7. A Bad Start To The Day

DAHLIA

The following morning dawned rather cold; I was sitting in the car with Aria. We would drop her at school before I headed to work. When Warren was around, he forced me to stay home from work more often than not. At the time I didn’t mind, loving to spend more time with Aria.

Ever since baba became ill, I had worked a lot more. I wondered if Warren's reason was so he could mess around at work. Were there other women at work he had been sleeping with? Just the thought sent a pang of pain through me. I was annoyed at the same time.

I sighed until I felt someone watching me and looked at Aria who was watching me thoughtfully.

“Is everything ok darling?” I asked her, caressing her hair that was in two pigtails.

“Is mama sad because daddy left us?” She said. I froze, my smile vanishing.

“Who said daddy left us?”

“Kids at school, and Mrs Riddle was telling the other teacher…” Aria mumbled. I frowned, feeling anger spike inside. Oh, this was not going to be forgotten. How dare they talk in front of a child like that?! “Is it because of me?”

Those words hurt me, and I pulled the child into my lap. “No Ari, never think that. This is not happening because of you. Mama and daddy had an argument. Nothing more.” I kissed her forehead, hugging her tightly. I wasn’t going to let this slide.

Telling Markus to wait whilst I drop Aria to her class before I asked her teacher to step outside for a word. The woman smiled sweetly, closing the classroom door leaving the children with the assistant teacher. I gave a small faint smile.

“Mrs Riddle. I understand that it is part of human nature to gossip, and I really don’t care if you say whatever you wish about me, but do not make the mistake of speaking in front of my child.” I said coldly. Satisfied when her face drained of colour.

“Oh, Ms El Nazari it isn't like that. I have no idea what you are talking about!” She lied blatantly. I raised an eyebrow.

“Oh really? Is that why Aria asked me exactly why we are separated?”

“I… well I-”

“Enough.” I said icily “This will be the first and last time I allow you to get away with it. If I hear anything or learn my daughter is treated differently after this, I assure you I will take this to the head. Don’t forget the El Nazari Company is what funds half of the extracurricular activities in this school.”

Mrs Riddle nodded, visibly trembling. “I-I’m sorry. It will not happen again.”

“I should hope not.” I said before turning on my heels and walking off. I didn’t like to boast of my influence but when it came to Aria, I became dangerously protective. She was my life and sometimes it scared me that others would realise that.

------

I reached the office building hurrying through the halls. I had almost forgotten about the meeting! Today was the first meeting with the new CEO. I can’t believe I'm late for this!

I slowed down reaching the doors and walked inside trying to keep my breathing steady. My heart thudded as I saw everyone was already seated.

All eyes now turned to me. I saw Dane raise his eyebrow, that arrogant look on his handsome face as he sat at the top right side of the table. I walked around taking my seat at the head. Not looking at Dane who was right next to me, arms crossed as if waiting for an explanation.

“Did you forget about the meeting Ms El Nazari?” He asked, his gravelly voice laced with mockery. I frowned slightly as I looked at him.

“There’s nothing wrong with having to wait for the head of the company Mr Altaire.” I replied airily. He frowned looking away.

“Let’s carry on, I have things to do.” He spoke looking back at the screen. “As I was saying before we were interrupted-”

“You started without me?” I said, my eyes widening. The board of directors exchanged looks but right now I didn’t care. I was already in a mood thanks to Aria’s teachers. As if the news articles and magazines were not enough!

“You're 20 minutes late Ms El Nazari. Time is money and my job is to take this company to new heights is it not? Or did you expect me to wait around?” He said, raising one of his irritatingly perfect eyebrows.

I could see the board nodding their agreement. So, I said nothing, despite the anger that was seething through me.

“Then do continue.” I said. He smirked, turning his gaze back to the projector that was showing some stats.

“Now that I have permission to continue, as I was saying. In the last year, I’ve noticed that the companies’ expenses have risen more than the market inflation rate.”

I frowned looking ahead. How did I not know about this?

“We didn’t know… Mr Murdock never mentioned-” Mr Kim said.

“Because you’re still making profits no one cares until you start losing out. If these expenses were tracked, you’d learn half of them were very unnecessary. I’ve only had a day since I've been in the office, so I thought I’d do a bit of a background check to see where we’re standing.

“So, what do you advise?” Mr Arden said gravely. He was one of Dahlia’s favourites on the board.

“If the board agrees. I want a week to have every department’s finances checked and make amendments to those figures.” His face was serious. He was leaning back in his seat, his eyes on the screen, his leg resting on his other knee. His elbow resting on the armrest. Relaxed, yet he exuded power and arrogance.

I felt my heart hammer when he suddenly turned as if sensing me watching him, but said nothing looking away as the board members discussed between themselves. After a few moments, most of them nodded.

“That makes complete sense. We do hope you don’t disappoint us, Mr Altaire.” Mrs Smith said.

“I won't.” He said, turning to me. “Want to add anything Ms El Nazari?”

“No. That’s fair.” I said quietly despite hearing the antagonising tone in his voice. He smirked and turned back, continuing with the meeting.

Almost two hours later the meeting was over and my butt was hurting from all the sitting. One thing that was crystal clear was Dane knew exactly what he was doing.

I was rather impressed considering he was only a year out of his education. I knew he had worked in several companies whilst studying and on many projects but seeing him like this… The meeting was finally over, and everyone left.

Only Dane and I were left. He was going through some files on his laptop. The projector was now turned off.

“That was impressive.” I said after a moment.

“I haven't done anything yet.” He said, his hands working on his laptop at a very fast speed. “But there is something I wanted to show you, which didn’t need to be mentioned to the board.”

“Hmm?” I said standing up. I walked around and leaned down looking at the screen he shifted towards me a little.

“There are thousands that have been sent to several different accounts. Not anything noticeable from such a huge company considering the size. However, I thought you might want to know. It seems your fiancé was sending extra bonuses to several women in this very building.”

I felt as if I had been slapped, my heart tightening and my eyes stinging as I stared at the screen. Names I recognised and who worked in this very company and there were two that stuck out the most. Kendra Johnson and Menhal Mir- my stepmothers sister.

“Fire them all. Immediately.” I said, my voice so cold I barely recognised it myself. Anger burned through me like a raging storm and the only way that I would be satiated was to get rid of every single woman who dared to mock me by affiliating themselves with my husband.