The Memoir of Aderyn Clark

Wonder

I'm not bawling anymore. Lexa left a few minutes ago, because it's the baby's turn to cry. So she left my office to take care of that. I asked Lexa to send Carson away to get me breakfast or something, I just needed him to be away from my office because I didn't want him to see me bawling my eyes out. But I'm feeling better now, at least half better. I would be a lot better if someone come to me and tell me the verdict, at least tell me what the fuck is the meeting about and why they didn't include me there.

"You can stop the tears, Alito," he opened his suit buttons and take a seat, "they won't strip your title,"

"So they did want to do that!" I look up at him "or was it actually your idea?"

"Why'd you always think of me as the bad guy?" He actually looks hurt

"Because you are the bad guy in my story, King, ever since we were kids!" I hold back the shout I wanted to do, "you hurt me, you give me bruises—"

"I never touched you!" He cut me off sharply

"Yes, because you had your buddies to do it for you!" I said it a little to loud, "nobody touches me, unless you say so, right?"

"I never asked them to hit you," he defended himself once again

"But they did!" How could I not cry? It's too painful to not cry, "you saw the bruises, you saw the casts, you even seen the scars"

"Don't cry in front of me," he said sharply, but I can't stop it, it keeps on coming

"You're not the boss of me!" I spat, trying really hard to stop the tears

If he didn't want to see me cry, he's not supposed to make me cry in the first place. So, fuck him for making cry.

"Get the hell out of my office." I pointed at the door, and for the first time, King do as he told without a fight.

°°°

The executive secretary, who notes every single discussion in the meeting, sends all of the stockholders an email of the final draft of the board meeting an hour after it finishes. That's the SOP for all board meetings, so they can make a memo on what to do and which agreement has come to close. Reading the notes was like reading a book with a plot twist.

The bad guy turns out to be the good guy, and the good guy was actually the bad guy. Remember James? That board member that said "let's settle" and ended up concluding the meeting about the "partnership" with Kane. Yeah, as it turns out, he was the one that put in the idea of removing me from the board along with my title, and as you may already guessed, King was the first one to say no, and surprisingly, Claris comes second. There's a lot of bickering, it said it right here, "unintelligible bickering" followed by King hitting the table shutting everybody down then said "are we in a board meeting or the Goddamn zoo? Because you're all so short fused like an animal," then there's silence.

King went from the guest of the meeting into the leader of the meeting. My first guess about why James wanted me gone was correct, he didn't think I'm fit to rule anymore, that I'm out of touch and letting my "female energy" take over. Why'd man these days are so sexist? Equality is already a thing now, not all successful CEOs are men, and not all failed business ruled by female CEOs. Like, what the hell?!

By the end of the meeting, the count comes up to 4:6, of course it's obvious which one is 6. I'm still here. We usually reached unanimous decision, but well, I guess 6 was good enough for this. What surprised we was that's not the end, end. The board also decided to take King in as a member, kicked the 4 out, took their share and gives it back to me.

Is this even real? Am I in some kind of a dream? How is that fair? I went from having 10 members, to 9, then 5, then 6 in less then a month. Is my company about to fall? Was this a sign? This must be a sign, a really bad one. And where is Carson, why he's not back yet? It's been almost an hour! And Lexa? Did she left? But she didn't say goodbye. I need sleep. I'm about to pass out any second now.

°°°

I dreamt of my parents. They said they're proud of me and that I'll be fine. I'm strong. I shouldn't have let petty things let me down, there's a great future ahead of me, and I should be more happy with how my life is going now, that I had it better then they always were. But they also said I should never forget who I was before all this, that I should always remember my root and all their teachings to always be kind no matter how terrible they treat me, I should never stooped down to their level, because they will get what they deserve, eventually. When I woke up, I cried once again, my heart felt like it's in pieces, I can't breath, I can't think clearly, all I want to do now is just curled up in my bed and cry, cry so hard until I ran out of tears, and my throat is sore, that I can barely speak anything.

But of course I didn't do that, I will not. I stayed in the office and do my job until it's time to leave. When I get home, I'm gonna sleep, then I'm gonna wake up fresh and do it all over again. Because that's my life, and I'm gonna keep doing it, because that is what I'm good at, I'm good at routines, I don't like things out of order. I need perfection in my totally screwed up life.