THE MASTER'S GAME PLAN

CHAPTER 3 - THE MEETING

The Meeting

MEDC OFFICE...

"Do you have any idea what you've done to this company's name, Miss Lopez?"

The next morning, the long table in the conference room filled with every senior officer in the building, all of them there for one reason: to tear apart what Ellah Lopez had done. The air conditioning hummed, too cold. A wall clock ticked loud enough to count.

Twelve chairs. Eleven men. One woman. Her seat waited at the far end of the table, where every eye could reach it.

"Is this really how a Lopez plans to earn the chairman's seat?" The Chief Operating Officer did not look up from his notes.

"We're talking about the chairman's office, not some game of house!" the Chief Financial Officer added.

"Lining up men like cattle just to land a husband. Who does that? Only you, Miss Lopez!" the Chief Technology Officer said.

"And what exactly are we supposed to tell our partners? Our clients?" the Chief Marketing Officer demanded.

She had expected this. Not one face at that table would side with her. She had known it walking in.

"You are not fit for that position," the CFO said, flat, final.

Her fingers whitened around her pen.

"I'm only doing what your own requirements demand of me." Her voice came out level, steady enough to cut through the noise. "Though you all know I never needed a husband to sit in that chair."

"A company is like a family."

The room went quiet the instant the Chief Executive Officer spoke.

"A family with a strong hand at the top has a strong foundation. That's all that matters, whether the hand holding it belongs to a man or a woman."

"Still, better a man take over from Chairman Jaime. He wouldn't even need a wife," another officer said.

"You only say that because it's the one thing I don't have."

"That's exactly the point. You are not a man," the COO shot back.

She held his eyes. "Are you suggesting I need to become a transman to qualify?"

Silence swallowed the room, then broke apart into laughter, sharp and mocking. Someone slapped the table. Someone wiped his eyes.

"You don't belong in that seat, Miss Lopez." He jabbed a finger at the empty chair in front of them as if daring her to try to sit in it. The Chairman's seat. "All you're doing is dragging this company's name through the mud."

She let them finish. Only when the room went still did she rise, palms flat on the table.

"Is the real issue that I am a woman, or is the deeper problem that none of you can accept a woman in a leadership position at this company?"

Nobody answered. A chair creaked.

"We all know I can run this company. What none of you can accept is that being a man never gave you the right to that chair either." Her finger swung toward the vacant chair in front, and every eye in the room followed it.

"The nerve of you!" The CFO shot to his feet, finger jabbing toward her. "You're heir because of your blood, nothing else!"

"Mr. Chen, that's enough," the COO cut in.

"You stay out of this, William Han!"

Han rose too, his chair scraping hard across the floor. "You're the one who needs to sit down. You have no standing to talk like that!"

"Mr. Chen, Mr. Han. Both of you, sit down." The CEO's voice cut through, flat and final. "This is not how this conversation goes."

Both men sank back into their seats. Chen's jaw worked. Han straightened his cuffs with hands that were not quite steady.

The CEO turned to her. "Miss Lopez, I understand the position the requirements have put you in. But not like this. The company's name is on the line."

She said nothing. She did not nod either. Around the table, the muttering went on, and she met every pair of eyes that dared to meet hers.

The Chief Marketing Officer addressed the table. "I believe we should put this on hold. Let tempers cool before we discuss it again."

"Probably for the best," the CSO muttered.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this meeting is adjourned." The CEO's gavel landed, and she was out the door before anyone else could rise.

Back in her own office, Ellah sank into the swivel chair like her legs had finally given out, and pressed her palm flat against her forehead.

"Ms. Ellah, how'd it go?" Jen set a glass of water on the desk in front of her.

"Not good, Jen." She reached for the glass and drank like it might wash something down.

"Those people are relentless."

"That's the least of it. Grandpa's coming home today."

"Oh no."

A small part of her had still hoped her grandfather would take the news better than she feared.

---

LOPEZ MANSION...

"Good. You're actually home." The chill in her grandfather's voice hit her chest like a fist.

He sat in his wheelchair, cane resting against one hand, eyes fixed on the evening news. His cane tapped the floor, once, twice, like a clock running down. He hadn't even changed. Still in his white coat and hat, like he'd come straight from the car. Rain streaked the tall windows behind him.

"Estimates now put the death toll near forty-five in last night's warehouse explosion, occurring around eight PM. Authorities believe over three hundred million pesos worth of suspected illegal drugs was destroyed in the blast. Investigators are still..."

"Grandpa, how are you?" She crossed the room to take his hand, but his eyes cut toward her before she could reach him.

"Look what your little stunt has cost us already."

She lowered her head, teeth pressing into her bottom lip.

"You held auditions to find a husband? I'm gone a handful of days and this is what you've built with the time! What did the officers do to you at that meeting?"

"Nothing, Grandpa."

"Nothing? You don't think I know they've been waiting for a reason to strip you of that seat?"

She had known for a long time. Every one of them was against her taking his place.

"They've been circling, waiting for you to slip, and you're handing them the excuse on a silver plate! How do you expect to prove yourself worthy of my seat if none of them can even see what you're capable of?"

She dropped her gaze, voice barely above a whisper. "Why does marrying someone have anything to do with whether I'm worthy?"

"Ellah! You cannot run a company built by men, alone, as a woman. Not in their eyes."

Her mouth pulled into a small frown. "I'm the one taking your place. Not some husband."

"That's how you earn their trust."

"And where exactly am I supposed to find this man?"

"That's why I keep introducing you to the sons of people I know! Stop being so particular. All you need is someone with a working brain and a head for business."

"The problem, Grandpa, is I don't get along with a single man you've ever introduced me to."

"Then make it work! Find a way to get along! It's a good thing Go managed to talk the rest of them down from pushing you out as my successor altogether."

Her breath caught. It had nearly happened, and no one had told her how close it had come.

Behind him, the screen showed the warehouse still burning, orange against the dark.