The Game Of The CEO
1182 Words
CHAPTER 3:
The sunshine of morning was streaming into the glass façade of the Iron Spire, but it did not mean anything to Elira. Standing by the elevator, she stood with her arms folded against her chest, waiting to be dispatched to wherever it was that Caelum was intending to put her now.
The caller who sent a message to her last night was still putting cold perspiration on her skin:
You are given 48h within which you must tell him or I will.
Whoever had sent it knew. And it wasn’t Caelum.
Which meant that there had been an observer. Digging.
Someone even more, at that, dangerous.
The elevator rang. She entered and pressed the button to the 36th floor Executive Strategy and Acquisitions. Last night she had gone over the floor plan, the layout, and name memorization.
The only good point she had was that she was prepared.
As the doors gilded back, no receptionist appeared, only a bleak white hall with abstract art on its walls. By the exit was a tall, slick man holding a clipboard.
He said, “Miss Vale. Please come this way.”
He led her to a conference room with glass walls. Two other interns were already there. One was hardly twenty, the other not to be looked at.
The assistant said, “Today you are going to shadow the executive negotiating team. You’ll have to watch, make notes, and prepare a one-page insight memo at the end of the day. Mr. Vallis may or may not attend; he's frequently late, or he never comes.”
Elira nodded, sat down silently.
She could feel his shadow without the actual presence of Caelum. It stayed in everything the marble, the neatly piled papers, in the way the others took the trouble to sit a little straighter when his name was mentioned.
Thirty minutes later, she was using the pen without stopping. She was not surprised by the figures. Vallis' strategies hadn’t changed too much: aggressive takeovers, no tolerance for negotiation, and a cool board that did what he said.
However, the firm they were targeting today was not the same. Invalix, privately administered. A biotechnology company that concentrated on treating young children. Elira recognized the name instantly.
Her sister had unsuccessfully tried to work there. Before
“Oh, Miss Vale?”
She looked up. One of the board members was gazing at her.
“You’ve not talked. What do you have to say?”
She coughed. “Only that the takeover seems financially viable, yet ethically concerning. There are previous incidents of resistance to mergers by the founder. If this becomes aggressive, the masses will be getting rid of it. The financial gain may be overridden by relational ill will.”
There was no answer.
And suddenly, there came a laugh.
And a clap of applause came in at the threshold.
Caelum entered like a storm in a silk suit and said, “Impressive. You’ve already developed an ethical rebuttal after reading the memo this morning. Is that all we expect of you, Miss Vale? Morality before money?”
She replied, “I hadn’t realized they had to be separate.”
He grinned in a narrow way. “They frequently are in this building.”
She refused to take her eyes off him. Wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
Caelum seated himself at the head of the table. His eyes swept over the board members and back to her. “Continue. I’d like to know what insight you’ve got.”
The remainder of the meeting was tense silence. Elira was cautious with her answers and stayed succinctly professional. She wouldn’t feed him a breadcrumb. Not here.
The others were sent out after the session. Not her.
She placed her notes one at a time into her bag.
“Remain,” he said.
She did. Not because he made her but because she wanted to know where this would lead.
He waited till the door had clicked shut. “Who did you get a message from?”
Her blood froze.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
He stepped nearer. “Someone knows about the boy. It wasn’t me.”
“I said I don’t know.”
His voice was strained. “Elira when there’s somebody bullying you, I have to hear about it. I can defend”
“I can do without your protection.”
“You’re so ignorant of what you’re meddling with.”
“No. You don’t know how much I’ve endured. You think I’m still the same girl you took off with six years ago? The one you left, the one you abandoned on the floor of your penthouse. Do you think I’m still the same girl who begged you to love me? I’m not her anymore.”
For a moment, he blinked in stunned surprise.
And then his voice sank into something menacing. “You’re right. You’re colder. Sharper. And you saunter around like you don’t have a chestful of secrets under your skin.”
She gave him a straight stare. “That’s because I do.”
Between them, there was silence. Thick with all the unsaid things. Regret. Anger. The pangs of six years apart.
Then he glanced at the glass. “He takes after me. My eyes.”
She flinched.
“I’ve seen the photo. When I first heard it, I didn’t want to believe it. I thought perhaps it was an accident, or you... I don’t know. But he has my eyes.”
“He’s not a weapon,” she said. “Don’t do that. Don’t use him.”
Turning, his composed face held a flicker of fire. “Well then, don’t make an enemy of me, Elira. Who sent the message—tell me. I’ll deal with it.”
“You’re way over your head already.”
“You don’t decide that.”
He stepped closer. “I’ll find out. Whether you help me or not. And when I do and I learn you held him back to spite me”
“It wasn’t hatred!” Her voice cracked. “It was survival.”
He froze.
“I never told you because I never trusted you. The world you live in would've devoured him.”
“God!” Caelum said, husky and broken. “He’s mine. Nobody, not even you, gets to decide whether or not I get to be in his life.”
They remained quietly staring for a long second.
Two people carrying the same storm in their chest.
She turned first. “Then earn it.”
She left without another word.
When she got back to her apartment that night, she found Zayden sleeping on the sofa under his blanket. His temperature had cleared, but his cheeks still held a slight flush. She kissed and hugged his forehead.
Thunder clammed outside as her phone beeped.
24 hours left.
And below that:
A photo attachment.
Her apartment block. Taken from across the road. Time-stamped.
Someone had been watching.
Someone close.
Elira’s hands trembled.
Not that Caelum didn’t know.
He was about to find out everything
- Writer
