The falling

I quickly went on my way, to my company? Premium Pharmaceuticals.

If you think it is a small company, you are wrong, Premium is among the top ten companies in Egypt.

You may ask: How did I do it? Well, by hard work, diligence, perseverance, and by marrying the woman who own.

It wasn't long before I found myself slumped in my office chair, huffing and puffing, with a headache stuck to my head like a bat. The throbbing vein on top of my head hadn't gotten any better, but I had adapted to the pain.

Someone knocked on the door and I was startled:

- "Help yourself".

The door slowly opened and a thin young man with vacant eyes entered, looking nervous. He was leaning on a crutch because of an injury to his foot. It was Mahmoud, and he used to work for me. I say "used to" because I was about to fire him.

- "Mahmoud! Welcome."

I said it without looking at him, pretending to be busy with some papers that were in front of me, and he said in a hoarse voice that I could barely hear:

"Dr. Adam, welcome... Excuse me, sir, this is what I came for."

He pointed to a cell phone. I asked him:

- " What is this? ."

- " Email from HR saying I'm fired . "

- " What do you think is the reason? "

I said it while shaking my head nervously, expressing fake anger towards him, but he looked surprised. The poor guy didn't know that I knew, maybe he thought I would intercede with HR to get him reinstated, the idiot still hasn't learned the ropes of the job!

" I don't know, sir, just tell me what I did to deserve this? "

I shouted in a fit that shook his limbs:

" Mahmoud, please don't put yourself and me in a pointless situation when we both know the end."

He was silent, lost for words. I think I had blown up all the speeches he had been eager to give at this moment.

I looked at his miserable face to remember a past I had always wanted to forget; to some extent, Mahmoud reminded me of myself. I too, Mahmoud, was miserable and helpless; perhaps the only gift of fate to me was my wife.

Let me now tell you a story, Mahmoud:

Howayda was the most beautiful girl among her classmates in her university class. She was as delicate as a sheet of paper, her skin as white as a moon orbiting an undiscovered planet, her green eyes perfectly placed in the middle of this captivating childish face.

I will not hide from you, Mahmoud, all those male attempts by her colleagues to hunt her down and capture her heart.. But like the princess on whose throne I sat, she waved her decorated veil in the middle of one of the royal competitions for the poor palace clown to win her, and this poor, destitute clown was Adam.

All my attempts to get close to her were crowned with success, thank God.

The doors were wide open, and the hugs and kisses were dreamy, as if they were from an untold legend. But the king objected and put a reward on my head. He was her father, the man of great wealth. But no one could dissuade Howayda's determination or prevent her from the one her heart had chosen.

When she threatened to commit suicide, they thought she was bluffing. Surely this was one of the threats of a teenager who would end up in her room in a few days without food or drink until she was tamed, but when the door to her room was broken, when they saw the pulsating artery cut, when they saw the circle of blood flowing around her wrists... the father was certain then that she had inherited the same stubborn genes from him, and he was also certain that the mangy dog ​​- that was me - would hybridize his purebred lineage, and indeed the marriage took place despite his aristocratic nose.

His worst fears came true that I would take over his daughter and by extension his fortune, as the sole heir to her father's major pharmaceutical company I would become...

"- Oh, doctor . "

Mahmoud's scream pulled me out to my office.

" Mahmoud, please, I am busy now . "

I said and pursed my lips.

Mahmoud realized that there was no point in arguing, so he shook his head in disappointment, then left.

Mahmoud is a polite person, and his dignity will not allow him to engage in a pointless argument, after he learned that those around him are lying scoundrels. Mahmoud is a polite and pure person, and these are specifications that do not qualify him to work with me.

Mahmoud believes my lie. In fact, I ordered him to be fired from work. He had an accident and broke his leg. Although the insurance company covered his medical expenses, I wouldn't be able to afford a month or two for him to recover and return to work. As they say, "Employees are on the backs of those who carry them."

What? You're calling me a scoundrel? Sit in my chair for a day and you'll be surprised what you'll have to do.

In the evening, the big party was waiting for me, the launch party of a new product, a medicine for treating stomach acidity called: (Acid Free). Although I have countless drugs that fill hospitals and pharmacy shelves, it is the addiction to success, my friend, the fever that always pushes me for more.

When I arrived, the event was huge, with a huge budget. I was very careful to put every penny in its place, so that this party would come out in the best possible way.

All the attendees had been carefully selected and had been invited months beforehand so that they would not miss the event. Today, a luxury limousine was sent to each of them, and they told me funny stories of the luxury cars driving through crowded neighborhoods to pick them up individually.

I made sure that each of them felt like an important and prestigious person, no matter how low-level they seemed.

One of the cars even broke down because it ran over a goose next to a canal on its way to fetch a doctor.

Many channels were broadcasting the ceremony, and they were ready for me to give my speech. I looked at the papers I had with me and gathered some broad outlines of what I would speak about, then I entered the hall that welcomed me with the loud applause I had become accustomed to. The production line manager, Dr. Amani, introduced me with a smile that reached between the ears. I looked at the hall filled with doctors and waited until the applause finally died down, and then the moment came.

"First, I would like to express my deep gratitude to all the dear doctors present, and allow me to introduce myself to the new doctors. My name is Adam Wagih, and I have the honor to be the CEO and owner of the prestigious Premium Pharm Company, succeeding the great Dr. Saber Farouk - may God have mercy on his soul - this giant who started establishing the company in 1965 and marketing the first foreign drug manufactured for the German company Welfare. Despite the great success that the drug and all the properties that he acquired on behalf of it after that, he had this dream of manufacturing the first purely Egyptian drug with international quality, on the condition that it is manufactured here on the land of our beloved Egypt.

In 1974, his first factory was already built, despite all the obstacles he faced during the war and the subsequent economic disaster.

In 1980, we were already among the largest pharmaceutical factories in the entire country of Egypt, and successes continued until we came to own more than 650 purely Egyptian drugs in the pharmaceutical market, in addition to more than 350 pharmaceutical files waiting to be published.

In 2008, he passed away, leaving me with a great legacy of challenges and ambitions that had been planned, and there was no escape from completing the journey, a journey that made me - even in my dreams - hold a pen and paper, drawing the next step.

On March 27, 2016, a joint agreement was signed with the European company "Life Pharma". For those who do not know, this company is one of the best - if not the best - companies supplying active ingredients in the world. Naturally, this agreement obligated us to unprecedented quality standards supervised by a periodic committee from "Life Pharma", the parent company. This is of course in addition to the quality certificates that we obtained, thanks to God.

On a personal level, I consider this decision to be one of the most important fateful decisions for this entity. A single dose of the medicine became like magic, and I cannot describe to you how this affected the company, but I am absolutely certain that this is what you have experienced with us recently. For example: the drug B-Restor for high blood pressure patients, which made us one of the top ten best-selling companies in Egypt. But my dears, this is not the real reason behind this powerful speech.

I was silent for a moment, giving the minds time to digest the information I had just transmitted. The intensity of my headache was increasing. I swallowed a glass of water. I remained silent for a long time, enduring the pain until the knife went far from the back of my head. Silence was the language of the place, while the ears were hungry to hear more. So I was totally prepare to explode the bomb.

"My dears, you have been carefully selected out of all the doctors to present to you the drug "Acid Free" which I will entrust to you as an honorable partnership between Premium Pharm and you, and when I say partnership it is not some kind of metaphor."

There was a murmur in the hall, and I continued, holding a bundle of papers in my hand:

"What I hold in my hand now are legal instruments that give up thirty percent of the property shares equally to each of you."

Voices rose and mouths opened at the same time in an attempt to digest what I was saying, until he interrupted them.

A doctor's voice from behind:

- "What is this? Are we your employees now, Dr. Adam?"

The pain was unbearable, I gritted my teeth trying to force a smile on my mouth, a blurry circle slowly growing on the edges of my vision, I felt the megapixels of my eyes decreasing, I straightened up and shook my head to wake up, and I answered saying:

" Excuse me, my dear, perhaps you misunderstood. What I said was that the property would be the property of you and everyone sitting in the hall now.

Let's consider it a type of other services that the company provides, such as trips and medical conferences, but the advantage here is that you will not have to leave your clinic to get it, as I know how valuable your time is. This is a favor, not an order, and anyone who wants to refuse the offer has my utmost respect."

Everyone looked at each other as if each of them was waiting for encouragement from the other. One of them clapped in the back, followed by a second in the right corner under one of the spotlights whose features I could not make out, then a waterfall of applause followed him.

I took a deep breath as if I was devouring this sound, the pens moved on the papers greedily, my head was killing me.

Someone looks at me smiling, his mouth wide, I see his ninety teeth up close.

Amani's voice next to me stabbed my eardrums.

I was about to leave the platform, so I put my right foot under the stairs.

Here I felt a huge hammer falling on my head, and my left foot throwing me into nothingness of pitch black, and I fell in front of everyone, unconscious.