Ivy stepped into the office with everyone knowing her identity but her mind was focused on the situation at hand as she rushed into her office and had Marcel briefed her. She was looking at the financial reports and realise the equity was close to negative soon.

“It’s very dire. Worse than I thought.” She wiped her face in frustration as she felt her fatigue kicked in.

“We have some backup plans in place,” Marcel said as he showed her in another file. She went through the list with the cultural town being launched by phase and quickly leased out aside from finding investors and hosting more roadshows in collaboration with the talks from Rahi’s end. She knew no investors in their right mind would come in now and even then she was not an expert in evaluating one. She would only bring in more trouble if the shareholdings dilute the power of the Ophals.

Hosting more roadshows would only worn out Nick even more unless they hire another speaker but she knew it was not the most ideal idea at that point.

“The progress of completion of phase 1 is nearly there?” Ivy questioned at her last resort as Marcel nodded. She knew it was supposed to be completed as a whole before launching but given the dire situation, it was better to launch what had been completed first.

“Can it be pushed to complete by the end of next week for the sales team to roll out marketing to operate by the end of this month? That way we could at least sustain for a while.” Ivy questioned as Marcel was a little skeptical.

“It’s not that it’s impossible but the bottleneck has always been… Jeremy and Charles.” Marcel said as Ivy forced herself to close her eyes and focus.

“Alright, I will get to that. Let’s meet the team first.” She announced as she covered the files and stood wobbly.

“Take it easy…” Marcel pushed a cup of soothing warm camomile tea to her.

“Thanks.” She smiled briefly before sipping and headed out into the meeting with it.

The managers from human resources, operations, sales and marketing, and logistics were in attendance with some having a worried look while some had doubts written all over their face. Ivy was a little nervous as it was her first time taking on such a huge responsibility and each decision she made as she reminded herself, would impact the livelihood of each of the staff.

“I’m sorry for the situation at hand. I understand some of you may not be able to accept myself to take over but all I ask of you is to at the very least do this for the sake of the thousands of staff we have here. I promise I will deliver my very best but it’s the efforts from each and every one of you that would make this work.” Ivy pleaded as she desperately needed them to cooperate with her. To her surprise, the team was very supportive of her especially the logistic manager, Daniel who had worked with her in the past.

“You have my support. In any case you need extra help, reach out anytime.” Daniel voiced out which reminded Ivy of his position and who he used to report to. Ivy forced herself to blink back her tears when reminded of Ray as she nodded.

Slowly each and everyone nodded in agreement. As they continued to discuss the entire afternoon on the launch of the cultural town phase one, the thought of heading back to Manes kept her motivated for a while. With a very experienced team, Ivy managed to have several backup plans to mitigate and keep the operations in order. However, on the financial side, the management which was herself and Marcel struggled at the end of the meeting to resolve the matter on short notice.

By the time Ivy adjourned the meeting with the budget being kept in view on the list, she was holding on to her pounding headache as Marcel sat with her.

“I will try to speak with the banks again,” Marcel said as she shook her head knowing if it was possible the bank would have given them the credit limit.

“I have someone I need to speak with who could resolve this matter…” Ivy said while arranging over a text message to John to meet the next day.

“Who? Not…” Before Marcel could continue to say Charles or Jeremy, Ivy stopped him.

“It’s just my stepfather, John. Or rather, Jason’s father.” Ivy explained while waiting for a reply.

“I have never expected some day to hear you address him that way,” Marcel said solemnly.

“It’s to keep Daisy’s wish. I made several other promises to her too which included teaching Jeremy a lesson and looking for his lost sons. Would you happen to have any idea of it?” Ivy questioned in a lower voice.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“This would be challenging as the operations here had given me a huge mess to fix. I don’t have time to monitor outside which perhaps… the “J”s would know.” Marcel indicated for Jin and James as Ivy nodded in agreement but she knew she had to keep her skeptical thoughts of Charles being a culprit and Jeremy’s intention away from those two.

Marcel noticed her red eyes from fatigue as he decided to call it a day when he saw the clock strike six. “Get some rest. It’s a rough day but we had a good start now. Hoping for good news from your result tomorrow.”

Ivy smiled at his encouragement as she nodded when she received a reply from John agreeing to meet.

She decided to sit awhile more in her office to study the financial reports but after an hour, it was making her hungry from using her brain so much just like how it always was when she was studying. She then realised she had not eaten anything since morning or slept since last night. She noticed lots of missed calls and text messages from Jeremy which she decided to ignore the whole day and headed to drive home to the Rahi’s residence instead.

On Jeremy’s end, the reporters were getting restless and accusing him of wasting their time by gathering them pointlessly.

“Where is she? Are you even serious?” One reporter scolded.

“You’re wasting our time!” Another reporter yelled as Jeremy was getting frustrated.

“Alright, alright. One last time, head to my house. She is there and this is proof that the news is true. She moved in today.” Jeremy shrugged proudly as the reporters began to have a glimmer of hope trailing his car to Rahi’s residence.

Upon reaching, they gathered by the garden and waited for Ivy. Ivy who had just arrived was a little surprised and annoyed at the loud commotion when several reporters headed up to her.

“Ms. Ophal, you’re finally here! Could you explain the situation?”

“Is it true you have moved into the Rahi’s residence?”

“Are you engaged to Jeremy Rahi? Are you getting married when your father is still hospitalised?”

Ivy could not even decipher who asked which question or to answer who and what first. At that rate, Ivy was snarling at Jeremy who was looking at her from another end. It slipped her mind on the engagement announcement which he spoke about last night.

She knew she had to play along else she wondered what tricks would he play in the office if she did not cooperate.

“Yes. Jeremy and I are engaged but…” Her first sentence got Jeremy to walk towards her nonchalantly. However, her “but” made him stop midway as he threw her a warning glare.

She drew a deep breath before continuing as she noticed his glare.

“... we would wait for my dad’s condition to be better before anything else proceeds. Speaking of which, we would launch phase one of the cultural town project in Manes. It is estimated to begin operation by the end of this month or the beginning of next month. We can’t wait to test the market before the completion of the entire project.” Ivy gladly announced as she smiled triumphantly at her quick-witted plans to trap him and Charles.

“What is there to be expected in the town?”

“When will phase 2 or is there a phase 3 going to launch?”

“What are the anticipated shops or activities?”

“Who are the main target market?”

More questions were thrown out which were music to Ivy’s ears in successfully diverting the engagement news away as she raised her hands to quieten them down.

“I will keep you all posted on official announcements soon. As for today, I’m sure all of you are very exhausted from my fiance’s assignments. So, please head home, have a good rest and I assure you I will fill all of you in with news first hand provided you write me a good piece of news tomorrow on what I just fill you in.” Ivy bargained with a hint to not emphasise her engagement news but on the launch instead, as Jeremy scoffed.

Ivy folded her arms listening to the reporters’ adamant agreements before leaving. However, she could feel if she continued retaliating with Jeremy at that moment, she would give herself away in front of the reporters on how fatigued she was.

She decided to let it go for the night as she entered the house. “Sweetie! You’re home!” Daisy greeted as she went to hug her while she took off her heels.

Ivy closed her eyes to feel Daisy’s warm and comforting hug which sent her into a half-asleep mode. Daisy could slowly feel Ivy was leaning on her and she was getting heavier for her to support.

“Ivy…” Daisy shook her but Ivy was too tired to respond.

Jeremy who stepped in saw Daisy nearly fall as he pulled Ivy away from her only to have Ivy fall flat to the ground.

“Oh no! Oh no! Ivy, are you alright?” Daisy hovered over her. They thought she fainted but she whimpered to indicate she was just too exhausted.

“Send her to the Jason’s room. I have got it prepared.” Daisy instructed as Jeremy frowned at her absurdity to give in just for Ivy.

Ivy heard it and protested. “Stay still or if I drop you on the stairs, it’s none of my business…” Jeremy warned which stopped her from fidgeting.

“Guest … room…” Ivy mumbled as Jeremy sighed.

“At least you have some conscience.” He said as he headed to the guest room and threw her on the bed on purpose.

The comfort of the soft bed made her spiraled into a deep sleep almost instantly, making her ignore Jeremy’s harsh act. He tried to recall all that Ray had told him last night about taking care of Ivy but he was more worried that Ivy was not taking care of herself properly.

The announcement earlier worries him even more that her rebellion would bring more trouble to Ray as he quickly slipped out of the room and updated Ray who had been familiarising himself with Jeremy’s team.

Ray was surprised by Ivy’s move but he knew it was to put more pressure on Charles to not simply act given how dire the financial state of the company was. He was worried about Ivy but he missed her more. He could tell that lady must have been worn out for the day without having to check on her but a part of him was glad he struck a deal with Jeremy and that she was in good hands now under Daisy.

Charles was furious at the news no doubt as it was eating away his funds and he decided to meet with his niece the next day.