CHAPTER 153: HIT THEIR FACTORY

~LAYLA~

"What?!"

Axel sat up immediately, alert. "What is it? What’s wrong?"

I held up a hand, trying to process what I’d just heard. "I’m sorry, could you say that again?"

The voice on the other end repeated, sounding stressed. "Mrs. O’Brien, I said we’re completely out of stock."

I blinked, my panic shifting to confusion. "Out of stock? How... how can we be out of stock? We had over fifty thousand products in the store as of last night. How is that even possible?"

"That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. It’s the social media posts. They went viral. Everyone’s ordering everything."

"I’m coming to the store right now. Don’t move." I hung up and turned to Axel, who was watching me with concern.

"What happened? Talk to me."

"The store. We’re apparently out of stock. Every single product."

His eyebrows shot up. "Every product? In less than twelve hours?"

"That’s what they said. I don’t understand how that’s even possible unless..." I scrambled out of bed, already heading for the closet. "I need to get there and see what’s happening."

Axel followed, grabbing his own clothes. "I wish I could come with you, but I have that meeting with our top client at nine. Can’t reschedule, they flew in from overseas specifically for this."

"It’s fine. I can handle it."

"You sure?"

"Yes. Go charm the client. I’ll deal with whatever chaos is happening at the store."

We showered quickly... separately, no time for distractions, and dressed in record time. Axel kissed me at the door, his hands cupping my face.

"Call me if you need anything. Anything at all."

"I will. Now go before you’re late."

The drive to the store felt surreal. My mind kept trying to make sense of it. Fifty thousand products couldn’t just disappear overnight. There had to be a mistake, a miscount, something.

But when I walked through the doors, my steps faltered.

The store was really empty.

Not empty of people... staff members rushed around frantically, some on phones, others at computers, but empty of product.

The beautiful displays I’d admired yesterday stood bare. Shelves that had gleamed with carefully arranged items now showed nothing but empty space. Even the backup stock areas visible through the glass partitions were cleared out.

"Mrs. O’Brien!" The store manager, Patricia, rushed over, tablet clutched to her chest. "Thank God you’re here."

"Patricia, what happened? Where is everything?"

"It was the social media posts. Right after the launch event ended, Maya Cullen posted a video."

"Maya Cullen? The actress we got the endorsement from?"

"Yes. She made this whole video with her friend; you know, that musician... uhm Dandie, the one with like thirty million followers? They were both at the event, and they posted about Eclipse Luxe. Called it ’revolutionary’ and ’the future of sustainable beauty.’"

Patricia pulled up her tablet, showing me the posts. Maya’s video had over ten million views. The musician’s post had fifteen million. And that was just the start.

"Their fans started reposting and not just reposting, but also creating their own content, reviewing the samples we gave out, making tutorials. It spread like wildfire. Within hours, we received thousands of orders. Some in pieces, others in bulk."

I stared at the screen, watching the numbers climb in real-time. "Oh my God."

"We tried to keep up with fulfilment, but the orders kept coming. Online, phone, walk-ins... everyone wanted Eclipse Luxe. By three AM, we’d sold out of the new line. By six AM, we’d sold out of everything else, too. People started ordering your classic products just to get something from Eclipse Beauty."

"How much is left?"

Patricia checked her tablet. "As of two minutes ago? Two items. One lipstick, one moisturiser."

As she spoke, her tablet pinged with a notification. She glanced down, and her expression went from stressed to almost hysterical.

"Make that zero items. Someone just ordered the last two."

I exhaled, a sound that was half-laugh, half-panic. "We’re completely dry."

"Completely. And we still have thousands of orders pending. People are getting angry online because we can’t fulfil their purchases fast enough."

"This is..." I ran my hands through my hair. "This is insane. This is absolutely insane."

"I know. I’ve never seen anything like it in twenty years of retail."

"Good insane or bad insane?"

"Good, I think? But also terrifying because we have no way to meet demand right now."

I nodded slowly, my mind already racing through solutions. "Okay. Keep taking orders. Don’t turn anyone away. Just mark everything as pre-order with an estimated delivery date of... let’s say two weeks."

"Two weeks? Mrs. O’Brien, I don’t think we can scale production that fast..."

"Leave that to me. Just keep the orders coming and keep people updated. Be transparent about the timeline. People will wait if they know when to expect their products."

"Yes, ma’am."

I headed to my small office tucked in the back of the store, pulling out my phone as I went. I dialled Axel, pacing while it rang.

"That was quick," he answered. "Everything okay?"

"Define okay. We’re dry, Axel. Zero inventory. Fifty thousand products sold in less than twelve hours."

Silence on the other end, then: "Say that again."

"Maya Cullen’s social media post went viral. Her musician friend posted too. It triggered a buying frenzy. We sold out of everything, new line, classic line, every single product in the store. And we still have thousands of pending orders we can’t fulfil."

"Jesus Christ. That’s... that’s incredible."

"It’s incredible and terrifying. How do we scale production to meet this demand?"

"The seized properties. We need to sign those documents and assume full control. Cassandra’s factories can handle the increased production. We can have them running at full capacity within a week without stressing our current production chain."

"You think a week is realistic?"

"With three additional factories? Absolutely. I’ll call Brennan right now and tell him to come get the paperwork. We can sign today if we have to."

Relief flooded through me. "Okay. Good. That’s good."

"This is exactly the problem we want to have, Layla. Demand exceeding supply means..."

His voice cut off abruptly.

"Axel? You there?"

"Hold on, I’m getting a call from Tye. Might be important. Let me add him to the line."

There was a click, then Tye’s voice joined. "Morning, lovebirds. Hope I’m not interrupting anything."

"What’s up, Tye?" Axel asked.

"Got news. Bad news, unfortunately."

My stomach dropped. "How bad?"

"Sinaloa just hit one of Eclipse Beauty’s factories."