Catch You!My Billionaire

Second Meeting

The sun scorches in the middle of the morning, yet the employees inside the tall company building of Verselion still have their brewed hot coffee in their hands. At each cubicle, workers either type on their desktops, laptops or chat with another co-worker. Some of them laugh and talk aloud, which results in a room filled with distinct chatters. A couple of men even crosses their feet on the top of their desks, like a boss, when all of a sudden another co-worker, dashes and shouts “He’s here!”. All of the people present on the floor rushes, to fix the scattered papers on their table and sit with their back straight and pretend on working. The side of their eyes focuses on the elevator, they wait for its doors to open at any second. However, they were shocked to find out their boss Glen Hopkins, shows up walking at the stairs. The staff fell dead silent.

Glen sneered at them and shakes his head. He then looked at his secretary behind him and said, “Who is the head of this department?”, he asked her, “Mr. Gilbert Ramos”, his secretary replied. Glen looked at his staff again and raised one of his eyebrows. The worker sensed the signal from his eyes therefore they complied. A female staff stands up, “I’ll go get him for you sir”, she said along with a bit of tremble in her voice, and she rushes towards the office door at the side.

Now, silence covers the entire floor, each staff didn’t dare to make eye contact with Glen thus they look in different directions motionless. Glen couldn’t believe how dumb his staff was, they waste their time and money over nothing. He snapped his hands, like a blink of an eye, therefore the employees flinches a little, but instead of starting their tasks, they looked at each other, without a clue of what they should do, which made Glen even more frustrated about them. “Go back to your work!”, he ordered, and the workers followed right away.

The department head, Gilbert Ramos, now comes out and approaches his boss. “Good morning, sir, I heard you called me out”, he smiles at his boss. However, Glen didn’t have a single facial movement on his face, but a glare on his eyes, which causes Gilbert to keep his mouth shut and his forehead sweat.

“What do you think this place is?”, Glen asked him,

“Office, sir”, Gilbert told him,

“What do we do in office?”, Glen gave him another question

“Work?”, Gilbert uttered

“Oh so, you know it, but, why do I hear noises up from here?”, Glen said

“Sorry, sir, they are new...I”, Gilbert tries to explain himself, but Glen stops him, “I don’t want to hear it, train them, or else..”, Glen pauses and turned his face towards the staff, “Or, I’ll fire you all!”, he shouted, so everyone in the floor can hear him, then Glen walks away from them and proceeds on walking to the next steps of the stairs.

When he reached the floor of his office. The place was quiet and neat. No scattered paper, no greasy ground, and no crumpled papers everywhere. It’s evident it would be the case since only ten cubicles and workers reside there. Glen sighs and perceives the dilemma at once. The imbalance number of staff on every floor results in an unstable, workplace, but for him, it is the last reason why the workers below are chaotic. It’s still Gilbert's mismanagements.

“Do you see what I can see here?”, Glen asks his secretary,

“Sorry, sir?”,

“Look”, he said “Call the person responsible for this, and tell him or her to meet me in my office, understood”, Glen added, and afterwards he goes inside his room. At first, his secretary descended into confusion. It took her almost a minute to understand him. “Why is he talking in riddles?”, she grunted and followed her boss to his office.

Inside his enormous office, Glen sits with his brown executive hair in the middle of the room. He opens various folders and scans them one by one. Out of nowhere, the loud ring of the telephone on his desk interrupts him. He presses it and awaits the message, “Sir, there is a police officer looking for you earlier”, the receptionist at the lobby informed him.

Glen froze for a second, there is a word from the receptionist which baffles him, “Earlier?”, he asked

“Yes, sir, we couldn’t stop her”, the receptionist told him,

“What!”, Glen yelled, the heat of anger rises into his nerves, but he prevents it to get inside his head. He doesn’t want to meet the policewoman with hot temperament. “Forget about it”, he hangs up the call.

His secretary asked him, what made her boss mad, but Glen looked at her, and said to her a few words, none of your business. He then commanded her to get a couple of cups of coffee and deliver it right away back to his office. His secretary didn’t dare to object and did his biddings.

Glen gathered the papers and folders on his desk and compiled them on the side. Hundreds of situations and reasons run into his mind. What does the policewoman want from him? All he could remember is he did nothing illegal or wrong, but then he remembers the strange event, which happened a few weeks ago. Glen tries to figure out if it could be the reason, when all of a sudden, a person knocks at his wooden door. Glen straightens up his suit and combs back his hair, and after he was done, he let the person come inside. The door opens, and a tall policewoman shows up. Glen stands up, surprised, he smirks and chuckles a little. “You again?”, he walks towards her, with a huge smile on his lips.

Olivia didn’t produce any reactions instead, she said to him, “Mr. Glen Hopkins do you have any idea, why a policewoman stands in front of you?”,

Glen gazes at her eyes. Blazes of intense warmth of affection rise in his chest. “You wanted to see me again, do you?”,

Olivia closed her eyes for a little while and sighs, every inch of his presence stirs irritation at the bottom of her heart, but she needed to act decent and professional, or else she could have punched him already in the face, therefore she ignores her emotion.

“No, sir”, she said, “Can we sit down first?”.

Glen agrees with her, and he offered her a sit in front of his desk. After they settle down, Olivia picked up an envelope from her bag and places it on the table. Glen’s face turned serious, and leans his back on his chair, his guess about the intention of Olivia is right. He will be interrogated.

“We’ve seen each other before, I guess no need for introductions, yet here is my ID”, Olivia opens an Id holder and shows Glen her ID inside. Afterwards they proceed with the interrogation. Mr. Hopkins, can you tell me how you met the former Mayor Sotto?”, Olivia took out,

a pen and notebook, and writes. Glen didn’t answer her at first, instead, he peeks at her notes.

“Sir!”, Olivia scolded him.

“Sorry, Sorry”, Glen smirks

“I hope you take this seriously, or else….”

“I know, I know”, Glen sits up with his back straight and clears his throat.

“It was at one party….my friend’s party, a year ago”, he said.

Olivia requested him to go on and she continues to write. Glen stares at her for a couple of seconds, he sighs and nodded.

“It was around after lunch, in a modern mansion. Guests in gowns and suits are everywhere, scattered in the place. I looked and searched if there’s a familiar face for me, and there I noticed my friend at the corner beside the paintings, he stood around with people older than him, but not too old. The men wore the same suit, but different colors of dress shirts, from head to toe covered with rings and pieces of jewelry around their wrists and neck. I also spotted that their wristwatches are covered in diamonds. After all the events I attended, it was rare for people to wear such expensive jewelry, or else they wanted to show off to others their status.

When I was about to walk towards their huddle, my friend has already seen me. He greeted me with a hug and introduced me to the group. Turns out they were his family members, his uncles to be specific. My friend told me their names and their way of living. Most of them were founders and CEOs of companies like me, but there’s one difference from the crowd. It was Mayor Halbert Sotto. We had a few talks but eventually, Halbert asked about my presence. I felt puzzled, yet still agreed.

The two of us climbed upstairs and talked on the wide and windy balcony. At first, he told me, the story of his political history the mayor of the city, and his achievements. Even though his words captivate me, I found it hypocritical, since I know, how rampant poverty is in the city, therefore I asked him to cut his explanation short, and say his purpose.

Halbert smiled at me, he thinks I am a brilliant and influential person, hence he asked a request. I’ll put an investment for his campaign at the upcoming election, and in return, my business can expand in the city without a single struggle. He even said, he’ll promote it and in no time it will become the number one construction company. My company will build government infrastructure projects, which is going to give me, millions of dollars, therefore I didn’t resist. The opportunity crawls in front of me, why should I ignore it.

In the past three months, I threw numerous amounts of money into his campaign, and I’ll tell you it’s quite a huge amount. It bled the company a bit, but we managed to have a permit to build our business here, for me, it’s a win-win situation, but who will guess all of it will fall in vain”.

Olivia drops her pen and pauses, there’s a thing which made her bewildered, the details of Glen’s statement., so she asked if all of it is true. Glen laughs and said, “Won’t you do a background check on my statement?”, Olivia nodded once, and didn’t react. She hoped, every word from his mouth is true, yet even though she still has to investigate on them.

“What about your friend? Who is he and what does he do?”, Olivia asked him.

“Alfred Sotto”, he said, “He lives abroad, he only went back to the country for his birthday”.

Olivia writes his statements down once more and added “Do you notice any strange events which

happened to Mr. Sotto?”.

Glen shakes his head. “We keep things always professional, thus I didn’t notice anything”,

Olivia looked into his eyes, then pulled pictures in his envelope. It was the pictures of footage of Glen and Jennifer in the bathroom together, exchanging kisses.

The picture places his mind bewildered, the frown on his forehead made it evident. Olivia questions him about his relationship with the woman in the picture.

“I already forgot”, he said to her, but Olivia didn’t react, instead she pulled another picture, this time it was Halbert and Jennifer.

Glen flew into shock, he didn’t anticipate the woman, he tries to make out with, is Halbert’s girl. If he continued his moves from her during the event, she can cause to drive a wedge between them. The realization didn’t stop him, from being calm, and keeping this situation controlled on his hands, therefore he said “We only met at the event, nothing more”.

“Don’t you have an idea, she is Mayor Sotto’s mistress?”,

“All I know is her name”, Glen uttered.

“I see”, Olivia nods. She packed up all her stuff and stands up, “I’ll no longer waste your time. I might contact you further, to clarify uncertainties”, she offers her hand, “Thank you for cooperating”. Glen takes her hand also stands up, “Happy to help”. Olivia walks away, but all of a sudden, Glen calls her. “Inspector Clark, I hope me and my company won’t be in trouble”,

“Well, it depends on how the investigation turns out….Have a good day Mr. Hopkins”,

“Another thing...Would you mind, if we go grab a coffee sometime?”, he asked

“I’m sorry Mr. Hopkins”, Olivia smiles at him, before she leaves.