MEETING THE BASTARD

There was a lot of food for the three of them to finish at once. There was plenty of meat, pasta and salad on the table, which was all Scarlett's favorite food. Scarlett's eyes shone with rare excitement at the sight of food. She giggled happily and sat down immediately as if the food would develop wings, and fly away to the North Pole.

Rowan and Tracy exchanged amused looks as they couldn't believe that the oh-so-stoic Scarlett Chevalier could still melt at the sight of food after all these years.

Seeing her mother and brother standing and staring at her like she was an alien while stuffing her face with food, she asked confused, "Are you guys going to keep standing and staring at my beautiful face or join me to eat?' Rowan burst into laughter on hearing his sister's statement. "Miss Scarlett, who has been deceiving you all this while telling you you're beautiful?" He asked jokingly.

Scarlett's face turned ugly as it swelled due to her mouth being full. She instantly turned to face her mother to call Rowan out for calling her ugly.

"Mom!!!!!! Did you hear what Rowan said? He called me ugly!!!

Tracy sighed and calmly assured her. "Letty dear, you're the most beautiful girl that exists in this world."

Turning to Rowan, Tracy firmly said, "Behave yourself and stop acting silly. Sit down and eat."

Then Scarlett gulped down all the food in her mouth, and stuck out her tongue at her brother.

Rowan wanted to complain, but on seeing their mother staring at him, he bit his tongue in annoyance and started eating.

CHEVALIER TOWERS...…

"Where's the report for last week?" "Oh my God! The photocopier had to be slow today of all days!" "My goodness, we're actually out of coffee! What do I do??!!" Workers scrambled in the office trying to all of their work done, impromptu.

It was not a funny scene, as grown adults nearly shed tears due to pressure from their Chairman.

Bryan Chevalier, Chairman of Chevalier Towers, walked into his office with an extremely ugly expression on his face. After losing a 200 billion dollar contract that evening, due to his secretary's mistake in estimation, the whole office had been uptight and they all tried to do everything perfectly.

No one dared to leave the office even though it was almost closing hours. All of Bryan's planning team was gathered in his office where they were currently listening to the tale of their lives.

"What has gotten into all of you?!!! Is this what I pay you for? To go for a simple presentation and lose a 200 million dollar contract? This is not the first time you fools do something as silly as this, but this is too costly for us to lose!! Our stocks have recently reached an all-time low in comparison to Tomasi &Co. I had thought this deal would be give positive results and salvage us. If this is what my money has been going into monthly, then I don't need you all. I'd rather get a new set of people to work for me." His aged but stern voice went across the room.

All the team members shivered. They hadn't expected their chairman to react in such manner.

Bryan turned to his secretary, Julia Wang, who was about to pee herself due to Bryan's murderous stare. "I've personally trained you almost 15 years, given you the best resources, put you above those you were more capable than you are because I saw so much potential in you that would bring in a lot of recognition and progress for this company. But what did you do when it was time to deliver?

You screw up a multi-billion dollar contract, knowing our financial status. Do you know where we rank currently?

We are not in the top three companies in this city. You all know this, and you're at this point, you make a mistake such as this? It seems like I've been too lenient with you. Are you trying to ruin me, huh? This is so...….." Bryan sighed and walked back to his table, breathless.

He sat down on his large office chair and rubbed his temples. He had made huge plans in expectations for the success of this contract.

His greatest business rival, Tomasi & Co, had been rising higher and higher in their stocks for the past two years. Their chances of getting the coveted position of Top construction-company in Italy had gone down the drain in just a few minutes.

All his years of hard work seemed to be blown away so easily. Their stocks had only gotten lower and lower in comparison with Tomasi. If their stocks kept depreciating like this over the course of two weeks, the company might close up.

"Now listen up, all of you." Bryan spoke up. His angry face was nowhere to be seen. Instead there was an eerily calm expression on his tired, old face; one that sent shivers down one's spine.

Every member of the team held their hearts in fear of what punishment he would dish out. He couldn't look calm for no reason.

"From this moment, up until you finalize another proposal, you will all work overtime with 50% of your salaries being cut and no overtime pay." He pause and looked at all their faces round "Am I clear? He hissed.

"Yes sir." They all chorused, with their heads bowed down.

No one had expected such a harsh punishment. It was over the top, but they could do nothing.

They all had to suffer for one person's mistake.

His personal assistant Robert Brown, led the staff out of the office. As he shut the door behind him, Bryan coughed and spat out a handful of blood.

"Oh no! Not again" Robert panicked.

He immediately ran to the safe that was sealed on the wall, and he brought out some drugs. He then hurriedly ran to the water dispenser to get some water for Bryan. He ran as fast as a cheetah on a hunting spree, and gave the drugs to Bryan.

"Here sir" Robert's shaky voice came through, handing over the drugs and water to Bryan.

Bryan ignored Rob as he picked a piece of tissue from his desk to wipe his hand and mouth off of the blood stains. His eyes flew over to his desktop and prepared to work. "What's my schedule for tomorrow? I might as well be ahead of things since those fools screwed it all up." He asked.

But the worrywart assistant Robert had an objection to that. "But sir, you have to take your medication first. The doctor said you must take these daily. If not you'll...…"

"Enough!" Bryan snapped.

"The doctor this, the doctor that. I'm not a toddler you have to look after! Drop those things now or you can use them if you want." He slammed his palm on the table in anger.

Robert sighed and dropped the medicine and water. His boss would always be stubborn despite his health issues. He picked up his tablet and went through his boss' schedule for the next day. "Sir, you have a pending meeting this night. A brief meeting with Mr. Mike from Hutchings Illustrated and an inspection overview for the ongoing recreational center construction."

Bryan looked up at the clock.

"How long until Hutchings gets here?" He asked uninterestedly. "Ummmm in about 5 minutes sir." Robert replied dutifully. "Get me a cup of coffee, I'm worn out." Bryan yawned.

Rob bowed and left to brew the coffee. Bryan had been having a series of illness unknown to his wife, Tracy and their son, Rowan. The current pressure from the company's stock fall had turned him into a smoker, and now he had been diagnosed with cancer of the lungs and a heart disease. No one in his entire family knew, except the Butler and Robert. All this while, Bryan had refused to take his medication consistently, making his condition worse. His worrywart assistant was constantly troubled about his health.

Half a minute later, a call came in. It was from the mansion.

Robert picked up the phone.

"Hello." He said to the caller. "What are you saying?" Robert inquired panicking. He immediately turned his back to Bryan and moved farther away from his desk. "How can the young miss be back? You clearly know how mad Boss is going to be. How do you even expect me to tell him such awful news? You know he's one to shoot the messenger."

He whispered in fear.

Robert was scared for his life. His boss didn't make the best decision for his daughter years ago, but he was not about to interfere with his family's business.

Now that his enemy in form a daughter had returned, he had to make sure his boss doesn't get back home before the young miss leaves. But knowing the boss he had, it wouldn't take up to two minutes before he found out.