❝Morrison is my archenemy and he only dies with my hands wrapped around his neck...❞
Carl John Morrison has never met any man who surpasses Aiden Black. He's a stuck-up prick. Easy on the eye. A lethal weapon.
And Carl has a weakness for him.
A tr...
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Ch. 8: Takes two to tango
At the office, Carl lifted an eyebrow when he saw a light in the president’s office.
It was way after business hours and he wasn’t expecting to see anyone roaming around at this hour since the company wasn’t paying overtime. He gently jerked the door open and strode inside without announcing his presence. Carl found Janelle seated quietly on a black leather couch meant for visitors, staring into space and completely adrift to the world around her.
“You still haven’t learned the basic lesson on how to knock a closed door, have you?” She got to her feet, straightening her figure hugging pencil skirt. For a fifty-five year old woman, Janelle Morrison sure looked forty. “I was hoping to have a word with you.”
“Everything alright?” Carl asked as he waltzed towards Janelle’s wide desk to rest his butt.
Janelle released a tired sigh, “nothing is alright, Carl.” She wrinkled her nose, whispering the last part. “Ever since your father died, nothing has been going according to plan. We’ve been losing a lot of our prominent investors and we haven’t closed any major deals as of late.”
Carl’s expression immediately turned wary.
Since his father passed thanks to a sudden heart attack, which was five years ago, Janelle had sort of turned into an automated robot. Much of the time she’d sleep walk through the day, she became so numb to a point of being unaware of the things going on around her. Everything took too much effort without Rowan around and maybe that’s why she offloaded most of the weight on her son by making him vice president at only twenty-five.
“We’re going to get through this,” Carl walked over to his mother and pulled her into a tight embrace. It hurt seeing her so broken. “Something good will come up, I promise.”
“Oh, honey.” Janelle cupped his chin, her weary gaze meeting up with Carl’s. “Let’s be realistic. The company value is depreciating every single day, the best we can do is selling before we lose everything.”
“No! We can’t do that!” Carl’s voice mounted an octave then he cleared his throat after realizing who he was speaking to. After gaining his composure he spoke again, calmly. “We can’t just accept defeat like that. This is everything you and dad have ever worked for. All those sleepless nights…”
“Everything your dad and I worked for was all for you, baby.” She swallowed. “I wish I had done a better job preserving your legacy.”
“Mom, please don’t say that.” Carl pleaded as he felt his throat and chest tightening. “I will forever be in you and dad’s debt and I can only pray I am at least half as good as you both were. You gave me the greatest gift ever, your teachings guided me since I was a kid. That’s a legacy I can never let anyone take away from me.”
