Chapter 33
Wavy brown hair tied into a ponytail, big brown eyes, a striking heart–shaped face, full red lips, and ever–glowing skin.
This was Ela, much different from the image I’ve had of her in the last four years. This Ela looked sophisticated in her white shirt with the first two buttons undone, tucked into her red pencil skirt, and a pair of four–inch heels that made her flawless legs look longer, but she was Ela.
This couldn’t be real, could it? Ela was standing before me in the conference room. I blinked, and unlike those other times, she didn’t disappear.
She was real, and she was here.
She had been gone for four years, and now she was here.
Why was she here? My brain felt weak as it silently sought an answer but found none.
Ivory rose to her feet. “Is this a goddamn joke?” she demanded with furious eyes.
“Stop being dramatic, Ivory, and sit down,” Robb instructed, but she didn’t obey. Her eyes remained on
Ela, who had stood unmoved in her position since her arrival.
“You knew who she was, and you brought her here?” she snarled at Robb and sounded betrayed.
“Out of the four of us in this room, only one of us has a four–decade–old multi–billion–dollar company that
has been tested and trusted by many,” Robb answered, and his frustration was evident.
“Multi–billion dollars, uh?” Ivory scoffed and turned to Ela. “Did you whore your way into that and force
him into marrying you too?” She sneered out in disgust.
Despite what Ivory thought of Ela, that was low, and there was no reason to have gone there. Not now,
not here.
Before I could open my mouth to call her out for once again being a bully without a cause, Ela did. “I
didn’t have to; he turned out to be my father.” She said it with a smirk.
Ivory’s face paled in defeat at her response, and she looked like she had just realised the odds stacked against her.
“Are you happy now?” Robb demanded, his tone engulfed with annoyance at his wife. “Instead of attacking, shut up, sit down, and listen to how we can pull ourselves out of the mud we call a crisis.”
He turned to Ela apologetically and said, “We have our history, and you have every reason not to want to
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help out at this point.”
Ela shook her head, brushing it off casually. “This is business, and it has nothing to do with personal histories shared. There is no need to take back my word, which I have already given you, Mr Plane, You reached out, asking for help, and it takes a lot of courage to do that. As long as the terms are followed, 1 am bound to do my duties as a financial advisor and expert,”
Robb nodded. “You are a much better person than I am, Ms Garcia, I have read your record, and your reputation precedes you. Your father, Marcel Boris Garcia, is a wise man and so lucky to have you by his
side.”
“That is one thing we can both agree on.” She smiled at him before moving on into a much more formal
tone. “Shall we begin?”
We spent two hours and thirty minutes in the conference room, and Ela drew a map of how the company would go for the next six months if we hoped to scale through this time and supersede the competition in
the current market.
It was in–depth yet easy to understand. She told us this would be the same way she would break it down for the board members when they finally meet next week, but she wanted us to hear it first.
She suggested we offer local and international services and introduce a new cost. We would have to pay off many staff to make this happen, but with her directive, it should pay off. This would bring customers wanting a better flight at a cheaper rate over to us. And if the competition hoped to beat us, they would have to improve the standard of not only their airplanes but their services as well. With the state of the economy, they would incur a more significant loss trying to improve their standards, which would increase their prices. If they choose not to improve their standards, their customers will leave. It was a lose–lose for the competition and a win–win for us.
The only problem that existed was financial resources. Air Plane Enterprise was barely standing on its feet now. Ela had a solution, though. She told us the services the Garcia Group of Companies offers financial aid that comes with privacy stipulations. Unlike other financial firms, our transactions will remain between them and their client, and they will remain professional.
“How are we sure this is going to work?” Ivory began with an annoying tone. “For all we know, this might just backfire on us.”
“Because I have spent the last forty–eight hours proving this method, it came back solid. Also, your company is financially in the mud; no disrespect, so what do you have to lose? Yes, there will be a few setbacks for the first month, like I already stated, but we will rise if we remain consistent.”
Well, this felt too good to be true, and yet it was.
“If you have no questions, I will see you on Monday at the board meeting.” She answered and took her leave, and we stayed silent.
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I said nothing because there was nothing to say. For two years, I have done my homework, trying to find the best way to combat the crisis, but I have never found a way out. Ela took it out within forty–eight
hours.
She was always a genius.
Ivory turned her attention to Robbert and me and saw we had no objection to Ela’s proposition. “Are you going to accept that?”
I stared at her. “Do you have a better suggestion, Mom? If you do, I would like to hear it.” I answered, and this made her glare at me.
I paid her no mind and rose to my feet. I needed to speak to Ela, so I left her alone with her husband as
the two seemed to have scores to settle.
I hurried into the elevator and waited impatiently as it came to the first floor. I hurried out and into the parking lot, where I hoped that Ela would still be. Luckily for me, I found her approaching her black Benz along with a man in a black suit, and from his body language and the pace he kept behind her, I knew he was her bodyguard. I raced over to her, and I could not remember the last time I was this desperate to speak to someone.
“Ela,” I called as she was about to enter the car, whose door the guard held open for her.
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She paused and turned around to face me, and her face had no emotion, just like when she spoke in the conference room. The few times she looked my way, there was nothing there. It was almost as if I were a stranger. I focused on her presentation, but it still hurt a little.
“I don’t go by that anymore.” She replied blankly.
“Yet you stopped.” I pointed out, not buying her words and stepped forward.
Her guard stepped before me, but she held up her hand to stop him, and he moved away. “I stopped because it was my name for twenty–one years; it is hard to let go,” she answered.
I stared at her, still not believing that she was here, alive and well. “You disappeared for more than four years and suddenly showed up?” I frowned, “Rumours of your death went around.”
“Did you cry?” She asked, staring me straight in the eyes.
I did for days, and Cecil didn’t like that very much. I couldn’t help it, though; she was once an important part of me, and she still is.
“I did,” I replied, seeing no reason to lie. “I am glad you are alive, though.” I stepped forward.
Her eyes warned me before her words did. “You shouldn’t be this close to me, or have you forgotten your
vow?”
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I regretted that vow, among many other things, after she went missing.
“I should never have said those words,” I mumbled, but loud enough for her to hear.
She didn’t say anything; instead, she turned to enter the car, opened to her, and I spoke again. “You must hate us, the Planes, for what we did to you.”
She turned to me with a furrowed brow. “I don’t hate the Planes.”
I rolled my eyes. “Bullshit.”
“Fine,” she said, folding her arms across her chest, and I had to fight myself not to let my eyes linger on the full sets seated there. “I can’t stand your mother, and that is because she is unbearable. Your father, however, never gave me a reason to hate him; he was doing the job of a concerned parent. I also do not
hate Nina; she was kind to me.”
That meant the enemies were Ivory and me, but I didn’t say it out loud.
She didn’t mention Seth. Did that mean he was on her bad side or his good side?
It didn’t matter; it was in the past, where it should be. “I’m sorry for what we couldn’t be.”
She shook her head and said, “Don’t be. If I had had the life you offered me at the beginning, I would
never have met my father, and I would not be here now saving you.”
