"Here you go. I brought you a new one before I head to the airport." Marcus says putting down a gift bag onto my desk.

"Hey, you're going already?" I ask

"Yeah. Alex and I decided we'll be there two weeks early. We want to get settled and get everything ready." He says

"Oh , well thats great. Is this my new phone?" I ask

"Yes, since you smashed another one. I swear I have to get you a nokia 3310 or something." He says sitting down onto my desk.

"Thank you. It was very quiet these past four days." I say

"No wonder. I bet Scarlett got some rest." He says smiling.

"Oh piss off! I'm not that bad." I say and he laughs.

"I am just kidding. I already told Chris what happened and he laughed his ass off. He found it funny. I bet he notified her as well."

"I don't care if we're being honest. I just want to get everything in control and to centre myself for the first time in weeks." I say

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asks getting up.

"I.. I don't know anymore. I want to say I'm okay. But I doubt it. I want to feel the grief and to get over it, but I don't want to end up in the hospital again. You know what I mean?"

"I think thats one of the healthiest things you're said in a while. Thats what I call progress." He says and pats my shoulder.

"I need to leave, I bought you a white one this time."

"Aww thanks. I'll set it up right away." I say

"Good idea. Call her. She and you are just destined to be together. Get over the stupid argument and just make up already." Marcus says

"Go Marcus, you'll be late for the flight." I dismiss him.

"You know I'm right!" He yells as he walks out of my office.

I know he's right. He's always right about these things. Sometimes I think he knows me better than I know myself. I open the box to find an iPhone 13. He aimed big definitely. I had an iPhone 11. It was a lavender colour.

After setting it up the first thing I do is add Scarlett's, Chris's and Marcus's phone numbers. As well as some others I had in my planer. I put Scarlett's phone number first because thats the only one I know by heart. She has an easy number to memorize as well.

Today I decided I'll be going to two meetings. Thats why for today I am dressed more formal than I usually would. I wanted to look professional and like I actually want to be here. I don't if we're being honest, but thats besides the point.

My birthday is coming up. I don't know how to feel. I'm turning 30, which is scary on it's own. I don't know what I'll do then. Alex and Marcus will be in Italy and I will be here. Hosting that god damn anniversary dinner. God I hate that event. It just reminds me of how big of an ass my father was. Every single birthday I end up wasted and tired. This year I will drink stronger liquor so I can go to bed earlier.

I want to talk to Scarlett, to see how she's doing but I don't think she'd want that. One way to find out. I'll call her later today. She's in bed most probably so I don't want to wake her up.

I head to the conference room before the meeting starts so I could get comfortable and be punctual. I can't be late because then my employees will be late too. And we don't want that.

Everyone files into the room soon enough and my head of the department starts it. He had a few complaints but nothing we couldn't handle. Then my marketing team spoke up.

"We've come to an idea to maybe go global? We don't have any factories or our stores in any country in Asia or Africa." One man says

"What do you plan on getting from those global factories?" I ask leaning back in my chair.

"Well we're doing amazing financially with 13 factories, imagine how much we can get just by one global one."

"Thats your goal? Making more money?" I ask him.

"Well, yes.. isn't that the whole point of having a company?" He asks

"Look.." I stand up from my chair.

"If you treat money as your goal.It will be just that. Money. But, if you treat it as a tool, you can achieve much more." I explain.

"I know my father would jump at the idea as soon as it came out of your mouth. You are right. It would make us millions. But, my father is not the runner of this company, I am. I want to use the money we have for good, not for fancy cars and boats." I say

"That would explain your brand new Audi Q7" Henry says quietly.

Who's Henry? Henry was my fathers assistant here at the office. Those two were bound to the hip. Once my father died and handed me the company he expected for me to keep him as my assistant. For once I don't need an assistant. I can handle my own schedule. And two, I don't need a duplicate of my father following me around. I gave him another job to do and he was furious about that. Then I changed his pay and that made him even more upset. I pay everyone by the job and the degree they have. If someone has a higher level of education and a far grater skill set, of course I'm going to hire them over a kiss ass.

"I'm sorry what was that Henry?" I ask folding my hands.

"Oh nothing, just kind of ironic how YOU out of all people is saying they don't care about money that much." He says looking away. The room goes silent.

"And what would that mean?" Nate asks him.

"Oh please you've been working here for as long as Lena has." Henry says yo Nate.

"That's Ms Adams to you." I correct him.

"Nate do you have any new ideas on what we could do next?" I ask dismissing this argument.

"I had some yes. I have it all here in my folder wait a second... aha! I thought we could take a trip to Yemen. I know how you are so I checked everything and found some places for tents and where we could have a helicopter pad." He says

"What is this? Another one of your suicide missions?" Henry speaks again.

"I'm sorry? I don't remember asking your opinion on this Henry. Did I talk to him?" I ask the room and everyone stays silent.

"Get out of the conference room and wait for me in my office. You and I need to have a talk." I say to him and he gets up and leaves.

"Thank god he left." One man says breathing out in relief.

"Does he bother any one you?" I ask them quickly.

They look at each other quickly. They're probably scared to tell me like this.

"Please tell me. I want all of my employees to feel comfortable in their own workplace." I say

"He does. He looks down on us and acts like he owns the place. It's quite frankly annoying." One woman says

"Whats your name Ms?" I ask

"Elizabeth." she says quietly.

"Well Elizabeth I have a new task for you. Grab a pen and paper and write down everything that man has done wrong. Whether it us work related or whether if made you or someone else uncomfortable. As soon as you finish it go ahead and give it to me." I say and she nods.

I chat with Nate for the remaining of the meeting and I actually like this idea. He wants for us to have a trip like that one in Palestine. I like the effort he put into it. I told him to work on it a bit more and to come back to me so we can put it into action. The meeting ended and I walked into my office. There he was, sitting in the chair opposite of my desk.

"Why do you persist on trying to downgrade me?" I ask him sitting down myself.

"I don't like the way you run this place." he says bluntly.

"How so? Whats so bad about how I run MY company?"

"It's not how Mr Adams would have wanted it." He states bitterly.

"Well you're going to have to make peace with the fact that there is no more Mr Adams. Just me." I say

"Unfortunately."

"I'm sorry for interrupting here's the assignment you gave me earlier." Elizabeth says barging through the door.

"Oh don't worry dear. You're just in time." I say and grab the paper from her hand. Once she leaves the office I see a worried gaze set onto Henry's face.

"Whats that?" He asks and I simply ignore him. I read through the paper and I have something to see. Turns out he's pretty homophobic and called some of my employees slurs. That will not be accepted. He also tried to sabotage the interns as well. He caused problems in almost all department. Okay thats enough.

"Go and finish what I gave you earlier. Then come back here so we can talk." I say serious and he shuts his mouth and leaves.

I find his contract and make a new one. He won't like this, but I don't really give a crap at the moment. I finish up writing and print two copies. I know Henry for a while now. He's older than me by 10 years I believe. I know he has a wife, I saw their wedding photo on his desk once. I heard things about him from my father. He liked Henry a lot, he even considered him like his own son. They were so alike it's crazy. Even now when I found out he was a homophobe I wasn't shocked. So was my father. He was just the same. Although he is was too professional to take his hatred out of his employees. He would never call one of his men a slur.

He had no problem calling his daughter that however. He had no issue at all. It rolled off his tounge with such ease it made it as if he said it on a daily.

By the end of the hour Henry comes back and sits down. I take the contract and put it in front of him.

"What's this?" he asks

"See it for yourself." I say and he grabs the paper right away.

I can see his eyes go wide as he skims through the text on the page. It's obvious he hasn't suspected this.

"Are you serious?" He asks

"Yes." I say

"Either I become one of the cleaners or I'm sacked?" He asks

"Yes thats true."

"This is ridiculous! I've been working here for a decade! I can't be a bloody janitor!" He yells standing up.

"Inside voices, I swear you act like a child sometimes."

"I'm acting like a child?! You are a fucking child!"

"Yes and this child is the boss of you so sit your ass back down or I'll call security right this second." I yell standing up.

"First you change my pay drastically and now I get this?" he says sitting down.

"Oh don't act so surprised, you've been downgrading me ever since I became the boss of you. Ever since I gave you a different job to do."

"Yes because I know how you really are. Your father talked about you. He told me all about how you were expelled from high school. Just because of who you are." he says disgusted.

"Henry you're testing my patience. I am this close to calling security and getting your ass fired this second." I say

"What? You think that will make everything better? I'm what makes this company so great. I know everything there is to know." He says

"You are a scum just like my father was. You are what's wrong in the world. You are all the things I hate and I don't want someone like you to even have a voice to say anything. You are a homophobic racist piece of shit and I suggest you grab a box and start packing up your desk because if you don't, I'll have everything of yours burned and thrown away. You are fired and I don't want to see your face anymore. By the time you leave the office I'll call the IT department and you'll be locked out of everything for good. Right now you're an intruder. I'm going to make sure everyone treats you that way by the end of the day." I say slamming my hands on the desk.

He didn't expect that, not one bit. He slums his shoulders and leaves the contract on the table. Once he closes the door I call all departments to let them know that Henry is not welcome here no more. They were all happy about the decision which calmed down my nerves and assured me that it was the right thing to do.

I lean on my chair when all of a sudden I hear my phone start to ring, it's Scarlett. I pick up, not even knowing my voice has now changed from all the yelling I did previously.

"Hey, whats up?" She says

"Oh nothing much, just bloody work mess." I croak out.

"Whats wrong with your voice?" She asks

"I just.. sacked a guy and he.. well he pulled a nerve he shouldn't have." I say

"Thats all from yelling?" She asks

"Yes."

"Jesus Lena, what did the poor guy do."

"He, he did more damage than good. He's my dad's old assistant. Today we were in a meeting and he disrespected me in front of the entire board. He acted like I deserved it. I told him we should talk in my office."

"And did you talk?"

"yes, turns out he's been calling people slurs in the office and making everyone fairly uncomfortable. I wanted to make him one of the cleaners but then be blew up. Acting like he deserves to be treated with respect."

"It's a good thing you fired him then. I can't even imagine what's it like to run an office with over five hundred workers."

"Most of the times it's nice. Everyone is professional and they respect me nevertheless. It was just Henry who couldn't let go of the fact that my father is not running this place, I am."

"Whats up with you?" I ask her

"Oh nothing much. I planned on spending today with my Rose. She's coming to my place in a couple of minutes."

"I'm happy to hear that. What do you have planned?" I ask her

"I don't want to bore you with that, you probably have work to do." she says

"No, tell me. I want to know." I say

"Okay, well there is this one aquarium that opened not so long ago. I wanted to take her there because there is a whole exhibit of tropical fish. I know she likes the wild life and sharks."

"Then what?"

"Then I wanted to take her to a park. We can have a picnic with all her favourite foods. We can end the day with a movie at the cinema." She says

"That sounds perfect." I say smiling.

"You really think so?" She asks hopeful.

"Yes, I really do. She's going to love it."

"I sure hope so, oh I think that's her. I have to go." She says

"Go, have fun with your daughter. Say hi to Rose from me." I say

"I will, bye" she says

"Bye"