The Billionaire Who Saved Me

The morning continued to be beautiful and perfect for Daphne. The sun rising in the east radiated a bright, sparkling light. More than enough to signal that a day of joy awaited her.

Daphne stood on the side terrace of the house, enjoying the fresh and cool morning air. It felt incredibly peaceful to her aging lungs.

As usual, Daphne was accompanied by her personal nurse, Regina. The young girl stood not far from Daphne, who was doing some light exercises.

“Here, madam.”

Regina handed Daphne a small towel to wipe the sweat from her face. Daphne smiled as she took a deep breath. Then, with Regina’s help, she sat down.

“Drink first, madam.”

Carefully, Regina handed Daphne a glass of water. Its coolness quickly flowed down Daphne’s parched throat. She sighed, feeling immensely satisfied with the fresh and healthy sensation she still felt up to this moment.

“Madam.”

As Regina called out to her, Daphne immediately turned. Their eyes met and Daphne sensed something different in the way the young girl looked at her.

“What is it?”

Regina seemed to open her mouth, but no words came out. Instead, she shook her head a moment later. She smiled, though Daphne thought it was stiff. Not like Regina’s usual smile.

“Nothing,” Regina replied. “Madam, are you ready to go in now? Get ready for breakfast?”

Daphne seemed silent for a moment. With a furrowed brow, she looked at Regina intently. But Regina remained motionless. Finally, Daphne took a deep breath, nodded, and extended her hand. Regina responded promptly. Without further questioning, Daphne was sure that if it was necessary and important, Regina would speak of her own accord.

*

Garrett decided to contact Dirk and Dakota directly, without Amber as an intermediary as before. Pushing aside the sudden pessimistic thoughts that had crept into his mind at that moment, Garrett actually had to swallow bitter feelings when he was not considered by Dirk and Dakota.

Perhaps for the first time in his life, Garrett wanted to be arrogant in front of people. To show who he was at that moment. How could Dirk and Dakota just ignore him like that?

Putting the phone in his hand for a moment, Garrett opened the desk drawer. He took out the file Amber had given him the other day. Quickly, he opened it and focused on one piece of information: his home address.

Of course. If Dirk and Dakota couldn’t be contacted, then Garrett had only one choice. To visit them in person. If that was the case, what else could they do? Apart from accepting Garrett’s visit, whether they wanted to or not.

*

Ruben remained silent, choosing not to say anything as Ariel seemed to be deep in thought. He could hear Ariel’s faint sigh as his fingers rubbed his chin from time to time. Ruben waited for the decision the man would make.

“Of course, there have been no complaints so far.”

When Ruben finally heard Ariel’s voice, it was the boss’s grumbling. Ariel slammed down the report Ruben had given him, something Ruben had expected from the beginning. When he approached Ariel with the report, Ruben could already guess that Ariel wouldn’t like the news. And that turned out to be true.

“As long as Nana is around,” Ariel continued, “everyone will praise Garrett. They’re just deferential to Nana. That doesn’t mean Garrett’s really that good. Besides, he knows nothing about running a business. He’s just a child born to an inferior woman.”

Ruben restrained himself. He wanted to present the facts that Ariel had already seen in Garrett’s first six-month satisfaction performance chart. It was hard to admit. Ruben also realized that Garrett had considerable competence. Perhaps with his experience in building his own company, Garrett was adapting quickly at Pasific.

“So, what now, Ruben? If this is the case, what does it mean that our plan from yesterday has failed?”

Ariel asked in a sharp tone, her eyes staring at Ruben with an equally sharp impression. It made Ruben swallow hard. He wanted to tell everything honestly, but he was already afraid. Anger seemed to lurk in the man’s face.

But Ariel had no choice but to accept reality. As the largest and oldest coal company in Oceana, Pasific Energy undoubtedly had a strong foundation. Their feet were firmly planted. A storm here and there wouldn’t be able to shake the company. Even if it was run by someone new. Many parties involved and interdependent would surely ensure that Garrett could lead well.

“Even if we continue with our original plan, it seems like it will be quite some time before you see the results, sir.”

Forced to pray silently in his heart so as not to incur Ariel’s wrath for his honesty, Ruben had to say it as it was.

“It will take more than six months. Maybe a year. Or maybe even longer. And even then, it’s not guaranteed to succeed, sir,” Ruben continued. “It’s not as easy as our previous plan.”

Actually, Ariel understood. As the largest supplier of coal, nothing could shake Pasific Energy. Unless, of course, the world suddenly stopped needing coal, or there was a sudden depletion of natural resources. But in reality, neither of those things was likely to happen in the near future.

“Very well.”

Ruben furrowed his brow. Not because he wasn’t glad to have escaped Ariel’s wrath. But he was also surprised that Ariel was not angry. That wasn’t characteristic of his boss at all.

“Very well then.”

Ariel took a deep breath and nodded several times. Occasionally he let out a sigh and his face conveyed a conviction that made Ruben wonder.

“If we can’t use gentle means… that means we have to resort to rough methods.”

Ruben’s face froze. But unlike Ariel, who seemed helpless, Ruben seemed frozen in a different way.

“Ah! Actually, I was going to be kind enough not to destroy you completely, Garrett,” Ariel said, shaking her head. It was as if the plan that had crossed his mind was something he did not want to do. Even though it might be the opposite. “If I could, I really wouldn’t want to do this. But it seems that this is the fate you have to accept”.

Ruben didn’t need any further explanation. He understood what Ariel meant. Especially when the man looked back at him a moment later.

“Find someone fast,” Ariel ordered. “Check Garrett’s schedule. Make it look like a mugging or a robbery. It’s a perfect plan, Ruben. You know, street crime is rampant right now. And as far as I can remember, the last time there was a victim who defended himself, the police suspected him. Ah… I hope Garrett decides to give himself up.

For a moment, Ruben didn’t react to Ariel’s words. Although Ariel had already shown signs of playing dirty, Ruben hadn’t expected that Ariel would actually go through with it.

“Didn’t you hear what I said?”

The question startled Ruben. He nodded hastily. Of course, he had no choice but to accept the order and say,

“I will carry it out, sir.”

*

Still in the euphoria of her new position, Elice took the opportunity to greet Wagner Cox, the man who had passed the age of forty-five when he had to leave the editor’s chair at Metro Magazine. In fact, Elice visited Wagner during his lunch break. Coincidentally, Metro Magazine and Metro Channel were located in the same office space.

“If you need any help or anything, don’t hesitate to contact me. Hopefully I can help as long as I can.”

Elice nodded. “Thank you very much, sir.”

About a quarter of an hour later, Elice was back in her office. Sitting behind her desk, she planned to tidy up her workspace for a moment. Elice needed to create the right atmosphere to evoke comfort. Especially since she had just moved into the room after someone else had used it for several years.

With the help of some janitors, Elice asked for some furniture to be moved. Of course, she didn’t want the filing cabinet to block the sunlight from entering and illuminating every corner of her room. After everything was arranged to her liking, Elice made sure to express her gratitude.

“Um.”

Elice rubbed her hands together. Her feet moved. She circled the room, her eyes constantly scanning. Just to make sure nothing escaped her attention.

A smile spread over Elice’s face. She seemed to like the new atmosphere.

After one last check to make sure nothing had been overlooked, she sat back down at her desk. Now that Elice didn’t have any urgent tasks, she decided to check her computer. She looked through several files there, studying them to better prepare herself for her future work.

With the help of the mouse, which she deftly handled in her right hand, Elice opened each folder on the computer one by one. She smiled as she looked at the data, realizing that Wilbert, for a man, was surprisingly organized. Everything was systematically arranged and structured by year, month, and even day.

Elice admitted that it really helped her to learn about things related to her new duties. Even more, she could browse through archives of past messages.

Out of curiosity, Elice began to open each folder, starting with the year 2015.

“Um… 2015. Was there anything important that year?”

Elice asked herself, not sure if she had paid attention to the business world back then. As far as she could remember, she was about twenty-two years old. She seemed to have been preoccupied with her dissertation. Maybe Elice didn’t remember much.

Elice left the 2015 folder and moved to another year. This time she opened the 2018 folder.Content held by NôvelDrama.Org.

“Wasn’t there an uproar in 2018 because Lameela was declared bankrupt?”

Elice’s fingers moved quickly on the mouse, clicking several times on different folders, and she smiled as she saw articles with news about the rumors of Lameela’s bankruptcy.

“Turns out it’s true,” Elice said with a smile as she left the folder. “Next… 2021.”

Elice clicked on the folder with the number 2021. She quickly guessed.

“What other news was there in 2021 besides the news about the initiator of MI marrying the daughter of the conglomerate from the Sanders family?”

The news opened, showing Vivian Sanders standing next to Malven Harrison Bennett after the embarrassing incident involving both of them.

“Um.”

Exhaling deeply, Elice left the 2021 folder without intending to try to open the 2022 folder. She shook her head with a wry smile on her face.

“I don’t want to see any articles about myself.”

Not to be narcissistic or anything, but Elice was willing to bet that there would be one or two news articles in the 2022 folder mentioning her and Garrett’s names.

Elice left the news archive and turned her chair around, reaching for a file on the side of her desk.

“Okay. Now it’s time to check the print archives.”

*