FIFTY EIGHT

Lila left the room after a while. She was feeling overwhelmed and seeing her father like that was not great for her either. She took a stroll, finding the coffee shop in the hospital She was grateful for it as she felt tired and needed something to keep her awake. She ordered some black coffee and sat down to sip on the coffee while watching the doctors and patients walk around the place. 

She had been still for a long time, just occasionally filling her mouth with the warm, bitter liquid. After a while, she felt someone sit beside her, and she could tell it was a familiar presence. She looked, and it was her mom sitting close to her. She mentally prepared herself for whatever it was that her mouth was about to say. 

"Are you okay?" Eleanor asked, Lila slowed and turned her head to her with a confused expression. There was no doubt that her mom loved her, but the way she acted every time was something she could not wrap her mind around. 

"Yes, Mom," she replied. She had to admit that other people had it worse in life, and if she had to give up a little of herself to be useful to her family, then she could do all of that. 

"You know your dad and I only want the best for you, right?" Eleanor asked. 

I wanted to tell her mother that I was sure that the best for her was not Levi, but since her mother was being calm, there was no reason to start a fight. 

"I am sure that is right, Mom," she replied with a nod. 

"You know, when I married your dad, he was a young man filled with dreams. So many dreams, it was basically impossible to keep up with them," she said with a laugh on her lips. It seemed she had gone down a rabbit hole of remembrance. 

"His father was unable to achieve his father's dream of doing business with skyline and when his father gave the company to him and not his brother, Tom, he swore to make sure that he made Skyline his." Lila nodded as her mother spoke. All her father cared about now was getting to Skyline. 

"He would be sixty in a few months, and I think you would understand the anxiety he must be facing of not achieving his goal, so when the opportunity presented itself, you can imagine how elated he was and how much he poured into it. He even had to shake hands with the devil for this to work." She stopped and turned to her daughter, clutching her free hand. 

Her mother was saying a lot of things, but Lila was hearing only one thing: this project was too important to flop, and she needed to stop doing things that could sabotage the company in the end. If they lost the opportunity to do business with Skyline, then maybe they could lose the company as well. 

"Mom, you can be sure that I would never do anything to make us lose this, even if it means cosying up to my enemy," she said.

Her mother nodded with a smile, happy to hear that from her daughter. "You know I feel bad about having to put Levi together, but just a year and all of this would be over," she murmured.

"I understand, and I am going to try my best to the end. I will work to increase sales with the food sector and the skyline project. I would work twice as hard on it too, but I'll need help," Lila explained.

"You'll get all the help you need, and I can assure you of it," Eleanor replied. 

Lila liked the feeling of being on the same page with her mother; all she needed to do was be the happy couple to the press, the best daughter to her parents, a good CEO to the company and a good team leader for the Skyline project. As the thoughts crossed her mind, she wondered how she was supposed to do all these without stepping on any toes. She encouraged herself.

'I have done tons of impressive stuff before; this should be a piece of cake.'