Mirage | 𝙈𝙞𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙚𝙡 𝙅𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣

Chapter 9

Tyler couldn't stop thinking about the 'incident' as he turned his car engine on, in the cemetery parking lot. Louisa seemed to be awfully quiet today. She was playing with her fingers ever since they went into the car. When she looked at him, he offered her a kind smile.

"Shall we go?", he asked as she nodded. He knew she was holding her tears back, that's why the bitter taste in his mouth would never go away. No matter how much he had wished George was out of the picture before, he never wanted it to happen this way.

Tyler has heard the heartfelt words Louisa had said to him, the way she put a bouquet of white roses on his grave and how she sat beside the tombstone that had his name engraved and talked to him as if he was still alive. He gave her some privacy as he walked a few blocks away from Georgie's grave.

GEORGE T. MILLERBELOVED SON, LOVER AND FRIEND"HAPPINESS PASSES, BUT SO DOES SADNESS"12-02-1986 – 23-09-2016

Tyler sat by his mother's grave and couldn't understand the way Louisa could freely be there, talking to someone that was already dead, as lovingly as she would to someone that was still alive. Maybe that's why she didn't ever look at his way, because he was too cold and greedy for her. That's why she chose George instead.

His meeting with Michael Jackson and Karen Faye didn't went well either.

He was supposed to be appointed as the new Director of the company, but Michael had managed to take that away from him too. He felt like a child about to throw a tantrum, always having things taken away from him.

"It's called improvisation", Michael had told them in the meeting.

"You acted without consulting us", Karen said with gritted teeth, sitting on the edge of her seat. "What if the plan went wrong?"

"You shredded our plan A, we didn't have anything in backup if it backfired at us", Tyler clarified as Michael tapped his chin, looking at him with suspicion. Tyler tried to seat back, looking away from his intense stare.

"Well, did it go wrong?", Michael asked, with a stern tone of voice.

"No, luckily", Karen said, almost losing her patience at her business partner.

"Then?"

Tyler had one question in his mind ever since the board meeting and he wasn't afraid of speaking out. "Then why did you take Louisa Ronan to your team?", he asked as Karen looked back at Michael, also wondering the same thing.

Michael looked up to them from the guideline they had written two years ago, when they started planning on taking down Jackson Enterprises, and smiled sheepishly. "Because she's good at what she does", he softly said, much to Karen's surprise, as she furrowed her brows.

But Michael himself was highly doubting that.

Monday morning came quickly, and Michael had said goodbye to his foster parents. He ended up staying the weekend there and promised to come back for Thanksgiving when the whole family would reunite again. He was eagerly waiting for it but wouldn't admit it to anyone.

Daniel came to pick him up and they went straight to Jackson Enterprises after leaving Karen in charge of the main duties at Black Team. He was still Black Team's CEO, but he had priorities now. It's time to fight from the inside.

Michael took a quick shower in his private office and changed quickly before Louisa's starting hour. He asked Daniel for some breakfast from his favorite organic store and then sat in his desk.

He blinked twice when he noticed how changed his office was. The furniture was more suitable to his taste, there were green plants in various spots of the room, the files were perfectly ordered and more light had entered into the room by the now changed blinds of the sole window the office had. He even dared to sniff and noticed that there was a pleasant smell, only to see the automatic freshener placed perfectly over tall furniture.

He couldn't help but smile to himself.

"Good morning, Mr. Jackson", he heard Louisa's voice after a soft knock on his door, he turned around to see her and there she was, wearing a blue navy dress and her hair tied up. He tried to dissimulate his admiration eyes as he looked somewhere else.

"Good morning, Louisa", he said and then walked to his desk, opening a folder to check on something.

"Do you have any new task for me?", she asked, her curious eyes waiting for him to say something about the new furniture, a small smile creeping in the corner of her lip as he looked up to her.

"No... well, I do", he cleared his throat again as she made her way to stand in front of him.

Louisa looked at Michael hopefully, waiting for his reaction after seeing all the changes she's made to his office.

"T-that's a nice plant", he said, pointing at the Ficus in the corner. Louisa looked at him and then at the plant. "Look, I'm not good at being good, alright? You did a nice thing here and I'm sure that you're aware of it", Michael sighed as Louisa smiled widely at him.

"Thank you, Mr. Jackson", she said, feeling relieved and glad that he liked it. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Michael tapped his fingers on his chin and thought. "Yes, there are a few things, actually", he said, and Louisa took her notepad from under her arm and got ready to write. "First of all, I'd like to have a meeting with the financial team – arrange that quickly, then I need you to come with me with a meeting with Sony, I'll answer any questions if you have regarding that, usually Jameson comes with me but he's been nothing but a pain in the ass ever since he didn't took his morning coffee today so I'm sure that he hates me that's why I'm taking you, do you know how to drive?", he paused as Louisa nodded, still writing. "After that, we have free time for some lunch and then we have to head back here and do a small meeting regarding the new launching line with the marketing team and sales team...", he sighed.

"Anything else?", Louisa raised her eyes from her notepad.

"I'm kind of regretting being here", Michael thought out loud and she giggled, quickly covering her mouth with her palm as he looked at her and smiled. "That's life...", he sang and then turned his computer on to check his emails. "There's nothing else, you may go now"

She simply nodded and quickly disappeared through the doors as Michael waited until she was gone to stretch a bit on his chair and laugh to himself. He wasn't being himself, he felt he was going crazy... but it wasn't a bad thing to change a bit. Not when he had the privilege of seeing her smile like that.

"Ok, we're trailing off", he said to himself, trying to focus on the e-mails he had received in the early morning.

Michael sighed heavily and bit his lip after seeing the last email Karen had sent him, regarding the scheme they had scheduled for this week. It consisted of making Jackson Enterprises and their beauty line (which was the main line of the company) losing the contract renewal against their competence, Bubble Beauty Co. That meant that his uncle's line wouldn't renew with either Shopping Malls, Duty Free shops and more.

He knew he had to sacrifice a lot to go to the top. That's why he didn't hesitate when he made the few calls to his closest advisors and then he knew he had to pull the last string for the scheme to work, the thing that would hurt his uncle the most – Louisa Ronan.