5 His mental health and the meeting

Alex is now in his home looking at the calendar.

'2 years have already passed....' he sighs with his eyes red. Lia's 2nd death anniversary is around the corner. His mental state is deteriorating faster because the nightmares of that incident have started haunting him more and more.

He is now confused more than ever on what to do with his life. He decides to put these thoughts at the back of his mind and then proceeds to look at his documents. His actions do not have any vigour and with his slowed and monotonous actions, it would look like he was cursed to study the documents.

After few moments, he bends over, resting his forehead on the documents and holds his head tightly, closes his eyes to suppress the tears threatening to spill out.

'It would seem that I have become a crybaby.' He silently mocks himself.

He gets up and decides to hit the bed. He takes another set of Lia's clothes and holds them tightly. Since 2 years ago, he is constantly awakened by the nightmares and Lia's faint scent on her clothes calmed him down, now this had become his habit even though those clothes do not have any scent on them.

He quickly falls asleep due to exhaustion.

It was 2 AM when Alex suddenly wakes up breathing heavily and covered in sweat. He switches the lights on and looks at the clock realising that it has been only 3 hours since he hit the bed.

He is currently in no shape to work and he doesn't have anything to pass time such as songs, movies etc so he searches around the room to find something...anything that could calm his mind. He knows that he is going crazy because of overwork and stress. Alex had prepared himself for death even though he doesn't commit suicide but death for him seems to wait for him to slowly exhaust himself both physically and mentally, toying with him.

He finds photo album named 'My Life'. It was Lia's album which had been created by her parents. He opens them and looks at its contents. Alex smiles faintly when he looks at the pictures.

This album contained pics of Lia, just after her birth, her tiny form sleeping with rattle in her hand, submerged in teddy bears and other fluffy toys, picture of her holding a satchel heading to school,picture of the birthday parties...looking at these calmed him and he slowly fell asleep.

He got up after 2 hours but this time it was not because of nightmares but physical discomfort of sleeping while sitting. He gets up and checks the album to see if he damaged it or if there was any drool on it.

He puts the album on his bed and starts to do his chores, but today he didn't practice yoga and did not clean his house both of which he had been doing everyday without break for past 2 years. Skipping them today did not give him any discomfort but changing the routine slightly freshened him. Monotonous routine has taken away colour form his daily life.

He went to his study to tidy up the documents he left last night and prepared for the battle he is going to fight today.

He quickly gets to his office and starts reviewing his plans again. And during this time Shelly comes in and informs him that it's almost time for meeting.

The venue for the meeting is a popular restaurant named Aurora. The restaurant is designed by a famous designer. Guests are required to remove their shoes when inside the restaurant, the floors are covered with expensive fluffy white carpet which feels good to ones feet. The the waiters are in a Artic bear costumes and the ceiling is designed carefully to look like a aurora.

This restaurant is under Micheal and is one of the most unique restaurants in the country. Alex and his subordinates head to the VIP meeting room.

Alex brought Shelly and the head of business department,Liam.Liam is a composed middle-aged man who has a lot of experience in the company. He is well liked by the employees for his relaxed attitude and gentle guidance. But now he is somewhat nervous and while on the way here, he quietly peeks at Alex few times but doesn't make eye contact with him.

'It seems that John has approached Liam. Liam should be hesitating and he doesn't dare to look at me because he feels slightly guilty.' Alex decides that the company should go a internal makeover. 'Liam should be removed quickly.' Alex decides this because even though Liam has not joined John, he did not report it to him and is obiously hesitating which makes him a ticking time bomb.

They enter the room and sit down after exchanging pleasantries. Micheal brought his sister Marlene who is also his assistant and his consultant cum lawyer Mars.

Alex narrows his eyes slightly upon seeing the arrangement of the room and slightly clenches his fist upon making a shocking discovery.

The people in the room start discussing about the possible cooperation. It is mostly Mars doing the talking instead of Micheal or his sister.

"We are planing to expand to the real estate" Mars says. "I have looked into your company's history and are impressed with the quality of your projects as well as the reputation your company enjoys." He continues.

"The government is planning to rebuild the southwestern district into a large community and we have confidence in getting the contract. But we have yet do settle on a real estate company to work with." Mars says this with a bit of pride.

Indeed, he his the right to be prideful as getting that contract without having any reputation in the industry is an almost impossible feat.

'They must have used hard and cruel means such as kidnapping or blackmailing to get this as simple bribe would not work.' Alex ponders about their means of securing such a deal.

"So here are our conditions, you company is responsible for labour(Human Resource) and construction. We will be responsible for government issues and advertising for the community and gather more investors for various facilities such as hospitals and schools."Mars continues to talk and also splits the work clearly controlling the pace of the meeting.

Micheal didn't talk much but his cold and domineering aura putting on the pressure. Including the fact that he has Lunet family as his backing has contributed to increase in the pressure.

Alex motions for Liam to talk.

"Ahem, we have no problem with completing our part of the job but what do you think about profit distribution?" Liam questions. Mars is silent and now it is Micheal who answers.

"70-30" he says. Clearly the 70 belongs to him in this case.

All three of Alex's team frown. Alex in this case is acting while the other two are genuinely troubled. Dreamstar would be the one doing the hard work and face many problems while Apollo gets the most profits. This demand is too outrageous and the atmosphere is getting on their nerves.

"I am afraid that we cannot cooperate in this project with such conditions, Mr. Micheal." Alex says.

"Oh?" Micheal raises an eyebrow and looks at Alex. Alex continues after pausing. This pause is to make them think that Alex is clearly intimidated.

"Apollo is new to the real estate industry and such a giant entering this industry will agitate many real estate companies. The cake is only so big and having Apollo entering will put many of the companies' market share at risk so they will definitely band together to cause problems. The Dreamstar corporation will be isolated because of cooperating with you and it will bring various inconveniences as well as loses on our side."

"They can create trouble in many ways such as inciting the residents to protest, provoke workers to strike, they can also put pressure on suppliers to not sell us the construction materials. So the cost of construction will be increased and if they are more daring, they can even stage accidents to slow down the projects." Alex continues.

Saying such words will increase momentum and justify Alex's demand for more profits. Alex taking lead will cause the other two to take this time to get her their thoughts.