"Hey man, what's up?"Lawrence paused as he saw tears in his eyes coming into Damien's office. He gently closed the door and pulled a chair to sit on.

"Damien, what's wrong? Did something happen? Why are you like this all of a sudden?"Lawrence said with a concerned look

"Lawrence, I feel empty right now I don't know how to express myself at this point," he said smiling sadly, as tears of joy kept running down his cheeks.

"Are you feeling sick? Do you want me to take you to the hospital? Talk to me, you're making me feel restless with you looking like this" Lawrence said looking worried

"I'm fine Lawrence, stop nagging like a pregnant woman" Damien chuckled, wiping the traces of tears on his face.

Lawrence just stared at him with a confused look. Damien burst into laughter when he saw the look on Lawrence's face which shocked Lawrence because Damien he knows hardly laughs. When Damien's laugh subsided, Lawrence glared at him giving him the"start talking" kind of look. Damien raised his hands in surrender as he managed to stop laughing, preparing to talk.

"I got a hint of where Queenster could be?" he said

"That's good news man, so why the tears though? Did anything bad happen to her or something?"Lawrence said

"She is perfectly fine, It's just tears of joy that at least I have got a hint of her whereabouts, this is the first information I'll be getting I began my search," Damien said

"I've always told you, you're such a crybaby acting all tough outside. Maybe I should start calling you baby Damien" Lawrence teased

"What kind of weird name is that, baby Damien?" he scoffed

"Anyway I'll be flying to the States anytime from now and you're coming with me, no excuses period" he ordered and Lawrence bowed dramatically

"As his highness pleases"Lawrence teased and left the office afterward.

Damien canceled all meetings he had and took a day off as he was feeling weak. He picked up his car key along with his briefcase and left his office. He notified Lawrence of his absence and left the company in his hands.

***Smiths Cooperation***

Nora is sitting in her office in deep, thinking about how worse the situation of the company is getting day in and day out. She seems not to lay her hands on the exact problem, she looked at the pile of files on her table and how messed up the place looked. She tiredly reached out her hands to pick a particular file but she accidentally knocked away the coffee on her table, the whole content poured on some of the files and ruined her dress as well.

"What the fuck! Goodness, have I been cursed or something?" she cussed

She looked at her ruined clothes and the soaked files and sighed. She kicked nothing in particular out of frustration, but she slipped in the process falling on her butts.

"This day is not working out for me. I keep getting into one mess after the other." she hissed

She groaned in pain as she managed to stand up, with a twisted ankle. She limped to the washroom and cleaned up herself, she wore the spare cloth she always pack in her bag in case of an emergency. She came back to her office and met it already cleaned, she called her secretary earlier to clean up the mess before going into the washroom to change. She went home after a stressful day, she ignored the greetings the maids kept saying to her. She got in the shower and stayed there getting relieved as the water kept pouring over her, she kept thinking and finally, she decided on the offer Lawrence talked about. She wrapped herself in a white towel and came out of the shower, she began contemplating whether to call Lawrence or not

"Hello Mrs. Smith" she heard Lawrence say from the other end

"Mr. Lawrence, I've thought about the offer you talked about and I've decided to agree since it's the only option now to save the company" she went straight to the point

"Good decision, we'll work on the paperwork when next I see you, goodbye" he answered, Nora, sighed and ended the call

***Flashback***

Nora was sitting in her office looking like her life has been drained out of her, she looked so worn out. The loud buzzing of her phone brought her out of her deep thoughts, but she decided to ignore it. A few seconds after, the phone started buzzing once again, she picked the phone out of frustration and kept staring at the unknown number with a frown

"Hello, I'm I speaking to Mrs. Nora Smith?" she heard a manly voice say from the other end when she finally picked up

"Yes you're, and who is I'm I speaking to, if I may ask?" she questioned

"Okay, I'm speaking from Unity bank" the man replied

"And how may I be of help to you?" she asked

"Some time ago, the former CEO of the company, Mr. Gary Smith, took a loan from our bank for the company. We could have taken away the company which he used as collateral for the money, but since Mr. Gary has been a loyal and good client to us, we decided to accept his plea for a few months to be added to the time he's supposed to refund the money as he had been hospitalized. We've been patient enough, the time he pleaded for has elapsed so I'm notifying you, in case any irrational step is being taken by the bank, please accept it in good faith," the man explained

"What! Gary used the company for collateral, and he never informed me. What kind of man is this? Is he trying to kill me with his loads of problems? I can't believe I'm suffering for this man's incompetence." she said disappointed

"Madam, please calm down. I need you to give me feedback on this issue since you're the one in his place now." the man said, but she ignored what he was saying as she began thinking of a way out of this mess.

"Gary is surely going to be the death of me one day. I mean how could he take this huge decision without prompting me about it?" she began getting restless, not sure what to do or where to go to. The company has gone bankrupt, it's going to be hard raising this money on such a short notice

"I never knew about this issue of yours, I assure you I'll try my best and see to it that something is done about it. I need you to give me just a few days more, I'll contact you when I'm done going through our finances, or what do you say?" she said

"That is not for me to decide, my job is to inform you about the time which is due and I have done that already. So I'll suggest you do whatever things you need to do in haste before the bank takes any drastic step against your company"the man advised

"Thanks for your concern" Nora said, ending the call with a moody expression.

" All this is Pheona's fault, I guess she had been pretending all this while to be happy with her marriage and stupid me feel for her pretense and now here I'm living like a slave. I should have just left her to live her miserable life and stay on my own," she complained

She felt her whole world crumbling as the problems and debts kept increasing from time to time. All she could imagine was, the company is now standing on a cliff, a slight push will send it down the cliff, falling apart and crumpling unrecognizably. If she falls to save the company, she's surely going back to the gutters where Pheona had brought her out of as a friend.

***Present***

She decided to agree with this because she received a notification from a bank concerning a loan the company took for a project, the time for the company to refund the money had overlapped and hence the bank had brought a notice. She then decided to agree to Lawrence's offer to help settle the debts of the company. She sighed once again and forced herself to sleep but it was fruitless. She took sleeping pills out of frustration and gradually she drifted off to sleep.