CHAPTER 2: THE FIRST STRIKE

Ava went to bed in the night with everything that played out at her engagement in her mind. When she woke up the next morning, nothing was happening. Perhaps, Damian Blackwood only put up a show. Nothing to be worried about.

However, by noon, she began to think otherwise. There was tension all around the sleek headquarters of Sinclair Holdings. People spoke in hushed tones behind desks and as they passed. At the mere sight of her, their lips all went shut.

A few moments later, Ava stepped out of the private elevator and strode anxiously to her father's office. She knew something was going on. But, what was it?

She got to the office and pushed it open. It was then she confirmed it. There was trouble. Charles Sinclair stood by the window with his phone tightly pressed to his ear.

“Hello! Hello!!" The man yelled frustratingly into the phone. “Listen to me!"

Ava watched as he took the phone down. The senior executives sat around the long table. None of them had a happy expression on their faces.

“Dad." She called him.

The man turned around with a tired expression on his face. "Ava.”

"What happened?” She asked.

No response came. The silence frightened her. “Someone should speak to me. What is going on?"

After a few more seconds of total silence, Marcus Vance, the company's Chief Financial officer broke the silence.

“We have lost four of our primary investors this morning alone."

Ava was confused. "Lost. You mean they died?”

Marcus shook his head. "They pulled out.”

She frowned. "What do you mean by that? Those are our oldest investors. They have been with this business for years. How can they just pull out all of a sudden?”

“They withdrew their funding entirely,” Marcus explained further.

“All four of them?" Ava queried.

The CFO nodded his head. “Yes. No prior notices. They just pulled out within an hour of each other.”

It didn't make sense. Investors don't pull out from a thriving profitable business….unless something happened. Perhaps, someone made them an offer that they couldn't refuse in any way.

The reality struck. And she muttered a name.

“Damian," she said. “Damian Blackwood."

The room was silent. No one spoke. Charles Sinclair turned to her and heaved a sigh. Then, he said, "Let's not jump into conclusions yet.”

Ava could see the fear in her father's eyes. The man was fighting not to believe it. The main office phone rang suddenly.

One of the vice presidents took the call. Within a minute of answering the phone, blood drained completely from his face. Ava knew another bad news just arrived.

“What is it?" She asked as the call ended.

The man looked up. “Apex National Bank just cut us off. They suspended our primary credit fine.”

The news blew across the room heavily.

"What?! On what grounds?” She pressed on.

"They said they want to reassess their overall risk before continuing to do business with us.”

Ava staggered two steps backwards. One hit after another. It was evident someone was behind it all. The blow continued through the day. A major client suddenly cancelled a huge logistics contract. Deals upon deals were terminated without any proper explanation.

Soon, all the major shareholders began throwing in their shares in the black market. By evening, the stock value of the business had plummeted by twelve percent in less than a day.

Ava had no idea what to do. Her world was crumbling entirely right on top of her. It took many years for her father to build this company. But somehow, it was falling apart in less than a twenty four hours. She needed a breath of fresh air.

Ryan was her safety zone. She grabbed her phone and dialed his contact.

One ring….two rings…three rings….

The call disconnected. Next, the phone vibrated. A text came in almost immediately. It read, “.... can't talk now. Very busy."

That was very odd. The response was rather too cold to have come from the man she loved. She tried to call him again. He still didn't take the call.

Then, she sent him a text….”Babe, I really need to speak to you now. When and where can we meet?"

She waited for him to respond. But nothing came, despite the fact the message gave the double tick. A frown formed on her face. Maybe he's just busy. Nothing much.

She returned to her father. Charles Sinclair had just gotten a phone call.

“Ava," he called her calmly.

“Dad, why is Damian Blackwood doing this?" She queried him. “I want to know."

The man sighed. “I told you not to jump into conclusions yet."

Ava was not it. “It is very obvious that he is the one behind this. Tell me what happened in the past.”

The man dismissed the talk immediately. "Not now, Ava. Not now. We are not having this conversation.”

Ava tried to protest but the man clearly had no intentions of going down that path with her. He left her in the office to attend to other matters.

As Ava remained there, wallowing in a pool of her thoughts, her phone vibrated many times. Ryan finally replied. When she checked, it was something else entirely.

Attached to a three word message, “Look at this," were files.

She opened the first one and her heart sank. Ryan was in a dimly lit bar kissing a strange lady so passionately.

In the second file, he was leaving a boutique with the same woman, his arm around her waist. Her heart began to pound so quickly. It was going to explode.

She called him again and again. But he never responded. All she wanted to hear was that the images were all fake. But Ryan never responded.

Another message came in. This time, it read, “Ask your fiance where we went after the engagement party last night."

Ava felt blood drain from her face completely. Her worry completely shifted from the disaster at Sinclair Holdings to Ryan Bennett.

Just last night, everything was perfect. Twenty four hours later, nothing was perfect.