Chapter 4

Walking out to the park, Laura decides not to call her driver and just drive herself today, with no place to go in mind she roams around the street driving at a very slow speed.

After father disappeared years back, she only has herself to rely on and take care of the company herself with little preparation.

Her father had given Nicholas’s mother full control over the house and she has a strong evidence against them so it became difficult for her to throw them out.

To stop any harm from coming to the company again, Laura give in and allow her and her son to become family with her, she even offered Nicholas a job at the company wanting to put everything behind her and forgive him since it’s not his fault but didn’t know she will end up shooting herself in the foot.

Laura sighed as she is being bought back to reality by the sound of her phone ringing tone, she checked who the caller is and it turns out to be Avan.

She hissed and she cut the call increasing the speed of the car in anger, for days now she has been trying to get in touch with him but he just ignore her and decide to all her when it’s convenient for him

Laura hissed again and finally pull up in front of a restaurant realizing that she hasn’t eaten anything all day and decide to grab something to there before going back to the office.

She entered the big room and took a sit at a far corner to avoid drawing any attention to herself, one of the waiters walk up to her and gave her the menu list.

Laura picked the first thing on the list without checking to know what it is and returned the menu back to the waiter who in turn left to get her order.

Laura bought out her phone and saw a message from Clara telling her that she has been able to find out the identity of the person behind TK companies, she sprang to her feet instantly and start to walk out of the restaurant bumping into someone in the process.

“I am sorry” she apologized without looking up and left.

Chris stood still beside his mother startled when he was hit by a strange woman and heard her apologize, he watch her disappearing figure, it only took him a few seconds to recognize her voice and continued to stare at the direction she went shocked.

Even after seven years, he could still recognize her voice by a few words.

“What’s wrong dear, you haven’t answered my question if you will be home tonight or not” his mother said.

Chris turns to her and just nods his head not answering her question

“See you later” he simply said and left

He entered the car and put a call through to Ken, his assistant and got off the phone after a few minutes to focus completely on driving home.

Chris tried to act like the voice he just heard now doesn’t matter to him but finds himself thinking about her.

He has returned to the city in less than a year now and didn’t run into her, a number of their old schoolmate did gossip to him about the current state of PK group of companies and he has concluded that he doesn’t care.

He has gotten rid of his shameful crush on her and will never care about her again.

That is his decision after getting back from long years of training and hard work with help from his maternal grandfather, he was able to start his own company and bring it up quickly to stand equally with other establishments.

His grandfather died a year back he decided to come back here and start a new branch for his company.

After winning a big contract, he has had a number of investigator’s working to find out his identity and get his personal contact and unexpected, it turns out he actually won it against Laura’s company

Since he is not planning to stay for long, he wanted to stay hidden and return without anyone from his past finding out about his return.

Chris scratch his temple as he drive trying to stop his thoughts from running wild and turned to go do some work at the company instead of heading home.

~

Laura gets back to the office and Clara met her at the company’s entrance.

More than anything, Laura wondered about what is so special about the company’s CEO that makes him capable enough to compete against her company and even boycotts them at the last bidding.

Laura was so furious when she found out about this last one and so angry that a small company just comes out of nowhere overthrow them.

On getting to her office, Clara placed a file in front of her containing the information about the so called enemy of hers.

“Chris Hugh, twenty four years old...” Laura was saying but stopped after seeing his age, she can’t believe that the person messing with her is the same age with her, obviously he must have inherit the company from his parent or something and is just sitting in the position of the CEO doing nothing.

“Do you have a picture of him?” she asked raising her head from the file in her hand

“Yes here it is” Clara answered and places the picture in front of her. Laura pick up the picture and stares at it flabbergasted.

“Chris”

The great change in his height, look and face didn’t allow her to quickly recognize him but his dazzling smile is something she can’t mistake.

She could still recognize the face of her ex-fiancé if it’s okay to refer to him as such.

Because he disappeared from high school all of a sudden then, they didn’t have a chance to properly call off their engagement.

With Avan’s persistence, Laura had decided to go ahead and announce her engagement to him a year after but they have been engaged for so long now and he has never talked about them proceeding to the next level of their relationship.

“Is he doing this on purpose then or could it just be a mere coincidence that he has a business n the same line with hers” Laura thought and begin to think about how to approach the situation.

She had thought that she will meet with the CEO and convince him to work on the new contract together with her since they wouldn’t be able to handle such big project with their limited resources… Clara jolt her out of her thoughts

“Why don’t you try and merge the company together with us? they are a small company after all, they won’t reject if we offer them an irresistible price” Clara suggested but Laura immediately decline.

Now that she knows who the CEO is, offering to buy the company might not be a good idea to try

“Why don’t you try to speak with the CEO of MINES then? I heard they are close friends”

“Let’s approach him first and see if we can get vital information” Laura said and begins to think hard.

If she really fails to get funds for the company, he shareholder wouldn’t hesitate to close her mother’s life long brand and take the company away from her and she will end up losing it to Nicholas and his mother.

Over the years, Clara has been helping her along with Avan but she is just not good enough so the company keeps going down and now she needs to do something fast before the company sinks further.

“Ma’am, I have good news” Clara said and enters the room with a gold card in her hand

Laura turned her seat around and asked why she is excited

“The CEO of MINES is throwing a party this weekend and it seems the CEO of TT company is also invited” she said smiling and Laura immediately stretch her hand to get the invitation

“This weekend?” she asked to confirm again and Clara nodded.

“Prepare a dress that will make me look simple but also elegant and also bring me all the information we have on him and his company, something on any of his subordinate is also okay” Laura instructed and dismissed her.

With an opportunity presenting itself right in front of her, she has to make use of everything she can and ensure to get Chris on her side. At least till she gets what she wants from him even if it means blackmailing him.

“Beep”

She got a message from Avan asking her to meet up with him but she ignores it, deciding not to talk to him until he comes to her and apologized properly.