CHAPTER 95: I FAILED AS A CEO

My eyes widened in surprise at all the positive things he’d listed about me.

"My assistant needs to be someone who cares about the company. Someone who cares about employees and has a good relationship with them. Your actions over the last couple of days have shown that you care about your coworkers and the restaurant. Your coworkers also seem to care very much for you too after seeing you with them on Thursday."

He was talking about Mike and Megan. My eyes softened as Louis continued. He was making me seem like a saint.

"And lastly, giving the position to a woman this time around would ensure the situation with Gatwick didn’t occur again. Not to say a woman isn’t capable of what he did but it’s less likely. Also, I’m sure I would find out if it was you," he finished off.

I said nothing as I stared at him considering his offer. I just couldn’t believe it, he had me convinced I could do it.

"But anyway, those are all my reasons for wanting you to take the position. Not due to connections or pity but your own merit," he explained himself. "Of course, I can’t force you to take the position but I think you would be great. Besides this will be a great opportunity for you to see how a business operates. Since you hope to start your own business one day, right? This is a rare chance considering this business will shut down soon."

He just kept all the reasons I should take the job. I pressed my lips together as I slowly considered the idea. I could learn a lot from the position.

"What’s the annual salary?" I then asked.

"340,000 a year," he informed me. " Plus benefits like a mortgage, insurance, and a car."

My eyebrows raised. With that salary, I could quickly make back the money I gave to Mike within two months. Not to mention, by working for Louis I could ’earn my keep’ since he was helping Tony and me. Which wasn’t bad. This—this could work.

"So basically I’ll be your secretary?" I asked him.

"An executive assistant is more than just a secretary, yes you’ll prepare and organize my schedule, help me file paperwork, etc... but you’ll also be like a business strategist giving your insight on the company, managing projects. You’ll see the full details of the job."

He then paused as he studied me got a moment.

"You’re taking to job, right?" he asked me. His golden eyes seemed to glow as they stared back into mine.

"Yes, I would like to take the position," I accepted the offer.

"Good," he commented. "I’ll send you the contract and the full details of the job."

"When do I start?"

"When you’re ready to. The sooner the better," he told me.

When we were done we stood up from the seating area to go back into the house. I then surprised myself when I got closer to Louis and gave him a hug.

"Oh," he said taken by surprise.

"Thank you, Louis," I said to him.

He then hugged me back after a moment. "It’s no problem at all," he replied.

I was so grateful to Louis honestly. He was literally helping me solve all my problems one by one. Never in my mind did I think I would get a corporate job my whole life I had been trained to be a wife with no formal education.

LOUIS’ POV

I thought Jasmine was working on something small. Never would I have imagined that she would end up uncovering a predator working right under me. When she suddenly texted me asking me to come to the restaurant saying it was an emergency, I literally jumped out of my seat in my office and began to make my way.

I sent a text back asking what was wrong. However, she didn’t reply. I tried to call her afterwards but she didn’t pick up either. I began to worry.

Without any context, I thought maybe that foolish husband of hers had made another appearance. And since my bodyguards cannot touch him I was worried. What if he was trying to take her again?

I told the driver to step on it once I was in the car. I was feeling anxious the entire ride worried about what I’d be met with. When I arrived at the restaurant I ran like a madman inside. Imagine my surprise when I finally found her in the manager’s office and Gatwick was trying to hit her. I instantly lunged at him and stopped him.

Just for raising his arm at her, without even knowing the full context of the situation I wanted to fire him. The situation was then explained to me by both Jasmine and the manager and when they were done I felt defeated.

Never had I imagined something like this would be happening right under my nose. I was disgusted, disappointed and horrified. Not to mention my disbelief that Jasmine had been the one to uncover it all.

I had the cops called to arrest Gatwick. Apparently he had connections in the police he used to threaten employees and avoid getting arrested. However, I would ensure that wasn’t the case this time.

I took Jasmine home wanting her to rest after all the work she had done. However, most importantly to a place she would be safe.

On the car ride home I was mostly quiet because I felt if I did speak I would yell out in frustration at her. I didn’t want to scare her. I just couldn’t believe she would do something so dangerous on her own! Once at home having calmed myself, I then confronted her about her actions and how she should have relied on me for this situation. I would have looked into Gatwick. I would had taken care of it all. However, I knew after her experience with Chairman Acland that she may have thought I wouldn’t believe her. Which she confirmed as I spoke to her. After reassuring her I then comforted her when she started crying.

I left Jasmine at home and returned to the office to begin uncovering the full extent of what we were dealing with. For the next two days what my team and I would end up uncovering was just shocking.

It was Saturday morning and I was working overtime at the office to figure this out.

Now I had to send a report to my family. How bothersome. I’m sure they were going to blame for the situation. I thought to myself in annoyance. I did blame myself though. I should have paid more attention to him. I mean I already knew he had anger issues.

I should have been kept an eye on him but no I just assumed he would do his job as he was supposed to.

I could have another problem was the executive assistant was the only

Of course it made sense for chain of command reasons wheremy assistant would communicate to the managers on my behalf but after this incident I had to open up channels for managers to communicate with me if they had to.

I then heared a knock at my office door I called out for the person to enter and in came the HR Manager of the company. She had been working the hardest these past two days. I mean we were in an HR violation nightmare.

She was the one who was organizing and negotiating with all former or current employees that were victims. Ensuring we weren’t going to be sued by them.

"Sir, should I put out an opening out for the Executive Assistant position?" the HR manager asked me.

Yes," I replied. I realised I would need a replacement quickly to get my work flow in order.

After she left I turned back to my desktop reading through what all managers across all the restaurants had reported the victims

I looked down at the folder on my desk and realized it was Jasmine’s folder that I had printed out.

I went through it once more simply stunned by the work she had done. It was thoroughly and meticulously done. Dare I say even better than the work Gatwick did. I was so shocked considering she’d never worked before nor gone to school.

Then a thought came to mind.

What if I have her be my assistant? The work she presented to me is quite professional and done with care. It would be better if it was someone I knew. Working with them would be easier and I don’t have to worry about them possibly having some weird dark side to them. At least with Jasmine I knew she didn’t.

The benefit was that Jasmine could make more money for herself and her son. Not to mention I could use this as a way to keep her close to me. To protect her as well as to slowly but surely worm my way into her heart. Yes—this could work I realised. Even though I would have preferred she hadn’t looked into Gatwick herself I’m glad it proved useful in the end.