CHAPTER SIX.

IVY.

I knew I had to make a decision. I had 72 hours to save my father's company. He gave me ten minutes.

I couldn't make such a huge decision in ten minutes. I had little time, but I couldn't throw my life away just like that. I had to think this through and explore other options.

“Mr Stone, I..”

“Call me Zander.” He cut me off without any apology.

I was irritated but decided to not let it show. He seemed to intentionally try to rile me up. I wouldn't let him see how affected I was.

“I cannot sign this in ten minutes. I have to properly review this with my lawyer's counsel.” I continued, refusing to call him Zander.

I knew I'd most likely not review the contract. There was no way I'd get married to this man.

He seemed to think it through.

“No.” He said and I raised my brow before I could stop myself.

“The contract is not open to legal scrutiny.” He said like someone who had something to hide.

“Well, I'm also not open to getting married under unclear terms.” I said as I stood up and made to leave.

He watched me as I left, in a way that made my skin crawl. He looked at me like I was going to be back anyway.

“Cocky bastard.” I hissed under my breath as I made my way out of the building.

Inside my car, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

I was back to square one. We were all back to where we were at the beginning. And I still didn't know what to do.

I called for a board meeting as soon as I got to the office.

And judging by their expressions as they took their seats, I assumed they didn't make progress on this end.

Many looked like they had given up.

The financial director started the meeting by giving reports of those who his department had reached out to. And as I predicted, those who responded all gave negative feedbacks.

All the other departments also gave similar feedbacks.

Then they turned to look at me. They expected a different response from me. I sighed.

“I didn't get any luck on my end also.” I simply stated. I looked up to over 15 pairs of eyes staring at me. Almost immediately, they started asking questions. I couldn't even keep up.

“But you said they reached out, how could they possibly reject us after reaching out?” The head of the administrative department asked.

A chorus of “yes, I agree”, “that's true” , rang out in the room. After a while, they calmed down and I addressed them in a calm voice.

“It’s true that they reached out, and I agreed to meet them. But we can't afford what they're asking in return. We simply can't agree to their terms.”

Immediately I said this, they came for me.

“You were the one who encouraged us, you said we didn't have anything to lose. So what exactly did they offer, that we can't afford? We can't afford anything literally.” I didn't even know who has spoken. All I knew was that I was under fire for my decision.

I remembered the way I felt under his gaze. How was I supposed to get married to someone like that. No matter the circumstances. I couldn't even think of being close to someone like that, talk more of sharing his last name. He seemed so controlling. He didn't raise suggestions, he simply stated what he wanted.

“This is our only opportunity, we can't afford to lose it.” Someone at the end of the table said and everybody seemed to agree.

I didn't want to add the clause of getting married.

Could I really get married to someone I couldn't stand, just to save my father's heritage?

The meeting ended with the last words being that we couldn't afford to fail. And that we had a chance now, one that we couldn't lose no matter what. Easier said. It was almost funny how tables turned. Just the day before, I was the one encouraging them, telling them there was a chance. Now I was the one on the receiving end.

I sat in the office long after they had left. There had to be a way to negotiate with this man. I couldn't get married. There was a huge chance of him helping us and I didn't want to mess that up. But I couldn't afford to get into this without knowing who I was up against.

I called my personal assistant to get me information about him.

Not long after, she came back with a single file.

There was literally next to nothing about this man. Only his age, education. It also added that he was born here. Just basic and totally useless information.

A person's profile couldn't be that clean. Unless he was hiding something. No…I didn't care about that. All I needed was to find another way to make him help us, without using marriage as a bait.

He seemed like our only option now.

I stayed late at the office. Going through all the records again, there has to be something we missed. Something that could point us to the right track. I went through it over and over again. But there was nothing. They showed the same thing we had concluded. No magic had happened. Nothing had changed.

I left the office in a bad mood and didn't want to go straight home. I instructed the driver to take me to a bar me and her frequented, out of habit. The last time I came here was with her. The place looked the same, crowded with evening traffic of people who decided to unwind after work. Nothing really changed. And it angered me, to think that the world never stopped, no matter what you were going through.

I headed to the counter to get a drink. The same bartender who used to crush on me was still there. She had always teased the both of us anytime we were here. He got me my usual and as if he knew I wanted to be left alone, he went about his work, not bothering for small talk. I was grateful for that. I normally avoided alcohol because it spiked my anxiety. I couldn't control myself whenever I took alcohol. Tonight, I didn't care. I took drink after drink, until I lost count.