Mia

"So what are the new plans for next year? Did the Denso group reach out to us on when we can start our work? And have we sent our invoices out to Republic International Bank?"I questioned my team. We were in the middle of a very important discussion about our new plans for January next year.

"Yes, Ms.Young. Colin from Denso reached out and said we can start our work at the beginning of the year, 10th January onwards." Priya, the manager in charge of the sales team, spoke up.

"We will be sending out the invoices to RIB by the end of this week,"Elizabeth replied next.

"Very good. Karan, can you please keep up with them please?"

"Will do Ms.Young."

We wrapped up our meeting and Karan and I went back to my room.

"Karan, do you think Priya is doing a good job?"

"Priya Gunasekaran?"

"Yes, do you think she is doing her job properly?"

"I think she is okay. However I do think she slacks here and there."He was right, she did seem like a slacker.

"Hmmm. I agree as well. Colin actually reached out to me personally after Priya did not respond to his email 2 weeks ago. Can you find out for me why she did that?"

"Give me 10-20 minutes and I will be right back." Karan said and walked out of the room.

While I waited for Karan, I texted Aryan.

Me : Hey love, how is your day?

Aryan : Hi fiore, just on a short coffee break. How is your day? 💗

Me : I just wrapped up a long meeting. We were discussing about our new year plans 😣

Aryan : oh poor you I bet you are sooo exhausted.

Me : Are you making fun of me?

Aryan : I wouldn't dare my fiore.

Me : I miss you 😭

Aryan : You want me to come over and hug you baby?

Me : yes 😀

Aryan : I would if I could but duty calls. Gotta go fiore. I miss you the most. See you later 😍

"I love you too Aryan."I really did want to say it but I stopped myself. Calm down and don't rush it just yet. I was just staring at my phone screen when Karan walked back in and I put my phone away.

"Ms Gunasekaran has been taking longer lunch breaks and a lot of sick leaves in the past two weeks." He immediately got to the point.

"I see, is she not feeling well or something?"

"I called the clinic where she got the MC's from and the admin lady told me that she came in 3 times in the past two weeks alone. First two times were a headache and the last one was for period cramps. As for the lunch breaks, I checked all the CCTV's in the lunchroom and saw that she has been spending a lot of time with  a fellow colleague and just lounging around and taking her own sweet time to get back to work. I spoke with her team members and they said she has been dumping all the work on them so that she can have more time for herself."Karan adjusted his glasses when he was done.

"Call her to my room now."I hated slackers in my office. I hired you to do a job and if you wanted to fool around, you shouldn't even have applied for the job in the first place.

I loathed lazy people like her who like taking advantage of her position and love dumping the work on the team members whenever they don't feel like it. The sales team were an amazing bunch of people and I was so angry that Priya was treating them like that. That bitch was going to face my wrath today. Priya walked in shortly after. She was a tall woman wearing a suit and her hair was in a bun. She had a proud look on her face and I couldn't wait to destroy it.

"Ms. Priya, do you know why I wanted to see you today?"

"No, Ms. Young."

"Okay, why have you been taking a lot of sick leaves for the past 2 weeks, are you battling with some serious illness?"

"Yes, Ms.Young I have been really horribly sick these past 2 weeks and with this whole upcoming project with Denso Group, it's... it's just been a lot."

'That lying bitch'

I wanted to punch this lying bitch in her mouth but I kept my cool. Violence at work could lead to serious troubles.

"Karan here also tells me you have been taking longer lunch breaks this month. May I know why?"

The moment I asked her that, her whole face turned sour and the proud look she had now changed into a nervous one. Her eyes went wide and I could see her gulp in fear.

"I uhm.... I was just discussing some things with Nova about.....  the..."

"Stop lying Ms. Priya." I slammed my hand on the table and stood up and she flinched.

"You have been slacking these past one month. You were just lazing around, dumping all of your work on your team members and on top of that taking fake sick leaves. It's one thing to be irresponsible but it's a whole different thing to lie to your boss."

"Ms. Young.... I can explain myself.... Please." She begged.

"You are fired for your incompetence at work and for lying to your boss. Pack your things and leave."I told her and stared at her with a fiery glare.

"Ms.Young please dont fire me. I am sorry. I will repent for what I did but please dont fire me. I need the money and......"

"That's enough Priya, Ms.Young told you to leave."Karan stood in front of me blocking my view of Priya.

"I wasn't talking to you Karan.... Now get out of my way." She yelled at him.

"No." he folded his arms in front of Priya and stood on his ground.

"Karan, move now or I swear......."

"Or you will what Priya? How dare you threaten Karan in front of me. I'm calling security." I picked up the phone from my desk and started calling security and I could hear Priya screaming in the background while Karan tried to hold her down.

"You bitch, you can't ruin my life like this. I will sue the two of you."

"Sue me for what? For firing a rude useless employee like you? Bring it on Priya but I do have to warn you though, I have an excellent team of lawyers." I smirked at her and she absolutely hated it.

Security walked in a few minutes and carried a hysterical Priya out of my room.

"That's one way to fire someone."I sighed and sat back down on my chair.

"Is there anything else I can help you with Ms.Young?" How is this man always so calm, he literally had to hold that bitch down from attacking me a few minutes ago?

"Nope, that is all Karan thank you for.......holding her down like that."

"Your welcome." Karan turned around and left my room. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back on the velvet chair. Gosh I am so exhausted. I can wait for my Japan trip with Aryan. I just need to have some good Japanese food and explore the country side with Aryan and everything will be alright.

I was pretty much done for the day and I checked my Chopard watch and saw the time, it was already 3.45p.m. I could go home early today and head to the gym later and then come home and make dinner for Aryan. I haven't cooked in a long time and today I wanted to cook him a nice meal. Yep that sounds like a good plan. I packed my things and grabbed my YSL bag and walked out of my room, bid Karan goodbye and left back home.

The ride home was silent as usual and I was busy listening to some songs on my airpods when Raymond suddenly swerved the car to the right real fast. My whole body was thrown to the right  and I hit my head pretty hard on the window.

"What the fuck, Raymond what is going on?" I asked him as I rubbed my head.

"We are being followed, Ms.Young." Raymond said while looking at me through rear view mirror

"What where?"I looked behind and saw a black car following us closely behind.

"That black car?"

"Yes Ms.Young, he has been following us from the office."

"Shit." I started panicking. Who were they and why are they following us?

"Hold on Mia, I'm going to try and lose him."

Raymond stepped on the gas pedal and the Porsche lurched forward. Raymond took a sharp left into a narrow alley, the tires screeching in protest. The black car followed us closely behind into the alley as well. Raymond burst out of the alley onto a main road, narrowly avoiding a collision with a delivery truck. Horns blared at us and I clutched my seat harder.

Raymond merged into the highway and accelerated further and swerved in between the cars like a pro. He tried to put as much distance as he could between us and that black car. I kept turning my head back and I could see the black car still following us but there was a gap. My heart was pounding like hell at this point, I just hoped it wouldn't explode.

As he drove on, I looked to the front and saw that we were reaching the end of the highway and the road was splitting into two lanes and at the last second he veered on from the highway and took the exit on the left and the black car missed us and drove ahead.

Though we lost the car Raymond did not slow down one bit. He accelerated all the way home and when we reached the main gate the guards opened up quickly, he drove up all the way to the main porch and finally we both breathed out in relief.

I was literally holding on to my dear life all the way home. I could hear the pounding of my heart; it's probably at 200 BPM right now. When the thrill of the car chase weared down I felt lightheaded and I couldn't move. I placed my head down on my knees and tried to calm myself down but I couldn't. I heard Raymond open my car door and he helped me to get out from the car. I noticed he was holding a gun in his other hand.

Since when did Raymond have a gun on him?

"Ms. Young, we need to get you inside fast." He held me up and we walked up the steps together until we reached the main door and Albert opened. He was confused at first when he saw us but immediately moved out of the way to allow us in.

"Nina, come here now..... Hurry Mia doesn't look too good." Albert yelled.

Nina came dashing in from the back of the house and the moment her eyes landed on me. She quickly came to my side and helped Raymond to hold me up.

"What happened to her?" Nina yelled at Raymond.

"We were in a car chase. Ms. Young is just in shock, get her to the chair and somebody bring her a glass of water." Raymond instructed them.

Raymond and Nina helped me to sit down and Albert brought me a glass of water. I took the glass with shaky hands and brought it to my lips and took a few sips. My heartbeat was still beating fast and I could feel myself shutting down. The last thing I remembered was the glass slipping from my hands and it shattered onto the floor and I collapsed.