ILLICIT #1 : New Moon

Chapter 2 - Lawsuit

Lana Castroff

"Ms. Castroff, there's a little bit of problem." My secretary said as I was busy checking files. I turned to her and I got up from my seat immediately.

"What is it?" I asked as we walked out from my office room.

"There's a man by the name of Phoenix Sterling, he did have an-" I stopped when I heard his name loud and clear from my secretary.

"Where is he?" I asked turning to my secretary.

"He's in the blue meeting room." She said and I gestured her to stay here. I made my way towards the blue meeting room that happened to be at the end of the hallway.

I opened the door and when he saw me, his lips turned into a smile. He didn't even bother to get up from his seat to greet me. "I was expecting to see your father but I guess talking to his daughter is even better." He said arrogantly.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I sat on the chair across him.

"I'm suing your company." He said in a serious tone and I looked at him disbelief.

"Sue my company? What? We didn't do-" Before I could complete my sentence, he put a file in front of me and asked me to read it. I opened the file and my eyes couldn't believe this. I looked up to Phoenix and he smirked at me.

"I was quite nice for not exposing it to the public.. just yet but I'm guess your father didn't tell you about this huh?" He asked and I looked down to the files again.

"Or maybe.. your father is currently running away right now as we speak." He added and I got up from my seat slamming the file to the desk angrily.

"Are you doing this because of what happened 3 months ago?" I asked looking at him raging in anger.

"Ms. Castroff, I'm not that immature. I'm here because of that." He pointed at the file and I closed my eyes trying to breath properly.

"I will have my lawyers come here tomorrow and we can talk about settlements." He said as he got up from his seat. I was speechless because a lot of things and my mind was trying to process everything slowly.

"Don't worry, I won't make you.. a commoner." He said before he walked out from the room. I sat down and my eyes just blankly stared at the ceiling. I immediately took out my phone from my pocket.

I dialed my father's number and he didn't pick up. I kept calling and calling but he didn't pick up. I immediately walked back to my office and asked my secretary to call my father's secretary. I need to have a word with her.

"Ms. Castroff." I gestured her to sit down on the sofa and I walked towards her. I slammed the file that Phoenix gave me earlier to the table in front of her.

"His company is suing us because his staff got an infection from our product! What exactly happened?" I asked and she kept looking down to the ground not knowing what to say.

"Where's my father? Is he running away?" I asked angrily.

"I don't know, Ms. Castroff. He told me that he won't be coming to work for about 4 days or maybe more." Shit!

"Did he make any changes for that product? Because there's no way that Phoenix Sterling's employees will get such infection!" I was pissed and I wanted an explanation from my father as soon as possible.

"Your father did purchase some products that are more cheaper than the original products. I remembered he was mentioning to me about something scented but that's all, Ms. Castroff." She said in a sad tone.

"You both take me to the factory now!" I hissed. I grabbed my phone in the table and the files from Phoenix. My secretary drove me to the factory and my father's secretary tried to read through the lawsuit that Phoenix gave me.

"I want you to give me Phoenix Sterling's phone number." I told Vira, my father's secretary. She immediately opened her work phone and sent his phone number to me. I saved it in my phone as we arrived my soap factory.

I got up and walked inside to asked the employees there for the changes that my father made recently. They brought me to the gallons and gallons of new scented oil for our beauty product.

"I want details on this product and what's the new thing that my father changed?" I asked and the led me to the coloring product that we used.

"Ms. Castroff, we checked the production of products that Mr. Sterling's receive." My secretary said as she gave me her iPad. Apparently the products that Phoenix received was made around 2 weeks ago. He received the products about a week ago. So my father already changed everything.

"I want you to pull back all the products that we produced with the new ingredients. I want the test team to do another test on it." I said as I gave the iPad back to my secretary.

"Yes, Ms. Castroff."

"I want every product already here by tomorrow and check all the people that purchase our product recently if they have any infection like Phoenix Sterling's employees got." I said with a hint of angry tone.

My employees quickly do as they told and I dialed Phoenix's number. I walked out from the factory hoping that he would answer my call.

"Hello."

"Mr. Sterling, this is Lana Castroff." I introduced myself.

"You want me to cancel the lawsuit?" He asked in a cold tone. I rolled my eyes and completely hated this man.

"No, but I would like to send some of my employees to check on your employees' condition. We want to know the cause of it." I said nicely or maybe trying to be nice.

"Very well, you can come to the West Hospital tomorrow at 1 o'clock."

"Okay, thankyou." I ended the call and sighed.