Chapter 22: Chapter 22
Christina
Today is my first day as a CEO of Sunrise Industries. I put on a crisp two piece blazer suit with a pink top underneath. The growing pregnancy causes me fatigue too often but this is not the time to sit home and relax. The business was left unattended since the last two months and gradually the profits are decreasing which is clearly unacceptable to me.
Since the last two months I had to look after the domestic needs. My husband was sick and he is my primary concern. Now that Adrian is capable of managing himself at home which puts my mind at ease I have started off with work. Dad's guidance and with the homework I did at home I am confident, I will be able to rule this multi-national company.
Dad wanted to accompany me to work and help me in the office but the old man needs a break. Adrian's health had taken a fill on his mental health. Angelica and my mother-in-law were constantly in attendance of him along with me and the hospital staff. Adrian is a lucky man to get a second bite at the cherry. He came back almost striking the gates of heaven twice in his life by the same woman. Thank heavens she is no more to pull him to further tasks.
I walk to the elevator in sanguine steps. Well, like we see in movies my staff doesn't part like red sea to give me a way to walk. No one greets or says a hello. Everyone was busy hustling to the biometric fingerprint to record their attendance before the time.
No one recognizes me here except Jennie who saw me here a couple of times earlier when I went to meet Adrian. But I'm not the one going to blame. One must recognize us with work not with the glamour we uphold. Well in my case both the options are ruled out. I'm the least glamorous holding out an eight month old pregnant belly and I'm yet to command people gaining an expertise on my work.
Before I reach the private elevator, a girl around 19-20 years of age rushes to me pulsing, tapping on my shoulder. "I have called you thrice but you don't seem to listen to me. Are you deaf?" She asks me irritated. I extend my lips to a smile and nod to her. Before she recovers from the shock I gave her the elevator arrives and I was about to place my foot in it but before I do that she pulls me back again holding my arm.
Well this is fun...it is good for a change that no one knows here on who I am! "That is the CEO's elevator. You are not supposed to enter inside it. This is for the staff." She points to an overcrowded elevator besides where people were swarming the place like bees. "Did you punch your attendance?" She asks me her next sentence in concern. I shook and step into the private elevator ignoring her warnings in smiles - "Hey! The CEO will have your head now in his next meal."
Instead of head the CEO had so many other things of me as his meal. Shameless Christina, keep your rotten mind under control. I instruct myself with self talk and punch the sixteenth floor on the elevator in smiles.
After reigning in lordship subservience for a while seems to be a welcoming. Soon after I reach my floor I see Jennie working seriously on a bunch of papers. I tap on her desk to gain her attention and wave as a greeting asking her to follow me inside.
"Good morning madam!" She wishes me soon after she enters my room. "I am sorry I didn't notice you." She apologized instantaneous. I wave at her as a sign of dismissal. I noted from Adrian she was an honest and hardworking employee of the firm. Jennie is the only person in the office who knows I will be joining work today. Of course it was my command on her not to disclose my identity or information to anyone in the office. I wanted to study people as they are for discovering their true souls.
"Organize an immediate meet of branch heads with me, Jennifer." I tell her typing my words on my mobile and show her. She nods and before she reaches the exit there was another knock on my door. A girl walks inside and greets me. I wave to the new employee of my company. "Jennifer she is Daisy, my interpreter, because most of you cannot understand my sign language, I appointed her to convey my words to you." Daisy translates my hand signs to words for Jennie to understand.
All the branch heads stand as I walk to the head of the large conference table where the meeting is going to be conducted. A man who was sitting third to the left speaks to the co-employee standing besides without reflecting the emotions on his face. "What can this deaf and dumb witless idiot do to this already slouching business? Ha ha, women and their over smart buoyancy..." I notice the woman hearing him had a suppressed smile. I am deaf and dumb but not blind and I'm sharp witted than people can imagine of me.
I ask everyone to sit down with the wave of my hand and walk to the goat in upbeat steps. Flicking my index finger upwards, I command him to stand folding my hands to my chest. He faces me agitated. My interpreter was about to speak but I stop her holding out the back of my palm. I type the letters on my phone and show him. "When God takes away something very salient from us he makes us extra strong in other abilities. I can read a person's lips faster than a computer and my ability to catch people's expression is smarter than a rocket." He went pale as a sack of flour reading my words but I wasn't satisfied. A warning isn't enough for snakes like him.
"Read it louder. Apart from you there are others also who need to understand this." I flare my eyes at him and give a look of warning to the woman sitting besides. His hands shiver as he accepts my mobile and reads out the message I typed to everyone sitting at the conference table.
"Now regarding your earlier statement" I ask Daisy to take over by the flip of my fingers and she starts translating my movements. "I am deaf and dumb but not a witless idiot like you imagined." He begins to speak words of apologize but I stop him. It was too late to administer such supercilious deeds. "I can pick conceited scoundrels like you faster and smarter than a man with best abilities." I raise my brows to him in a complacent smile. "And what further did you say? Over smart and buoyant...?"
"Of course I am over smart and buoyant." I hit the table with my hand. "Otherwise how would I catch hold of scorpions like you in my business on the first day of my work itself?" I move my hands to Daisy telling her to replicate my words in the same intonation.
Raising one of my brows in hubris I tap the shoulder of the woman sitting besides. "Don't you feel ashamed to enjoy the fatuous jokes of an imbecile?" Her eyes immediately return to consternation as she rises from her seat and understands my hand gestures through Daisy. "Type the resignation letter for Mark and a final warning to Rosy." I tell Daisy to transfer the message to Jennifer.
Hearing the news from Daisy, Mark goes startled looking at me in trepid like a fish caught in the net. Within two minutes his resignation letter reaches me. I stamp the resignation in front of him on the table and hand him my pen. Daisy was standing beside, a distinctly visible fear noted in her eyes. "I am a gentle woman and that is why in spite of your misbehaviour, I am not terminating you from the job. I'm only telling you to resign. If you are removed from Sunrise industries you have no future. You wouldn't be absorbed in any other concern." My hand movements echo in the silent conference hall as Daisy takes over the translation.
The other branch heads peek at me in horror drinking water from the glass placed in front of them and Rosy was almost in a state of a panic disorder. "The meeting is dismissed as I have a shareholders meet in a short time. We will meet tomorrow again." Daisy voices my signs." There was a pellucid relaxation visible in the faces of the employees as I leave the conference room in swift, powerful strides with Jennifer and Daisy tailing behind me on toe.
There is no force more powerful in nature than a woman determined to rise.