When the next day had come, Karen didn’t waste any time, she had made the decision and she knew if she thought about it for too long the situation would just get worse. The longer she hesitated, the more fines would stack up, the more pressure would build, and the harder it would be to walk away cleanly. If she allowed herself even a moment to second guess it, she feared she would freeze and do nothing at all.
She would have to pay fines, be involved in law suits and more. Every hour that passed meant another letter, another complaint, another inspection notice waiting for her. She wanted the process to be as quick and painless as possible and she hadn’t even thought about what she would do after selling the place. That part of her future felt blank, like a page that hadn’t been written yet, and she didn’t want to look at it too closely.
For Karen things were a bit different when she placed the building on sale, because she owned 100 percent as she had financed everything herself. It wasn’t as if there were multiple companies involved that all needed to agree on the sale, so she could decide who got the building or not. There would be no board disputes, no outside investors trying to block her move. The final choice would rest entirely on her shoulders.
To not waste any time, after placing up the entire department store and the land around it for sale, she said anyone who was interested could contact her lawyer, and she wanted to publicly meet with every single one who was interested in the same room. She didn’t want private negotiations or backroom deals. If she was going to lose it, she would do it face to face.
She wanted to see who was practically going to take her livelihood away from her, and she might have figured out who it was that had tried to steal her business away. If the person responsible was bold enough to sit in that room, then she would know for certain.
The middle of the day, just after lunch, Karen was sat at the head chair in her boardroom. There were several seats enough to sit around twenty different individuals. The long polished table stretched out in front of her, reflecting the light from the windows. Normally it would be filled with department heads, managers, and brand representatives discussing growth and expansion.
There were plaques that were in front that were currently empty, usually the heads of the various departments in the store would be in here today, but instead it was just her, and to her left Veronica her assistant, and to her right, her lawyer. The silence in the room felt heavy, pressing down on them.
The group waited, and Karen was staring at her phone. It had been fifteen minutes past the set time for when people who had offers were meant to come in. The ticking of the clock on the wall felt louder than usual.
"This is ridiculous why is no one here!" Karen said. "Even with all of the problems, there have been numerous people interested, they can make any offer they want, and can even account the problems into it with their offer but for no one to show up?"
She then turned to her lawyer.
"How many calls did you receive?"
"There were about twenty companies that were interested, and at least eight of them said that they would come today, I don’t understand." The man said nervously. His fingers tapped lightly against the folder in front of him.
She then turned to Veronica.
"Have you checked you sent them the right location, the right day that they aren’t waiting."
"I’m sure I did.." Veronica said nervously.
And immediately Karen lifted her hand up.
"You said you were sure!" She then swung it and slapped Veronica right across the face.
"What do you mean your sure, I said to check!" Karen said as she slapped her, making Veronica’s cheek extremely bright red in the process. The sharp sound echoed through the boardroom.
Her eyes welled up, as she quickly started to search to see if she had the right date and time. When she got the invitation up, she showed it and handed it over to Karen, there was no mistake. The time, the address, everything was correct.
Karen’s frustration was boiling because if she couldn’t sell it, then what was she meant to do then? If even buyers were pulling away, then the damage had already gone too far. It meant someone had gotten to them first.
As she was ready to start screaming at all of her staff members until the door was heard opening from the side, and a man in a grey suit was seen walking in. Perfectly fitting on his body with his hair swept back with strands of grey in it.
The man was stood upright, and instantly, Karen knew who this was.
"Arti Rum?" Karen murmured. "From the Rum Rum foundation."
The confident smile, the way he pulled a seat that was still a few meters away from them and sat down without saying anything, had told Karen everything that this man was the one behind it all, and it had finally made sense. He looked completely at ease, as if this was nothing more than a casual meeting.
"Oh what’s this?" Rum said. "It seems that I’m the only one that’s actually interested in buying a place like this, what a surprise, you would have thought somewhere like this, would have been people fighting over buying it."
Arti Rum, was also a foundation that worked in construction. They started with building apartment blocks and had moved into luxury department stores. They had the only luxury department store in the city, until Karen had made hers.
Karen’s was more grand, new and up to date than Rum’s. Pulling many customers away. The Rum store still exists but more so for locals or those wishing to go somewhere nearer. The competition between them had always been unspoken, but it had been there.
For someone to target her and take over, it only made sense for it to be the man in front of her.
Little did Karen know though that wasn’t the full story of it. Rum had originally decided to just do things fairly, it was the Gilt Rats which had approached him suggesting the idea of everything, and he wasn’t going to use his own funds to buy the department store, they were going in fifty, fifty.
"So, shall we start the bidding?" Rum asked.