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***

The golden-brown haired lady came into the office with two large brown envelopes in her hands as she quickly walks to the table of the expecting older man. She placed the envelopes on the table and they both began bringing out the files that were inside as they skim through each of them.

When she felt tired of standing, she sat on one of the chairs that were in front of the older man, she adjusts her skirt and put her hair in a ponytail since it kept falling down.

After a moment the man asked “Joan, anything yet?”

Joan looks up from the file of files in front of her and shook her head with a little furrow on her brow. “Nothing yet, dad” she answered and he sighs.

“Let’s keep looking, there could be something that we could find that would get us out of this mess we found ourselves in” he said and they kept looking through the remaining untouched files.

A knock was heard.

“Come in” Gary said, loud enough for the person knocking to hear.

A man in casual wear, a troubled look and a small enveloped letter, came inside his office, closed the door and walked towards Gary and Joan were busy.

“There’s a problem sir” the man spoke and that made both father and daughter to stop and take a look at him worriedly.

“What will that be, Robbie?” he asked then took the envelope that Robbie handed over to him. He looked at the sealed envelope and he looked at Robbie before opening the envelope to see its content.

He took out the folded paper and read its content, his eyes widened when he saw the content and it rose to look at Robbie’s troubled ones.

“They di-”

“Yes sir, they did”

Gary stood up and threw the paper on the floor in anger, Joan watched her father’s reaction then stood to pick the paper that lay on the floor, and she reads through it and could feel her heart race.

She turns to Robbie “They have to be joking” she said and Robbie shook his head.

“They are not ma’am”

Joan shook her head “They can’t do this, they… they can’t just make such ridiculous request” she states then placed the paper on the table “Yes, we are struggling since the Kingswell project which was a disaster but we are still holding up” she raised her chin up the turns to her dad who had sad look on his face.

“We still have some resources to keep us going, w—we are at the verge of bankruptcy but we can still hold on, right dad?” she asked for clarity with hopeful look but the sadness that played on her dad’s face told her otherwise.

“Joan dear” he came closer to her and touched her hair “We used up the rest of our resources to try and make an alternative but it failed too” he told her and she gasped.

Trying not to let it get to her she shook her head and paced around the room as she thought about what could be done to save her dad’s company then she stopped and walked closer to her dad.

“We still own a bigger share, right? We can use some of our profits to keep up for the time being then refer some of our employees to other companies, temporarily so that we can have lesser salaries to pay as we sort out this issue” she turns to Robbie who shared the same look as her dad.

“I don’t want them to suffer because our company is, they have families to feed” she finishes and he bows his head then she looked at her dad who seems like he would burst out crying.

“Joan, I am sorry but we have just a little share from the company” he breaks to her and she widens her eyes “I don’t know how that happened but the Reliso’s Company was able to get a majority of our shar-”

“And they want more?” she asked, her dad nods “That’s ridiculous, they possibly wouldn’t just want our company without having something they gain from” she said.

“What more could they want? They need more power and since our company has been progressing over the years, they saw our weakness and decides to work with that” her dad explains.

“No, not that” she said when realization dawned on her “It’s something else” she said then let her lips draw a smirk “And I think I know what exactly they want” she picked up a document and the letter.

“You’re going somewhere Joan?” she nods “You want to meet them” he didn’t ask.

“Trust me dad, I know what I am doing dad, just trust me on this, please” she begged when she saw the sullen look on her dad’s face “I’ll fix this and soon things will fall into place” she tried to assure.

She wasn’t sure about the actions she was going to take now but hopes for the best.

“Robbie, you heard all that we said, go make a report on that and put the right team together so that you start work as soon as possible” she said and he nods before leaving “I’ll see you soon dad” she went to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek before leaving.

… Three months later …

Robbie didn’t bother knocking when he burst into Gary’s office looking really panicked. He walked to Gary who had a little furrow on his brows when he saw him.

“What’s the matter Robbie? You were supposed to k-” he was interrupted by the opening of his office door again to see Darken Reliso, the son of Henry and Ansel Reliso in his usual expensive Gimanni dark blue suit, clean cut and shining pair of shoes.

He had that static annoying smirk on his lips and kept his right brow up. He was holding a document.

Darken walked slowly into the office and stops just as he was in front of Gary, he nods then let himself sit on the chair in front before placing the document in his hand on the table.

“Good day Mr. Anderson” he greets cooly. He looks up at Robbie who had a glare directed at him. “Can you leave us so we can talk?” he asked but Robbie made no move to leave so he rolled his eyes and looked at Gary “Can you te-”

“What are you doing here Dark?” he interrupts him,

Darken frowned and sat up on his chair “It’s Darken, not Dark”

“Same thing, what are you doing here?” he asked again.

Choosing to ignore him, he placed his hands on the table and raised his chin up “Now I see where Joan got her feistiness from” he remarks.

“What do you mean by that?” Gary asked with a little furrow now on his brow.

“You’ll know soon, just tell this man to leave us to talk” he side-points at Robbie.

“He is my secretary so he has to be present in every meeting I have with anyone” Gary defends.

Darken looks up at Robbie then laughs hard before composing himself “Too bad good people are too stupid to see who truly is against them,” he remarks and before Gary could ask he continues “Anyways, I came here to seal off the deal I sent three months ago” he states.

“Your offer is ridiculous” Gary remarks.

“What choice do you have? Anderson Tech is going through one of its baddest challenges and you are already bankrupt, soon some company will come to buy you guys off and probably turn your company to a children’s playground” he said with a laugh.

“I better watch my words if I were you Dark”

“It’s Darken and for heaven’s sake, sign the document already. It will be okay if we took over some shares of your company than a stranger whom you don’t know of, unless…” he wriggled his brows.

Gary got an idea of what he was referring to.

“No!”

“Well then, sign this paper or you’ll just end up losing what you think you still have a hold on”

Gary looks at Robbie who had a defeated look on his face, he knew he was in a deadlock here and as much as he doesn’t want to agree with Darken, he was right. The Resilo’s might be annoying but at least, he knew them.

He looked at the front page of the document then sign in all blank spaces and fling it at Darken “Don’t think you can come near my daughter, stay away from her” he warned.

Darken stood to his feet with a triumphant smirk and walked away. “We’ll see about that”