Double Standards // ziam

Chapter 1

Sophia Bloom Sinclair was contemplating the vista out of her majestic office that ruled her high rise corporation. She was deep in thought when the sound of muddled footsteps that advanced on her insanely expensive Persian carpet caught her attention. She turned around to sit on her black leathered desk chair, as she scrutinized her vice president's face. He was definitely perturbed, which gave her the presentiment that he was baring bad news.

"Well, out with it," she commanded in her usual strict cold voice, "Who won the bid?"

Her vice president sat down on one of the guest's chair in front of her mahogany desk in defeat. His clenched fists expressed his frustration, and she needn't hear him say that Payne was the lower bidder to know that they lost yet another project to this bastard.

"The investor is signing with him a contract for the construction of the new chain of hotels and resorts; we lost a contract of more than 5 billion dollars just because this Payne bastard beat our price by a lousy one hundred thousand dollars." The vice president spat in wrath.

Only the thinning of Sophia Bloom's strict mouth betrayed her inner anger. "That's the what! ... sixth time in a year that he's won a major contract away from us. Quite a coincidence, I think not."

"Coincidence!" the vice president hissed scathingly, "it wasn't a coincidence nor it was cheer luck and you know it well Sophia. Someone in my division must be spying for Liam Payne. Some bastard is spying on us for him so he can bid lower than our price every single time. Don't you think it is also strange that we always end up bidding on the same projects! Only five men that work for me knew the number we were bidding on, one of them must be the spy. We only have to find out whom."

Sophia massaged her temple with her fingers and leaned back in her chair, she honestly did not know what to think.

"We ran a check on them... remember; all what we've learned is that two of them are cheating on his wife and another is actually gay, we didn't find anything that incriminated them in any way!"

"Then it was not enough...there must be something." The vice president ran his fingers through his shiny primed hair. "Look, Sophia, I know that Liam is your stepson, but you're going to have to do something about him. He's out to destroy you, his own father's company... this is no normal competition this is vindictive."

Sophia's eyes narrowed to snake slits and her lips turned thinner as she retorted: "I've never accepted that fact that he's my 'stepson', nor does my husband consider him his son for that matter, Georges has only one son and it's Carter."

She calmed down after having made that clear: "Now, specifically what do you suggest I do about our little problem."

"For all I care... put a spy in his company...an eye for an eye, I really don't care what you do, just do something. But we better put a stop to the spying done in here."

Sophia looked at her vice president in amazement, spy on that Liam bastard...what a solution! However, her thoughts were interrupted by the buzzing on her desk.

"Hold that thought." She said as she quickly replied to her secretary.

"What is it Stephanie?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt Mrs. Sinclair, but there is a Mr. Zack Malik, oh, sorry, Zayn Malik here, he has an appointment to discuss employment."

"He does," Sophia sighed irritably. "I agreed to interview him for a position with us. Tell him I'll see him in a few minutes." She returned her attention to the vice president who was regarding her with puzzled raised eyebrows.

"Since when are you conducting personal interviews?" he asked in a mockingly surprised manner.

"It's a courtesy interview," Sophia explained with an impatient sigh. "His mother was a faraway cousin of mine, from my mother's Irish side of the family. She was one of the relatives my dear mother wanted to contact for our family tree, she located her and invited her and her family to a nice little weekend visit so that she could delve into their ancestry, discover if they were actually related to decide if they are worthy to mention in her book. We discovered she got married to some Indian man, who was an English professor in some school, and she was a musician, but she gave up concertos to raise her son. Well a few years ago, her husband died in a car accident... she called me two weeks ago to ask if I could find her son a job. She said there was nothing suitable for him in Missouri where they're living now."