Allea

fifty

The door was pushed open, and the quiet steps followed in the conference room. Allea raised her eyes and met with the sight of familiar faces of one young and old man. Robert Smith sat on the other end of the table, on his left side was his son, Liam Brown, along with one assistant, and on the right side was his two subordinates. Allea proceeded toward the head-end of the table, her both assistants on her heel.

Seeing their awaited guest arrive, the co-CEOs, Robert Smith along with his son, stood hastily and cordially enunciated their greetings. In the pretense of professional delight, Allea too followed along with the formal greeting and gestured them to take their seats again, as she too got comfortable on the chair. As Allea sat down, the eyes of both Co-CEOs glanced at each other with incertitude as leaving the head position empty, she sat on its right side, while one assistant sat along with her and the other on the opposite side.

A minute or two passed and there was no formal proclamation of commencing the meeting from the Allgaier's CEO, before they could further dwell in the uncertainty of things, the conference room's door once again opened and a man stepped inside. His momentous steps advanced and giving one glance to Allea, who was now subtly smiling toward him, Jackson took the head potion and sat down. His eyes narrowed toward the man sat opposite to him, brows frowned and his cold gaze felt like penetrating through its receiver.

Coughing awkwardly, in confusion Robert Smith avoided the stare he got at the new man's appearance, but soon the whispers of his son reached his ears and he understood the man's position. So, he hurriedly formalized himself again, but only got an inconspicuous nod from Jackson in return.

With no intention of wasting another second, Allea's indifferent voice resonated through the room, "Please start the meeting."

At her words, Liam Brown gestured toward the subordinates sitting opposite him to start the description of their project. And soon, the words started following out of their mouths, presenting the ideas on the files in front of them. Allea was impassively leaning against her chair, listening to their proposal, so was the attitude of Jackson and Nayla. But as their plan continued to proceed, it became difficult for Ben to hide his curved lips and his pretended coughs interrupted a few times.

Impatiently Allea's eyes moved toward the wristwatch, and only one thought passed through her mind, such minutes wasted in which she could have done way important things. Not bearing to hear any further, she interrupted the presenter's speech and directly told him to hand over the file. With the file in her hands, she pretended to go over it in mere seconds and threw it on the table.

"Pathetic."

Before Allea could utter any words, in front of the eyes looking toward her expectantly, the man beside her spoke in his stern tone. Her eyes moved toward Jackson, and noted instead of looking at the file, he was staring at the executive in front of him.

The people to whom Jackson's word was directed lost the color of their faces, and a moment of silence fell at Jackson's direct insult.

Jackson's gaze flickered toward Allea, who was now looking at the visitors, and soon he heard her assertive voice breaking the silence, "Mr. Smith, I'm afraid I have to reject your proposal right here."

Before they could have taken in the insult thrown at them, Allea declared her decision, leaving them baffled at now her undeviating decline. The young boys' agitation-filled eyes moved toward his father, who had the same look of disquietude but somehow controlling his nerves Mr. Smith spoke, "Please state the reason, we'll improve things at your suggestion."

If there was someone else besides Allea, his expressions would have broken at the audacious words, and a tantalizing laugh would have resonated in response. But Allea's face was blank, devoid of any flicker of any emotions because all the ridicule could be felt in her words, but even her tone lacked any of it, "Seems like Mr. Smith put his effort in scheduling the meeting instead of looking over the files once."