Chapter 6 – Firing the company’s attorney

As the automatic door opened, a young woman rushed out of it, straight at Aniya. She made a big smile and greeted her, “Good morning, Miss Aniya! I was only told yesterday that you were coming today, but I have everything ready for you!”

Aniya nodded, still a bit distracted in her thoughts, making her assistant wonder, “Is... everything alright, Miss Aniya? You look kind of...”

“There is nothing you need to worry your pretty head about, Anna. Follow me. We need to prepare a few things before the meeting. Is the-“

Anna Kent rushed to accompany Aniya on a speed walk, lowering her voice as soon as they crossed the main entrance. “Mister Hadrian is already in Mister Rossi’s office. He didn’t stop questioning me why he was summoned today, but I told him I knew nothing and left him in there after giving him a coffee.”

“Good, because I know he plays on both sides. And your aunt?”

“She arrived early in the morning, the building was not even open, aww bless her. She is... there! Waiting casually on that sofa, as if she is waiting for an appointment!”

Aniya looked to where her assistant was pointing and saw an older woman in a very professional dark blue tailored suit with a light blue cetin scarf tied on her left side in a knot and with the tips lying on her left shoulder. She got up, grabbed a black suitcase and walked straight towards Aniya, with Dan Rossi wondering who she was.

She extended her hand and greeted them, one at a time, “Miss Aniya, I am glad to meet you. Is everything in order since the last time we talked?”

Aniya signalled with her eyes to her assistant, who immediately opened the briefcase she was carrying and took a few papers from the inside. “Here, auntie... I mean, Mrs Meredith! The procurations and... the agreement with the group.”

Meredith Lion glanced at all the documents and put them inside her briefcase as she raised one eyebrow at the still dumbfounded father, “You seem awfully surprised, Mister Rossi. Is something troubling you?”

“No, I just... I remember you. Two years ago, we lost a huge lawsuit against your firm.”

“You lost because your company was on the wrong side of the law while my clients weren’t. Shall we go, Miss Aniya? There are still some things that we must discuss, and this hall is not suited for it.”

Anna Kent pointed with her open palm at the elevators. “If everyone is so kind as to follow me, I have reserved a meeting room on the tenth floor. Mister Rossi, perhaps you would like to go to your office and-“

Dan Rossi waved casually at her and asked her daughter as he was walking, “What is the meaning of this, Aniya? What are you plotting?”

“Just cleaning the house, father, just cleaning. It would be better if you were the one to fire that attorney because if he enters that meeting looking down at me like he normally does, I might throw my chair at his head.”

Dan Rossi jolted and lowered his voice while looking around. “Fire him? Are you nuts? He has half the Board of Directors on his side! You know I would be more than glad to fire him, but-“

“Father, I already told you, but you either didn’t believe me or thought I was joking. Since last month, I have fifty-five percent of this company, making me the biggest shareholder. I won’t need a vote from the Board like you had to put up for all these years. With your and mother’s procuration, I already had a big percentage, but I invested a tonne of my own hard-earned money and made a few deals with small groups, and they agreed to support me on anything I deemed fit regarding this company. So, knock yourself out with that bastard, because if he stays, he will only be in my way. Take a picture of him when you fire him. I want to see the look on his face. For sure, it will be priceless! Miss Meredith is the company’s new attorney, and I am paying her a fortune because I am sure she will do a better job than that old geezer ever did.”

The elevator doors opened, and Aniya entered, followed by the other two women, while her father was still frozen. The doors were about to close when Aniya put her hand on the frame and widened her eyes. “Are you coming or not, slowpoke? Get in already! I have a lot to take care of and so do you!”

Dan Rossi didn’t wait for another invitation. He rushed inside and stood in a corner, listening to his baby daughter making plans with that dreadful attorney that made him lose a tonne of money every time his company went to court and she was on the other side.

He made a slight smile and felt his eyes getting wet. He quickly disguised it by looking at the mirror behind him to fix his tie.

The doors opened, and they left, leaving him alone to continue to the fifteenth floor, where his office was on the right side of the corridor, facing the enormous meeting room on the other end.

As soon as the elevator stopped, he walked along the corridor, nodding at the people working in the open space as we crossed it. His secretary stood up as he approached her desk, but he just made a slight nod and went straight to his office.

As soon as he opened the door, he went straight to his desk and sat on his chair while the company’s attorney was messing with his phone, not even worrying about greeting him properly.

Dan Rossi took out his phone from his pocket and pointed to the annoying old man, centring that dumb moustache right in the middle. “Hadrian, do you know why you were called here this morning?”

The old man grinned while still messing with his phone, “Probably because of the monthly meeting with the Board of Directors and you have another one of your fantastic ideas and want my support. So let me hear it. What amazing new idea did you come up with this time?”

“I just came to realise that my time in this company is done, and I am passing everything into the capable hands of my daughter. Oh, and by the way, you are fired!”

The old man almost dropped his phone, and as he stared blankly at Dan with his jaw dropped, his sight was momentarily lost by the flash of the phone’s camera. Dan looked at the picture, smiled, and sent it to his daughter. He then raised his eyes to the now stuttering attorney, “Y-you can’t do t-that! I have worked here for half my life! You can’t fire me as if I was a mere trainee! The Board will never accept that!”

“Well, they will have a lot more to worry about in this meeting than even thinking about your sorry ass. You annoyed me and worked against me for far too long, Hadrian. I agree that in the beginning, when you were hired, you were a promising young man, but you became lazy and greedy with your schemes and your search for more power inside this company. A company that I built from scratch. Aniya is the new CEO, and her first order of business was to get rid of you, but she granted me this fine pleasure because she knew how long I had wished to do it. So, you either go through that door and go straight to Human Resources to take care of your things, or you go to the meeting and see if the Board of Directors stands next to you. I may need to remind you that Aniya is not as lenient as me and she gets easily annoyed, as you are aware, considering that she almost split your head in two last time you called her ‘little girl’ and that she should go play with her clothes and friends.”

Hadrian Kendrick got up with a jump, receiving another flash in his eyes. He grabbed the suitcase on the floor and stormed out of the office, getting a few more flashes on his back.

Dan Rossi selected the pictures and sent them all to his daughter, with a big smile on his face, “Darn it, that felt good! Aniya is right, sometimes it’s better if we just explode at stupid people!”

On the tenth floor, Aniya was in the meeting room looking at the several reports her assistant had placed on the table. She was defining her strategy not only for the meeting with the Board of Directors but for the entire year.

Meredith Lion looked at the copies that her niece put in front of her, copies of Aniya’s procuration and the group that was also supporting her. “Miss Aniya, are you sure you want to do this? Because my niece told me you are a well-known influencer on I.nstagra.m, and you may have trouble managing that with all the work implied by running such a big company like this!”

“Miss Meredith, just for us to understand each other perfectly, I am used to being underestimated. People often do that because of my looks and my diva personality sometimes. I have a full schedule every week, and I still manage to party with my friends and fool around. I am not in this company every day, but I can access everything from my phone or my laptop. I am very aware of the challenges ahead of me, and that is also one of the reasons I hired you. If I am surrounded by the best or nearly the best in each area, more than half of the work is off my back. My father had to do a lot of work because his hands were tied more than they should be because he had to sell half his shares to keep this company in business after the huge hit he took some years ago because he made some investments in a few companies that went bankrupt with the changes in commercial laws.”

Meredith Lion gave an awkward smile and said, “Yes, I remember that. I was on the other side, ruining your father’s reputation and company because my clients, who were his investors, lost everything. I was actually quite surprised when you went to meet me two weeks ago, considering how much I hurt this company.”

“And here we are today. That medium-sized law firm you have was a little buried under the big firms with big buildings out there. Despite that, you went up against them on more than one occasion and lost only three times in court, if I am not mistaken. That is quite an achievement, considering their resources and yours!”

Meredith Lion blinked in surprise. “You seem to be well informed! I wasn’t aware I was under such scrutiny!”

“I don’t understand your surprise, because I think it’s only natural. I got curious about the law firm that made my father so nervous, and I followed up on all your cases after that to be sure it was not just a flick of luck. That’s why I hired you and your group of hard workers. That is also why I have Anna at my side, and I keep on pushing her to study and to learn more. If I wanted an assistant only to bring me coffee, I wouldn’t want her because she is overly qualified for that! I can recognise potential when I see it.”

Anna Kent almost dropped the papers that she was piling over the table. Hearing her boss bragging about her so much in front of her aunt was too much for her. She gulped and spoke in a trembling voice to the two women that were smiling at her, “Thank you... Miss Aniya. I am not sure... If I deserve so much praise, there are far too many people in this company way more qualified than me to-“

Amiya signalled her to shut up by crossing two fingers over her lips, “Oh, zip it, Anna! Take it as a compliment and don’t sell yourself short! Most of the qualified people in this company that you talked about annoy me with their constant calls for attention or the overly exaggerated attention they give me! Most of the time, you just nod and do what I ask without even bothering with one more of my many tantrums. You even manage to calm me down or scold me if I exaggerate! None of those professional suck boots would ever dare to scold me!”

Anna Kent raised one eyebrow and asked, “Are you admitting that most of the time I am right in scolding you, Miss Aniya?”

“No, I just... darn it... you got me there, Anna. So, are we finished here? Can we go blow up that meeting and everyone in it?”

Anna Kent got up and went to the door with all her papers already inside the briefcase, and smiled as she held the door. “Right after you, Miss Aniya!”