48

"Did you read the newspaper? How dare they take such a decision, you have to go talk to them?" Chris gritted out, disgustedly looking at the newspaper as though it would attack him.

"Do you want pancakes?" I asked reducing the volume of the song I was listening to and stacked them up in two plates.

"Syrup". I gestured pouring it generously over his pancakes.

"Why in hell are you so calm?" It's your company Raven? Are you not worried?" He asked confusedly.

"There's no point worrying. It won't help." I smiled kissing him on the cheek and proceeded to sip into my coffee.

"So what's going to happen. Are you resigning?" He asked worriedly.

"Why are you so worried about my money? Will your feelings change if I'm no longer a billionaire?" I enquired biting back a smile.

"Rich or poor, billionaire or not, there is no chance I'm letting you go." He answered eyes firm with honesty.

"Your cute." I smiled cutting into my pancake.

"I'm not."

"You sure."

"Boys are cute." he bit back clearly offended.

"What are you then, pork chop?" I asked helping myself to another pancake.

"I'm a man." he said puffing up his chest.

"Does a man scream bloody murder when he sees an itty bitty spider crawling through his closet?" I questioned trying not to laugh as his ears turned bright red.

"That is not true." he tried playing it cool.

"So you're not scared of spiders?" I laughed inwardly as he stumbled around finding an appropriate answer.

"I'm not scared of them, I'm just disgusted." he finally said looking quite proud of himself.

"Luke says otherwise." I said eyes narrowed.

"You have got to stop believing everything my Dad says, I thought you were smart."

Wiping my hands with a napkin I made my way towards Chris who was slumped over a chair, standing between his legs I smiled sweetly and pressed a deep lingering kiss to his lips and whispered "Hi."

"Hi." he said pulling me onto his lap, I wrapped my arms around his neck as he held my waist and kissed my forehead.

"If you resign today, you do realise there are other options for you right?" he asked tucking my hair behind my ear.

"Are you offering me to work in your company?" I guessed his train of thought.

"Dad is okay with it." he smiled encouragingly.

"What do you think I will do?" I asked tucking my face into the crook of his neck.

"Even though I want you to agree to my suggestion, I know it won't make you happy to work under someone. You like your freedom and independence too much." he whispered tightening his arms around me.

"I don't think I'll ever work for Madrigal Marketing's and I don't mean that in an offensive way" I said tracing small circles on his palm.

"I'm not that terrible boss." he tried joking.

"I need to find my own way, just like I always do. Accepting your offer will be a kind of shortcut and I'm not the kind of girl who takes shortcuts. Will you be mad at me if I don't accept your offer?" I questioned cupping his face.

Chris's expression softened at the vulnerability in my face, he sighed tiredly and kissed the inside of my palm.

"I hate that you have to resign, I hate that you are not accepting to work with us, and I absolutely loathe the situation you are stuck in. But that is my problem to deal with, and I'm with you in every decision you take. I'm staying the good and the bad, me liking your decision comes later, I just want you to remember that you have an option to work with us, think about it." he said tenderly.

"Thank you." I said resting my head on his shoulder as he slowly traced small patterns on my hand.

"You're cute." I grinned lightining the mood.

"Woman, I'm not cute." he gritted out eyes narrowed.

"Cute like a teddy bear." I smiled as his cheeks redened.

"Take it back." he warned.

"I'll think about it." I screeched trying to make a dash towards my room, but the annoying human trapped me against him and stared tickling me mercilessly. He scowled when I didn't heed to soothe his bruised ego, he stared tickling me more, the entire house was filled with our laughter.

***

I parked my Porsche and slowly made my way in, just as I was about to turn towards my cabin I heard Lisa's voice.

"Ma'am you have to come to the conference

room, there is a big argument going on." She panted.

As I stepped into the room I saw Dave standing practically nose to nose to one of our board members and arguing.

"Dave why are you not in the hospital?" I asked the idiot, prancing around the city. This piece of shit has to stay in the hospital and take care of himself.

"How can I sit there? These dunderheads have the brilliant idea to replace you. I'm telling them from half an hour that you didn't do the attack but they don't listen to me." He said running his hands through his hair.

"I'm here to step down. Which paper should I sign?"

"Why the f*ck would you do that?" Dave asked soon as he pushed me into his cabin. The fact that Dave was swearing was a huge deal, he despised to swear. He ran his hands through his hair again and again portraying his helplessness to do something for me, or feel guilty for some unknown reason.

"I didn't have a choice, unless Liam comes to his senses and confesses. We don't have a chance or proof." I countered back.

"So you are just going to give up. Your gonna give up our company to a loser like him. This is definitely not the Raven I know." He gritted out as though figuring out a way to drill sense into my head.

"Look I'm not giving up nor can we afford to loose our company." I assured him.

"I have a plan and you listen to it carefully."

***

"One mocha latte and a chocolate croissant" I ordered deeply engrossed in scanning through my menu.

"Do you have money to buy that?" I heard a voice causing me to smile.

"Have you started working in this cafe Liam ? I thought you worked to ruin others life. If you be a good waiter I might give you an extra tip." Yeah I have a big mouth and it will definitely land me in trouble I know but who cares.

"You lost everything and still that attitude of yours remains the same."he commented plonking next to me.

"I strongly believe in changing people who have a problem with my attitude ." I answered honestly.

"So how does it feel to loose everything you once treasured? Do you know how I felt when I saw my son's dead body? Did you feel the helplessness, the desperation to change something but reality strikes you in the face and you sit there not able to do anything and have a choice to only accept it" Liam gritted out fisting his hands on the table cloth.

"Let me tell you a small incident. My father was not as great as everyone thought. His ambitions and hopes were too high I felt suffocated. I finally realised that I could not meet them and one final day I gave up. I never did anything for him, I had nothing but still I was happy. That is something you can never take away from me, my happiness. I was happy when I had nothing and I'm happy when I have lost everything." I admitted truthfully.

Happiness is not my company, it was a way I channeled my energy. It was knowledge that I could create something of this scale and a slap to every person who underestimated me, who had the courage to walk up to me and say I'm a loser. Today I will proudly say I'm not a loser. I did something with my life.

"Are these words to convince me or yourself?" He asked looking at me curiously.

"Everytime I lost something I picked myself up and strived to be a better person than yesterday. Every person who broke me taught me something special. Since my company is taken away I assure you I will pick myself up and one day become the best. Because that's my spirit and you can never take it away from me." I gave him an extra sweet smile for measure. I'm broken by so many yet I pick myself up because I don't need anyone to be happy. I live for myself not for someone's validation or opinion.

"Talk all you want but I am the one who beat you?" Liam gloated. Pff men most of them are the same, accomplish a little something and they start gloating. Typical.

"Dave is safe, Chris is with me. Looks like my wayward father finally got some sense knocked into him. How did you beat me again?" I asked curiously, smiling at the waiter who placed my order in front of me and mumbled a thank you.

"I took away the one thing you valued the most, your company." he smugly retorted with a twisted smile.

"Just like fate took away Adam from you, if you wanted me to feel what you felt, this is definately not the right way to go about it."

"Your hatred for Adam led to my son being taken away from me."

"I don't hate Adam, actually I don't care what happens to him. He is insignificant. The day I kicked him out of my company is the day I let go every memory I had of him. Hatred according to me is not when hearing someones name brings out feelings of sadness, anger or betrayal. It is when hearing their name no longer sparks an emotion in you. And as for you Liam I can only pity you." my lips curled upwards biting into my crossanit.

"Why in heaven would you feel pity for me?" he balked at the mere idea.

"You feel guilty, that somewhere you were a bad parent. You always knew that Adam was going about life in the wrong way, and instead of stopping him you encouraged him, making him think that anything he ever did was right. By taking revenge on me you want to soothe your ego, by claiming you are a good parent because you destroyed his arch nemesis. It's your way of making it up to the image of Adam you have set in your brain."

"You can talk all you want, but I will destroy you and nothing is my limit until I finish it." he spat, voice rich with hatred causing a few people to look at us curiously.

There you have it, people are paying attention to us. Seems like it was an easy enough job to rattle him. People make mistakes, repeatedly trip and act stupid when they're angry. So my job here was to make him mad enough to make that trip, then I assure you no one can save him from me.

"I'm thankful to you Liam, because I was living void and scared of people, but you made me realise that there is good in them too. If it weren't for you and my father I would have never accepted Chris. I would run away from him, scared to hurt myself but after you I accepted that I deserved to have a family." I said enjoying the moments hesitation in his eyes.

"You can talk all you want but it's still gonna be me that will bring your downfall. I will make you pay for doing that to my son." He said voice raising in irritation.

"Do your worst Liam." I challenged.

"If you make any noise, you will die right here. I am happy to go to jail if it meant I could kill you. Now be a good girl and do exactly as I say. If you put that brain of yours to any extra use I will blow your head to pieces." He warned giving a polite smile to the waiter passing by. I felt something cold and hard press against my knee. No doubt this idiot was pointing a gun at me and let me tell you he is crazy enough to shoot.