Chapter Three

A loud thud was heard across the room. It made everyone in the room jump but no one dared to look up from their paper. They knew what would happened if they raised their head to look at the source of the sound. A pair of eyes that says "die" will shoot to those who make eye contact with that someone.

And that someone is the one and only, Arthur Layne Cavendish.

He rose from his seat and scanned through each and everyone in the meeting room. Mistakes. He disliked people making mistakes- because one little mistake could cause huge losses. And that may have been one of the little mistakes.

"Who's in charge of the wedding plan in Andalesia Hotel?" he growled. "NO ONE?!!" he barked after a few minutes of silence from the meeting room. "Well, if there's no one, then I expect everyone to get fired!"

Mr. Reed, The Cavendish Group's marketing director stood up and kneeled in front of Arthur. "I-It is I, sir... P-Please forgive me director, I-I promise this won't happen again! I'll change... change for the better!"

Arthur frowned confusingly. "You'll change for the better?" he scoffed after seeing Mr. Reed nodded his head repeatedly. "You're fired. Logan," Arthur called to his PA or you could call it his secretary. "Would you please kindly escort Mr. Reed outside? Oh, and uh, please tell the security guards in the entrance to remember his face so that he won't enter this building ever again in the future, clear?"

"Director, don't you think this is a little over?" Logan spoke in a whisper. 

Arthur chuckled softly and patted Logan's shoulder. "Logan, you know, nobody would say that you're a mute if you keep your mouth shut. Just do it."

Logan nodded his head and pulled Mr. Reed up from the floor. "Mr. Reed, this way." Mr. Reed looked around in panicked and quickly kneeled down again. "Arthur... Ah, I mean Director! Please, spare my life! I have a family to feed! Please, please, please!"

"It's getting noisier than what I've expected." Arthur used both his hands to cover up his ears. "Logan, do your job properly. Do you want to get fired too?"

"No sir, I'll do it right away," Logan answered while searching his contacts through the phone. "Hello? I need securities in the meeting room, now." Within minutes, a few security guards came rushing in and greeted Arthur by bowing. They then dragged Mr. Reed out of the meeting room.

Arthur closed his eyes to calm himself down. He then heaved a euphoric sigh of relief. "Thanks Logan. Well, well. Where do we stop, huh?"

"Wedding plan in Andalesia Hotel," Robert Carter reply while looking through the paperworks. He's Arthur's older cousin brother and CFO in the company.

"How much did we lose?" Arthur leaned back on his chair and relaxed. "9 thousand dollars?"

Robert licked his bottom lips and shook his head. "Uh.. I don't think you would want to know." He saw Arthur gave him a look that read 'I-Don't-Give-A-Shit-And-Just-Spill-It', so he revealed it. "Well... it's uh... it's about 48 thousand dollars."

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Arthur slammed the table with his hands in fury. "That's it! Everyone is fired!" He walked out of the meeting room without waiting for any replies.

The meeting room started to filled with people's groans, mumblings, sobs and whispers after Arthur Cavendish left the room.

"What? We're getting fired?"

"But... I just got promoted!"

"What am I supposed to tell my family?"

"Fired?! That means I'm going to move out!"

Robert frowned at his cousin brother's behaviour. This guy seriously need a smack to wake up. "Everyone, please calm down! I'm sure our director isn't in a mood and just blurted out the word 'fired'. I ensure everything will be alright." God, please just send him more love so that the world will be more peaceful.

*****

"Marvin's a dick," Poppy cursed. "He's a total douchebag."

Asher's eyes rounded. He knew Poppy rarely cursed unless something really upset her day. He stopped in front of her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You seriously need to stop cursing. You're a girl after all. Who's Marvin?"

"Debora's boyfriend."

"Another one?" he sounded surprise. "I thought it was something that starts with J... Jarett or something?"

"That one? Done breaking up. That guy cheated on her." Poppy shook her head. "This guy, Marvin always come to our house... drunk. He sometimes even curse at me. He called me a 'whore'. What the hell?"

"A-A whore?!" Asher shouted in a whisper. He didn't want to get people's attentions on the street by saying that word loudly. "Boy, that's rude. Is Debora blind or something?"

Poppy stopped walking and crossed her arms. "That's what I'm thinking. It's really weird. Debora is the chairwoman of my late step-father's resort and she should be dating someone who have the same rank as her, not a douchebag. Well," she shrugged. "At least he's not poor."

Asher sent a cheeky smirked at her. This girl always add something nice behind her mean words. She always prevent herself from being the bad person by adding something nice in her last sentence. He chuckled everytime he saw her using her old habits again. "Ah, I'm feeling bitter today. Should we have some ice-creams?"

"Ash, I'm not a 5-year-old girl you once knew that would be happy just by having ice-creams but thanks," she giggled. "You treat."

*****

"Ted," Debora spoke comfortably to Mr. Branigan, her butler that served Poppy and her for many years. He's been there with them since her married days. He's an old guy that knows the family's history and understands their conflict. "Do you... do you think I've been a bad mother to Poppy? She rarely talks to me and... she doesn't even call me 'mom' once."

Mr. Branigan smiled kindly and shook his head. "Madam..."

"Ted, how many times do I have to tell you," Debora stopped him. "You can speak comfortably to me. You're part of our family after all."

"Yea, madam. I mean, Debora." he smiled. "I don't think you're a bad mother to Poppy. Just give her some time."

"I do give her time! Sixteen years, Ted! It's been sixteen years but nothing's change!" Debora sighed. "I don't know what to do. In Poppy's eyes, I'm still an evil mother that you can find in those fairytale stories."

Mr. Branigan patted Debora's shoulder. "Why not try from scratch?"

"Try from scratch? Like from the day I gave birth to her? When she's still a baby?"

"Exactly."