The sun hadn't fully risen yet when Lisa stood in her Göberitz room, fully dressed, packing her things. Today, she would go to Kerima and get an overview of the company's situation. After all, she had stayed out of it for far too long, and as the majority shareholder, she could not keep avoiding it forever. Her honeymoon had turned into years of and she had never found the courage to return. When her marriage to David fell apart, she used it as an excuse to delay her return even further. After all, she had to deal with it herself first and process everything. Of course, at the time, she didn't want to admit that this was just a poor excuse. But now, the time for procrastination and excuses was over; both were foreign to the "old Lisa".
She wasn't the same as she used to be, and she was glad that she had developed on many levels. However, her core principles and morality, things she had partially lost over the years, were what defined her.
Lisa Plenske from Göberitz had always prided herself on being responsible and dependable. She was someone who followed the rules and kept everything in order. But over the years, she transformed into Lisa Seidel, a woman who had sacrificed nearly everything for a dream that soon turned into a nightmare, disregarding the consequences along the way.
A person who couldn't even wait one day to spare the feelings of the man who had always stood by her. Instead, she married just minutes after breaking the heart of that very man, the man who had broken hers so many times and would continue to do so in the future. She didn't recognize this person anymore, and she was horrified by her own heartless behavior.
Lisa was so lost in thought that she didn't realize how quickly time had passed around her. She glanced at the clock on the wall, gasped as she grabbed her bag, and hurried towards the Göberitz train station.
When Lisa entered the completely empty office building, she was immediately overwhelmed by a mix of emotions and memories, both good and bad, swirling in her mind. Even though her feelings were mixed, the surroundings somehow also evoked a sense of home within her.
She first went to the catering area and was satisfied to find that she was indeed the only one in the company. She started making herself a pot of coffee. She wanted to face her duties and responsibilities now, but that didn't mean she couldn't delay the confrontation with her former colleagues, employees, and even her father-in-law for a few hours by locking herself in her office first and reviewing the company's records from the past years. With the coffee pot in one hand and her briefcase tucked under her arm, she made her way to her old office.
It didn't take long before the first employees stood in front of her office door, not as subtly as they thought, trying to peek into the currently unused office, which no longer had her nameplate.
However, Lisa didn't notice any of this because she was so immersed in the stack of documents she had been working through for hours.
Lisa opened the desk drawer and rummaged through it in search of a working pen. She pulled one out and tried to close the drawer again, but something seemed to be caught. She reached into the drawer and pulled out the wedged object. Satisfied with the now smooth closing of the drawer, she didn't initially realize what she was holding. She was startled when she saw that she was holding an invitation to her wedding, the one from eight years ago, the wedding that, due to her disastrous decision, still haunted her nightmares to this day.
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In a trance, she stared at the card, which had a picture of her and Rokko on it, carefully running her finger over the slightly damaged material, now bearing the mark left by the drawer that had trapped it.
The office seemed to have been used in the meantime, though at first glance, not much had changed except for the absence of her personal belongings, which she, of course, had taken with her. How likely was it that she would find this photo here now? However, she couldn't get much further with this thought.
"Lisa?" Lisa was startled by the unexpected interruption. She quickly turned her gaze to the door, where Friedrich stood, looking at her with a concerned expression due to her somewhat distressed appearance. She quickly shoved the invitation under the stack of papers, feeling caught, as if she had done something forbidden and not just examined a relic from her past.
"I'm sorry, I knocked several times, but you apparently didn't hear me. May I?" Friedrich asked, gesturing toward the chairs in front of her desk. When Lisa nodded, he went over to sit down in front of her. "Is David here too?" Before Lisa could respond, her father-in-law continued, "You haven't been in touch for a while. I'm glad to see you again. I need to see David right away. Is he over by the catering?''
Friedrich got up again, about to leave her office.
"No. Friedrich, wait. David didn't come with me," was all Lisa could say, leaving no room for further questions or speculation, questions she wasn't ready or willing to address at this time. "You're here alone?" came the visibly disappointed response from him. "Yes, you know how David is. But I just wanted to check on things. After all, I'm still the majority shareholder, and from the looks of it, Kerima is not doing too well at the moment," Lisa quickly steered the conversation away from her private life and hinted at the records from the past years and the dire situation of the company.
Friedrich lowered his gaze to the floor. "Yes, unfortunately, that seems to be true. After Mrs. Haas passed away, Hugo seemed to have slowly recovered at first and seemed to be improving, but that was only short-lived.
It's been a constant up and down, and he's currently in one of his biggest creative crises. Kerima always had the upper hand in the fashion world, but since we no longer have our secret weapon, Hugo, it's been easy for the competition to get a huge head start, while we're falling further and further behind, a gap that seems impossible to close. After all the scandals with Richard and Sophie, our public image was already badly damaged, and the PR consultants we've had in recent years were not up to the task of protecting the company and Hugo in the public eye.
I don't say this lightly, but if a miracle doesn't happen soon, Kerima is in serious trouble." Lisa had to swallow hard. If she had known the company was in such serious trouble, she would have mustered the courage to return earlier.
Lisa and Friedrich continued their long conversation, to her relief, mostly about business. After Friedrich left, she threw herself back into work. She hadn't noticed how late it had gotten. Just as she had been the first one in the company that morning, she was now the last one. She had to hurry to catch the last train to Göberitz. As she quickly organized her desk and straightened up the papers, the corner of the wedding invitation she had hurriedly hidden earlier appeared under one of the stacks. She carefully lifted the large pile of paper and retrieved the photo.
She knew exactly who could help her and the company now, but could she dare? And would he even respond to her call for help?
