Chapter 4

Raya

I stared at the message the company had sent to me earlier that evening concerning my transfer. It had come in at around 7 pm when I had been putting Kyle to bed, and now I was staring at it, wondering why and how it happened.

Was it really just because my boss had recommended me or why? Why was I getting transferred? And to Sterling fashion house at that? It was not even within Sterling Foods where I knew Mr. Micheal Sterling was working. So, which Mr. Sterling was I going to be working for?

Definitely not that a**hole, right?

But there was no other Mr Sterling except for Mr. Sterling, the chairman of the group and owner of the conglomerate, Mr. Micheal Sterling, the first son of the chairman, and Mr. Maxwell Sterling, the second son of the chairman.

There was no other one. I checked.

Could it be the chairman himself?

I immediately shook my head. There was just no way.

I stood up from the couch to get a glass of water for myself when the doorbell suddenly rang, startling me, I moved closer to the door to open it when I heard a familiar voice, "It's me, Kendall".

"Kendall?"

"Yes."

She came in after I opened the door for her, and I wasn't that surprised because it was kind of our routine, "hey" I said as she went straight to my couch, "Hey, I hope I'm not disturbing you."

"Not really, it's alright. Liam and Leah?" I asked, going back to the couch to sit down too. They were her two kids. Liam was Kyle's age, eight, and Leah, one.

She sighed deeply, "They're asleep, but don't you think beer is the best option in this situation?"

"Why? Are you stressed?"

"Are you not?" I considered it for a moment. I was indeed stressed, but I had to go to work tomorrow and to a new place at that.

"Ugh, f*ck it!" She smiled as I went to get each of us a beer can.

"Why? Did something happen at work!" She asked when I had settled down again.

"Yes. I'm getting transferred"

"What? Why?"

"I don't know either" I gulped down almost half of the can, sighing.

"Where are you being transferred to then?"

"Sterling fashion"

"Wow, but isn't that good news? You've always loved the fashion concept and design. Was that not what you studied in school?"

"I dropped out, remember?"

She shrugged, "Still... You'll be able to view what you have always loved doing and help it come to life."

I sighed again, "Well, maybe it wouldn't be so bad."

"Right." She cheered her can to mine.

"Ah!" We both jumped when my phone suddenly started vibrating in a corner of the couch where it was, and I picked it up to check who it was. It was a missed call from an unknown number and a message came in almost immediately.

"Ah!" I yelped again, dropping the phone, and Kendall picked it up, "what? What is it?"

"I-I don't know. I..."

It was probably nothing, but considering the things I had gone through in my life, I could understand why I immediately went into panic mode.

"Hey, hey, it's nothing," Kendall said, checking the message to assure me, that it was indeed nothing.

Just some random person telling me to come to a particular address by 7 am, tomorrow.

"What? Who do you think it is?" I asked her when I had finally calmed down enough to read the message.

"How am I meant to know? I should be asking you"

"Well, I don't know either."

We both went through the message again, trying to figure out anything and everything that would tell us who had sent the message. "Wait, it's the same number that called that also sent the message..." Kendall pointed out

"Yeah," I said, realizing that.

"Then who is it?"

We had absolutely no idea.

I chucked it up to spam messages as there was no other explanation, and then I put the phone away. I had to get ready for work the next day.

I slept off only when Kendall and I had finished catching up on our lives and drinking two more cans of beer each, and I woke up with a banging headache and an arm hitting mine repeatedly.

"Mummy, mummy" I forced my eyes open, groaning loudly when the force of my hangover hit me and I glanced at the person who was waking me up.

"Kyle? Kyle. What is it?"

"It's 8 am."

"What?" I shot up from the bed, immediately regretting it when a ringing started in my ear.

"Ouch!"

There was no way I had slept in on my first day at work after being transferred, but what had I expected? I shut off the alarm that had been ringing.

Immediately, I got both me and Kyle ready and dropped him off at Kendall's for breakfast since she had gotten up even earlier, thanks to her daughter, Leah.

The building I walked through about an hour later stood tall in the city of New York where it was situated, and it was huge, not quite as huge as the parent company of the whole group, Sterling Foods, where I had been transferred from, but it was quite huge.

I walked up to the receptionist, who looked quite pleasant but also young. "How may I help you?" She asked.

"Uhm, I'd like to go to the CEO's office."

"Right, you must be the new secretary?"

"Yup" her expression immediately turned blank, hostile if I would put it mildly.

"Eighth floor."

I hurried into the elevator and out when it got to the eighth floor and I headed straight for the only door at the end which had the CEO's office on it. The place had a huge space before the office, but I found no one there.

"Come in" I heard a baritone voice say immediately. I knocked and I winced. Sh*t, the boss was already there.

"Hmm... I kind of liked the view you displayed the other time." The man who stood by the floor-to-ceiling window in the office said, and my mouth fell into a wide 'o'.