Ms. CEO

Chapter 17

(Not Edited)

Previously on Ms. CEO:

Alessia and Rose were out looking for the perfect tree to celebrate Christmas together. When Rose finds the perfect tree, they search for someone who could help them. When they bump into Erick, the handsome heir to the tree business, he offers them some help and sends his buddies to take the tree to Alessia's house. She invites them for a cup of coffee and some cookies. Alessia seems to be happy for the upcoming Christmas. Alessia and Rose begin decorating the tree with the sound of music filling their high spirits. Alessia takes some time to be by herself so she can pick out some presents for her loved ones. She sees a stunning silver watch and believes it would look amazing on Mr. Lombardi. As she asks how much the watch is, she feels ridiculed as the salesman tells her it's too expensive. She buys it right on the spot, leaving the man shocked to say the least. She bought Rose a beautiful winter outfit and her father a digital camera. Christmas day came around and she spent it happily with not only her daughter and her father, but with the rest of her family as well.

Usually in the holidays, I would give most of my employees their days off. The only people who would stay were the ones who didn't celebrate the holidays or prefer getting paid twice their salary. Maybe it was both.

So, when I walked into my office building for the first time in what felt like months, I was only greeted by one person and that person was my receptionist, Lucy.

"Ms. Moretti," Lucy greeted me as she glanced up from her computer screen. "How have you been?"

"I've been good," I replied and glanced around the empty hall. "Everyone must be up stairs then?"

She nodded her head in response and looked down at her computer. "There is only about thirty people in today."

"Guess not everyone enjoys the holidays."

She lightly chuckled and shook her head. "No, not everyone does."

"What about you?" I asked hesitantly, not wanting to offend herr. "Why are you working during these times?"

She shrugged her shoulders and looked away. "I don't really have a family to share it with," she said and gulped a huge breath of air. "My parents are traveling in Europe right now and I don't have any siblings."

I looked at her in surprise. "What about your boyfriend? Weren't you dating Mr. Castworth's son?"

Mr. Fredrick Castworth was a well known and extremely wealthy man. He was featured in Forbes magazine as one of the top fifty richest men on Earth. He ran an empire, one hundred times bigger than mine. He owned most of the oil productions in Mexico and India. Mr. Castworth was also an old acquaintance, but I preferred to stay away from him. He held too much power, and if someone didn't do what he wanted you to do, then you were in one hell of a trouble.

His son, Liam Castworth, is the future heir of Castworth's Inc. Sure, he was handsome, intelligent and kind, but he wasn't exactly who I was looking for.

My father and Mr. Castworth were old comrades. Apparently, they were good friends back when they went to high school and they had thought that it was a good idea for Liam and I to get together. They tried setting us up on a date, but of course I quickly caught on to what they were planning and declined their offer. Liam was an exceptional man, but I didn't see us two more than friends.

Sometimes when their family would invite us over for dinner, I tried to get myself out of that situation, but not all the time did I get to escape. So, I would go, dressed in a nice evening gown since their dinners were never dull or boring. I would be forced to sit next to Liam and you could imagine how uncomfortable that was when both your mothers were talking about how cute our babies were going to look. I tried steering away from him at all costs.