Chapter Thirteen: contract signing meetings

First and foremost, Angie started by drafting a will. In the will, she named her brother, Marcus, Ashley and Alexis her beneficiaries in case anything happened to her. To be exact, Angie allotted half of her possessions to her brother, Alexis the retail company and the rest of her assets to Ashley and Marcus. However, the will had a catch during execution. This is mainly because she made certain the witness signatures were forged.

When Angie was sure everything was okay and could not be detected, she made a call as Alexis to Zed. After pleasantries, as Alexis, she asked him to pass by the office for she had something for him from Angie. After that, Alexis/Angie immersed herself in work.

A few minutes to 9, Angie went into her private bathroom, changed into a suit and asked Bree to come in and assist. Thank God to the few wigs they acquired, Bree made sure she looked like her old self again.

Now, in case she was the traitor, Ashley decided to pull a blinder on Bree. This is by asking her to help judge whether she Alexis sounded like her cousin Angeline Sniper. To make it believable, Alexis drawled on on her British accent or rather occasionally slipped it in. The entire process of training Alexis to speak and sound like Angie took Bree close to 15 minutes.

In fact, if it were not for the commotion at lobby that told them their guests were here, Alexis was prepared to pull the act for over half an hour. She just squeezed Bree's hand telling her "it's now or never."

As expected, Alexis successfully smoothed things over, signed the contract and saw the partners/clients out. She was elated. In fact, her joy could be compared to that of a mother finally holding her first kid after trying to have one for close to 10 years.

The clients expected Alexis to deliver her first collection of African wear in a month's time. Though she had in mind just the perfect persons to send to Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria for sourcing purposes, Alexis could not directly call them. Instead, she called Bree and asked for her recommendations. This is before Angie asked Bree to call for a staff meeting with the different heads of departments.

Thinking some more, Alexis also asked Bree to send word that she wanted to meet the rest of the employees at the end of the week. Believing it was a great idea for the employees to meet their interim CEO, Bree planned to send the memo at the end of the day.

Shortly after Bree left to fulfill the assigned duties and continue with work, Zed arrived. Using the British accent, Alexis chit chatted with Zed before handing him the will. She explained that among other things, Angie gave her the will and instructed her to give it to Zed, the company lawyer. The rest of the day for Alexis was filled with meetings. When having the meetings, she did not forget to occasionally slip in a word or two containing a British accent. The last meeting she held was with the company's senior management team to get updates on their performance.

It was during the meeting with senior management that Alexis brought up the signed contract. This is with the suggestion that sending representative to specific African countries would ensure the orders are fulfilled in time. Knowing they, the senior management, was better versed with their subordinates' strengths and weaknesses, Alexis also asked them to send three recommendations by 0900 hours the following day. With that, she ended the meeting and dismissed them.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Angie felt first her day was a success. She then slipped into the bathroom, changed into casual wear before going back to sign some of the delivered documents. She was close to finishing when her phone vibrated indicating there was an incoming text message.

Knowing she might be tempted to access her social media page. And even some financial and business websites she was fond of, Angie decided to put off checking her phone till she was done with work. Lucky for her, the phone stayed quiet till she was working on the very last document.