Copyright © 2023 Bethel-Gold.

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Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author's imagination.

***

The golden-brown-haired lady came into the office with two large brown envelopes in her hands as she quickly walked to the table of the expecting older man. She placed the envelopes on the table, and they both began bringing out the files that were inside as they skimmed through each of them.

When she felt tired of standing, she sat on one of the chairs that were in front of the older man. She adjusted her skirt and put her hair in a ponytail since it kept falling down.

After a moment, the man asked, “Joan, anything yet?”

Joan looked up from the file of files in front of her and shook her head with a little furrow on her brow. “Nothing yet, Dad,” she answered, and he sighs.

“Let’s keep looking; there could be something that we could find that would get us out of this mess we found ourselves in,” he said, and they kept looking through the remaining untouched files.

A knock was heard.

“Come in,” Gary said, loud enough for the person knocking to hear.

A man in casual wear, a troubled look, and a small enveloped letter came inside his office, closed the door, and walked towards Gary and Joan, who were busy.

“There’s a problem, sir,” the man spoke, and that made both father and daughter stop and take a look at him worriedly.

“What will that be, Robbie?” He asked, then took the envelope that Robbie handed over to him. He looked at the sealed envelope, and he looked at Robbie before opening the envelope to see its content.

He took out the folded paper and read its content; his eyes widened when he saw the content, and they rose to look at Robbie’s troubled ones.

“They di-”

"Yes, sir, they did.”

Gary stood up and threw the paper on the floor in anger. Joan watched her father’s reaction and then stood to pick up the paper that lay on the floor, and she read through it and could feel her heart race.

She turns to Robbie. “They have to be joking,” she said, and Robbie shook his head.

“They are not, ma'am.”

Joan shook her head. “They can’t do this; they... they can’t just make such a ridiculous request,” she stated, then placed the paper on the table. “Yes, we have been struggling since the Kingswell project, which was a disaster, but we are still holding up.” She raised her chin up and turned to her dad, who had a sad look on his face.

“We still have some resources to keep us going, w—we are on the verge of bankruptcy, but we can still hold on, right, Dad?” She asked for clarity with a hopeful look, but the sadness that played on her dad’s face told her otherwise.

“Joan dear,” he said, coming closer to her and touching her hair. “We used up the rest of our resources to try and make an alternative, but it failed too,” he told her, and she gasped.

Trying not to let it get to her, she shook her head and paced around the room as she thought about what could be done to save her dad’s company, then she stopped and walked closer to her dad.

“We still own a bigger share, right? We can use some of our profits to keep up for the time being, then refer some of our employees to other companies temporarily so that we can have lesser salaries to pay as we sort out this issue,” she turns to Robbie, who shares the same look as her dad.

“I don’t want them to suffer because our company is; they have families to feed,” she finishes, and he bows his head. Then she looks at her dad, who seemed like he would burst out crying.

“Joan, I am sorry, but we have just a little share from the company,” he breaks to her, and she widens her eyes. “I don’t know how that happened, but Reliso’s Company was able to get a majority of our shar-”

“And they want more?” She asked, and her dad nodded. “That’s ridiculous; they possibly wouldn’t just want our company without having something they gain from,” she said.

“What more could they want? They need more power, and since our company has been progressing over the years, they saw our weakness and decided to work with that,” her dad explains.

“No, not that,” she said when realization dawned on her. “It’s something else,” she said, then let her lips draw a smirk. “And I think I know what exactly they want." She picked up a document and the letter.

“You’re going somewhere, Joan?” She nods. “You want to meet them,” he didn’t ask.

“Trust me, Dad, I know what I am doing. Dad, just trust me on this, please,” she begged when she saw the sullen look on her dad’s face. “I’ll fix this, and soon things will fall into place,” she tried to assure.

She wasn’t sure about the actions she was going to take now but hoped for the best.

“Robbie, you heard all that we said; go make a report on that and put the right team together so that you start work as soon as possible,” she said, and he nodded before leaving. “I’ll see you soon, Dad,” she went to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek before leaving.

… Three months later …

Robbie didn’t bother knocking when he burst into Gary’s office looking really panicked. He walked to Gary, who had a little furrow on his brows when he saw him.

“What’s the matter, Robbie? You were supposed to k-” He was interrupted by the opening of his office door again to see Darken Reliso, the son of Henry and Ansel Reliso, in his usual expensive Gimanni dark blue suit, clean cut, and shining pair of shoes.

He had that static, annoying smirk on his lips and kept his right brow up. He was holding a document.

Darken walked slowly into the office and stopped just as he was in front of Gary, He then let himself sit on the chair in front before placing the document in his hand on the table.

“Good day, Mr. Anderson,” he greets cooly. He looks up at Robbie, who had a glare directed at him. “Can you leave us so we can talk?” he asked, but Robbie made no move to leave, so he rolled his eyes and looked at Gary. “Can you te-”

“What are you doing here, Dark?” He interrupts him.

Darken frowned and sat up on his chair. “It’s Darken, not Dark.”

“Same thing, what are you doing here?” He asked again.

Choosing to ignore him, he placed his hands on the table and raised his chin. “Now I see where Joan got her feistiness from,” he remarks.

“What do you mean by that?” Gary asked with a little furrow now on his brow.

“You’ll know soon; just tell this man to leave us to talk,” he side-points at Robbie.

“He is my secretary, so he has to be present in every meeting I have with anyone,” Gary defends.

Darken looks up at Robbie and then laughs hard before composing himself, “Too bad good people are too stupid to see who truly is against them,” he remarks, and before Gary can ask, he continues, “Anyways, I came here to seal off the deal I sent three months ago,” he states.

“Your offer is ridiculous,” Gary remarks.

“What choice do you have? Anderson Tech is going through one of its worst challenges, and you are already bankrupt. Soon some company will come to buy you guys off and probably turn your company into a children’s playground,” he said with a laugh.

“I better watch my words if I were you, Dark.”

“It’s Darken, and for heaven’s sake, sign the document already. It will be okay if we take over some shares of your company from a stranger whom you don’t know of, unless...” he wriggled his brows.Gary got an idea of what he was referring to.

“No!”

“Well then, sign this paper or you’ll just end up losing what you think you still have a hold on.”Gary looks at Robbie, who has a defeated look on his face; he knows he is in a deadlock here, and as much as he doesn’t want to agree with Darken, he is right. The Resilo’s might be annoying, but at least he knew them.

He looked at the front page of the document, then signed in all the blank spaces and flung it at Darken. “Don’t think you can come near my daughter; stay away from her,” he warned.

Darken stood to his feet with a triumphant smirk and walked away. “We’ll see about that.”