Chapter 1
The loud ringing of a cell phone as it vibrated against the conference table drew all eyes in the room. Elijah stopped talking. His train of thought ran off the rails. His shoulders tensed as heat crept up his neck. Hadn’t he told everyone to turn off their devices before the meeting started? He’d spent the past two weeks working to verify if JF Technologies, the software company he worked for should, accept the acquisition offer from a private investment firm. The results of this acquisition would result in a lucrative payout for company stakeholders and make him the youngest person to close one of the best corporate finance deals this year. He did not need his shining moment to be interrupted by a damn cell phone.
“Come on everyone. I asked for all devices to be silenced,” he said to the group.
His administrative coordinator, Albert Corley, slid the phone toward Elijah’s end of the table. Elijah immediately recognized it as his. The heat in his neck spread up his cheeks. Who in the world would be calling him? Everyone: his wife, sister and parents knew he had a rule to not be called during the day. He spent most of his time in meetings and text messages were the easiest way for him to communicate. They knew this rule and followed it to a tee. He glanced at the screen and frowned at the numbers. His daughter’s daycare? Why in the world would they call him? Angelique, his wife, was the main contact for them.
A throat cleared before Elijah’s supervisor, Barry asked, “Do you need to take that?” Barry’s tone implied the answer better be no. The annoyed look in his beady, brown eyes asthey shot daggers at Elijah from behind the frames of his wire rimmed glasses said the answer better be not just no, but hell no.
Elijah pushed the confusion and whisper of unease aside as he pressed the button to end the call. “No. I’m sorry for the interruption.” He smiled at the rest of the executives around the conference room table. Angelique must have missed the call and they called him. They’d give her another call and she’d handle things. That’s what she did.
He’d ask her later what happened. Right now, he didn’t need any distractions during this presentation. He needed to clinch this deal and secure a comfortable future for his family. That was his main goal in life. To see them want for nothing. He’d worked at JF Technologies for the past two years and was one of the youngest people on the finance team. If he could negotiate this acquisition he’d be on his way to taking the CFO position after the acquisition. Angelique wouldn’t have to worry about the cost of the expensive daycare they’d put their daughter, Sabrina, in. The talk she had about going back to work to help ends meet would stop. He could keep both his wife and daughter in the lifestyle they deserved. The lifestyle he’d promised to give her when he’d asked her to marry him right after college.
“Now, where was I?” Elijah said easily. “If you look at page six in your packet, you’ll see that shareholders will receive twenty-four dollars per share with this acquisition. And that’s in cash. On top of that, the share sales represent a thirty-one percent increase on the cost per share at this same time last year.”
The annoyance in Don’s eyes immediately left as the shine of greed took over. The rest of the executives sitting around the table also shifted in their seats. Their shouldersstraightening and eyebrows raising as they mentally calculated their share sales. Good, he had everyone back on track.
He opened his mouth to continue with the expected projections for the shares to increase when his cell phone rang again. Damn, he’d meant to silence that. He moved to do that and noticed the number. The daycare again. What was going on? Why weren’t they calling Angelique? He glanced quickly at the time in the upper corner of the screen. Ten after six. She should have picked up Sabrina from daycare by now. The unease he’d pushed aside earlier twined its way into his midsection. Was something wrong?
“Maybe you should take that,” Albert said waving toward the phone. Of course he would say that. His administrative coordinator also had children and no matter what he may be working on, he dropped everything if his spouse or their child’s school called.
He wished he could ignore this, but the daycare never called him. Ever. Elijah looked to Albert and nodded. He ignored the daggers coming from Barry and spoke to the rest of the people around the table. “If you’ll give me a second. It’s my child’s daycare. Albert will you continue the presentation?”
Albert immediately jumped up. “Sure thing.”
“Thanks,” Elijah said. He took his phone and stepped out of the conference room. The ringing stopped as soon as he exited the conference room only to immediately start again. The vibration of the phone as it rang seemed to reverberate throughout his body. A sick, sinking feeling swam through his midsection as he answered. “This is Elijah Holmes.”
“Mr. Holmes this is Mrs. Bickley from the Lovely Learning Center.” The sweet, soft tone of the daycare managerwhich had won over his wife the moment they’d met her did nothing to soothe him.
“Yes, I recognize the number on my phone. Is there something wrong with Sabrina?”
Mrs. Bickley let out a thin chuckle. “No. Nothing’s wrong with Sabrina, other than no one is here to pick her up.”
“What do you mean? My wife is picking her up. She gets her every day.” Elijah looked at the gold watch on his wrist. She should have been there twenty minutes ago.
“She isn’t here today. As you know, we charge a dollar for every minute after six o’clock.” Mrs. Bickley’s soft voice went from concerned to businesslike in a matter of seconds. It was always about the money with people. No matter what the situation. “You’re now ten minutes late, so we thought we’d make a courtesy call before—.”
“Give me five minutes,” Elijah cut in. He would figure out where Angelique was and get her there immediately. Did she have a hair appointment today? Her stylist was always running late. Maybe she was under the dryer and hadn’t heard her phone ring. “I’ll check on my wife and make sure she’s on the way. She probably got held up.”
“Okay, thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. We’ll hold tight until you get here to pick up little Sabrina.”
“Five minutes.” He hung up without waiting for her response. He called Angelique’s number. After five rings her voice came through. “You’ve reached Angelique. I can’t take your call but please leave a message.”
Frowning, Elijah ended the call and immediately called back. He once again got her voice mail. He checked his textmessages. Maybe he’d missed a text in his preparation for the presentation today and she’d texted about why she was running late. Nope, no texts. He called her again. This time it didn’t ring but went straight to voice message. Worry crept up his throat. Was she okay?
His phone buzzed and a text from, Angelique, popped on the screen.
“I can’t do this anymore. I’m sorry. Tell Beenie that I tried. Goodbye Eli.”
“What the fuck is that?” Elijah burst out. The sound echoed in the empty hallway. His stomach dropped to his knees. No, his stomach fell to the pits of hell. What did she mean she can’t do this anymore? What exactly couldn’t she do anymore?
He tried to call her again. But once again he got voice mail. After five minutes of trying his cell phone rang. The daycare. He answered. “Is my wife there?”
“No, no one is here,” Mrs. Bickley stated. She didn’t sound as if she’d expected her to be there. “Will you be coming to pick up Sabrina? We do charge by the minute, but it’s also unfair to our workers to have to stay too late.”
“I’m on the way,” he gritted out through clenched teeth.
“Oh good. Thank you Mr. Holmes. We’ll see you in a bit.”
