Throughout the ride home, his eyes burnt with unshed tears as he remembered her words. She didn’t know he was behind the door so she didn’t realize he was listening to everything she said. His hands pressed the steering tightly as he horned loudly at the cars, trying to navigate through the busy road till he finally got home. Once he arrived, he parked his car carelessly on the driveway and jumped out, walking into his house in fury.
He had planned to make a quick stop at her house that morning to congratulate her on the show she had the previous day and invite her for dinner, but now, his plans were scattered. Everything was totally ruined. He screamed loudly as he punched the wall in front of him making his knuckles bleed.
“When I thought I could love again, she played me. it was all about her, only about her.” He screamed. Hle threw a painting to the ground making it crash and break to pieces. He raked his hands through his hair in frustration as he smiled out in pains. His knuckles were torn and bleeding but he ignored the as he fell on the couch, holding his head in his hands.
“Where did I go wrong? Love has never been for me. the second time I decide to fall in love and she played me again.” He thought. His face contorted in anger as he looked straight ahead like he was looking at an enemy. He took out his phone from his pockets and dialed a number, letting it ring before placing it on his eyes.
“Cancel my meetings and appointments for today, I’d be working from home.” He said into the phone immediately his secretary picked up. After dishing out the orders, he immediately dropped the call.
He spent the next hours in his private gym at home, taking out his anger on the punching bag as he punched the inanimate object in fury. He sat at a corner in the gym with bloodshot eyes. His knuckles were white and already bleeding. His face was drawn into a deep frown as he sweated profusely. He had spent close to three hours in the gym and spent the last two hours carrying out his frustration on the inanimate object. It provided a sort of solace to him, transferring his pains, but the lack of emotions from the punching bag made him even more angrier. He wanted to make something feel the same kind of pains he felt. But this time, it wouldn’t be something, it would be someone. It was going to get back at her. That he was sure of.
***
Jack sat on his chair in the office as he went through some files. Ever since finding out about Karen’s lies, he had cut her off. He had blocked her number and avoided social media entirely. She still had the media going crazy about her so it was best to avoid it. He still wanted to make her pay and he was making plans towards that.
“Sir, Holt has given a feedback.” His secretary walked into his office, her heels clicking gently against the floor tiles. Holt were the company he was contesting for a contract against Lucas of Zack holdings. After finding out about the corrupt handlings of Lucas, he decided to bid for the same contract as him though he had no need for it. He just wanted to teach Lucas a lesson.
“They have chosen us to carry out the project.” She stated handing over the files to him. He smirked at the files in his hands before dropping it on the table and nodded to his secretary. Any day from now, Lucas Zack would be back in his office, and it wouldn’t be for a friendly visit. He was sure of that.
Karen sat on the couch with a plate of fruit smoothie and biscuits Beside her as she watched the television with rapt attention. She was tuned to a fashion channel and they were counting down the top ten iconic moments in the fashion world in the year so far. She smiled widely as she appeared on number six. It was the TY fashion week where she had headlines. It still remained her biggest show so far and had made her even more popular. She smiled so widely that her chins began to hurt as she watched herself pose in different designers wears. She had a bright smile on her face in all of her shots.
Her phone binged indicating a new text message and she picked it up and opened it. It was a mail from one of the agencies she was to work for. It contained the documents she needed to sign. She forwarded the mail to her assistant and continued with the show. Her phone binged again and she sighed again before picking it up again. It was a short text from Jack. She smiled as she saw his name displayed at the top of the screen before opening it. The message was a short text about her wellbeing.
“He still cares about me” She smiled as she typed a quick reply and sent. She read his text again and frowned slightly. It looked too formal for something that was meant for her. It lacked that spark and affection his messages once had. She waved the thoughts aside as she dropped the phone to focus on the TV show.
Jack sat on his swivel chair sorting out some office documents. It was some minutes past noon and so far, the day had been nothing short of tiring. He had to go through the contract document and some other documents he had left unattended to and luckily, this was the last one he was going to be working on.
The loud knock sounded on the door and he groaned loudly, raising his head from looking over the documents. He hated to be distracted while working and that what just occured.
“It better be something important.” he muttered as he shouted for the person to come in. His secretary pushed the door open and walked in, closely followed by Lucas Zack and his secretary. His face squeezed into a frown before he smiled humorlessly at Lucas.
“Look who we have here!” he mocked and Lucas seethed, making him laugh. Lucas walked to one of the chairs directly in front of him and sat down without being asked to.
“You are one bad CEO with bad manners, how rude.” Jack exclaimed and Lucas facial expression dimmed. He looked like he was ready to pounce on Jack any time soon.
“Oh, cut that, Jack Antonio.” Lucas thundered and his brows peaked up. “You know why I am here, so stop all these shitty plays with me.” he added.
“How would I know why you are here when you didn’t book an appointment?” Jack questioned innocently with a raised brow, making Lucas scoff angrily. “Things ain’t done that way.”
“Why did you get the contract?” Lucas asked, his tone deep and threatening, making Jack smirk at him.
“I’ve gotten different contracts, blud. Be specific.” He played on and the anger on Lucas’ face became more evident. He had planned on pissing him off completely and it was totally working out as planned.
“Why did you get my contract?” He asked again, this time, his eyes darkening with every word he spoke. “You know how much I spent for that particular contract, how much it meant to me, but you went behind me snatch it, you bastard.” Lucas growled angrily, raising his hand at him, which he blocked effortlessly.
“I just stopped you from making the greatest mistake of your entire miserable life. You should thank me for that.” he stated menacingly and flinged Lucas’ hand to the side. Lucas huffed arrogantly, making him more agitated. The air was tensed as both men stared at each other with daring eyes.
“Thank your dead stars I stopped you on time, else, Zack Holdings could have been on the headlines by tomorrow morning and trust me, it wouldn’t be something pleasant.” he threatened and Lucas shook visibly on his seat.
“In your next life, never try that again.” he added and Lucas gulped, fear visible in his eyes. He knew what Jack was capable of and he knew he wasn’t bluffing. Jack hovered menacingly over him like a predator that had caught his prey.
“About the contract, this is business, everything happens. You don’t expect me to take permission from you before acting in favour of my company. Do you?” he questioned as he returned to his seat.
“We both applied for a contract and I was favoured, and here you are, ranting in my office like a bulldog.” he added and heat rose to Lucas’cheeks in anger.
“Do not insult me.” Lucas stated, seething his teeth in anger. “I didn’t come here for that.”
“You are too egoistic and it’s bad for business. Work on that.” Jack advised, patting him on the shoulder, making Lucas flushed with anger.
“Watch your back.” Lucas threatened as he got up from the chair and walked towards the door looking very offended.
“My threat still stands. Lift a finger in the wrong direction and watch your family’s business crumble to ash.” He countered, a smug smile playing on his lips making Lucas huff deeply, trying to hide the fear that overcame him. Jack wasn’t one to give a threat and go back on it. ” have eyes on you.” he added and Lucas slammed the door shut after he had walked out.
Jack maintained his composure on his seat and an evil smile lingered on his lips after Lucas walked out. He soon stopped smiling and returned to working on the documents he was working on before the interruption. Some minutes later, he finished working on the documents and gathered them into his briefcase before shutting it and placing it on the table. He picked up one of his phones from the table, clicked in some digits and kept it back on the table to ring.
“Keep an eye on Lucas Zack.” He mentioned calmly into the call before disconnecting. He placed the phone back into the table and releaxed into his chair. Sometimes, things needs to be taken care of before they escalated.
In the business world, you had to be fierce and ruthless in order to be successful and Jack was just that. In his first few years as CEO, he had learnt that. In his third year as CEO of his company, he had bidded for a contract alongside some major players in the industry. At a point, he was the favourite to win the contract, and when his competitors realised this, they decided to play him dirty. He was sent multiple threats and was almost kidnapped at a point
*Flasback*
He walked towards out of the city mall to his car that was parked at the parking lot. He was dressed casually in a black joggers trouser and a hoodie whose cap was thrown over his head with two shopping bags in his hands. He unlocked the car and placed the bag at the backseat before stepping into the driver seat and zooming off. He drove out of the mall into the highway and after driving for over twenty minutes, he noticed a car that had been driving after him. He slowed down and the car slowed down after him. He sped up again, getting lost among the different cars that were plying the road. Days later, he had seen the same car drive to one of the big bars in the city. He trailed behind them to the bar where they met with one of his competitors.
After informing his dad about it, his dad ordered for a private investigation where they found out that one of his competitors had ordered a kill on him.
Since then, he had become overly cautious, especially when dealing with opposition, and Lucas was an opposition.