Chapter Three— The secret Investor

Chapter Three— The secret Investor

Justin returned to his apartment hours later. The floor to ceiling windows has a breathtaking view of the city line. The walls painted white reeked nothing short of silence. A lone piece of art hung above the beige sofa he never seemed to sit on for some reason, further depicting his overall sense of detachment.

It was his bachelor pad—he called it. The minimalist aesthetic from the single coffee table to the massively wall mounted television, devoid of any warmth or personal touch. He strode towards the kitchen, which even though ‘state of the art’ was equally uninviting, reached for the wine cabinet and grabbed himself a Mǒet Chandon.

He poured himself a glass full, usually more than the required amount but he’d had a long day at work. The board was pissed at him, he had a flat tire and to make matters worse….his private investigator was unable to find this secret CEO. How can one person causing him so much trouble??

In the midst of his brooding he heard the locks turn, raising his head upwards as he waited patiently. There was only one person who had the keys to his apartment, and he certainly wasn’t happy about the sudden presence.

“You’ve been a naughty boy Justin Santiago.” His recent fling, Summer Henshaw—a F-tier actress he met at one of the upper echelon gatherings murmured as she strode into his kitchen. She had on a trench coat, with a negligee under it that left nothing to the imagination, which would mostly turn a lot of men on but right now Justin wasn’t in the mood.

“Get out Summer.” He said calmly.

She frowned, “You’re not—

“I said get out.”

“I called you at your office today,” She murmured ignoring his flippant dismissal as she grabbed the bottle to pour herself a glass, “There’s gossip in the air Justin Santiago….juicy one at that.”

His frown was slowly morphing into a very deep scowl as his eyes narrowed to the sharp lining of her eyes, wondering why he got involved with such a woman in the first place. Deep down he knew the answer, his arrogance just wouldn’t let him come to admittance.

“What gossip?” He was prone to ask, even though he wanted her gone so he could go back to his state of recluse.

Summer winked lewdly, “It’s about your ex wife.”

His eyes suddenly darkened at the mention of Gianna, he rushed over and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her up from his kitchen stool and made for the door.

“Hey!!! You’re hurting me!” She cried out, trying to wrangle free from his grasp but it was too late—she was right outside the door in the blink of an eye, “Do you even know what I want to—

He shut the door right on her face, making a mental note to have his locks and passkey changed as soon as possible. He was a man of low tolerance, and any mention of Gianna would be taken with little grace.

A depressing sigh left him once again as he stared at his watch, a short reverie of her nagging in his ears every now and then about how much little time they spent together flashed through his mind. He felt it once again, the painful twinge at every thought of her which he shook off immediately.

There was no use crying over spilt milk, which was exactly what she was—his failed marriage, his ex wife and their dastard relationship..it was all spilt milk. She had disappeared over the face of the earth three years ago, there was no point thinking about her now.

At the moment a bright idea suddenly sprung into his brain which made his eyes light up in mischief, he quickly scrambled for his phone at the kitchen counter and made a call to his financial adviser. If he couldn’t find out the identity of the secret CEO causing him so much trouble, then he might as well meet him in person.

**********

“Twenty million dollars?!!” Gianna was ghastly pale seeing the new proposal from a supposedly new investor in her company, shaking her head in disbelief she turned to Aiden, “This is preposterous! We can’t seriously take this into account??”

“We can and we will.” He frowned as his boss was certainly not thinking big enough, “This is a new peak and I’m pretty sure it’ll drown your ex husband’s stock in the market. Please let’s—

“It seems too risky,” she cut him off shaking her head vigorously, “A sudden investment from a shell company under God-knows-what?? Doesn’t it seem a little bit too good to be true?”

He shrugged lightly tapping on his clipboard with a vaping pen, she was going to talk to him about that later, “It would seem like a ruse, that is if our secret investor didn’t ask for a meeting with the other potentials later today.”

Gianna scoffed loudly, “Yeah I’m definitely not meeting this person.”

Aiden’s brows furrowed. His boss was a changed woman now, confident and determined but every now and then her old self manages to peak through and prop its ugly head out. He took a deep sigh as he walked over to Gianna’s table, placing a hand on her shoulder as he lowered his head to her ear.

“What’s the mission of the company??”

“To get back at my ex husband?” She asked and was met with a haughty glare which made her chuckle softly, “I’m just kidding. I want to be successful Aiden, I want regain my family’s lost Gkory and most of all….i want Justin Santiago to pay for what he did to me.”

He nodded, giving one last pat of acknowledgement, “So are you meeting with our secret investor or not?”

“Let’s do this.” She replied, silently hoping that she wasn’t making the wrong decision.

******^***

Justin’s secretary took one heap of a breath as she made an incision of the cross on her chest, before she knocked on the huge glass doors in front of her. His right brow perked in annoyance catching her amusing gesture, he murmured a “come in” moments later.

“Good afternoon sir.”

“Get to the point.” He drawled, his focus still on the widescreen in front of him.

I’m not getting paid enough for this, she thought, “Well the board at LAWSON CORP has agreed to a meeting per your request sir.”

His head suddenly shot up with his eyes wide, “They agreed??”

“Yes sir.” She answered, a tad bit repulsed as she’d never seen a man as terrible as him look so—ecstatic, “You have a scheduled meeting at their office in an hour.”

Justin almost laughed, jubilated even, but the fear of looking comical in front of his secretary who clearly despised him and wanted a higher salary grounded him to his seat, “Contact my driver and tell him we’re leaving a few minutes.”

“Anything else sir??”

Deep down he knew she wanted to say “your lordship” as a get back for yelling at her yesterday. He liked his coffee hot, she made it right. He was in a bad mood but he would never apologize—a business man never apologizes. He dismissed her with the wave of a hand and she left.

A devilish smirk appeared as he raked his hands through his shiny black hair, grabbed his jacket and headed for the door. He was the winner in the end—Justin Santiago the Billionaire, Justin Santiago the winner.

*********

Thirty minutes later Justin arrived at the building of LAWSON CORP, the startup company that was causing him so much trouble. It was a small building compared to SAN limited, a minuscule one storey that could be mistaken for a money laundering scheme by drug lords.

He frowned as he walked inside, seeing the small rows of cubicles that definitely wasn’t housing a thousand of employees like his. For a company who was stealing his investors, they for sure weren’t on the flashy scale.

Maybe he could buy them out, he thought, teach the CEO a lesson and then turn his work inside out. He wasn’t a bad person, he was just a business man—one who always got what he wanted.

“Hello who are you??” A secretary asked just as he was about to make for the stairs, headed to God knows where.

He frowned, such insolence, he thought, maybe when he bought out the company he would fire her first, “I’m supposed to be at a board meeting?? I’m the secret—

“Ohh pardon me then,” her eyes lit up, “I’ll take you to the conference room sir, if you don’t mind.”

He stepped aside, gesturing her to move forward, up the stairs they went and into a hallway with the conference room clearly in the middle with the hold sign ‘ MEETING ROOM’ inscribed on the wooden door. He smiled, not bothering to thank the secretary and opened the door, one walk in and—

“Gianna??”