Chapter Three

Song of chapter: Work by Rihanna

Marion's POV;

14:20 pm.

The appointment had gone, well. Marion was slightly settled from the doctor's patient explanations. She had learnt to not speculate and assume things without confirmation. But that came at the hefty price of her child. She couldn't even know if it was a son or a daughter.

Marion cried that particular evening. Right from the doctor's office straight to her home in Carnegie Hill. Bali was there with her. In fact she was there right from the beginning where Marion was bleeding heavily in her office bathroom. It was unexpected. She couldn't bring herself to scold her seeing how broken Marion was. Finally she was doing something for herself, she had to lose it to gain something not really beneficial personally. She sighed deeply.

At least Marion learnt something. Bali was somewhat happy of the outcome. Marion could retry. Doc Daniels had said that the miscarriage was caused by her hormones fluctuations. All they had to do was to be extra vigilant and not stress her out. But, 'was Marion mentally ready?' she asked herself. Marion didn't look too elated about the prospect of a retry. As a matter of fact, she wasn't motivated. What good was it if mother nature herself didn't seem eager to grant her this wish?

It's been a week and an hour and twenty minutes since they left the doctor's office . Currently they were prepping up for a meeting to be held in the conference room on the seventeenth floor. The building consisted of fifty-four floors. It was one of the tallest buildings in the Avenue of the Americas in New York.

Zeff News Agency was glassy and had state of the art equipment to enable them do their work. Marion was on the fifty-fourth floor. Her office overlooked the city. She could see most landmarks from the east of her office. They were all little and like her personalized version of Lilliput. She felt so powerful just by watching the city go about doing their various businesses with no care in the world.

She preferred to stare right into the blue horizon whenever her emotions were taking a toll. Marion had a glass of wine in her hand. She normally doused her sorrows in the drinks in the liquor cabinet in her house. She was safe there. She could get super drunk and until Bali or Elkan came to check up on her, she wouldn't budge out of whatever position she was in. The hangovers were great too. More than migraines!

She chuckled lightly then took a large gulp of her wine emptying the glass. She walked back to the small wine cabinet near her library in the office. She took out another bottle of anisette de Bordeaux then half filled her glass. She could do this all day.

Marion allowed her eyes to roam the city. How would it feel like to bungee jump from this height? She giggled at the thought but dismissed it. There she saw Vise Co. and it's twisty tower. Vise Co. was big but not enough when compared to Zeff News Agency. Maybe due to the structure of the building. They still had a long way to go, experience wise. Though they were making quite a name for themselves with the number of celebrities they have interviewed in the past two years and the remarkable number of viewers.

She knew their CEO, Ilias Yannik. They knew themselves way back in university. At that time, he was majoring in commerce to take over his father's business and she, political science. How he found his way here She didn't know. Meh! She cares less. She knew there were sixty floors of that building and Ilias occupied the sixtieth. Zeff was just six floors short but full of experience. The accolades and awards on the left side of her office library spoke it all: Best entertainment company, Most innovative leader, Entrepreneur of the year, Most Influential of the year, Woman of power, et cetera.

She heaved a breath. She returned to her seat behind the desk waiting for Richard Adyson, her assistant, to walk into the room the return back with Bali on his heels. The boy was a prick , efficiently so. That's why she couldn't fire him Also Bali loved him lots for being her spy. In truth, she was scared. Scared that the retry would be complicated. Scared that her dreams would be shattered , again. Speak of the devil and the devil appears!

"Marion," Richard knocked before coming in. "They are waiting for you." He eyed the glass in her hand and the file on her desk. It was upside down but he knew she didn't notice. He just hoped she wasn't drunk.

Marion set her glass down and smacked her lips savoring the taste of her drink one last time for the day. She pushes a small stack of folders towards Richard including the inverted one. She meant for him to carry it along and he understood. They use her private elevator which kept descending for ten minutes before it dinged on the number seventeen. The elevator jazz music had stopped too.

Richard quickly followed as she swaggered down the hallway towards Room CA. Everyone needed for the meeting was present. The room was in chaos as they conversed between themselves in loud voices. But that quieted down when Marion barged into the room. Quite typical of her. "Do continue." She said after sitting at the head seat. She listened to them for a while before pulling the reins of the horse.

She remembered when she used to be sitting amongst them. She was the editor for Zeff politics before she got promoted. It was a unanimous decision from the board of directors of Zeff Corporation. She was just in charge of the Zeff News Agency in New York. Others were in Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin, and many more across the country. She was glad she got New York. It was far from home; Killarney.

"What have you guys decided on?" She had made Richard share the folders among the heads. The secretaries and assistants were sitting right behind them taking notes. It was a long rectangular table made from mahogany. They were stuck at a juncture and didn't know what to do. A blond woman in a grey suit raises her hand. Marion gestures for her to speak.

"Marion, we've thought about this," She began. Marion internally scoffs at her introduction. "And we think that it's about time we go a little bit religious." The room was silent. Her voice was audible enough. "How about we add religious festivals to our feats. We have a publication made on the various kinds of festival to celebrated." A woman in a maroon veil raises her hand. Marion recognized her as Fatiya, the editor for Zeff culture. She does a pretty good job in her expertise.

"Are we going to stick to one religion?"

"Come to think of it, "Jaime-Paulino, He was the head of photography for the entire Zeff News Agency. "No. We could be selective. Maybe focusing only on the leading religions in the world, that's Christianity and Islam then picking two different religions every year to feature." The room was enveloped in silence. Everyone was busy digesting the idea.

"Do we all agree?" Marion finally broke the silence after five minutes. There was a positive response. She nodded with a big smile on her face. She was liking the recovery. But she knew this must be someone's original idea. "Seleen, who's original idea is this?" The blond woman knew better not to lie.

Seleen clears her throat. "My…uh…my assist…assistant, Tracie" She was a young brunette in a white blouse and black pencil skirt. She had her hair in in a messy bun and her feet in black cat heels. There was a small notebook and pen on her lap. Marion sized her up. She nods in acknowledgement.

"Somebody make sure she gets a promotion." Marion said to Bali before exiting. "Let's get to work , people!" Tracie was in her seat cowering wishing not to be there at the moment. If this idea works, Marion knew she would gift her an all expense paid makeover and trip to Sacramento.

It was four in the evening. The sun was still burning yet Marion drew the curtains for the day at work. The team would begin their work as soon as possible. The next festival was Eid for the Muslims in June. Christian festivals were in latter part of the year. She had to polish her Arabic to welcome the Muslims. Bali would meet her at home to talk matters she dreaded to speak about. Marion couldn't wait.

She hopped into her tub for a soak. After, she warmed her frozen pizza. She slumped into her grey plushy couch to binge watch movies and reruns on Fox.