“What are you talking about?” She smirked and shrugged.
“Just repeating what I heard. Word on the street is there’s trouble in paradise, money’s drying up, and he’s scrambling to fix things. I figured you didn’t want the group to know, but if you’re having money troubles, honey, then maybe Daddy can?—”
“I’m not!” I shut down, not even bothering to hear the rest of what she said. It was gonna be nothing but foolishness anyway.
Aaliyah’s family owned a bunch of banks and credit unions. It was where their wealth came from. I was sure she was gonna suggest they could help whatever imaginary issues she was speaking on.
My stomach twisted, my jaw clenched, and my skin felt tight. The good spirit I was just feeling suddenly was overturned by annoyance and disdain. Straightening my spine, I turned, giving Aaliyah a blank stare as my grip on the cup in my hand tightened.
“I don’t know where your information came from but it’s false, and unless whoever is spreading it wants a defamation lawsuit on their hands, I would advise them to shut the hell up and stop spreading lies.” My blood buzzed with heat.
The nerve of her to come to me with those senseless allegations.
“Relax.” She grinned. “I was just repeating what I heard. No need to get all offended.” She rolled her eyes and sat back in her seat.
Normally I entertained Aaliyah’s gossip, but this time she went too far.
“Next time don’t come to me with bullshit and watch what you repeat unless it’s about the doctor your mom is allegedly sleeping with to keep getting those happy pills.”
The smile was quickly knocked off her face. “Excuse me!” she shrieked.
Ignoring her, I stood, no longer in the partying mood. The music around us was suddenly too loud and a headache had started to form.
It was disrespectful for her to even suggest such a thing. Forget the fact that my husband was now worth millions. My daddy was one of the richest men in the city. His net worth grew as the years passed. Not only that, our family came from money. Anyone who said otherwise was jealous and didn’t know what they were talking about.
I made an excuse to leave, brushing off the complaints from my friends. Savannah gave me a look, but I shook my head, indicating we would talk later.
As I waited for my car to be brought by the valet, I thought about this morning and the issue with my card. Now I wondered if there was a specific reason why my card didn’t work. Quickly I shook that thought out of my head. Of course that sounded crazy. Aaliyah didn’t know what she was talking about, just running her mouth per usual. She was nothing more than a hater wanting to get a rise out of me.
CHAPTER 2
Yosiah
“Our stock is up fifteen percent from last month and we’re on the verge of signing five new contracts, one being government,” Marcus, the overseer of operations, informed the group inside the conference room.
It was time for a quarterly meeting to look over numbers and ensure business was running how it should be. At the rectangle table sat me at the head, my VP, and the managers of each department that helped keep things in order.
A lot of things had changed since I’d started Blue Shield Innovative. After accepting the money from Erik, I was able to get up and running. It took me less than a year to turn a profit and start paying back the loan. He was a silent partner until I could buy him out and pay him back in full. Since I already had clients from previous work I’d done before officially being up and running, it didn’t take long for my name to spread and more people to reach out. At first I started with cybersecurity and that quickly elevated into what Blue Shield Innovative was today. A multimillion-dollar tech company that handled everything from cybersecurity, mobile security, apps, software and network development, IT work, and data and digital analysis. The biggestresources over the years have been the government contracts we’d secured and managed.
My goal was for Blue Shield to turn into a monopoly and dominate the tech world. Having our hands in multiple baskets and leading the cyber market as the reason we’d been so profitable and grew as much as we had in the past five years.
“And the issues with the broken NDA?” I turned to one of the lawyers that handled our legal matters.
“Documents have been filed and are in the process of being sent out,” she explained.
Nodding, I folded my hands on the table as my jaw tightened. “Good, make sure you keep me updated.”
“Yes sir.” She typed on her keyboard swiftly.
One thing I didn’t play about was leaked information and clauses being broken. When signed to my company, a strict contract was always presented and enforced. We handled a lot of important and sensitive information that couldn’t get leaked. It didn’t happen often, but every once in a while, someone would lose their job and rebel against the company and the contract they signed.
“Good, now who’s next?”
The meeting continued until all the department heads gave their reviews of the quarter. Some people might have said I was an overbearing boss or too hands on, but if I learned nothing else five years ago with my dad, it was to keep my eyes open and make sure I stayed up to date with everything. My company might be large and have multiple departments and employees, but I made sure to always stay informed.
After the meeting, I dismissed everyone to their department floors and offices.
I unlocked my phone and noticed Xylina had called multiple times. My brows furrowed. She knew not to bother me at work, so I wasn’t sure why she kept calling. Just as I was about to lockthe phone, her name popped up on my screen again. Pushing out a deep breath, I hit the side button to lock the phone before turning to Gloria, my personal lawyer. If it was an emergency, she would send a text. Even after all these years, Xylina was still as persistent as when I’d first met her.