Should We Just Keep Driving? [Zarry Stylik AU]©️

Chapter 3

Zayn Malik got up from his chair and marched down the hall to the board meeting room.

They had been camping over there for weeks now, ever since he had taken over as the new CEO after a rebellion against his father. The saying 'heavy is the head that wears the crown' never rang truer for the young man, who now had a responsibility to save his family legacy.

His father had made some bad decisions, and awful deals, leaving the company skinnier than before and under the dreadful fate of bankruptcy. They were struggling. And it was time to cut.

Also, that was not even the beginning of his problems.

Aside from the bad investments that turned little to no profit, with the dread of bankruptcy, the company was leaking money.

Somewhere, somehow, the numbers were coming up short and that leakage needed to be dealt with. Once the leak was found, everything else needed to be controlled - suppliers, partners, vendors - all those areas needed to be renegotiated, so some of the money could return to the company. Then, and only after none of these solutions worked, firing people would come to the table.

Pushing the door, he found Niall staring at a whiteboard full of numbers. In total there were seven white boards, full of numbers, circled with red and green ink. On the large table, boxes upon boxes of paper were proof of the company's history and paper trail.

The two had been working in this room for a while now, completely shut off from the rest of the company; the blinds were pulled down, the door closed and only Niall, Zayn, and one other assistant could come in.

They would come in early and leave late. The more they dug, the worse they felt, and Zayn was on the verge of despair.

"So? What did you find?"

"Nothing," Niall answered, reading the sheet in front of him. "Yet."

"Which ones came from the international office?"

"Those," Niall pointed to a few open carton boxes, but he wouldn't go near them - afraid of what he could find. "You'd think we are owed some good news by now. Nope. Not at all."

Zayn stood next to his friend, looking at the boards.

"I'm panicking,"

"Don't panic yet, brother," Niall responded, tossing the sheet aside. "We know we are losing money; we just need to find the leak."

"Just being the keyword here."

"If it were easy, it wouldn't be half as fun."

"Have you added the info from the boxes?"

"Not all of it. It's a lot of paper, but..." Niall added, looking up at the board "As you can see the red circles are in charge."

Zayn looked over the board, seeing the numbers circled in red. "The last thing I need is to declare bankruptcy after taking the Chair. It would be the end of all of this, and I would be a fucking joke."

"It's not your fault the system was broken when you got it."

"I got it because it was broken," Zayn added, "Years of this, right under our fucking eyes and he didn't do shit."

"We're going to find it. I got my best people on it."

"What?" Zayn asked with a frown. "I told you I wanted it contained-"

"Relax, they are discreet," Niall assured. "They'll come by later today after everyone's gone and look through everything with fresh eyes. I'll be here too. I know it's here somewhere screaming at our faces."