"Good morning."

"Good morning, how can I help you?"

"I am Keziah Pope. I am here to see Mr Volva. I have an appointment." She hurried to add before the woman could ask.

Eveline—as her name tag showed, grabbed the receiver and made a call. Keziah waited, tapping the sole of her pointed heels on the tiled floor. She had decided her sisters should focus on other issues while she handled the business with the Volva's and their company. She tugged on the lapel of her suit, impatiently waiting for Eveline to finish her call.

"Ms Pope?" Keziah turned back towards the desk. "Mr Volva is in a meeting, but he will be out soon. An escort will be coming down to walk you to the conference room."

"Thank you."

Her escort didn't take long, appearing when the elevator dinged a second time. He briskly walked out to meet her and took two seconds to introduce himself before asking her to follow him. Keziah walked behind him, towards the elevator.

Mikal looked up from his phone when it opened. He glanced at her escort and then at her as they stepped in. He straightened and combed through his hair with his hands, still eyeing her suspiciously.

"Good morning."

"Morning. What are you doing here?"

"I would think you'd know."

Mikal thought about it. "Yeah, I believe I do."

"I must say, from my first time in the building, there are a lot of noteworthy improvements." She winked.

"You've been in here before?"

"A long time ago. I was...ten...maybe eleven. I don't remember why my father brought us, but I remember the desk was rectangular, not a semi-circle."

"And the chandeliers were made of little strings. Now they are thicker."

"Ah."

The doors opened, and Mikal held her back just as the other man stepped out. "Go ahead," he told him. "I'll take her."

The man nodded without any retaliation and moved away. Mikal stepped back, keeping the elevator doors from closing. He stepped aside to allow her to step out first. Keziah only laughed at his politeness and walked out into the hall, unable to stop herself from taking jabs at him.

"What a gentleman. Are you going to offer me your arms next?"

She had meant the words as a tease, but without as much as a falter in his expression, Mikal turned to off her his arm. She saw the challenge in his light eyes and wasn't one to back down. She switched her purse to her left hand and wrapped her fingers around his arm.

"Have you always worked here?"

"It's a family business."

"So? Mine was one, and neither Kamari nor I thought of working for our father. She was into fashion, and I was into veterinary."

"Veterinary?"

"Yes. Surprising?"

"No. I don't know you well enough to be surprised." He stated plainly. "Yes, I have always worked here."

"How has it been?"

"Nothing special."

"Hmm. I do wonder if it is different working for family."

"Depends on where you work, in my opinion." He reached for the conference room door and walked in behind her. "Sometimes, some offices work as a family. Other times, family-run businesses operate like strangers."

"Then working with my sisters might be a breeze or a pain in the ass."

He grinned, and she smiled. "Probably. Please, sit."

"Thank you." She took the seat nearest to her, tugging on the lapels of the suit.

Mikal followed suit. "I thought you and your sisters were already running a business together."

"No. That was our mother's. She ran it after we left, but Kingsleigh was the only one that worked with her. Kamari worked as a professor, and I had a job working as a vet."

"But now? What? Did you all quit to come back?"

"Yes."

"Abandoned all your jobs to return to this place?"

"I know you may think revenge is the only thing on our mind, but it's not. Kamari and I quit our jobs, but Kingsleigh remains in charge of our mother's company, and we are helping her with it. As for our jobs, we are working together now, and it is in all our best interest."

"How?"

"I am back to working with animals, so I get to still be a vet. Kamari handles advertising and marketing, she is incredibly great at it. Kingsleigh is in charge of our finances. She is great with numbers."

"Evidently." He agreed, and she chuckled. "So this is a completely new business."

"Yes."

"You intend on growing it here?"

"Of course."

"And if you are the vet, one sister acting as marketing manager, and the other finance, who is the CEO."

"Me."

He regarded her curiously. "Why are you sharing so much so easily?"

"Because there's nothing to hide. The company isn't public knowledge yet, but it is coming, and we intend to grow it to be what our father's companies used to be. Besides, you have been upfront with me, and I am paying you the same courtesy."

He nodded without a slight hint of change in his sceptic expression. "I see."

"How long would your father be?"

"Bored of me already?"

"No. You are a delight, but I am on a schedule. Lots to do today."

"He shouldn't be long." Mikal offered.

"Will you be joining us?"

"Unfortunately, he will not."

They both jerked at his father's voice, but Keziah managed to smile when he looked her way. She stood from the chair and held her hand out to him.

"Good morning."

He shook it. "Morning. Mikal, please give us the room."

Mikal remained seated but relented when his father glanced at him sternly. He said goodbye, and she watched him leave, smiling at his weariness. The man was a guard dog when it came to his family, but he was backing up the wrong tree. It was as sorrowful as it was endearing.

"Sit."

"Thank you."

"There is no need to beat around the bush." He dropped the file he held in front of her without dramatics. "In there, I have written up a contract. We want to buy back the shares you hold. We have already set a price but are not above adjusting it to your liking."

"I see. Wow. This is three times what I paid, and you are willing to adjust this?"

"Of course."

"Well, it's a waste of time as I am not interested in selling it back to you. Not even one per cent of it."

"I don't have to explain why this partnership will never work, do I."

"You may as well. I don't see what you are against. I am merely a shareholder. It's not enough for me to start making decisions for your company behind your back. Even more, my money is tied here, too. If you fail, I lose."

She skipped mentioning that she had said just about the same to his son not too long ago.

"We don't want you as part of this company. Regardless of what your intentions are. We want to buy those shares, and you will be wise to take this route now."

She scoffed and shook her head. The Volva's never learnt.

"You seem to enjoy repeating history and wasting time. Your wife tried this before. She was intent on buying our family home, no matter how directly my mother opposed it, and here you are repeating her actions."

"This is not a house. It's a business."

"Different circumstances and same answer. I am not selling you a single per cent of my shares. It is mine, bought with my money and under my name. If you have a problem with that, I honestly could not care less."

His jaw tightened, and he dragged the file back. Mason looked at the words as if they were foreign to him before he closed it and looked up at her.

"We have nothing more to discuss."

"Evidently." She picked up her purse and stood. "See you at the next shareholder meeting, Mr. Volva."

"It has been years since your father's death."

She hid her reaction, subtly tightening her hold on the hands of her purse. "And?"

"Don't you think you could do better things with your life than chasing shadows to salve a wound the man caused?"

"My father wasn't the one that hurt me."

"He wasn't? He was a money launderer. Everyone knew he wasn't making all that money any other way. He put the lives of his family and of others around him in danger, running such business. You are angry because his actions caught up to him."

"He was a money launderer not a murderer. You and that parasite of a wife you have saw it fit to jump on the train when it started rolling. Don't be upset now that we have come to collect."

"Twenty years is a long time to be bitter, little girl."

"Twenty years is a long time for my father's name to remain in the mud in this town. Why do you get to walk on the street with your head high while my family has to endure the venom of everyone else? We deserve a good life, too."

"And sinking your hooks in my family would get it?"

She chuckled. "I don't know if you know this, but we aren't as rich as we used to be. Investments are important. What better place to secure our first investment than this? You are the hottest thing in the town right now."

"And will continue to be. Whatever your game is, it will fail."

"I think I am too old to play games with my money."

"If you won't change your mind, then only time will make you see how starting off on the wrong foot with me will cost in this town."

"Will it?" She widened her eyes, fiegning fear.

"You don't know who you are messing with, Keziah Pope. Back down before it's too late. Don't pay for your father's sins."

"I was sixteen when I left this town." She replied, stoic. "Sixteen and with nothing but a coat to keep warm because at two in the morning, all I had on were shorts and a top. I didn't get a chance to change or prepare my sisters. Didn't say goodbye to friends. The little I had left, anyway. I left because my mother feared for our lives. The death threats we received, and she tried to hide, but I knew of them."

"We didn't insight the mob."

"Demon." She spat with all the control she had as she remembered the words when they first started to circulate. "Demon. That's the name your wife called my father. She didn't stop there. She went on to call my mother the wife of the demon and we, his children, the demon's daughters. What did you expect from the rest of our world with such words? Did you think they'd bring baskets of gifts to our doorstep or pitchforks and torches?"

"Your father was a vile man."

"Tell that lie to your sons. Not to me. You took advantage of the situation and ruined everything he was. Then we crashed and burned, you finally had enough boost to dance on the ruins you made of him. It was from the ashes of my father's life that you built this empire. Now I am here to collect."

"I won't be moved by your threats."

"Not threats. Promises." She reached for her purse again before edging closer to stand toe to toe with him. She dropped to an eerie whisper. "After I have cleared my father's name, I will make you pay for all the harm you caused my family in your thirst for wealth. Every drop of my mother's tears, the blood that flowed from my father's body, my sisters mourning. You will pay for all of it. I will burn your empire to the ground it came from and dance on its grave."