Chapter 3: XAVIER POV

The light buzz of my alarm woke me from a restless and drunk sleep. I groaned as I touched my head in agony—drinking last night was not a good idea.

For the first time since I started Kings Corp., going to work seemed like a chore. I didn't enjoy it anymore. Lazily, I got ready, showering off last night's drinks and taking some painkillers to ease my headache. I put on an all-black suit and drove to the Kings Corp. building.

"Good morning, Mr King," my current assistant Leroy greeted me. I nodded to acknowledge him and went to my office.

None of my assistants yet were as good as Amelia, and they often got fired in a month or 2. She had been amazing at her job. It wasn't surprising that she was a top businesswoman now.

I got an email from Leroy, and it was the profit spreadsheet.

Lower and lower.

We weren't in loss, but profit was getting less and less each week.

My office phone rang, and I answered immediately. Any news was better than what I just saw.

"Good morning, Mr King." I could recognize that Australian accent anywhere.

"How can I help you?" I asked. Mr Walker's partnership with Kings Corp. was one of the reasons we were still making any profit at all.

"I'm call you to say that this is the last month that Walker Industries will be working with Kings Corp.," he said solemnly.

I paused for a minute. I still needed to sound professional and calm. "What made you come to this decision?" I asked, keeping my cool.

"Xavier…" His tone became more friendly. "I don't need to tell you that Kings Corp. is declining. I'm sure you already know that…I want to help you as much as possible, but not by putting my own business in danger," he explained. "Furthermore," he carried on, "I stayed longer to try and fix things with my sister, but she left Kings Corp. as well.” It was true. Jodie found a better job somewhere else.

I could see where he was coming from, and if the shoe was on my foot, I would've done the same thing as well.

"Alright. Thank you for your contributions to Kings Corp. Maybe one day, we will be partners again," I responded.

"I look forward to it." And he ended the call.

I held my head up in my hands and groaned. This was not good.

"Leroy," I called my assistant. He was of those hippie guys who pretended he didn't have a surname. It was annoying sometimes, but he got the work done.

"Yeah, boss man?" he asked. He was tall, of square built, and gave off a surfer dude vibe with his shoulder-length blonde hair, which was in a neat ponytail, and had bright blue eyes.

"I need you to get me a graph of Kings Corp.’s profit from the last 5 years," I ordered.

"On it." He jogged back to his office, which was next to mine, and got on with the work. While he did that, I realized what the next best company to replace Walker Industries was.

Kings Corp. was still one of the top 5 business in America, but instead of being number 1, like it had been, it had fallen to number 3. Number 1 was an English company, and number 2 was Eva Enterprises.

The English company—called Pyramid—was an online shopping and international shipping company that had been around for a while but only recently opened up in the United States, where it was an absolute success.

Eva Enterprises was also booming. Although I was just behind it in ranking, the difference between us was huge.

"What happened to you, Xavier?" I asked myself.

I was the best. Everyone wanted to be me. Kings Corp. was the most successful company. But now, everything was collapsing.

It had been a few hours, and I'd done nothing but worry. I knew I needed to find a solution, but what was I going to do? No one wanted to work with a failing company.

A small knock on the door pulled me out of my anxiety bubble. It was Leroy. Unlike usual, he didn't say anything but handed 2 separate things to me and left quietly.

The first thing he gave me was a newspaper dated for today. Anger built in me as I read the headline.

Kings Corp. in Loss—will the company collapse?

What the fuck was this?

I read a bit of the article.

Once the unbeatable king of the business world, Kings Corp. is now in major decline. Will the company see its last days soon?

I threw the article into the bin. Kings Corp. was not going to die out. I was going to make sure of it. I didn't care what anyone said.

Hold on a minute.

I took the article out of the bin and scanned it—there was no source reference.

Where did they get this information?

No one except Kings Corp. partners knew that there was a slight decline in profits.

Was it Mr Walker? I doubted he would leak this information, though, and he only ended his partnership today. The article couldn't have been written that fast.

I opened the 2nd document, deciding I needed to divert my attention. It was the timeline.

It was mostly a straight line until this year. when the decline began. I looked at the entire graph, going back to the start to see a massive upward trend in profit 4 years ago—but it only lasted 2 weeks.

When did this happen?

I looked at the dates. It was in November. What was November 4 years ago…?

It was when I was in the hospital.

So why was the company booming when I wasn't even there?

Then, I realized what it was. I knew what I had to do to save Kings Corp.—the same thing I accidentally did 4 years ago.

After doing some research and talking to a few business connections, I got the number I needed to call.

This was what was going to save my company.

I dialled the number on my landline and waited for it to ring. The buzz of the ringer was getting more and more intense each time, just like my nerves.

I heard a small ring before she answered the phone.

"Hello, this is Amelia Davis. How can I help you?"