Chapter 9

• ARIA'S POV
• "So Nixon, huh?" I asked as Lena and I cooked dinner together.
• "There's nothing between us." She glared at me.
• "I never said there was," I smirked. "But I can tell he likes you."
• "I know that, but the company has a rule, so it's never going to happen between us." She filled her plate with spaghetti and meatballs before taking it out of the kitchen.
• I did the same and joined her at the dining table. "What if there was no such rule? Or what if you guys met under different circumstances? Would you have considered it?"
• "Yeah, I might." She shrugged, putting her spaghetti-filled fork in her mouth.
• "So you like him." I beamed.
• "Yeah, a bit." She pinched the edge of her finger to show me how small a bit she was talking about.
• "Lena?" I raised my eyebrows at her.
• She dropped her fork on the plate. "Okay, fine. I like him, but the company has its rules, so I'm never going to act on my feelings. I won't risk my career over a man, and besides, getting rid of whatever feelings I have for him would be a piece of cake."
• Typical Lena. Since I met her in college, she has never been the one to associate with guys. Not that she wasn't pretty or attractive enough, but she thought of it as a distraction to her education and future career. Lena was a goal-oriented woman, so it was normal for her to pick her career over a guy anytime.
• When I became friends with her, I took her as my role model and copied some of the things she did. For example, I abstain from distracting relationships and not letting peer pressure influence and bring me down. Lena was the master of those two things, and with that, she was able to graduate without any obstacles.
• I'd always known that one day a guy would appear in her life and make her break all her protocols, but I didn't know if that guy was Nixon. I just had to wait and let everything unfold.
• As we were about to finish dinner, Lena's phone rang on the table. "Hello," she answered and listened to the person on the other side. "The shareholders? Why?" Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion before she ran her fingers through her hair. "Why this again? What time tomorrow?" She rested her elbows on the table. "Okay, I'll be there early." She hung up.
• "Who is it?" I asked.
• "It's Nixon. He said the shareholders are demanding a meeting with the president to discuss the successor of the company." She sighed.
• "Why should there be discussion? Does the company president not have any children?" I raised my eyebrows in confusion.
• "He does, but his son is not ready to take over the responsibility of the company, that's why the shareholders are holding this meeting to pick someone to take over," she explained.
• "So they might end up picking someone else to take over the company from the president. Why would his son do that to him?" I shook my head.
• "I don't blame him, though." She shrugged.
• "Why?" I gave her a confused look.
• "According to Nixon, who is his best friend, the president has two sons; Daniel and Dave Mendez. Daniel, being the eldest son, took all the responsibility of the company on his shoulders because his younger brother didn't want to have anything to do with the company. His parents let him be because Daniel insisted that they let him do whatever he wanted and that he would handle the company.
• Dave Mendez lived a low-profile life, hiding his identity as a Mendez from the public, so nobody knew what he looked like except his close friends and people closely associated with his parents. Some people might have seen him, but they wouldn't recognize him as a Mendez.
• "It was certain Daniel was going to succeed his parent, but everything changed when he died three years ago for reasons unknown to the public. Their parents insisted that Dave take over from where his brother left off but he refused and ran away to London to stay away from his parents a year after his brother died. From what I heard, his brother's death affected him the most because they were close. So now, Dave Mendez is back, but he and his parents are still dragging the same old issue," she narrated.
• "Wow, that's sad."
• "I know."
• The next morning, Lena and I left earlier for work because of the meeting. As we were about to enter the elevator, we noticed everyone scurrying away and creating a path to the private elevator. We swerved our head to the main exit to an elderly man in a black Armani suit and some men in the black suit behind him walking toward the private elevator.
• "That's the President, Mr. Darrell Mendez," Lena whispered to me.
• He walked past us with his phone in his ear. "You had one job, and you lost him. I want you to find him and bring him back before the end of the day," he said to the person on the receiving end as he stepped into the elevator.
• "Let's go." Lena and I rushed into the elevator and went to our floor.
• Lena dropped by her office before leaving to attend the meeting with the shareholders while I went to my team's room and got business with work. Summer was putting me through the design pattern, which I thought was a great idea, by the way, but I had a different idea, so I asked Celestine if I could include them.
• She gave me the go-ahead and told me to show her as soon as I was done.
• An hour later, the blaring sound of the ambulance siren filled the entire building. The commotion sound from outside made everyone in our room rush outside to see what was going on.
• Everyone was packed near the floor window, which enabled us to see what was happening in the receptionist's office on the first floor. The elevator on our floor opened with a ding as a short-haired lady walked out.
• "The President collapsed," she announced, making everyone gasp in shock.