The billionaire's pearl

I still remembered that day, The day I fell in love with him, It was so beautiful, the love was undescribable and I felt like going to heaven when he asked me out. I never knew the feeling has been mutual all these while and now I'm walking down the aisle about to become his wife. " Do you take Madison Davis to be your lovely lawful wife in sickness and in health, in good times and bad times" " yes I do" Madison Davis do you take..... " Maddie come on get up it's past 7" " wait what" my head whispered I gradually opened my eyes and observed my surroundings and I was in my room, why the hell am I in my room, come on I was just about to get married. My mom was opening up the windows. "no no no no no don't tell me it was a dream, no it can't be a dream" I screamed "Are you alright darling" my mom asked "arghhhhhhhhh this can't be happening " Maddie is everything okay" she asked as she came towards the bed "no mom, everything is not ok because you just woke me up from a beautiful dream" I screamed "oh a dream, well it's past 7" she said as she made her way towards the door " its past 7" i screamed as I jumped off bed "mom why didn't you wake me up earlier, now Mr ken is surely going to have my head for coming late" I said as I ran into the bathroom " can you imagine this girl, was she not the one that was shouting why I woke up from her dream, now she is saying why did I not wake her up earlier" she said laughingly as she left the room I'm Madison Davis by name but close friends and families prefer to call me Maddie, I'm 21 years of age and I graduate from a business school which was as a result of a sponsored scholarship by my church because we did not have the money for tuition fees. I live with my mom (Alison) and my younger sister (Camille) my dad left us where we were five and he never said the reason why. I work in a coffee shop where I used the money to assist my mother with the family bills and Mr Kennedy, ken for short is my boss. "Madison" "yes mom, I'm almost done" i screamed for my room " morning sissy" cami greeted me from the breakfast table as I made my way towards the kitchen " morning my love how was your night" I asked " it was fine sis, how was yours" she said " it was fine baby girl, I'm really sorry but big sister can't drop you off at school today, because she's running late for work so mommy would just drop you off, but I promise to pick you up after school. Is that okay" " yeah of course it is" she said happily as she ate her food. Camille is just seven years old, mom had her as a result of a one-night stand with a mysterious stranger which she knows nothing about because she was drunk, but she kept the baby and we still don't know anything about the father till now. but we love her and that's enough. "all right bye mom, bye Camille see you after work" I said I rushed out of the house door "you didn't even have breakfast" my mom screamed after me Traffic was bad, traffic was so bad and it was just thirteen minutes left to eight o'clock and I had to be at the coffee shop by 8, luckily for me, the coffee shop was not too far from where the traffic jam was, so I decided to go for a run. Two blocks to the coffee shop, I was already out of breath because I had been running so hard that I did not notice the people coming at my front on time, so I crashed into them while saying words of apology as I ran into the coffee shop. "boss should we go after her" a bodyguard asked "no there's no need, we have better matters to attend" the man in beige said I got to the coffee shop three minutes after 8, and I knew Mr Ken would be in the coffee shop, so I decided to use the back door unknowingly to me. "Maddison" Mr Ken shouted " oh my God he's here" I whispered "you're late and you're using the back door" he said "sir the traffic was really really bad today that's why I'm late" I said in defense " well if you would have left your home earlier, then you would have been here on time, that's a cut on this month pay" he said as he left the back room " Mr Ken please I was just three minutes late" I said as I ran after him "I don't care" he screamed "even if it's just a minute or five seconds late it will be deducted from your monthly salary, you know the rules Madison, keep to them" he said as he left " oh" I screamed I really hate working here, because it's so stressful with a little pay. But I just have to keep up with it for now, because I don't have a legal job and I need this money to support my mom. " Hey Maddie, ah why does your face look like mashed potatoes" Lara one of my friends at the coffee shop asked " Mr Ken deducted my pay again" I said sadly " what why"she asked "because I was three minutes late"I answered " but is three minutes" she said "well you know how Mr Ken can be about punctuality so let's just leave it like how we see it" I said why grabbing my changing uniforms " but that's bad oh" she said yes " it is but what can we do, we cannot change it, it has already happened" I said as I made my way towards my work station SOMEWHERE IN A BOARD ROOM The place was as pin drop silent, just like a graveyard nobody dared to talk or move as the person at the head of the table reviewed a report. "Let’s get to the point. Our stock closed at $47.26 on Friday. That’s a 4% drop over the past two weeks. Who’s going to explain this?" he calmly asked "Market sentiment is cautious. There’s general sector-wide pullback, especially in tech. Our fundamentals are intact, but external uncertainty is dragging us down with the pack." a board member explained "I’m not interested in sector excuses. What have we done—internally—that’s failed to instill confidence?" he said unmoved "There’s concern around our Q1 margin compression. Though revenue was up, operating expenses rose more than expected. Some analysts flagged it as a warning" another board member chipped in "Then why wasn't that proactively addressed in our earnings call? Did no one anticipate the optics? he asked harshly "We focused on long-term projections, not short-term pressures. Perhaps we underestimated how much weight investors still place on quarterly performance." the first board member said in defense "Clearly. And what about buy-side sentiment? he inquired bluntly "Neutral to mildly bearish. A few funds are trimming exposure, but no major exits yet. a board member said afraid "Yet" is the problem. We don’t react—we anticipate. What’s our immediate move? he asked sharply "We could accelerate the share buyback we approved last quarter. Send a signal of strength. Also, we're sitting on solid cash reserves. the strategy head said " Draft the revised buyback schedule. I want it by end of day. he said sharply "Understood. they all chorused "Also, prepare an internal audit of our investor communications. I want to know who dropped the ball and how we fix it—without spin. We are not in the business of damage control. We are in the business of control. he said rudely "And If our share price drops another 2%, expect this discussion to be held in a different tone. you all should fix this mess and fast about it. meeting adjoined" he added before he left the meeting room.