Make Me Yours

Chapter 4

Getting off a flight by 11 a.m. on her birthday was not how Zoey had envisioned this day going, at all. Yet, here she was, back in Colorado and headed straight for her office.

The girls had decided to return to Colorado today, despite her insistence on them staying a day more. They had argued that twenty-four hours would make no difference and that Singapore wouldn’t be the same without her. So, they had all spent the entire night packing, lucky to get a flight that was due for that morning.

They had slept through the flight, grateful for the very comfortable seats and at the airport here; they had said their goodbyes and parted ways.

All Zoey wanted to do in all honesty was go home, fall into bed and have a good sleep. But she could not afford to do that. Not when there was fire on the mountain. All through the ride from the airport to her office, she kept thinking of how she would handle this situation. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she had even forgotten to turn off airplane mode on her phone.

Kelly was pacing through the hallway impatiently when she arrived. As soon as her assistant saw her, she rushed to her.

“Zoey! Thank goodness, you are here. I have been trying to get across to you. Something wrong with your phone?”

She really was tired. Unable to help herself, she stifled a yawn and stretched as she dropped her bags. With her hands free, she searched her purse for her phone and turned off the airplane mode once she found it. Messages began to ply in. They were all from Kelly, her parents, her brother. Her family had called at midnight to wish her a happy birthday and against her better judgement, she had decided to tell them about the Belmont issue.

Sighing, she shook her head and tucked it into the breast pocket on her jacket.

“I’m sorry, Kelly. It’s been on airplane mode. Good morning, by the way, how do you do?”

Kelly smiled guiltily. “I’m sorry. Pardon my manners. Good morning. I’m great. How was your flight? You look extremely tired.”

“Exhausted is the word you’re looking for. I didn’t get any sleep all night and as peaceful as the flight was, sleeping on plane seats simply made me hungry for more sleep. Someone get me coffee, please! And where is everyone?”

The receptionist, Derek, was not at the desk. No one else happened to be in sight. It was Friday. And her staff weren’t known for tardiness.

“Did you send everyone on an errand or something?”

Her question was answered as she finally stepped into her office. She startled and staggered as all seven of them jumped out of their hiding places and screamed.

“Surprise! Happy birthday!”

That was when she finally noticed the balloons, the cake and the cards.

“Damnit! Y’all do this every year and I still haven’t caught on. Crazy people.” But it was said with all the love in her heart and as they presented her gifts and hugged her, she couldn’t help but smile in return.

“Thank you, thank you so much everyone. This was so sweet of you.”

“Don’t just thank us, make a wish and blow your candle at the end of this song of course. C’mon everybody. On my count. 1. 2. For she’s a jolly good fellow…”

Zoey gave into fit of giggles as she listened to them sing to her in voices that were both sonorous and horrible. It was beautiful nevertheless, and when they were done singing, she made her wish.

Whatever happened, Belmont had to go to the right hands. Then, she blew the candles. It made her feel like she was ten years old again, but oh well… it was just one day in a year.

It took a while before her staff finally went back to their duty posts. This was after they were done sharing the cake, and ensuring that she unwrapped everyone’s presents. Yet again, they had surprised her with extremely thoughtful gifts.

As the last of them left, leaving Kelly and her behind, her assistant closed the door and came to sit in front of her.

“So, Mrs Chan called again today and I was able to speak with her. The company’s name is Li Group, but it would appear that they intend to give Hilton Tech a run for their money.”

Why did Li Group seem like something that was more than familiar? Oh yes… the hotel she had stayed in Singapore was Li Hotel. The casino too. But there couldn’t be a relation, could there? Li was a very common Chinese name. Yet, one that could not be used in business by just anybody, if the name had already been registered as a corporate name by someone else.

Bas*ards. She had given that hotel all of her money, and now they wanted to reap her hard work. At least, their casino had gotten her her money back. Seemed like fair game. Not to mention the hotel service was the bomb.

But there was something else nagging at the back of her mind. Something that had to do with Li.

“That’s funny. Hilton Tech in Colorado isn’t as big as the one in Los Angeles. If they truly wanted competition, there is where they should be where they’re headed.”

“I suppose they believe that topping Hilton here would give them an upper hand to top anywhere else. You know what they say about divide and conquer.”

“Starting from the weakest link…”

“Precisely.”

“What do you have on them? Any dirt that we can dig up?”

“My researchers have turned up nothing so far. They’re squeaky clean and the most successful conglomerate in the whole of Asia. The company’s been in the family for decades, and they only keep getting bigger. It has a hot CEO, and a chair lady who happens to be the widow of the former chairman. Mr Shun Li was lost to an accident ten years ago. His son, Xen Li is the CEO now, and would take over as chairman in no distant future. The news says that he is ruthless when it comes to business. He’s also apparently very attractive. These people are freaking billionaires, Zoey. They’ve dined with just about every President in the world.”