The Billionaires(#1)

37

“Hi, this is Anita Simmons, and I can’t take your call right now. Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you.”

Meryl was calling Anita for the nth time now in the past two hours. She was the only person left in the building, and she had to lock up. On a daily basis, it was Jorge, MJ, or Anita that locked because they were always the last people to leave the building. Since all of them were out of the country, it was her responsibility to lock up.

However, she did not know the passcode to set the alarm, because it changed on a weekly basis, and the only people who knew about it and got an update each time were MJ and Anita since Jorge barely came to the main office. MJ Billings did not trust anyone else but Anita in the entire building and thus shared the password with her.

Although Billings Corporation had tight security and there were literally cameras at every single corner, she could not trust the people not to turn against her and rob her. So she had a number of the best IT experts working for her and they always found a way to manipulate the alarm and its passwords without the help of the security company.

Meryl was only waiting for a miracle now. She could not call MJ because obviously; she would not answer. She also could not call Jorge, because…well, she just could not find the courage to speak to him on the phone without feeling awkward. Lastly, she could not get hold of the only person she counted on, and with every minute that passed, her only option became Jorge, and before she knew it; she was calling him.

His phone rang twice before he answered, “Anita, thank God you finally answered, I was starting to get worried about you.” He said in one breath, and Meryl furrowed her eyebrows in confusion; why did he think she was Anita? “Hello? Anita?” Jorge asked in a worried tone, and Meryl shook her head vigorously to clear her thoughts.

“Oh, hi, Jorge, this is Meryl.” She said.

“Oh, Meryl, hi! Sorry, I thought you were Anita.” Jorge sighed loudly into the phone.

“No. Uhm…is everything okay? I’ve been trying to call Anita, but she’s not answering. I even left her a bunch of messages and voicemails.”

“I honestly don’t know, but I have a bad feeling. She left with her brother about four hours ago, and our jet was supposed to leave thirty minutes ago, but Anita hasn’t come back and her phone is off.”

“She met with her brother?” Meryl asked, surprised.

“Yes, Javier Mendoza was attending the meeting too.”

“Did you check with him? Maybe she’s still with him.”

“I was actually about to go there, did you need something?” 

“Oh, yes. I wanted to ask for the alarm code, I need to lock up.”

“Oh, that! I’ll just call the IT Department and find out, and then I’ll get back to you in a sec, just hold on…” Meryl sighed and ran a hand through her blond hair.

“23410641MNJ.” A voice spoke, and Meryl realised that it was not a male voice and it was not coming from the phone. She looked up from her desk and her eyes landed on a distraught figure of a woman she recognised to be Anita Simmons.

“Anita, what are you doing here? Jorge is looking for you all over Ireland, what happened? Did your brother bring you?” Meryl asked as she walked around her desk and approached Anita. She expected Anita to jump up and down in pure joy because she met her brother, what she did not expect, was for Anita to break down. “Oh my God! Anita, what happened?” Meryl asked Anita whose body was shaking furiously as she wailed.

Her knees buckled under her and she fell to the floor. Thankfully, Meryl caught her on time and kneeled beside her, pulling her into her arms. Anita was crying so much that Meryl almost did not hear her ringing phone. It was obviously Jorge calling her back, but then how was she going to explain the new situation to him?