Where life leads us

Chapter 30

I was checking the emails when my phone was vibrating. Inconspicuously, I quickly caught a glimpse of the new news. This came from Mirella, so I allowed myself to make sure she was doing well. Of course, she was more than well, as she had arranged to meet Luke, the doorman. In her message, she had only told me not to come to my hotel room for the next hour. Disgusted, I put my phone away and focused back on the screen.

After a knock, the door was opened: "In five minutes in the conference room." With a nod, I confirmed to the employee that I had heard her. I didn't know her name because I had only seen her at the reception once. Since she had not travelled to Singapore, she was probably in the finance or production department.

So that I was safe on time, I saved everything and started closing the programs. So that no one could gain access to any document, I turned off the computer. With a paper and pen I went over to the conference room. I stopped in the doorway in surprise when I saw my stepfather. Wearing a tailored suit, he sat opposite Claire and was probably still talking to his co-worker.

"Sit down with me or is your stepfather not good enough for you?", Luca wanted to know from me. He had probably spotted me in the doorway and looked at me. At that moment I could well understand why he was seen as a tough businessman. His gaze was serious and had something cold. I had never seen him like that, which scared me a little bit. Of all my parents, he had always been the nicest person to allow me anything. Now every trace of this man seemed to be missing.

Somewhat lost, I just nodded and sat down to his left: "Nice that you're here, is Mum here too?" I looked around, but I couldn't see them. A raucous laugh rang out next to me, so I looked back at Luca.

"Are you afraid that she might smell the smoke? Believe me, we've all smelled it. Leave your fingers out on this things, that's not good for you," I smelled inconspicuously on my jacket. In fact, you could still smell the smoke from the cigarette on it. Inwardly, I curse over my own stupidity.

I wanted to start to explain, but Luca quibbles: "I'm not here to give you a lecture on how harmful smoking is, you know yourself. Nor do I have the right to teach or punish you. I ask you to do so, because I have seen my grandfather suffer, leave our fingers off the carcinogenic thing. But now we should take care of the business." So, for the time being, the matter was off the table. I could only hope he didn't tell Mum about it.

He had tried to keep an emotionless face when he interrupted me, but I had recognized the disappointment in his eyes. Nothing in the world was worse than getting such a glimpse from a loved one. Even abuela's hateful looks were preferable to me.

The door was closed and everyone sat down. Claire had also put on a cold look to suppress her feelings. Unfortunately, she hadn't told me what it was going to be about before, but I could imagine it. Just because my stepfather was there, it must have been something urgent.

"First of all, I would like to thank you all for appearing. It was a very spontaneous meeting unfortunately the current situation leaves me no other choice. For a long time we have been in the area of red numbers, until now we had always managed to keep the ship afloat. This time the water rises and we need big buckets to come to the shore. If next season doesn't go better, our resources are at the end. I don't think I have to tell you that this information is confidential," Clair began. She had got up from her chair and stepped behind it.

There was complete silence in the room as the chief financial officer stood up and presented some figures. Luca studied the numbers attentively and listened with interest. I don't think he knew why he was here as much as I did. My mom's company didn't have anything directly to do with Williams' finances, which irritated me a bit.

"This small presentation is nice, but what does DJLA Motor have to do with it? As far as I know, we have only agreed to supply parts and are not financially related to Williams. We can't care how the team is doing as long as you pay us for the parts," he coldly looked at Claire. She answered the look just as calculatedly, so that a cold shower ran over my back.