The Corporate Raider part 15

by Denise Mayes

Taylor saw her heading out of the building with some men and women, and Salina, as she happened to be coming in. And seeing how she had not heard anything about Alex’s decision on the Zadria deal, she decided to try to ask her in the setting of business.

"Excuse me Ms. Madison, may I speak to you for a moment?"

"I don’t have time right now, I have to go, maybe later." Alex said. She had not missed a stride, and only spared a glance at the girl initially, then she refocused her attention on those with her. She went back to talking with them and calling out things to Salina. Salina grinned evilly as she took the notes and they all left Taylor standing in the middle of the lobby. Over the next few days no matter where or when the girl tried to talk to Alex, she was either put off by the woman herself, or blocked by Salina. Taylor went to get the mail for the woman as she had not been told anything differently. The girl thought getting the mail would give her the opportunity to talk to the woman, but she was surprised. She retrieved the mail from the mail center and went to take it to Alex. When she stepped off of the elevator and went into the outer office, Salina at first tried to stop her, but Taylor told her that she had not been told anything differently. And had not been picking it up for the last week or so because she had to orient to her position with Shearer.

She was allowed to take the mail in to the woman to the new Personal Assistant’s dismay, because she didn’t want Alex to turn her anger on her, so she let the girl deliver the mail. She had a plan to eliminate any further needs of the girl. Taylor knocked on the door and saw the woman was on the phone with her back to the door. She heard Alex call to come in, so she stepped in and closed the door behind her. The girl stepped up to the desk and waited for the woman to turn around and get off of the phone. Alex heard the person come in and she could see in the reflection of the window that it was Taylor and she was just standing waiting for her. She turned while still talking on the phone.

"What is it?"

"I have the mail."

Alex put her hand out for it and the girl went to give her half of it. "No all of it."

"But...yes Ma'am." Taylor said, as she handed the rest of it to the woman, and then was ready to continue to wait for the woman.

"Leave." Alex said simply, as she gave the girl a certain gaze, then turned her chair to go back to talking to the person on the phone.

Taylor sighed, and after a moment more of just looking at the back of the woman’s chair, she turned and left the office. Finally one morning Taylor couldn’t take it any longer and she decided enough was enough. She was going to tell Alex that morning at the house what she had decided to do, but the woman had already gone to the office. So after Taylor dressed, she got in her car and drove to the office with only one thing on her mind...to talk to Alex. She went to get the mail and discovered that it had already been picked up by Salina.

"Salina?" She asked Mr. Olsen.

"Yes Ma'am, I was also told that you were not to pick up the mail from now on, and that the Personal Assistant would be responsible for it. I’m sorry."

Taylor was hurt beyond words. Alex had now successfully eliminated any excuse for contact with her. She felt completely shunned by the woman. "Fine!" She shouted to no one in particular, although Mr. Olsen was still standing near her. She turned and headed out of the mail center with the intentions to take lunch, but once she stepped into the elevator, rather than hitting the button for the first floor, she hit the express to go up to the top floor. When she arrived at the top she walked out and went inside the outer office where Salina confronted her.

"What are you doing here? You don’t have an appointment!"

"Is someone in there with her?"

"No, but that’s not the point.."

"Yes it is!" Taylor said, stepping around the new Personal Assistant.

"Wait a minute! You can’t go in there!" Salina said, as she went to stop the girl from opening the door, but Taylor simply opened it and walked in and left the door open for Salina to follow.

"What are you doing?!" Alex asked angrily at the girl’s intrusion.

"I came to talk to you, and since you seem to have eliminated all avenues to you, this was the only way I could think of. And since this is about business then I didn’t see any conflict."

"What is it?!" The woman asked impatiently.

"Well I’ll get right to the point, since your so impatient. I’ve decided since you either don’t want to, or had no intentions to, come and tell me what your decision is in regards to my proposal on the Zadria deal, I will let you off the hook about it. You can do whatever you want to do with it, I don’t care, it is not important to me anymore. The only thing that is important to me is how you have been so... mean to me, I can’t keep on like this, and I refuse to continue in this painful situation. I was going to talk to you outside of your Personal Assistant’s hearing, but then I thought WHY? She would love what I have to say. I quit!" Taylor then turned to leave the office, but was stopped by the woman’s voice.

"You can’t quit, you signed a binding contract." Alex sneered.

"Sue me! I can’t continue like this, and I won’t. If it will make you feel better though, I will tell you I have NO intentions of going to work for any other company. I’m going back home to live with my grandmother and help her with things.

"What about school?"

"What about it? I don’t plan on working in this field anymore, what reason is there? For all I care the world of business no longer exists for me. Salina, you got your wish! You’ve made it, you're on your way to everything you ever wanted, and I laid it in your lap. I was the fool. Oh well, it’s all water under the bridge now." Taylor said, with contempt in her voice at the assistant, and disbelief at the drastic change between herself and the woman she loved. She turned her attention back to Alex. "Thank you for all of your help, in everything. I still think you're a great woman, and I know everything that has happened is my fault. If you don’t believe anything else, I want you to know...What I did, I never did with the purpose of being mean. There were and are many reasons for my actions. Anyway it was wonderful to have worked with you." Taylor’s eyes held Alex’s gaze for a moment, and then she turned and with a derisive glance at Salina, she walked out the door. Her head up, but tears rolling down her face.

She went and stood to wait for the elevator, and once it came she stepped on, but did not turn around, she kept her back to the door. The doors closed, and Taylor vanished from the woman’s sight. Alex, in the meantime brought her hands to her head and ran them through her thick tresses as she contemplated the girl’s words.

"I’m terribly sorry Ma'am about her intrusion, she got past me."

"It’s fine, leave me and close the door, I have to make some calls."

"Yes Ma'am." Salina turned and left the office, closing the door and leaving the woman to make her calls.

Alex picked up the phone and hit the speed dial, then turned her chair so she was looking out over the skyline of the city. It was the beginning of fall, and the colors of it were everywhere.

"Kiara I want you to keep an eye on Taylor until I tell you differently."

"Where can I find her?"

"You’ll find her at my place. Wherever she goes, I expect for either you or one of your detectives to be there also, is that clear Kiara?"

"Yes Ma'am, very."

"Good, I want reports about where she is and what’s going on with her."

"All right, I’ll get right on it. Would you like hourly or daily, or...."

"Monthly."

"Oh, all right. I’ll be in touch."

"Oh, and send them attention to me only."

"All right I’ll be in touch."

"Fine." Alex hung up the phone and sat back in her chair, she thought about how hurt and disappointed she was by what had happened to her and Taylor. She was mostly angry, by how the girl had lied to her.

Taylor had gone home and packed up a few clothes and things. She left all of her designer clothes, and she left the key to the house in Alex’s bedroom. The girl then left the house and jumping in her car, she headed to her grandmother’s place. It would take her 3 days to get there by car. She didn’t even say goodbye to her friends Yasmeia, and Marcus, but she did feel as though she at least owed a call to Zadria to tell her the change in things. It was a hard call for her, and she was emotional about it, but Zadria understood and put business on the backburner to show her concern for her friend. After Taylor hung up the speaker phone in her car, she thought throughout the day as she drove. She drove all day, not stopping until she was ready to stop for the night. She pulled into a hotel, went inside and after getting a room and going to it, she ordered room service. By the time she changed into her night clothes her food arrived. Taylor sat down on the bed, turned on the t.v. and ate while she watched the news of the day.

While she was watching there was a little blurb that came on about "The Raider" and her annual spring party. Alex called it a business party, but the news called it the party for "Who’s Who in the Business World". There were going to be Senator’s and The Attorney General, as well as other political people attending. But the surprise to the story was that the President of the United States and her husband were mentioned as possible attendees. It was not a secret that the President was a big fan of "The Raider". She credited a lot of the success she had had in her own life as a result of reading and having attended a speaking engagement a few years back where Alex was the guest speaker. She spoke on how focused and determined she was to do what she wanted and how it didn’t matter whether anyone liked her, as long as they respected her Work. The President remembered how young the woman was at that time, and how that speech changed her own direction, because it was as a result of that speech she began her preparations to run for the presidency. The President had never told that to anyone until 2 years into her successful presidency. It was on a one on one with an award winning newswoman, in which the president was asked how she had come to decide to run for office. It was mentioned that she evaded the question when she was running for it, and she continued to avoid the question after her first busy year. The President had finally decided to tell how it came about and it was a large story despite all of the other things that were happening in and around the country. For some reason the media found it intriguing that the president would be giving credit for her success, to a business woman.

After the story about the woman’s party that was almost 5 months away, Taylor turned off the t.v more depressed than she already was. The next morning, she got an early start on her drive to her grandmother’s house and she arrived within the three days. She was greeted by her grandmother with both happiness and surprise.

"What are you doing here child? Why didn’t you call me and tell me you were coming, and where is Ms. Madison?"

"I’m here to stay. I needed to get away for a while, and she’s at work probably."

"Wait child what happened? I thought the two of you were getting close?"

"Grammy, I really don’t want to talk about it. I’m tired from the drive, and I just want to go to my room and go to sleep for a while."

"All right child, but I’d like to know what happened that brought you back here?"

"Maybe later Grammy."

"All right child, you go on up and climb into bed. I will see you in the morning."

"Thanks Grammy." Taylor hugged her grandmother and then turned and headed for the stairs to go to her old room. Over the next few months she cried on her grandmother’s shoulder, but eventually told the woman the whole story behind why she had left Alex and given up her career in business. The grandmother was sympathetic to the girl's pain, but in a way she was relieved that things didn’t work out. She heard the tremendous pain in Taylor's voice, and felt anger towards the Personal Assistant who basically blackmailed the girl into pulling away from the woman. Salina had no way of knowing that the girl was already feeling extremely conflicted by the relationship as it was. Taylor loved Alex, but she didn’t realize just how much. She also didn’t believe herself to be strong enough to handle such a relationship, and she didn’t want her grandmother to be disappointed with her choice. So Salina caught her at the right time in her life to be able to push her out of Alex’s.

As time went by Taylor took a job in town at her grandmother's urging working in one of her grandmother’s friend’s gift shop as a cashier. Just to give her something to do. Her mind was never far off from thinking about the woman, whether directly or indirectly. Those times when she wasn’t thinking about Alex, something would come up about her. There would be articles in the paper about what she was up to and her grandmother would make sure to bring up subjects about the stock market and how her investments were doing. Sometimes she would read about the companies that were being taken over by Alex and how the stock prices would soar after she had acquired the company. Taylor would tell her grandmother she didn’t want to hear about it, and the woman would tell her that she was being selfish, and that at the least the girl should be happy that the woman was still succeeding in her life. Of course the Taylor would quickly tell her grandmother she was happy that Alex's life was going well, it just hurt to see it going so well without her. Then she would always find an excuse to leave for a while. There were some men who stopped by to visit with her grandmother and they would tell her about something on Alex that they had heard about or saw on some show or news event.

Taylor noticed that in most of the conversations, or news reports, Salina was mentioned as the Personal Assistant. The girl couldn’t seem to get away from either woman, despite the distance.

"Salina bring the Yost file and your planner."

"Yes Ma'am. Here you go, and would you like me to go over your schedule?"

Alex gave her a look of irritation and then answered tightly. "Why do you think I told you to bring it? Now go!"

Salina was embarrassed by the biting question, and she nervously activated her digital calendar and began going through it with the woman. The relationship between The Raider and Salina had changed slightly in the fact that Alex no longer let her mistrust of Salina, hinder either one of them getting their work done.

Over the next months Alex was involved in attending speaking engagements, parties and other such business things And the name D’Angelo was now a constant connection with The Raider. One morning after Alex had held her weekly meeting with the senior executives of the, Ms. Yasmeia Sains was waiting to speak with her.

"Ms. Madison, may I speak to you a moment please?"

"Can it wait?"

"It can, maybe you will join me for lunch later and we could talk then?"

Alex looked at her for a moment, and then asked, "Is this about work or is it personal?"

"Both." Yasmeia answered promptly.

She studied Yasmeia for long moments, and then gave a slight nod of her head. "Two in my private dining room." Alex turned and walked away.

When two came around Yasmeia met her at the restaurant and the two of them went through the main dining area and into the private one. After they placed their orders the women turned to business matters.

"Okay Yasmeia, what is this about?"

"I was talking to Mr. Shearer the other day, and I asked him how things were going with the Zadria deal. He said he thought it was dead."

"Actually, I have not thought about it over the last few months, I would think there are other companies positioned to take it by now."

"So you're just going to let it be taken by some other company?"

"Why not?"

"Ms. Madison, I have known you for a while, and I’ve been with this company for many years. Not once in all that time have I known you to just let such a jewel pass by you without going after it. So far you’ve had a near perfect record, and the few you let go were by your choice, so I don’t understand, why the change?"

"Maybe it’s not for you to understand." Alex said flatly, as she gave the woman a sidelong glance.

"Alex..." The older woman said, addressing the woman informally. Which caused the woman to cock her head at her. Why aren’t you going after it?"

"Because it holds no interest for me."

"But it used to, you even made Taylor go through a whole presentation about it so as to talk you out of taking the company outright."

"Is that what this is about? Ms. Young?"

"Ms. Young? You make it sound as if she were just some employee or something, as if you have or had no feelings for her outside those of professional?"

"Ms. Sains, I have NO intentions of getting into a conversation with you or anyone else about Ms. Young. If that’s what this was all about, then I will end it right now." Alex stated, as she stood to leave.

"So you're telling me that you're just going to let something that that child worked on for months be erased because she quit? I think you're wrong, and I know Taylor will be hurt to know that you’ve just dismissed her as if she never existed. I had my suspicions about the two of you, and your relationship being more than just employee and employer. I saw how you looked at her during that mess with the rape, and I saw how she looked at you for her strength and support. I saw the love in both of your eyes for each other. I'll admit, at first I thought you were just using her for your own purposes, but I saw how she went into your arms after that first day of the trial. It was as if she saw and felt security in those arms, love, but.....if you want to just discount her from your mind then Ms Madison, it is definitely your choice. I guess with months gone past, you were able to forget about her. Well I guess if one is capable of doing that, then they should, it would hurt less. Ms. Madison, you don't have to leave, I will! Have a nice lunch." Yasmeia then stood and left the dining room.

Alex stood looking after the woman, and then with an irritated sneer, she half sat on the corner of the table with her arms crossed over her chest. Her mind now sent her into actively thinking about Taylor.

"Thanks Yasmeia!" She called angrily, as she stood and stormed out of the restaurant.

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