Beneath The Orange Sunset ✔️

32

~31~

A brown envelope on the office desk welcomed Antoine that morning. He hated office packages and surprises; it would have been different if they came from family.

Knowing that day was special for the company, he was on alert for any sort of bribery or politics especially from Fabien.

He knew he had stepped on the lion's tail when he rejected that cheque of one million dollars. He knew Fabien was a shady man who specialised in doing shady business. Antoine could only imagine how much he must have bribed the board of directors to vote him as the new CEO.

Now he couldn't fight Fabien physically if he wanted, the whole executives will be against him.

Antoine knew he was just a one-man-standing squad.

The envelope was light and sealed with an adhesive tape. He ripped it open and saw what was inside.

His heart constricted. Blood rushed to his skin. This was just what he needed to see to get him irritated.

Fabien LaPointe, how dare you?

Antoine's chest heaved even deeper as his eyes flicked through the five photos.

Olga's photos!

She was not hurt from the photos. But she was been watched. The photos were taken at different times of the day, all showing Olga leaving and arriving at her apartment in London.

Antoine gritted his teeth in anger and stormed out of his office.

"Sir..." Basil's voice stopped him. "The meeting started about ten minutes ago, and your presence is..."

"Is my mother there?" Antoine bellowed at the shorter man.

"Yes, she arrived with Mr LaPointe about thirty minutes ago," Basil adjusted the round spectacle on his nose.

"Who sent that envelope?" Antoine demanded.

"What envelope?" Basil's eyes darted to his right and back.

Antoine narrowed his eyes. He suspected foul play. Either Basil was Fabien's minion or he was innocent. He pushed the shorter man out of the way, he was not the sole target. He marched aggressively towards the board room where the meeting was been held.

"Sir, sir..." Basil tugged behind his boss, stopping him in his tracks again. "We have foreign investors, who are here for the meeting. It's a big day for LaPointe so I suggest you shouldn't go in there in this state of mind." Basil braced himself awaiting the wrath of his irritated boss.

"Get out of my way!" Antoine gritted. He barged through the door rudely interrupting the ongoing board meeting of the top Lacroix executives.

"Stay away from Olga you old man!" He yelled imperatively.

All pair of eyes of about thirteen men all dressed in corporate attire, lit upward gazing at the supposedly mad man.

"What is this?" One of the foreign investors inquired in his heavy German accent, his face highly irritated at the rude interruption. He glanced at Fabien then at Emile whose head was bowed in shame. She tapped an emergency button on the centre of the round table and drew back her executive chair.

"If you threaten me or Olga, I swear I'm going to sue you!" Antoine lashed out pointing his index finger at LaPointe, who obviously looked away ignoring the young man.

Two hefty security personnel stormed into the boardroom and grabbed Antoine, dragging him out of the room, with Emile trotting close behind him.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Antoine?" she asked as soon as the two security guards left Antoine's office.