Chapter one

There are certain things Kylie Watson hates. The first one on the list is disruption. The disruption caused by the change was the worst form of it. That is why she has this massive headache right now. 

Her company was doomed for change. Change of ownership is what it is called. She worries about many things. First, will they all still keep their jobs? She heard from the secretary that the company was bought and will be merged with another. So many people were going to lose their jobs, she was sure of that.

Secondly, if she was to lose it, how will she foot her bills and still take care of her ailing mother? Her younger sister needs to pay her tuition fees, how was she going to pay it? Her savings would be able to sustain her for a year but after that what next? 

The ding of her phone distracted her. She peered at the screen to see that her best friend, Janelle, left a message.

"It's going to be okay. Don't overthink it." The message read. She was trying to but it wasn't easy. She wonders how Janelle does it. 

Janelle was a single mother. Her daughter, Kimberly was a beautiful toddler and was a product of a one-night stand. Janelle refused to abort her even after Kim's father made it clear that he was not interested in having a baby and would not be raising Kim. Janelle was supposed to be more anxious than Kylie. She wasn't supposed to be comforting Kylie, it was supposed to be the other way round. 

Kylie sighed. Really sighed.

She was already exhausted and it was only 7 am. She knew she was going to pass out from this headache at work. 

She slipped her shoes on, grabbed her bag, and left the house. At least she was going to make good use of today. 

The first thing she noticed when she arrived at work was that everywhere was quiet. Deadly quiet. 

She ran to her office, well if you could call walking briskly in four-inch heels and tripping three times running. She shared her office with Janelle and three other workers.  But right now, only Janelle was in the office and she too was about to leave. 

"Where is everybody?" Kylie asked, dropping her bag on her chair.

"We have an emergency meeting with Mr Simpson."

Mr Simpson was their boss and it was only on rare occasions that they had meetings with him.

"Why?" 

"I don't know. But I think it is about the company being sold off. Let's go. We don't want to be the last one to arrive." Janelle replied.

The duo walked as fast as they could but were among the last ones to get into the room. And damn, the room was full. They had to squeeze themselves to be able to sit down.

A minute turned into two, two turned into thirty and Mr Simpson hadn't arrived.

Then suddenly, the doors opened and Mr. Simpson walked in with that authoritative aura he seems to possess. But his smile was far from authoritative. It was warm and soft. He made them feel like they were all part of a big family trying to achieve a goal— to build up the company.

Right now, she wondered if they were a big family. Family doesn't sell off their family, right? Who was she kidding, she knew that was just his plot to make them work harder. 

"I'm so sorry for my lateness". That was it. His use of casual sentences. She was expecting him to use something along the lines of "Please accept my apologies for the inconveniences caused by my delay." That is being professional. 

Mr. Simpson shrugged off his coat and handed it to a young man standing behind him. After that, he took his seat and looked at the crowd —his employees. 

He brought out his glasses and put them on and continued looking at the employees. 

Kylie wasn't sure what he was looking for but when he started speaking, she assumed he found it.

"Good morning everyone." Mr. Simpson greeted.

They all mumbled a word of greeting in return.

"I want to have this meeting this morning as it is urgent. I know a lot of you had urgent matters to attend to but this is more urgent so I will get to the point." 

He better do that. Kylie wasn't sure she would be able to control her actions if he mentioned urgent one more time.

"The company has been sold. The new boss will be present here tomorrow. The agreement was to merge the company with his other company so that means a lot of employees will be laid off. You can either decide to work your ass off today to impress him or face reality and start packing. Whatever you decide, please accept my sincere apologies if you are eventually laid off." 

Kylie found a lot of things wrong with that speech but what hit her the most was the fact that he was apologizing for something that could be avoided. Why, in the world, was he selling off the company? She didn't know but she knew better than to blame him. Everyone has their baggage they carry and she did not know what was his. She couldn't just judge him. But others did. Their harsh mumbles and glares were enough to send the message. They did not bother to hide it, perhaps thinking that he was no longer their boss and couldn't fire them.

"I will take my leave now. Once again, accept my apologies." Mr. Simpson stood up and left the room.

"Of course, take your leave after dumping such a message of doom on us. You just made some people's lives more miserable." Mary, one employee, complained loudly. She was known as the most dramatic employee. 

Kylie looked over to see her fanning herself with one hand and the other was on her forehead giving her the image of a Disney princess in distress. Mary was so dramatic.

Kylie is expecting to see more reactions from other employees before the end of today.