|| THE DARK DATE ||

WEALTHY BLEED :

Ryan pov:
𝚂𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚙𝚎𝚘𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚐𝚗𝚒𝚣𝚎 𝚊𝚝 𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝. 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚘𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚞𝚜 𝚝𝚘𝚐𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚗'𝚝.This refreshed my memories of the girl Sofie was with. Even though I don't know her name I can recognize her in a large number of rabble.
𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑦.
𝐻𝑒𝑟 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒.
𝐻𝑒𝑟 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠.
𝐻𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠.
Thoughts always hit my brain with sudden urge to meet her. That night when I saw Stella with Sofie for the first time I knew it. 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑟. The one am admiring ever since I met her in my childhood. At that certain first time asking her out was real or slash I meant it. But the situation was so consumed I could'nt speak to her about this at spot. I didn't want to conceit the situation until I confess her. A text popped up on my phone while I was driving. Most expected from Gibran. Right.

𝘎𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯: 𝘚𝘰𝘧𝘪𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦.

I couldn't text him so instead I called. "Hello!?" I said through bluetooth. "Yeah" he replied. "That's cool. You should meet her" I suggested him. "Better If I don't ruin this" he said lowing his tone. "Yeah" I said and cut the call. I just hope they don't mess this up again. 

I reached to the office. When I was getting into the hoistway my phone rang. It was from Richard. I got out and raised the call. "Mr.Ryan?" he spelled. "Yeah" I replied. "I think You need to see this, Files." he was unsure. "Meet me at Oasis cafe at 11 am" I appealed.

At cafe:
I and Richard known eachother for long years. He is senior but treated me more like his brother. He is genuine, hardworking and kind. That was 7 months ago When we first found out error in the files.The funds were manipulated. Funds didn't even transferred to the client and the receipt shows transactions are done. I didn't know why this happened at first but digging in the case we got few evidences and some persons who were involved in this but till now I didn't know who was the actual one behind it. Hackers were smart enough, We couldn't get hold of them. By the time I ordered a drink Richard has come. "Good morning Ryan" he said while setting his place. "Morning Mr.Richard" I greeted back. At most when we meet out other than office we aren't formal. I respect him with sincerity. "Look at these" he showed some files. I looked up those files. "Transactions?" I questioned. The files were about the companies which were collaborated last week. The funds were sent only to these companies. Transactions were right.

But the other companies which were formerly there with our company didn't receive them. "They weren't done" he answered. "The companies which didn't receive them are mostly are startup companies or else the ones with low profits else the ones which aren't in the race" he continued. "It means they are targeting the ones with no money" I again questioned him. he deeply sighed and said "Yeah" nodding his head. "Aren't they going to file a case against this?" I asked. "They did but failed" he answered. "You mean there are someone strong behind all these" I looked at files. "Someone Within the company" he said. "Most of the people who filed case against this were either closed their companies or got the maximum profits in their market value" he continued. "This means someone either put them down or bought them" I continued his Sentence. "precisely" he nodded.

I didn't want anybody to know about this until we find who are guilty with a proper evidence.  Neither my dad nor Gibran. This is a total riddle to solve. I searched the company ties decades ago to find if the problem existed back then when my dad was the CEO. He has put this company with his brother Arthur Steward Hatheway and father of Gibran. Right after a month of opening the company He died. That was a suspenseful death nobody know how he died but that remained a mystery. Gibran amdist all his works trying hard to find the person who killed his father. All this was going in a lane until now, my thoughts crashed in a moment when I saw the actual transactions in company funds all the money was wiring to my uncle.

ARTHUR STEWARD HATHEWAY. I could see this transactions after entire night hardwork through one of my friends who is stupendous hacker. I had sum him up with few extra hard cash to shut his mouth. He(uncle) was dead, the only possible thing could be someone using his account. I wouldn't think this was Gibran's work he is not the type. The huge amount transferred to this account has the same date, time as the ones who didn't receive them. Circumstances right now were perplexing.

Stella pov :
𝚁𝙴𝙶𝚁𝙴𝚃𝚂 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 ,    𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚞𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍  𝚍𝚒𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚊𝚝𝚎  𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚌𝚑 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚑 𝚛𝚎𝚐𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐. That certain night was little exhausting. The home feels less like a home. I guess it's because Sofie isn't here. She would probably come home when she's done with her work. Looking around the house with noone beside feels vacant. Thought why don't I visit my parents, I miss them anyways. I packed, booked a cab and proceeded. 

Knocked on the door. After a long 1 minute the doors opened by mom. "Honey?" she was thrilled. "Mom" I pulled in her for a hug. That hug which took me out of all the stress I was in. It felt like home. The real HOME. I went inside with all my baggage. My dad was sitting on the couch watching his fav sports show. I went from behind and shooked him by tapping on his shoulder "dad?". He turned and smiled broadly, stood up. "Stella" he came across and hugged me. "I missed you" I said hugging him back. I needed this. Pamper. Love.

My mom was on cloud nine so she had prepared my favorite pasta for dinner. "Looks yum" my dad said while getting a sniff of dish. "Pretty much ah" I smiled at him. "Let's eat" My mom said setting the chair. We all together sat and enjoyed eating it. The dinner was wholesome anybody could ask for. The best one. That evening went well with our little gossips, fun and love together.  When it was past 10 , all the lights were off except the one. The private room that my dad owns. He keeps all his company files and everything related to him. The room was almost filled with all his favorite novels either important files. It was strange seeing him here at this time. He put all the books down the shelf making it a absolute mess. I was standing out of the room little bent to the door. "dad? It's a mess" I said tapping his shoulder. "Mess" he mocked. "I created" he then continued. I smiled and said "Oh! come one dad what are you searching for?". "Company files"he replied. "Are you sure it's in here" I asked after seeing the mess. "Yeah I mean— I opened the file here" he said looking through some files.

I walked in and started searching for it with my dad. "You're files are on the table" my mom shouted or more like she demanded him. We both saw eachother and smiled at our mom's cute voice. "go check them dad" I said him. He looked at me and then at mess he made with uncertainty. "Don't worry I'll clean it" I said him slowly pushing him out of the room. He smiled patting my head and moved from there.

"Bloody mess" I uttered to myself when a book fell upon my head. I was putting the books and files into the respective shelfs. When I almost cleaned the more than half of the mess I noticed a file lying in the corner of one of the shelfs making it look like it's an old one. When I took it out of curiosity and see whose file it is. The company's name was barely seen but amidst I figured out it was the company I work in. STEWARD HATHEWAY & CO.