Eduardo Manzano glanced up, his attention got caught by the swift footsteps sinking into the expensive Persian carpet stretching in the whole area of his presidential office.
Lounging back to his swivel chair, he looked up at his vice-president who was approaching him with anger.
"Well?" he asked his visitor.
The vice-president leaned his clenched fist on the table. "It's Alonzo. Geant Telecom awarded the contract to Alonzo Communications for their Luzon expansion because he beat our price by a lousy one hundred thousand pesos! That bastard won a five hundred million peso contract away from us by reducing our price by only hundred thousand pesos!" he repeated.
Only a slight movement of his jaw betrayed the boiling anger that is raging inside Eduardo as he said, "That's the third time he beat us in our bid for big contracts. Isn't it a coincidence?"
"Coincidence?!" his vice-president repeated. "It's not a coincidence and you know it, Eduardo! Someone in my team is in Alonzo's side. Someone is stealing the information and inform him so he can put his pricing lower than ours. Only four in my team knew about our bid price. One of them is a spy."
"But you already had them investigated, right? And all you had found were two of them were cheating on their wives and two were gays."
"Then the investigations weren't enough!" the vice president sounded frustrated. "We have to do something about it or else, he will eat our company alive. Eduardo, I know, he's your stepson but you must do something!"
"I never recognize him as my stepson, nor my wife acknowledges him as her son. What do you suggest I should do?"
"Put a spy in his office so we can know who is his contact here. Anything to stop that SOB!"
Eduardo was about to reply when he was stopped by a buzz from his secretary.
"Yes, Claire?"
"I'm sorry for the interruption, sir, but an applicant named Samantha Gutierrez is here to see you. She said she has an appointment with you."
Samantha Gutierrez? "Ah, yes. Let her wait for a while," and he cut the line.
"Applicant? Since when did you start interviewing?"
"Nah! I'm just returning a favor. Her family is a distant relative of mine. My mother liked to collect information about her family lineage. She invited them one time in our house and as a returned favor, I promised her father that in case he needs my help, he could call me. I guess, this was it. But I will spare her few minutes only. We don't have position here for someone who graduated in Music. And as far as I could remember, that child of his was the most exasperating, ill-mannered, annoying, outrageous and irritating kid I had ever met. And there was something in the way she looked at us..."
Eduardo Manzano's secretary glanced at the young woman, wearing a crisp baby blue suit and a white ascot-style blouse, who was seated across with her. The woman's brown hair was caught up in an elegant chignon, soft tendrils framing at her ears forming a face of flawless, vivid beauty. Her cheekbones slightly high, her nose small and her chin is rounded but it was her eyes that were the most arresting feature of her. Behind her arched brows were a startling, luminous dark brown eyes.
"Mr. Manzano will see you in few minutes," she said politely, very careful not to stare at the beautiful woman.
Samantha or Sam looked up from the magazine she's pretending to read and smiled. "Thank you," she said and blindly went down her gaze to the magazine she's holding, trying to control her nervous dread of facing Eduardo Manzano.
