The Wedding

Chapter 2

It was turn to ask, "what?"

" Not the plane." The brunette s brown eyes fluttered open, glistening with tears. "My life".

Tanner nearly panicked. He could deal with paranoid people worried about plane crashes, but he hoped God this woman wasn't going to cry. He didn't think he could take it right now.

He wasn't supposed to be here - on this plane with this woman, at this point in his life.

Tanner Mata wasn't kind of man to take leaps. Every step he took was carefully plotted beforehand. Except this one.

Ever since Tanner was eight years old, he'd wanted to follow his father's footsteps and his father died, but the loss cemented his resolve. His brother already an engineer, took over the family business. And Tanner joined him when he graduated from college.

The firm had struggle since their father died and the bad turn in the economy hadn't helped. But then Tanner had created a revolutionary part that could be used on wind turbines help generate more electricity with the same amount of wind energy. The part had the potential to make millions. So they'd hired a patent lawyer and spent a fortune they didn't have to get the patent process started., hinging the future of their business on it and it worked. They acquired interest from the future serious investor who could help take their engineering firm to whole new level.

Until last Friday when their patent had been denied.

A firm in Puerto Princesa City had received approval for an identical plan, but how could a firm from Puerto Princesa City have exactly duplicated the esoteric part? Tanner had literally stumbled upon the design by accident.

Tanner company would have to pay thousand more to an attorney to fight the ruling. Thousands they couldn't afford to lose. Worse, yet the investor had caught wind and threatened to pull out of their agreement if the matter wasn't resolve within a week.

Tanner and his brother Noah went out for drinks to strategize about the ruling, which is when after a couple of rounds, Noah confessed to having shown the plan to a friend of a friend at one conference Three years ago.

"Who was the friend of a friend?"

Noah looked embarrassed. "She was a woman I picked up in the bar. I took her to my room and the next morning she was gone and so was my bag. A copy of plan was inside".

" And you didn't think to tell me?" Tanner asked his temper rising.

Noah slouched over the bar cradling a glass tumbler in his hand. He lifted his shoulder into a half shrug. " They were a copy Tanner. I didn't think anything of it."

"We have to fight this" Tanner only realized he was shouting when he took in the startled looks of the other bar patrons.  "We didn't work so hard to file the patent and get this investor just to let it be flushed down the drain."

Noah sat up and drained his drink. "Maybe there's nothing left to fight for."
Only Tanner wasn't so willing to give up the fight. No. He couldn't come this close just to lose it all.

He went on to spend the weekend researching  everything he could about CSW Engineering the firm that had filed the patent two weeks before  Mata Brothers.  After hours of researching and brainstorming and only six days before the investors pulled out, Tanner decided to go to Puerto Princesa City to confront the bastards in person. By stroke of luck, The daughter of Scotch Waddell , one of the owner of CSW, was about to get married. Tanner figured he could use the distraction to catch them off guard.

Noah thought he was crazy but then he would. Despite being four year older he'd never been invested in the company. Still, in spite of his skepticism about the last minute trip Noah had driven him to airport. Since the ticket had been purchased at the last minute Tanner had needed to spring for first class. It had cost a fortune but at least he could have a beer or two and relax on the flight to Puerto Princesa City, taking the opportunity to figure out a real plan.