THE BILLIONAIRE’S PERFECT MATE

Everything was going well for Sophia as the person with whom her father had connected her with, paved the way for her to get in touch with the Personal Assistant to the CEO of Annie Fashion Group. At first, the Personal Assistant wanted to turn down Sophia’s offer after hearing the reason she had reached out to them but magically, she gave in and promised to get back to Sophia after having discussed with their CEO. Two days went by with Sophia not getting feedback with the Personal Assistant. She tried getting in touch with her but she neither picked her calls nor responded to her mails. She was getting worried at this stage as she had only 5 days left out of the two weeks given to them to achieve their assigned task.

Luckily for her, the Personal Assistant contacted her just 4 days left to reach the ultimatum and brought forth good news.

“Hello, Sophia. Sorry for not getting in touch with you all these while. The CEO has been busy and I just had the chance to discuss with her, your proposed partnership” Claire, the Personal Assistant said, taking a break, giving room for Sophia to respond just to make sure she was following her.

“No problem, Claire. I understand and I appreciate your effort. If I may ask, what is the outcome of your discussion with her?” Sophia asked, all anxious, silently praying to get a positive response.

“After much deliberation, she has decided to give your company a chance to have a collaboration with us” Claire responded, with joy evident in her voice, which showed she was happy for Sophia.

“Really? Is this for real?” surprised and over-joyous Sophia asked, finding it hard to believe what she had heard.

“Yes, it is. Congratulations, Sophia. She would like for you to come over in two days time by 9am to discuss the terms of condition with you. See you then, Sophia” Claire further explained.

“Two days time? Sure, I will be there. Thank you so much for your help, Claire. I really do appreciate it. See you then” Sophia said, beaming with joy as she showed how appreciative she was to Claire before disconnecting the call.

“Yes, I did it!!!!!” Sophia yelled with joy, as she dropped her phone on the table in her office. It seemed unbelievable but she was finally able to pull it through.

“I need to book my flight” Sophia said to herself, not being able to contain her joy as she picked her phone to dial Jack’s line. Although Los Angeles to Australia by flight was just a 15 hours journey and she would be able to meet up for the meeting if she took off the next day, she felt the need to take off the night of that same day Claire called.

“Book a flight flying in tonight to Australia for me” Sophia instructed, upon Jack picking her call.

“Yes, Ma’am” Jack responded, ready to swing into action but was stopped by the comment Sophia made afterwards.

“And do not let anyone know about this. Is that understood?” Sophia queried in a firm tone.

“Well understood, Ma’am” Jack responded, before hanging up on her.

Walking up and down in her office, she just kept on smiling, finding it hard to believe she was about achieving something huge all on her own.

“Let’s see if she will still be as arrogant as she is once I take over the company. I can’t wait to see the expression on her face once she sees me sitting on Daniel’s chair, with me dismissing her from her office” she giggled, anticipating the moment she was envisioning in her head.

“Daniel must know about this. I need to let him know” she further thought, which made her dashed out of her office, heading to Daniel’s office. On getting to his office, she shared the good news with him and in no doubt, he was happy about it. He admired her determination and admonished her to ensure the rest of the collaboration fell through. Sophia further told him of her plan to fly to Australia that night to meet with the CEO of Annie Fashion Group and in which he wished her well. Few hours left for her flight to Australia to take off, Sophia headed home to get some of her toiletries and dresses she would be needing. Just as she finished packing, Jack arrived in time to drive her to the airport and at the same time, Edward arrived home from work.

“Take this to the car” Sophia instructed Jack, handing her small suitcase over to him.

“Yes, Ma’am” Jack responded, taking the suitcase and making his way to the car. On his way to the car, he met Edward who was coming in and paid him respect.

Edward was confused seeing Jack carrying a suitcase and his confusion intensified upon entering the sitting room and seeing his wife picking up her handbag, getting ready to step out of the house.

“Where are you going?” Edward, who had expected his wife to tell him where she was heading to asked, upon her walking pass him, heading to the door without deeming it fit to inform him about her movement.

“Where am I going? Do I have to tell you that? It’s not as if you care. Anyways, I am on my way to get done, what you are unable to do” Sophia said scoffing, before making her way out, leaving Edward standing still. Edward didn’t think much of her action and just proceeded upstairs to Austin’s room.

Her plane took off by 9pm that night and by 12:05pm the following day, she landed safely in Australia. She lodged at a hotel and used the remaining hours of the day to prepare herself for what to say and not to say at the meeting. Night came and she tucked into bed early, so she could wake up as early as possible the following day. As early as 7pm the next day, she got up from bed, freshened up, ate breakfast and made her way to Anne Fashion Group company. She got to the company at exactly 8:55am and was welcomed by the Receptionist who led her to the meeting room and told her to await both the CEO and Claire in the room. They served her tea and there, she waited for the duo to arrive. Soon afterwards, seconds turned into minutes with minutes turning into hours. She checked her watch and it was already 12pm with both the CEO and Claire not coming forth. She was losing her patience and composure but she couldn’t get angry as she was there for a purpose. She kept on refraining herself from flaring up and telling herself to be patient as they would soon be there. But it got to a stage when she couldn’t keep calm anymore. It was 1pm and still no green light of Claire and their so-called “CEO” as Sophia had thought.

“What is so special about them? Are they intentionally delaying me? Do they fucking know who I am?” Sophia lamented loudly, as she got up from her seat and headed towards the exit of the meeting room with an annoyed expression on her face. Just as she was about to open the door, the door flung open, revealing a tall beautiful lady, putting on glasses and who looked quite familiar. Sophia looked at her intently, wanting to remember where she had seen her before and it was then it drawn on her that she was Claire. She had only seen her once when they had a zoom meeting, hence the reason she found it difficult at first, placing where she had seen her face before.

“Hello, Sophia. Sorry for keeping you waiting. An urgent matter came up which I had to attend to. Hope you are not angry? It’s nice to finally see you in person. I am Claire” Claire said, stretching her hand forth to give Sophia a handshake, with a gorgeous smile on her face..

“It’s nice meeting you too, Claire. Not at all, I am not angry. I got enough time to rest after sitting in the plane for hours” Sophia lied, replacing the anger on her face with a fake smile and taking Claire’s extended hand in hers.

“If you do not mind, let’s have our seats’ Claire said, motioning for them to take their seats and swing into business.

“The CEO won’t be able to make it to the meeting as she has something important to attend to. In her absence, I will be having the meeting with you” Claire explained upon them having their seats.

“Sure, let’s dive into the discussion of the day” Sophia replied.

“So, what is our company standing to gain if we agree to have a collaboration with you?’ Claire asked, adjusting her glasses and looking Sophia in the eye. Sophia explained all her prepared speech, with Claire focused on her and nodding her head in approval as Sophia explained. Sophia took note of that and she realized she was having her way into Claire’s heart steadily.

“I love your presentation and I can see we will be gaining a lot from the collaboration but we are going to be selfish as we want more than what you are willing to offer” Claire said as soon as Sophia finished her presentation, her expression devoid of any emotion which got Sophia confused.

“What do you want?” confused Sophia asked, with her heart beating fast.

“We ran a check on you and we discovered you are the only child of the owners of Bloom Electronics. Our company is deliberating on venturing into Electronics soon and we believe merging with a well known company which has many years of experience in our proposed new line of business, will help us achieve our goals and grow our new line of business within a short period of time. We just need your father’s company to merge with ours and we will be willing to go ahead with the collaboration with the Lion’s Group. If you promise to do that for us when the time comes, then we are good to go. And you need to know that you are not the only who got in touch with us concerning this collaboration. Another lady form the Lion Group also got in touch with us but we are willing to give you an edge over her, if you do what we want. What do you say about that?” Claire questioned, her words hanging in the air, expecting a response from Sophia. Sophia just sat still, not knowing what to say. She knew the lady Claire had mentioned was Hillary and that if care is not taken, she would lose to Hillary.

“I have to give them what they want if I want this collaboration to fall through. This is the only way I can get to the top. It’s not as if dad will hand-over the company to me since he knows I am not his child. I will just find a way to convince him into merging with them” Sophia had thought, determined to do what they had requested of her.

“I am fine with that. I will just talk my dad into merging with you. He will soon be retiring and handing over the company to me. So, do not worry about that. You will just give me a little time to find my way around that” Sophia responded to Claire.

“Sure, we will. We are not venturing into the proposed line of business now. We just want to put our plans in place. Since you have agreed to that and promised to do what we ask of you when the time comes, then we will be proceeding to getting the agreements of both your promise and the collaboration ready. You just have to wait for a few more hours for them to get the agreements ready” Claire said, smiling.

“Yes, let’s do just that” Sophia replied, beaming with joy as she realized her dream was about coming true. She wanted to stand up and express how happy she was, but she couldn’t as she had to maintain her composure. Just as Claire picked up her mobile phone to call the Legal Team to proceed with the preparation of the agreements, a knock was heard on the door and in which the person who had knocked walked in after being told to do so by Claire. It was the Receptionist who had welcomed Sophia when she came in. The Receptionist whispered something into Claire’s ear which made her countenance changed. She scrolled through her phone and not afterwards, there was a surprise expression on her face, which showed she was taken aback by what she had seen.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“Miss Claire, are you fine?” Sophia, who had noticed the change in Claire’s expression and how tense she looked asked, looking worried.

“Miss Sophia, you need to check the news” Claire responded in a low voice, looking at her. Taking the initiative, Sophia picked up her phone and upon checking the news feed, what she saw there made her hand shivered and her phone slipped off her hand. She was covered in sweat and her legs began to tremble as she tried to process what she had seen.

“THE BLOOM’S ELECTRONIC OWNER, STEPPED DOWN FROM HIS POSITION AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE COMPANY AND HANDED OVER THE MANAGEMENT OF THE COMPANY TO HIS LONG-LOST DAUGHTER, WHOM HE REUNITED WITH RECENTLY” that was the news Sophia had seen on the news feed and the cover photo of the news was that of her dad and Hillary, shaking hands.