Call Me Aarinola

Chapter 2

IVAN GATE

I realized two things when I flipped through the endless sea of papers on my desk. No matter how hard I worked, there was always some annoying person who believed they could bring me down. Secondly, I hated the name Aarinola.

Finding everything about her was as easy as a snap of my finger and in the next minute, Gary had printed out everything.

Her little presentation video brought Futuretech to a negative light.

After meeting with our public relations unit, it would seem the public had expressed their tone-deaf opinion against Futuretech across all social media.

Boycott Futuretech was the number one search.

The thought itself was ludicrous.

Futuretech was one of the top companies in the world. We had created several security systems for the pentagon, several popular social media apps and our latest ongoing project was power.

Futuretech was going to reimagine how we humans use power. We have poured billions of dollars into that project. I was in charge of it and I could afford anything to go wrong. All this negative press surrounding the company could tank the launch we have planned for years.

The board did not fail to show their displeasure, already looking for fault in anything I do. I hope the Chairman hasn't found out yet.

The Vulture Journalist wasted no time in picking up the story with their twisted headlines. "A College student makes the famous Content-AI obsolete," or "Foreign students bring unexpected competition to Futuretech."

My lips curled in disgust. This wasn't a competition. There was one of her against thousands of developers under the Futuretech enterprises.

Squeezing the paper within my fist, I tossed it across from me, narrowly missing Gary, who sat in the lounge area.

"She is the youngest to win the Carmichael brilliance scholarship, dare I say it. She is impressive." He read from his iPad and laughed.

His chuckling stopped in his throat upon meeting my burning stare. "By impressive I mean..." His mind scrambled to think of another word.

I ignored him and picked up another newspaper cut out, my eyes drifting to the underneath of the picture.

She should be in her final year of college, and like other students, she must be looking for internship programs.

"It doesn't matter how bright she is. Gary, there was a drop in our stock because of her little demonstration. The Chairman cannot find out about...

As the words escaped my mouth, I spotted winter-white hair and knew it was the chairman. The air in the office tensed and stiffened as he ambled his way over to me.

Pushing myself to a standing position, I gave way for him to take the executive chair.

"What is this I hear about some girl?" his throaty voice came after.

"Already handling it," I answered as the old man sat down with a grunt.

Gary gave a quick hello and dashed out of the office, leaving me alone with the old man. For a while, he said nothing, but stroked his time-worn face and tapped his cane against the foot of the table.

"You made a mistake, Ivan. I told you, no mistake."

"I'm sorry." My hand remained clenched at my side and my head bent.

He pulled up to his feet, walked over to where I was, and I braced myself. It was coming. He hit me with the cane and I remained still.

"I created this company from scratch and I will not let you ruin my hard work as long as I am alive and kicking."

"I will do everything-

"Yes, you would. Hire her if you have to, but fix this. We can't have this ruin the rainfall project." He hollered over my voice. "One of our investors has threatened to leave. I didn't make you CEO, so you can cause a mess."

He walked halfway to the door, his wrinkling hand on the knob of the door, twisting it to a lock.

Flashes of my childhood flickered in my vision. It was happening again. I released a deep sigh and dropped to my knees.

"I just have to make sure you learned your lesson this time."

I turned the faucet open to splash some water on my face, my fingers swept over my damp hair, and I looked in the mirror at my reflection. My face had lost its radiance and my eyes were red.

It's been ages since I made a mistake like that and paid the price.

"Ivan, you screwed up. Never let it happen again." I swore underneath my breath.

I reached for my dress shirt and winced from the pain emitting from my rib as I straightened my upper body.

A ringing phone blasted into the air. I reached for the bedside table and took out the phone from the charging cable.

"Any news?"

Gary said from the other end, "I found her."

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