Chapter Six

"The investors are pulling out" the complaint started as she stepped into the building. She had heard more than her share. The president was hospitalized so every responsibility fell on her. It appeared that another strategy they used against her was to ruin the company. Everything was going wrong

"There was a major breakdown of plants in the industrial site" another departmental head said

"Project Giva has been put on hold, what should we do?" another asked

"Mr. Alan is on the line requesting your urgent attention"

She had barely made it into her office and she was already exhausted. She didn't know how she was going to handle all these she was barely thinking straight. She escaped to her office and shut the door behind her. Her stomach was churning with frustration. She was beginning to think this was more than personal. Who has she offended that is chasing her to this extent? They might be after her parents but decide to use her as the scape goat. Phones were ringing, people were panicking. She doubted it would take long before the whole thing was on air and online. She was still Standing by the door, her office phone was ringing, her personal phone was ringing, the answering machine was beeping, she was sure she had numerous emails to read and reply. Right now this wasn't where she wanted to be. She wished she could float away to where no one knew her. She regretted not going out of the country as Sandra earlier suggested but it was too late now. They were planning on expanding but as it is now they could barely get the outlets under control. The investors were calling, some were pulling out and if things continued like this with the serious projects they had at hand, there would be a lot of problem.

"Sure sucks to be you" Silvia hadn't noticed the figure twirling on her seat.

 What was she here for? To gloat? To mock her? To make her more miserable? Wasn't she satisfied? Haven't she done enough? Why did she ever make her existence known? She couldn't voice out all this questions so she just starred because that was all she could. She hadn't eaten a proper meal for three days now neither had she had any rest.

"What do you want from me?" Silvia asked. 

Ellie laughed and stood up from the seat, fixing her gaze on Silvia. The woman looked miserable and no doubt felt that way but then she didn't care. She had waited for too long and was actually enjoying the show.

"There are many things I want from you but first I'm curious why didn't you just stay in prison? Life would have been much easier for you"

"I doubt you understand how it feels to be punished for a crime you didn't commit"

At this reply Ellie's eyes darkened but they returned to their normal shade just as quick as she shifted her gaze from Silvia to the banging on the door. It looked like animals came to work today not human beings. What do you expect? Even a normal human being would break down under this kind of stress. It's a pity that Silvia hasn't collapsed yet but then she was willing to watch how long Silvia would last. It would be an interesting show. Ellie grabbed her car keys from the table and looked at Silvia.

"Enjoy the rest of your day" Ellie said and headed for the door when Silvia spoke.

"This is the first nice thing you have ever said to me" Silvia said. Ellie gave a sly smile but didn't turn.

"I said that because it is obvious it would be impossible, you want to hear another nice thing?" Ellie asked Silvia wasn't sure she wanted to but had a feeling her opinion wasn't needed because Ellie continued anyway without waiting for her to reply.

"You have a nice office but not for long. It would either be taken or you'll give it up but do you know the good news? Either way you lose" Ellie said and closed the door behind her, leaving Silvia to stare after her. 

Silvia threw her hair back, what had she gotten herself into. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself but it wasn't working at least not today. It really hurts when you are being pursued for reasons you don't know, no one to call to for help in this situation. She walked round to her chair. She dreaded sitting on it. She needed to do something but she didn't know what. The phone in her office began ringing again. She hissed and picked it up. To her surprise it was Stan, her fiancé or should she say ex-fiancé or which term would be better to describe the man who dumped her for the next Miss Chamel. She had wanted to bang the phone on the desk and destroy the whole thing but curiosity got the better of her. Some part of her wanted to hear his voice again, no she only wanted to hear what he had to say. She had locked him out of her life for a long time and she intended it to stay that way. Since she broke out of prison she had been seeing him but he always avoided her. She didn't care, actually she never thought about it. It was too disturbing so she decided to shut the whole thing out. Now he was calling her. A part of her head tried to remind her that it was just a phone call and not an application for the post he had left abruptly and even if it was, she wasn't stupid to let him waltz back into her life. She was done letting people hurt her. All the men she ever loved hurt her so bad. Stan took the first opportunity he had to abandon her when she was no longer worth a penny and hook up with the next in line. No hook up was too mild, they were engaged for crying out loud. Her own fiancé deserted her for her mysterious sister who she didn't know about and who happened to appear out of the blue. She didn't want to remember her father's case. He lied to her, abandoned her when she needed him most just like now she needs him and he is unconscious. Her mother was busy dancing attendance on her husband's daughter even though it was killing her. She heard that herself one faithful day when her mother thought she was alone. Talking to herself was now a common occurrence for Mrs. Chamel. 

"Hello Silvia are you there?" in her train of thought she had forgotten that she was supposed to be answering a call. She cleared her throat and ran her fingers through her hair.

"Yes who is this?" she replied and regretted it. It sounded dumb to even her but she needed time to recollect her thoughts.

"Come on you know it is me" so proud and arrogant, so full of himself, just who does he think he is? She was about to tell him that when she realized that it would be more stupid than pretending not to know who he was.

"What do you want?" she asked coldly maybe too cold

"Just to talk" now he wanted to talk, too bad she didn't want to hear it.

"I'm busy and don't have time to waste" yes she should let him know he is wasting her time, the time that she didn't even have as it Stands

"I think you'll have the time" who was he to tell her that, her daily planner. Gosh he needed a beating.

"And why would I want to talk to you?"

"If you want to save your neck and the company's. I'm in the car park. You have five minutes''

The man really had nerves. After all these while he never said a word to her and when he eventually says something to her is to order her to meet him at the car pack. What was she, his personal assistant? What had her going was the word save.

She got to the car park and there he was waiting for her. He was seated in his car waiting patiently for her. As she approached, she noticed the park was empty, even his driver was not in sight. She walked over to the driver's side and stood arms folded. He knew from the way she was standing, to get her inside the car would prove tasking so he got out instead. She noticed the fat brown envelope in his hand. She hoped what was inside would prove useful even though she had a feeling she might not like what was within.

"So, how have you been?" Stan knew for a fact that things weren't going well and that his presence wasn't of importance to her but what was inside the envelope. When she did not reply he went straight to the point and handed her the envelope. She didn't even ask what it was but opened it and brought out the contents. They were documents. Her father's health insurance documents that has gone missing, missing pages of a contract that had them losing money by the second, confidential information that were essential to the smooth running of the company. To cut the long story short, every piece of documented information that was missing was found in that envelope. No wonder it was fat.

"How did you get this?" this was unbelievable. She never believe that documents suddenly grew wings.

He could sense what she was thinking. He didn't blame her because if he was the one he'll think far worse.

"I didn't steal it from you but then I actually stole it and if I had wanted to use it against you I wouldn't have returned it. I mean is not like we are after each other's neck" he replied

"That would be true on my part but on yours I'm not really sure. Which brings us to another major question, where did you get it from?"

"You've not even said thanks"

"I want to make sure I am not showing gratitude to the wrong person"

"My source can't be divulged yet but I have a piece of advice. Great establishment are not destroyed from outside." With that he turned to open the driver's seat door.

"Thanks for returning this" he turned and gave her a brief smile before entering his car and driving off.

She knew there were so many details she didn't know and so many things she wanted to ask and things she needed answers to, but these weren't the major problem at hand. She brought out the content of the envelope again. It was true that these wouldn't solve all her problems but it certainly would go a long way. First is the missing pages of the stupid contract that was really draining them plus her father's health insurance document that had gone missing just when the needed it to shoulder his heavy medical Bills and so much more. She couldn't help but wonder for the one millionth time, the question nagging at her brain. Who would do this? Well let's not say it doesn't matter now but what was more crucial was it was back where it should be and another crucial fact was she needed to get back to work because, these documents miraculously appeared doesn't mean things would miraculously straighten itself, someone needed to use these documents and put things back in their right place.