Chapter 29.

She had been neck deep in work for days. Burying herself in work gave her comfort, an escape from her problems and the real world.

She looked out her window again, she had a fairly good view from her office but she couldn't deny that her father's office which now belonged to Alexander had the best view in the company.

She tugged at her sleeve uncomfortably and sighed. Unable to shake the memories that kept playing in her head.

The last few days she found herself jumpy, worrying about every little thing. It reminded her of something she once read in a book about how being in love can make someone vulnerable. Worried, anxious and so many other things.

Did that mean she was in love, probably, she was yet to admit it though.

But she knew that those things applied to her, they were exactly the kinds of symptoms she was facing.

She had left the hotel that day shattered. Her mind was so scrambled that she tossed and turned all night. Not only was she worried that Jean had found out, she was also angry that it had turned out that way.

The whole situation had spiraled out of their control, everything was now left at the hands of Jean who herself had ulterior motives and could be quite unstable. Cara didn't trust her to keep her mouth shut.

She could be very well sell their secret to the highest bidder.

Oh no she didn't trust her one bit, things could get real messy after that. And she had told Nicholas that maybe they did need to stay away for the meantime. At least till they figured things out.

There were still other things on her mind. Her mother had been trying to get through her, telling her the benefits and affluence that was attached to being married to the son of a wealthy philanthropist and aspiring politician.

She constantly reminded Cara of how hard it was to find men of such good background and family, those were the words of her mother. Basically, she told her to stop fighting with Alexander and take whatever bullshit he spewed out.

That didn't go well with Cara. It didn't even go down well with her but she didn't want to start an argument with her mother so she let it slide.

She would leave her mother to dream on about her expectations of her daughter, let it give her hope.

Cara thought.

Malory on the other hand had decided to ignore Cara, still angry about her bailing and refusing to tell her the truth, she threw herself fully into the planning of her bachelorette party which seemed quite strange to her.

Also, it was something Cara wasn't really interested in.

In fact all parts of the wedding plans had seized to interest her, not that it ever interested her all that much but at least she had put in the effort. She only pretended to be excited about having one. .

Lois walked into her office unannounced, interrupting her thought.

There was a long look on her face, Lois always found it hard to hide her emotions.

Cara raised an eyebrow.

Lois nodded.

"I know. I know. I'm sorry but it's really important."

She said and Cara shrugged.

"What is it?"

She asked and Lois pointed to the door.

"Mr Greene is around and he'd like to see you in his office."

Ah yes.

Alexander.

He liked to drop by at the office few times a week to 'keep everyone on their toes' but that just really annoyed Cara. It always felt to her like he was just monitoring her, hoping to catch her in the middle of something.

They had been civil to each other for the last few days, not that they had much to talk about, Alexander was now busy with helping his father with his campaign.

He seemed to have quite a lot on his plate. Not that he ever complained though, he loved being the favourite most useful child.

Cara straightened the skirt of her plaid suit and walked out of her office.

She wondered what he wanted to see her about. If it was company related she knew he was going to spend hours nitpicking everything she was doing.

"Are you okay?"

Lois asked as she walked passed her.

Cara paused.

"Yea. Why do you ask?"

She asked in curiosity and Lois shrugged.


"Honestly you've been looking pretty down these last couple of days. At first I thought it was wedding stress and now I see how angry you look when Mr Greene comes unto the office."

Cara's jaw slightly dropped.

Did she make it that obvious?

She shrugged and smiled.

"We're just going through a rough patch."

"Well. I hope you guys get better."

Lois said as she smiled sweetly and Cara nodded her head.

"Hopefully."

She didn't mean that.

"Thank you Lois. Really."

"I know I don't say it enough."

She said softly and Lois grinned.

"You're welcome Ms Devine."


Stepping into Alexander's office always gave her mixed feelings, mostly because it meant a lot to her.

She had been to the office a thousand of times, it used to be her father's, it was supposed to be hers but now it belonged to her fiancé.

Great going Dad.

She thought as she rolled her eyes.

Alexander looked well.

He was wearing a blue Armani suit with a sky blue inner shirt. There was a deep crease on his face as she concentrated on the computer before him.

He glanced at her once and saw it was Cara and pointed to a seat.

At work they tried to be as professional as possible, not that there was any chemistry left there to begin with. But at least it saved Cara from them discussing their problems at work.

Work also happened to be one of her safe havens.

Alexander passed a file to her on the smooth transparent table.

"I've time to look through your last report and how you handled our latest project..."

"And?"

Cara said as she took it slowly and he sighed.

"It was grossly inadequate Cara."

Cara rolled her eyes.

"How? We met our target for the month, we even have some positive growth in the company, is that not okay with you?"

Alexander shrugged.

"You wouldn't understand. It's not enough. The work you think you're doing is barely enough to keep this company afloat."

"I don't know what you mean by that, what else do you want?"

Cara narrowed her eyes at him. They were doing fine, everything was improving, they were getting so much better.

And Cara had been doing a good work for her company, Alexander did nothing to contribute. He only dropped by to complain about everything else.

"Or are you just looking for a reason to pick a fight with me?"

Alexander rolled his eyes.

"Why would I?"

He chuckled nervously as he scratched his hair lightly.

"Anyways I'm just here to tell you about the new changes to the company."

"I don't want you to be too surprised"

He added.


"What changes? And why wasn't there a board meeting to decide on these changes?"

Alexander raised his eyebrows and chuckled.

"Cara... I'm the CEO, I don't need anyone telling me what to do."

A short uncomfortable silence followed with Alex clearing his throat.

"First things first, we downsize, this company is too large, they're too many employees at the moment that we don't need. Secondly, a whole new product launch where we start considering other production options that don't hurt our pocket too much and finally I was thinking of adding a few professionals."


Cara laid back in her chair and folded her arms.

Why did they need to downsize?

That, she didn't understand. And products that don't hurt the pocket? One of the reasons their company was so respectable and known is because of their integrity, the way they sell organic and all natural products.

If that was taken away, Cara didn't know what else would remain.

And professionals?

What did he mean by that? Some of their employees had been around for years.


"I don't know why you think it's necessary to cut some people off."

Alexander shrugged.

"This is business Cara, if your company wasn't drowning in debt right now, we wouldn't have to do this but its all we've got to do."

Hmm...

She was going to think more on that. He might be right but letting so many people off work was cruel.


Alexander's phone beeped at that moment. It was his father, asking for his attention. He groaned.

"We'll finish this talk later. I have to leave."

"Okay."

Cara said as she made a move to leave.

"Oh and my dad is hosting a dinner tonight to formally declare that he's running for senator. We have to be there. I'll pick you up 7:30pm."

"Wear something black and elegant."

He was just dishing out orders and Cara was sick and tired of it but she was also not in the mood go argue anymore. She walked out of the office without a word to him.

Alexander clenched his fist as he watched her also walk away, what he had said seemed to have only made her angrier but he didn't care, she would see the bigger picture too.


Eventually.