of stale coffee, half-smoked cigarettes, hangover, and the glass of whiskey he had thrown against the wall the night before, as glass shards glittered near the minibar in the room. He was pacing in tight circles, his hands running through his hair again and again as frustration climbed the very last nerve of him. They were done for! All of them. He, his mother, and Isla. They had been thrown out of the conglomerate tactically by Malcolm, and he didn't even make a noise about it. “Bastard!” he muttered, nearly spitting the word, while thinking of Malcolm’s smug face, as he wrote out the document, knowing that they would have no choice but to sign them, “Stupid bastard!” He cursed again, as he picked up a chair and smashed it against the wall. However, it didn’t help. He still couldn’t breathe, and streams of anger were still flaring through his nostrils as he inhaled and exhaled furiously. His mother
Irina Meyer’s life turned upside down in just a few hours. She was almost losing her mind, and at the same time her health too, after Malcolm finished them in just one morning. Her body couldn't take the stress again and she landed in the hospital immediately. As she lay on the comfortable, deluxe bed in the expensive, classy, private V-VIP ward where she was being attended to and treated by the best doctors, an IV drip was passed into her left arm under her skin, while she stared blankly at the sparkly white ceilings, lost in thoughts.Her body trembled endlessly with weariness as she struggled to remain poised and keep it together, but she was losing it so badly. Pain was wriggling around her heart and it felt like her brain would erupt if she kept replaying the dire reality of her life in her head.She looked like a shell and like a worn-out shadow of grief, as her face looked so pale and her lips chapped and dry like someone close to death. Haggard, was an understatement for the
Standing at the tallest height she could, Zoe leaned on the glass railings that bordered each floor of the mall and allowed a clear view of its entirety, as she watched below her, the sight she had desperately craved for the past few days. The mall was filled with people again. She could hear the murmur of voices rising in waves that didn’t reach her floor but could be seen in motion, with people walking briskly from store to store, queueing, laughing, holding shopping bags with ease while trooping in and out like the last few days hadn’t happened.Her lips parted as a small sigh of relief escaped, her heart warming with gladness that somehow the worst of all storms was over. Just days ago, the same floor had echoed in the painful silence of barely any customers, with journalists sitting outside all day, protestors waving signs, and stacks of returned orders. Sales plummeted, vendors were on the verge of pulling out, and the entire building had tasted the cruelty of total collapse.
Everywhere around Malcolm Meyer remained still and silent like the kind of hush that came after a great storm, as he stepped into the cold air of the underground parking lot of his conglomerate, with his black shirt rolled at the sleeves, and buttons undone at the collar like he was home already. The day went so much better than he had even envisaged, and he was satisfied that he had taken everyone by surprise and cleared their doubts so mercilessly with what they didn't see coming. The multi-billion-dollar deals he closed, the success of global virtual conferences he attended, the lawsuits, a full thorough clean out, and the magnitude of how he cleared everything at once without doing too much was the greatest feeling ever. Attending virtual meetings endlessly all day, doing a great deal of reviewing and sudden country branch sweep up, as well as policy audits, Malcolm figured out a few malfunctions than he thought he would. Without batting an eyelash, he had told Edward to book
Nothing made sense ever since Zoe found out that it was her logistics supervisor, the man whom they had overlooked in every possible consideration, who got them into the terrible mess they were in.Right after his confession, he was dragged out by the security, and the police discreetly took over the case immediately. The HR team processed his dismissal instantly, and the mall’s legal team took on the remaining work to be done.The worst of all was that after everything the logistics supervisor confirmed was investigated, it led them to a dead end. The phone number that had been calling him and giving him instructions all along was a burner phone that couldn't be traced. The CCTV cameras caught his footage on the day he went to pick up the money from the locker at a train station, but nothing went beyond that because the person who dropped the money was nearly untraceable. It showed the figure who stopped the money, but the person was unrecognizable because of how well they covered
Zoe woke up a little later than she used to on days that she didn’t oversleep, and she felt refreshed and better because she had slept soundly, a little better than she used to whenever she was home alone. After getting out of bed, taking her bath, and doing quite a number of skincare treatments, something she used to forget to do every morning, she decided to dress in a fancy suit for work and wear very nice heels. She tied her hair in a ponytail instead of letting it down as usual, wore nice makeup, and picked up her bag as she walked out of her room, straight to where her new car was parked. And with exhilaration and a smiling face, she drove with her window rolled down as the cold breeze hit her face. She was in a very good mood ever since she woke up, and she didn't even know why. Glancing through her window, she wondered if Malcolm was still home as she drove past his house, remembering that she had sent a ‘thank you’ message, a few minutes before she fell asleep. There we