"What rubbish!" Angela yelled, wiping the dust on her skirt. The guards dumped them in the parking lot and warned them to never return. "How can they treat us like this? This is the worst company in the city?" Jefferson leaned against the wall, his mind heavy with disappointment and sadness. He couldn't believe that his back up plan had failed him. Dreamstone's CEO rejected him like a refuse dump on the street. "Are you going to say anything?" Angela queried, her face contorted with disgust. She was angry and at the same time ashamed. "You claimed to be good friends with the CEO, why did they kick us out? Did you lie?" "I did not lie!" Jefferson bit back. "Obviously, someone already got the contract and I'm sure the secretary didn't pass the message well to him. I will call my father and have this sorted out." Angela laughed bitterly. "Your father? The same man who couldn't come to our rescue when that secretary was embarrassing us?" "I'm sure that—" "You're not sure of anything!" Angela yelled. "The only thing you're sure of right now is that your company is going bankrupt. You've completely wasted my time and effort by bringing me here." “Can you calm down? Let’s try and think of another solution.” Angela scoffed. “Another solution? I spent all night and day working on this business idea. Do you know how much time and effort I invested into getting this contract? And what did you do? You slept all night and you couldn’t even get us a pass into the company like you promised.” She shook her head in regret. "Can we sort this out at home? We are drawing attention." Jefferson asked, meeting the eyes of some passerby's who were staring at them. "Sure. Let's go home to settle it." Angela replied, walking to the car in anger. But Jefferson didn't know they was another meaning to her words. Angela didn't plan to settle anything at home, she was going to kick him out like she did to Charles. After all, Jefferson turned out to be another loser who couldn’t help her family and the condition to marry her was if he could promote her family’s company. Meanwhile, Charles was watching as they argued in the parking lot about the business contract. He smiled to himself, knowing that he disrupted whatever plans they had. He had taught his greedy ex-wife a lesson and that made him so happy. “Mr. Kevin, I’ll see you later. I have some business to attend to.” He said immediately Jefferson drove away. “Sure. But I have a small request.” Mr. Kevin grinned awkwardly. “You are a big figure now, Mr. Charles. I’ll like to publicize our partnership on national tv. You know, that will be the most exciting business news for the month. What do you think?” Charles lowered his head slightly to think about Kevin’s suggestion. Indeed, the press would carry such a news and that will skyrocket his company’s shares. “You’re a very wise and strategic man.” Charles smiled. “I think that is a wonderful idea.” “Perfect!” Mr. Kevin pressed his intercom and a photographer walked in. “He’s from the Southside papers and he will take our photos for the press.” Charles and Mr. Kevin sat with elegance as the photographer took pictures of them for publication. Even the photographer couldn’t hide his excitement because he was taking photos of the renowned business mogul, Charles Lincoln. ***************** The entire Adam’s family was sitted anxiously in the sitting room when Angela and Jefferson walked in. Immediately, they saw them, everyone jumped to their feet in anticipation including Mrs. Adam. “Tell us what happened!” Angela’s sister beamed. “Did you get the contract?” “Angela!” Mrs. Adam spoke out and silence fell across the room. “Why are you not excited? What happened?” Angela glanced around the room and saw that they had even set up congratulatory balloons and banners. They were all anticipating the good news and her stomach twisted into a knot as she realized that the bad news would crush her grandmother. Jefferson plopped down on a chair and exhaled. He was on the verge of breaking down because his entire world was crumbling and he didn’t have any way out. “Tell us what happened.” Mrs Adam demanded again. With shaking lips, Angela explained what happened. “When we arrived at Dreamstone, we were not even welcomed into the company to see the CEO. According to the secretary, someone else had won the contest and the contract was already signed. They kicked us out like peasants.” With the grave silence in the room, if a pin fell, everyone could hear it clearly. Mrs. Adam turned to Jefferson with pure rage in her eyes. “You!” She pointed at him. “I thought you said you knew the CEO of Dreamstone company. What happened? Were you lying to me?” “I—I was saying the truth.” Jefferson stammered. “My father worked with the CEO and I expected him to know me as well. He can’t just kick us out without an explanation.” “Well….Did you get the explanation you needed?” Everyone was now staring at Jefferson like he was a piece of shit. “No but—” “That’s all I need to know.” Mrs. Adam spat. “You see, you’re just as useless as Charles if not more useless than he was. And as you can see, Charles is even doing better than you are. We don’t need you here anymore.” Jefferson rose to his feet. “What? Why are you doing this? I’ve done a lot for your family.” “What have you done?” Mrs Adam hissed. “You only gave us 3 million dollars. What is that supposed to do for us? Do you think we are beggars? That money is not even enough for our daily expenses talk more of funding the company.” “That money was from my company’s profit. Instead of investing in the growth of my company, I gave it to your family. And now, I am bankrupt and you’re trying to kick me out? We should merge our companies like I suggested earlier.” Mrs. Adam turned her back to him. “Angela, take him out of this place. I don’t want to ever lay my eyes on him.” Just then, the news came up on the tv and normally, no one would have paid attention. But at the mention of Charles names, all eyes turned to the tv swiftly. “Earlier today, the CEO of Dreamstone enterprise announced its partnership with Charles Lincoln, the CEO of Golden State Hotel. This partnership is currently trending on all social media platforms with many businesses moguls calling it a prime partnership. But many are not surprised because Mr. Charles is currently breaking his way to the top of the business world. In fact, according to predictions, he should be one of the richest men in the city in exactly one month if he continues to expand his resources like this. And that is all on today’s episode of business and its engineers. Join us next time at the same time on QuizkNews television. See you next time.” Angela’s jaw dropped. “We lost because of Charles. We lost the contract because of him.” She said, her voice barely audible. Mrs. Adam was so angry that her body was shaking. “How could Charles get the contract before us? That good for nothing man!” “But why is he suddenly rich after the divorce? Was he pretending to be poor? Are you sure he wasn’t stealing our money while he was here?” Angela’s sister asked but in reality, they didn’t have enough money for anyone to steal. While all these was happening, Mark was just silent. He was fuming with rage as he saw Charles on Tv. He didn’t care about Jefferson but he clearly wanted to seek revenge on Charles. “Charles is a con artist.” Mark said. “I’m going after him myself and I promise to take him down. I can’t take it anymore. Why is everyone praising him? That same man used to take out our trash and eat the left over in this house. I’m going to expose him!” He stood up and stormed out. Angela turned to Jefferson. “I wish I stayed with my ex-husband instead of you. I can now see that I made a mistake. He is taking over businesses in the city and you’re only embarrassing me.” She screamed out in frustration. “What did I do wrong?!!!!” “Angel—Angela, listen—” “Jefferson! Get out!” Angela yelled. “I don’t need you anymore. You’re now a liability to me!” Jefferson realized that there was nothing more he could do and his fate was just like Charles. He would have to leave and pick up his life from the beginning. “I can’t believe you used me, Angela. I gave you everything I could give you. I showed you—” Angela suddenly removed the pearl jewelry she was wearing and flung it at him. “You can take that cheap piece of shit. I’ll find a man who will buy me gold necklaces and fund my family’s company. Your love is absolutely useless without money.” Jefferson swallowed the bitter truth and exited the Adam’s mansion. He considered that Angela might call him back but no one even said anything as he walked away. Once outside, he took out his cell phone. “Hello Charles, it’s me, Jefferson. I know this is your business number. Can we see to talk about some important business issues?”