Chapter 1

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Chapter 1

Getting out of his Jaguar, while his driver held open the door for him, he checked his watch for one last time. Five minutes to ten. He was right on time. It was a good practice to be punctual, and he was just a strict one at that.

Caleb Ryder, the CEO of R&S Ltd, stood in front of his NY multi-storied Office and sighed looking at the building. Mark had texted him one hour ago, saying he wanted to meet him in his office. He knew how that would end. Mark was his father, he snarled inwardly just at the thought of it in his head. He hated that word, and more so, the man.

A few minutes later, he straightened his coat before knocking at his father's office door. A voice told him to enter. He entered to see Mark warily looking at some documents, his glasses trying not to fall off of the tip of his nose. He was still quite good looking at the age of 55 and maybe Caleb still found that admirable about him.

Mark looked up and when he saw his not so happy son, standing far away with hands tucked inside his pockets, it didn't make him happy either, "Sit down" He said while again concentrating on the documents.

"What is it?" Caleb asked sitting down.

"Look at the stats" Mark lightly threw the document over to Caleb's side, on the table, "It's dropping"

Caleb had one look at it, thoroughly before looking up at his father, "What do you suggest?"

"You know what I want"

"I can't go to London!" Caleb said while leaning back in his chair.

"Why?" Mark asked, though he knew the answer.

"You know why?" Caleb gave him an intense stare.

"This is the only way, kid" Mark tried to reason, "You had opened up that branch a year ago, and then you decide to abandon it?"

"Don't call me that" Caleb sneered, "And if it's not giving any profit, then just shut it down"

"Rubbish!" Mark fumed, "You can't shut down a company like that"

"I have opened 10 branches in the past two years, and I have been working really hard in here, one closed branch wouldn't be any loss to us"

"Out of those, one is in London, along with our previous Headquarters that was set up by ...." Mark stopped midway. He knew he was just going to do a terrible mistake. Caleb's eyes sparkled in anger. They had an agreement of not speaking of it as much as possible.

"Kid.. Caleb" Mark rectified, "We can't just shut it. Think about what will happen to all the employees and workers"

"I don't care" Caleb said coldly, "Send somebody else, then!"

"There's nobody else who knows things as well as you do"

"I won't go where she is" Caleb said looking away. She hated him. She had ruined his only chance to happiness six years ago. He will never go where she is now.

"It's been so long, why can't you just forget....."

"Dammit, Mark!" Caleb stood up raging, sliding the chair back a few meters, "I won't go! That's it, end of discussion"

"Caleb!" Mark had yelled after him, but in vain.

Caleb had called Mark by his first name, but that didn't surprise him at all. Caleb started calling him that since a long time ago. Though in front of strangers he is polite enough to call him Father, but at home or when he's alone with him, to Caleb he is just that - Mark.

Mark sighed as Caleb walked away shutting the door behind him loudly.

In his Office, a few minutes later, Caleb sat down raging in anger. Their meetings would always end like this, why the hell did he even go there?!

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