Chapter 103: An Alternative to Challenges

Lisa’s POV

The following day arrived with a refreshing cool wind coming through the small window. I felt it graze my skin before I had even gotten my eyes open. He was already awake, Leo, his shirt half-buttoned as he sat on the edge of the bed.

The early morning sunlight was warm on him, his profile was softly illuminated from behind in this quiet glow. He seemed composed — intent — but there was a tightness in his jaw that let me know that he was distracted.

I struggled up on my elbows.“Good morning,” I whispered, pushing myself up.

He turned, and his face softened immediately. “Morning, love.” His hand came forward and lightly touched my face, his thumb brushing tenderly over my cheek. “We’re running behind schedule. We’re a little late. Get any coffee on the road?” said her husband. "Do you want coffee before we go?"

“Only if you have the time.”

“For you? Always.”

His grin softened but the least sign of tension previously noticed in his face was now gone.

At the beginning I didn’t inquire what was wrong.

In our new pattern, he would let me know when he was ready — and he always did. So I got up, showered, got dressed and met him in the kitchen, he gave me a travel mug of coffee and kissed my forehead before we left. But as soon as we walked into the office, the mood shifted.

There were eyes on us– more than usual. Whispers rolled through the corridors like the ripples of the discreet sea. And before we even made it to our floor, Sandra, one of the top brass, came rushing toward us with a stern look.

“Leo,” she said breathlessly. “We have a situation.”

Of course.

Now that makes sense.

Leo straightened slightly. “What happened?”

“It’s like that if we tell it in there,” she said as she led us to the conference room.

My heart is not insensitive to the unease of his posture. Before he came in, he pivoted and ran his thumb over the back of my hand in a light reassurance. Perhaps I was the one who was trying to reassure him. “That” was the touch that was grounded for us.

Inside, several department heads sat in wait. Tablets open. Files scattered. A large screen lit up with reports. The mood was tense, clipped, impatient.

“There’s been a compromise in the logistics account. Someone diverted a section of our supply chain for the new product launch. We found it early, but it’s slowing us down and you could lose a lot of money if you don’t do something right away.”

Whispers rippled.

Leo’s expression stiffened—not in anger, but in resolve. At the first sign of pressure, he was unrecognizable. He didn’t panic. He analyzed.

But what was more striking to me was that the first place his eyes flicked was to me, as if silently asking, Are you with me? I gave a small nod.

Always.

“What do we know so far?” he inquired, now fully assuming the role of leader.

“We suspect internal interference,” Sandra said. “A senior figure.”

“Internal?” I audibly said to myself—at least as far as I got before I could stop. The room fell silent.

Leo took a long breath. Then he straightened, authoritative and composed.

A handful of necks craned in my direction, but Leo held still. He rested his hand lightly on the back of my chair, a brief flicker of a signal that was meant to convey to all in attendance that my role here was not as a mere bystander, but I was one of them.

“That’s what the preliminary logs are telling us,” Sandra confirmed.

Leo breathed out and scrolled through the data. His fingers were drumming lightly on the table as he skimmed the files on the monitor.

And then he said, “Lisa, what do you think?”

That question brought the room at large to a halt.

Not that they didn’t respect my advice—they did—but it meant something else: Leo looked at us as a duo. Partners. Even contributors. And he wasn’t shy about showing the company that.

I leaned forward and scanned the logs.

“The breach isn’t random,” I said, drawing the pattern out on the display. “This was no accident. Whoever did this knew us intimately. They knew exactly where the vulnerabilities were.”

Sandra nodded. “Agreed to all of that.”

“And see, here,” I said. “They didn’t divert all the freight, you know. They only diverted those linked to the gift campaign for the holiday. Which implied that they were motivated by trying to get visibility rather than by sniffing out financial gain.”

“It’s sabotage,” Leo said timidly.

I tightened up my chest. Sabotage implicates motives— and motives usually means jealousy, power struggles, or personal vendettas.

“I suspect that someone wants to see the launch fail spectacularly,” I said. “Minor street trouble at home wouldn’t do. They wanted something bigger.”

“Alright,” he said. “this is a two-step process” “We handle this in two phases. Now, we just protect the supply chain and we re-route everything by hand. Lisa, I want you to be responsible for running the quality checks.” No one gets to use the launch files but you and me,” he added.

“Yes,” I said immediately.

“Second,” he continued, “we identify who did this.” Quietly. I don’t want hype running wild.”

His voice had a quiet steel that commanded people to hear without question.

There was a nodding of heads, and everyone went to work.

As the place started to clear, Leo breathed out hard and ran a hand through his hair.

“Hey,” I mouthed softly, taking a step closer. “We’ll fix this.”

He slightly shook his head. “I know. But this was carried out intentionally, Lisa. Someone we can trust.”

She  reached for his hand. “And we confront it together. As with everything else."

His shoulders relaxed. His hand pressed against mine, anchoring himself in the solidity of our union.

“Thank you,” he whispered. “You always know exactly what to say.

“And you always know how to make me believe we’ll get through anything,” I whispered with a faint smile.

His thumb ran over my knuckles and, for a second, the tense atmosphere between them relaxed It was still us—still our rhythm—even in chaos.

Which had now spent the rest of the day separating into two lanes according to the way the world was going in two directions:

One wherein problems piled up

and one where Leo and I were moving through them, side by side.

We were a well-oiled machine—updating each other, dividing the work, communicating with looks that spoke volumes. Our coworkers gaped at us, equal parts amazement and disbelief. It was irrelevant. We weren’t playing to an audience, that much was clear.

This is simply who we were growing towards.

By mid-afternoon, we had a makeshift solution. It was not ideal, but it allowed the takeoff to stay on schedule. When I gave Leo the revised report, he rose from his desk and drew me into an impromptu, thankful hug.

“You’re amazing,” he breathed in my hair.

“You too,” I whispered. Standing there, hugging and comforted in the axis on a very busy day.

Challenges didn’t intimidate me any longer.

Not with him beside me. Not as long as we stood together. Because when the world brought storms—  Leo and I didn’t break.

We built a shelter.

Together.