Rebirth for Her CEO

The dusky light from ajar curtains was glimpsing inside the room and if not for it illuminating the room that was drowned in darkness, it would have been improbable to outline her body curled on the floor. Her slovenly hair scattered around, hiding her face that was buried in the knees attached to her chest and arms wrapped around it. Her fairly audible sobs, which she was trying to control but hardly could, were resonating throughout the quiet room. She was breathing hard, tears uncontrollably running down her eyes, when she couldn't seem to repress her sobs despite trying to stuff them inside her, they burst into wailing and then into screams, but there was no one to hear them, no one to realize the pain she was trying to lessen through them. Even her screams weren't helping in what she was feeling, she could barely move her body but still dragged it toward the mirror resting in the corner. Though she couldn't see her reflection, she still closed her eyes not wanting to face herself, she used her last strength to stand in front of it and just stood there screaming -not once opening her swollen eyes. When she couldn't seem to restrain her over-flown emotions, she raised her trembling left hand and slapped herself across the face with the last strength she had. The slap to remind herself what she was here for, and it did. Slowly she opened her eyes, but the only thing she could discern through her blurry vision was her brown eyes gleaming in tears. "Where...how.... why was I-I so wrong..." She whispered, her voice trembled the same as her weak body but she still somehow struggled to keep standing. " I don't want this..." She muttered and then repeated this same line again & again while staring at her dead eyes, her enormous tears somewhat lessened and their visible traces were left on her face yet she tried to have a look at her frail body but the darkness surrounding her and inside her didn't help. Her right hand trembled vigorously and she had to tighten her grip on the gun she was holding while placing it against her head. Closing her eyes once again, she tried hard to ignore the terror that took-over her body because of what she was going to do. Her voice was dead & quivering when she mumbled some words in a barely audible voice, " I-I don't w-want this...b-but t-there's n-no other w-way...I c-can't face...myself a-and him..." These were her last words when she shot herself in the head and her dead body sprawled lifeless on the floor in her own blood. ◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦ "Behind us is the James Mansion, where Lily James was found dead. Her body was found by the people from the Auction staff. It's said that she killed herself three days ago. It was suicide." "The James Corporation, which went into bankruptcy two weeks ago, Its representative and CEO, Lily James killed herself in their former Mansion." "The Mansion was decided to be sold in the auction when the step-daughter of Tiberius James, who died along with his wife in plane crash nine years ago, found dead in it." "What was the reason for infamous Lily James to kill herself? Was it the bankruptcy of James Corporation or the death of the original heir and her brother three weeks ago?" "With Lily James's death, the last thread of Tiberius James's legacy breaks, and soon the name of James family will also perish." "What a tragic end of the James Family." ◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦ "Hey, you heard about that Lily bitch, it was all over the news that she killed herself. Shocking, right?" "Yeah...I kinda feel bad for her." "Don't. Have you forgotten how much hell she has put you through just to have an appointment with the boss?" "Yeah, I guess so." "Thank God, we don't have to see more of her snobby-selfish self. I believe Miss Kevin must have been celebrating, but do you think Boss even knows?" "I don't know, though I haven't given him today's newspaper yet." "Slip the news along with the coffee, and let's see even if he remembers her or not." The girl to whom this suggestion was directed, nodded solemnly and left the coffee room. Her heals made a sound -click-clack- against the waxed floor as she walked -in her typical professional dress of secretary, a black skirt and white blouse- toward the only office on the floor of the president and knocked on it. Getting permission, she stepped inside and placed the person's desired coffee along with the newspaper on the table. As she narrated the schedule of her boss, not once his eyes moved toward the front page of the newspaper, on which in bold words news was written of Lily James's death along with her picture. When she was about to excuse herself, she heard her boss's cold voice directed toward her, "Throw this newspaper in the trash." ◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦•◦ Nothing but darkness. She doesn't know how it happened but she can't seem to escape this darkness, the last thing she remembered was killing herself. And the moment on, she found herself trapped in this darkness, it was the room where she couldn't see anything except the utter blackness and with each passing day she could feel the walls closing her in more & more and she couldn't find any door, no matter how much she tried. She could feel the time passing as she laid there on the floor trapped inside the dark & narrow room. Which will soon suffocate her soul, and what will happen next? Will she find the door, open it, and get out of here? or she'll stay confined inside this darkness forever. The time continued to pass, she didn't realize how and she found herself stuffed between the walls where she couldn't even sit, and only stand as the walls were surrounding her from four directions.

Despite her struggle in the beginning she never found the door and at last, she lost her hope to find it and now could only wait for these walls to crush her. Somehow the thought of death, once again, frightened her, but she hated this darkness and considered it still a better option, maybe death was her door but didn't she opened it once? She couldn't seem to recall, her memories turned hazy after years of this darkness filling her mind & soul, and with time she couldn't even remember how she reached here and who she was. There was only one thought -death and when she thought that death will embrace her and end her misery, she felt relieved, a feeling she hasn't felt for years. But the next moment the walls around her dissolved and the darkness turned into blinding light and when she heard the familiar name, all the memories came rushing back. "Lily..." "Lily, my child, what will you chose, the relief of death, or the hope of life?" She couldn't see anything because of the light and the tears that started pouring out of her eyes, but the asked question reached her vividly and she cleared the tears away, bravely opened her eyes to answer, and extended her hands toward the light, she wanted it to engulf her and the darkness surrounding her. Life... "Life, a-a life where I-I'll never be weak a-again." My eyelids trembled as I struggled to open my eyes, and soon my whole body started shivering. I'm afraid to open my eyes and find myself once again in the darkness that kept me trapped but there's also something nagging inside me to bravely accept the reality, the light I met. So what if I'm once again in the darkness, this time I'll certainly find the door and won't lose hope until I succeed. I won't be weak this time. As I slowly opened my eyes, the dimmed familiar room came into sight, the same room in which I took my life. Keeping my trembling at bay, I sat up on the queen size bed I'm lying on and looked around. The lamps on the side tables are illuminating the room softly and the sight is vaguely similar. The royalty-inspired room, the window from which the outside gardens could be seen was hidden behind hideous bulky golden curtains, with an empty golden color couch at its side, ignoring the full-length cheval mirror, I moved my eyes toward the door of the room and sighed. In later years, I changed the design of this room because I hated it... but why's it similar to what it was prior? Confused, I extended my hand to open the drawer of the side table to find something familiar but all it's filled with useless things, including magazines and such. When I took one out, my whole body started shivering again as I saw the date on it, and the image of my step-father on the cover with news of his and my mother's plane crash, a week after their death, nine years ago! Rushing toward the mirror, which I first overlooked, I stood in front of it. Instead of a dejected figure of a girl whose brown eyes were filled with tears, this time showed a young girl with wide eyes staring unbelievingly at her reflection. Soon, tears filled my eyes and I fell on my knees, not believing that I'm staring at my sixteen-year-old self -the time when I started walking on the path of my destruction which I wrote with my own hands. Thinking of my life, I couldn't help the tears that filled my eyes -my weak & failed self. I was four when my father left us, me and my mother. In my innocence, I asked my mother the reason for my dad's disappearance, I always considered myself daddy's girl but when my mother told me that he left us because he found someone better than mommy, I was mad at dad. Years later when I saw my biological father with the better woman, I understood it was not her face that was prettier but the money she had and that was also the time when I realized how much of a daddy's girl I was, because, like him, I too only loved money & power. Growing up life was not difficult, even without my father we were not financially struggling, because my mother was a quite capable woman. Her parents were against my mothers' relationship so she left their home to marry my father but being one of the top graduates from the Ivy league in business & management, it was not hard for her to find a job and support her daughter. She provided me everything she could, but I never considered it enough, there was always a hunger for more and best inside me. My mother worked as the secretary for Tiberius James. He was a self-made billionaire, an orphan who struggled through life and finally landed a job in one of the leading corporations from where he worked hard and started his small business along with his wife and a friend, with whom he grew up in the foster care. In their happy lives, the day came when everything shattered for them, Tiberius James's wife died of cardiac arrest, their only son was just around five back then. Tiberius James was a kind and upright man but after his wife's death, he too didn't escape from the clutches of high society women. He loved his late wife dearly and couldn't give her position to anyone but for his son's sake, to give him a motherly figure, he had to find someone. He decided to marry his secretary who worked with him and his wife for eight years, my mother. He thought that only she knows how important his wife was and except for the title of Mrs. Allgaeir, there was nothing much in the marriage.

When he offered my mother this, she hesitated not because she found it troubling but what her daughter would think? I, on the other hand, was elated. I never thought that my dreams would come true this early, how could I let slip the chance of being the daughter of Tiberius James, I could have everything I want, nothing was more important than this, not even my mothers' happiness and what she wanted. Was she even willing to marry a person who'll never consider her his wife in true meanings? I didn't care and just pushed her to marry the wealthy man. I was fourteen when once again, I had a father but this time a rich one who could give me everything I wanted. A top school in Manhattan, a luxurious room in a mansion to live in, cars, and unlimited money to spend. Tiberius James was a good man and he treated me well because my mother treated his son well. In the two years, I remember not spending time with my mother, I got busy in my elite life and she in the job of helping my step-father in business as his Mrs. and raising his six-year-old son. And whenever she tried to spend time with me, I was not interested. I was so lost in the shine of this elite world of money that nothing was able to pull me back, not even when after two years of becoming a part of the James family my mother and Tiberius James died in the crash of their private jet. I was sixteen and my step-bother, with whom I hardly exchanged any greetings in two years, was eight years old, we both became orphans. I remember crying that day not because my mother died but I was afraid with her death I will lose the life I was living, how shameful and blinded I was. Fortuitously for us, there was a man whom Tiberius James considered more than his brother, Carl Black, he too grew up in the same foster home. In Tiberius James's will, which he created just in case, it was stated that the company and his son's custody will be under Carl Black if anything happens to him until his son, Ken Tiberius James, comes of age. Carl Black was truly an honest man but also unfortunate, he was suffering from a brain tumor which was detected a year before his brother-like-friend died and when all responsibility fell on him, he neglected his health, the tumor grew fatal and it only took three years for him to die too, I was nineteen till then. At the time Carl came into our lives, he knew his time was unknown and limited, because of Ken, my step-brother's young age, he decided to prepare me until Ken gets old enough. He was good to me and when he told me that I should learn the business to help in it later, I only thought of it as a source of power, never took it seriously. When Carl died three years later, leaving me as Ken's and Company's representative, I was once again elated. I became the youngest CEO of billion-dollar James Corporation, all because of Carl, he fought for me in front of share-holders to get this position, he knew if not for me, Ken will never be able to inherit his father's company even if he comes of age. He trusted me even if I was not a part of the family in any way, he still thought of me as a better option to secure Ken's inheritance than the hungry wolves of society. But I was not much different from the same people Carl wanted Ken to protect from. Power & money both came into my hands without any hard-work that's why I put no value to it and used it in all useless ways I could. I didn't know much about business and never cared to, I had unlimited money that I could spend on various lavish things, forgetting that nothing of this was mine, to begin with. The rightful heir, Ken Tiberius James, who only saw his loved ones going away from him from a young age, grew up neglected. I never bothered myself with him, being his guardian, two years later when he turned thirteen I sent him to boarding school and continued to enjoy my extravagant life neglecting both him and the company. I even got admission into a famed university with a huge amount of donation just to get around gloat and waste more time & money. When Ken was fourteen, he got addicted to drugs. He was rich, he had money, knew nothing about the world we lived in and became the target of the bad company because he was an easy money source and in the coming years his addiction got worse. When I came to know of it, I still didn't do anything for Ken, because around this time I met him. It was quite a rich party, which was attended by every business and influential person, and of course, I was there. The main reason for my visit was to gain shareholders and contracts for the company, because of not trusting the CEO, many shareholders started selling their shares and the stock market for the company was getting low as well as contracts & investments but when I saw him, I once again forget my responsibility. It was probably not love at first sight but infatuation. He was a man of countless accomplishments, Adam George, who screamed wealth & power, then how could my stupid-self not feel attracted to it?