POWER PLAY

        A few hours later, Ethan was seated in front of his uncles. The room was quiet as they all stared at him, wondering if he was real. None of them knew that he was coming back. He watched them, looking at their faces one after the other, he was enjoying their discomfort  After a while he cleared his throat. 

        "Good day, ladies and gentlemen, I am glad to be here. Ahem, I came back from Los Angeles to introduce my bride!"  he said smiling at them.  "I know about what was written in my father's will and I know about the vote that would be taking place next month, but I want to tell you all that it won't be necessary." 

      There was murmuring in the room as those men quietly knew what was about to happen, Ethan was only smiling. It was only a few people who were smiling as he spoke. 

       "It came to my notice that the voting date has been shifted forward to an undisclosed date. But, not to worry, my mother has already stepped down from that position and I am here to assume it, just as the will states." 

      "We are yet to see your wife!" Mr Childress retorted.  "And as the will states, you are to be married or engaged at least to be able to assume the position." 

      Ethan smiled.  "Mr Childress, I think you are setting yourself up for disappointment." 

      Mr Childress remained quiet and so was the whole room. Ethan waited for anyone else to make a statement but no one did. 

       "I called this meeting because of two things, first is to introduce my fiancée to all of you and the second is to change how this company is being run."  More murmuring in the background erupted. Ethan smiled a satisfying smile.   "Also, I would like to propose a new project in Los Angeles, that project would begin immediately after my wedding. That all said, I will introduce my fiancée to you.

     "Meet my beautiful fiancée in person, none other than Miss Faith Prescott." 

      There was a round of applause as Faith stepped inside the room, looking fabulous in a black turtleneck and cream Cashmere jacket, her hair neatly tied back in a bun, a pair of matching stud earrings and pearl necklace and almost no makeup. She flashed them her killer smile as camera lights flashed on her. 

      "I will answer all questions regarding her. If you want to know anything about her, you can ask me please," Ethan said with a smile. 

     Tyler led Faith to a seat. She sat down and huffed, hoping no one saw her nervousness. Her racing heart began to calm down because she thought they were going to throw questions at her there. But it seemed Ethan went right into her mind and read it.  He had saved her the embarrassment and the humiliation. She was sure she would have stuttered. 

      "I would like to make some changes in the management and also I will have to transfer some of you to our smaller branches." 

      A loud uproar erupted and Ethan watched them for a while then he signalled for quietness. The uproar subsided. 

      "You know, some of you think that running a requires little or no effort, you think it's an easy job to sit right there at the top and make decisions that would determine the progress or the ruin of the company? I would like to see you try. My father built this company from the scratch and I proved my worthiness when I took over the company by saving it from all the loans caused by the embezzlement from the previous manager, I built it and raised it to this standard, the standard you all are enjoying right now. 

      "Now, I am going to give you all another chance at this. If you want to prove your worth and your capability to run this place then, I think you should also start from scratch and let us see what you've got, but until then, I will appeal that you all leave my family and me alone. It's my right to enjoy something I have worked so hard for. I am going to change some staff and I am going to promote some of you." He paused and looked at their faces. There was dead silence in the room. 

     "Mr Childress, you wanted this company so badly that you had to convince the others to make an impromptu election so that my mother would be thrown out of office, even when her time has not elapsed. You recruited a lot of people to vote for you and that is with the company's money. Now, tell me, how do you intend to run this company if you are going to use funds from here to sponsor irrelevant things that won't yield interest?"

      "How would you know about those?" Mr Childress asked. 

      "Oh, I have my eyes and ears everywhere in this company and if you think it's Tyler, you would be mistaken because he doesn't even know anything about these things. If you are a leader who only buys people's support, there is no way you would make a good leader. That is by the way. I am sending you to San Diego, you would go and manage that company. "

      "What?! That project was just completed a year ago." 

        "I know. If you are such a good leader as you think yourself to be, you would make something out of that company in five years or less, just like I did here." 

     He spent the next few minutes, allocating other smaller branches to his other uncles whom he knew were against him. They couldn't do anything about it. 

      "And since my mother is stepping down, I am appointing a new manager to this company. One that is diligent in their work and had proven it severally, one that doesn't see this place as a place to loot money but sees it as a place they needed to protect, one that has the interest of this company and that of my family at heart. That person is nobody else than... "

      The room was silent that a pin drop could be heard, he looked at the faces of everyone in the room, holding them in that suspense, enjoying the impact. 

     "Met your new manager Mr Tyler George!" 

      There was a rapturous uproar and applause as the confused Tyler looked around in surprise. The cameras focused on him and Ethan walked up to him and shook his hand. 

       "Congratulations, Tyler," Ethan said smiling at him. 

       "Thank you," Tyler said breathlessly. 

       "Work hard, Tyler, I'm counting on you." 

   Faith beamed with smiles and looked at the crowd that was moving toward Tyler to congratulate him. She watched those traitors as they wallow in shame and sadness. She looked at Childress the instigator of it all. To think he shared the same last name with her mother. She stood and went over to congratulate Tyler. 

     "You did great," Faith said to Ethan as they were on their way to his car. 

     Ethan smiled.  "Thank you, I lied though." 

     "What part?" she asked giggling. 

     "That Tyler wasn't my eyes and ears. He had really been there for us all." 

     "I know." 

      "Let's go to the mall," Ethan said. 

      "To the mall? What are we going to do there?" 

     Ethan grabbed her hand and shrugged.  "Let's see." 

    Tyler followed them and wanted to open the driver's seat and enter. Ethan looked at him. 

      "Tyler?" 

   Tyler turned sharply.  "Yes?" 

     "What are you trying to do?" 

     "I am trying to drive you to the mall. You said you are going to the mall." 

      Ethan frowned and tilted his head, then he pointed his thumb backwards.  "Did you realize that I just promoted you a few minutes ago?" 

     Tyler stared at him blankly for a while.  "Oh, yeah, that's right, you did." 

      "You are not my assistant anymore and this is not your job, so can I have my car keys, please?" 

      Tyler chuckled.  "I...this is kind of new to me, I have to take some time to adjust." 

     Ethan moved closer to him, placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear. "You need to learn it, Ty." He straightened up.  "The only thing I would like you to help me to do is to find me another assistant and train him or her for me." 

      "Alright. You can count on me." 

    "Thank you," Ethan said and made to move to the car. "The car keys." 

      Tyler tossed him the car keys and he unlocked the car and held the door for Faith to enter. She smiled at him and went in, he went over to the driver's seat and ignited the car, as he pulled away from the parking lot. Tyler kept waving at them until they were out of the company. 

       Faith's phone began to ring and she looked at the It Nora flashed on the screen, her eyes lit up and she showed Ethan.  

       "Look who's calling me." 

        "I guess you are going to talk all day."