She sniffled as she got back from her reverie and realized that she was crying. She had been crying silently for over fifteen minutes as she thought about her past. She looked round the cafe, trying to detect if she had drawn attention to herself, but found everyone focused on themselves, apart from from man who was staring at her intently. He was seated in the table beside her. He wore black suit and held a cup of coffee in his hand, but his gaze was fixed on her, his gaze was deep and intense, like he was searching for something. She stared at him for few seconds, and when he didn’t remove his gaze, she reluctantly peeled her eyes off him, returning it to her cup of coffee. She took a sip from her coffee and almost spit it back. The coffee had gotten really cold. She returned the cup to the table and signaled a waiter over.
“Get me one cup of coffee. This one had gotten really cold.” she said to the waiter, pushing the cup of cold coffee to her. She nodded with a smile, picked it up and left. It seems smiling was part of their job description.
Her cup of coffee arrived few minutes later and she gulped it down, slipped few cash to the waiter with a tip before standing up. She walked past the man who had his eyes fixed on his phone now before walking out of the door. When she walked out of the door, he raised his head from the phone, placing it on his ear.
“She walked out just now. Should I trail her?” He asked the man on the other side of the call.
“No. let her be. was the response.
He paid for his coffee and walked out. The car drove and parked in front of him. He got in and the driver sped off.
***
Jack walked into Antonio Aesthetics with his secretary following behind him holding some documents in her hand. She had already reviewed the documents he told her to, and the results weren’t suprising. He had expected it. He had called for a board meeting between the management staffs of the company and already, he was over an hour late, but was un bothered. That was why he was the CEO. That was why he was Jack Antonio.
He walked into the small conference room and all the eyes turned to him. He gave a wry smile as he walked to the front of the table. The director of finance, deputy chief operating officer and the other corrupt men that were planning to plunge the company to bankruptcy were all seated, flashing fake smiles at him. He knew the smiles were fake. He knew they hated his guts, but they were going to hate him more after today.
“Sorry for keeping y’all waiting, but it was necessary.” He stated unapologetically. The men stared at each other in surprise before returning their gaze to him. They were really curious to why know he had called for a meeting.
He stretched his hand and his secretary placed one of the files in it before he turned back to them.
“As you all know, I am Jack Antonio. The new CEO of Antonio Aesthetics. My father stepped down and I’m now in charge.” he started, making sure they got the hint of where his speech was heading. “Of coure y’all know what I stand for and that is what I intend to uphold here.” he added and they looked at each other in confusion unclear of what he was driving at.
“Ofcourse, we all know you. What we don’t understand is what you’re talking about.” One of the men, the director stated. He was the highest ranked staff on the table.
“What I’m talking about is the three million dollars that had been stolen from this firm in the past seven months.” he stated and he noticed the ghost look that appeared on each and everyone of them faces.
“You all stole 3 million dollars of my money and that is what I don’t like. Or are these documents falsified?” he questioned, waving the document across the across the room. The men stared at the documents in shock, unable to utter a word. Of course, they wouldn’t be able to utter a word. He had caught them deep in the act.
“What three million are you talking about?” One of the managers asked, his voice low and unconvincing.
Jack placed the files of the table and they rushed to pick a copy, trying to convince themselves otherwise, but it was all printed in black and white.
“I’m not interested in how long this have been going on, neither am I interested in how much you’ve actually stolen.” Jack’s prominent frame stood at the end of the table, his defined jaw ticking as he spoke. “But from today, you’ve failed to be a staff of this company. The money stolen would be recover, plus your salaries for the past seven months.” he stated, his decision hitting them square on.
Devastation could be clearly read on their faces. Their shoulders slumped in defeat and distress. His utterance was too much of a bitter pill to swallow. They had lost everything in few seconds, no thanks to Jack Antonio.
“Here are you termination letters. Goodluck getting a good job with that corruption taint on your CV.” he stated impeccably.
“Here are you termination letters. Goodluck getting a good job with that corruption taint on your CV.” he stated impeccably.
They all knew what that meant. He was stating that they got sacked for corruption. Getting sacked by such prestigious company over corruption would be a huge blow to the person. It meant automatic blacklisting from other firms in the city.
One by one, they picked up their termination letter and walked out shamefully, leaving Jack to heave a sigh of relief.