Fire And Flame

Laura was finally on vacation after a week of school. Her family decided not to go on a trip, rather, to visit nearby tourist places, spend time together and have fun.

"Laura sweetie, are you ready? We are waiting downstairs." Kiara shouted from the ground floor. Laura was packing her backpack when she heard her mother shout.

"Yes, Mom. I will be there in three minutes. I'm almost done." she quickly stuffed her umbrella, wet tissues and her favourite novel in her backpack. She kept the water bottle in the bottle section of the backpack and rushed to shut her door from the outside. She carefully climbed down the stairs.

Little Joe was busy playing with toy cars, when he heard Laura's footsteps.

"Laura baby!" he stood up and waddled like a duck towards Laura. He was only four years old.

He raised his arms, indicating Laura to carry him in her arms.

"Come here. Did you pack all your toys? We will have too much fun! Are you excited?" Laura kissed his soft, fluffy cheeks.

"Yes, I packed all my cars. See, it is over there." Joe pointed out his tiny chubby index finger towards the sofa where his bag, full of toys, was kept.

"Ah, a bag filled with toys… I see." Laura giggled and kissed his cheeks again.

"Let's get going now, Laura. Lauren is waiting outside. He is always here before time." Kiara nodded her head in disappointment.

"Yay!" Joe was too excited to go on this trip.

Soon they drove off to the nearest tourist spot which was a theme park. All of them were excited and looking forward to it.

"Daddy, we will swim today if there is any swimming pool there!" Laura was excited and couldn't wait to dive deep into the pool.

"Sure, we will." Lauren was happy too.

Suddenly, Kiara screamed…

"LAUREN!!"

-----------------------

"Daddy!" Laura gasped when she got back to her senses.

It's been thirteen years since the accident took place. Laura's forehead broke into a cold sweat and her fingers froze.

The car rolled down so many times. Her whole world turned upside down, her eyes filled with the sight of her family drowning in a pool of blood. The car's glasses were splashed with a deep shade of red; bright blood. The lifeless bodies hung mid air as the car was upside down. Laura passed out immediately, after seeing the scene and found herself in a hospital the next day. She, being the eldest child of the family performed all the rituals and arranged a funeral ceremony for her dead family. She wished that it was a nightmare… but the events looked so real. The dead bodies of her family looked so real. She touched it for one last time to confirm that it was a nightmare, it wasn't the truth… but sadly, it was. The rain poured heavily on that day. Her tears were washed away by the pouring rain.

Recalling all the events from the past, she stood up from her office chair and went to wash her face and hoped that the memories would get washed away too.

She wiped her face using the hand towel and returned to her desk. It was a big room.

She switched on the TV and placed the remote in the remote stand on her desk.

"Laura Williams, the Chief Executive Officer of a huge conglomerate Hollen Consultancy Services, known for her impeccable business ac.u.men, accompanied by her equally fierce and ruthless demeanor. Her company once again purchased another company, the famous finance company named GreenStock."

The news flashed in all news channels. She stared blankly at the TV screen. She finally completed her promise to her father, of becoming successful one day. But to this day, she had no father or mother to celebrate her success.

"May I come in, Laura?" her secretary bowed before stepping in the room.

"Stop this drama and come in. Lock the door." Laura rolled her eyes looking at how mannerful Lily was acting in the absence of office crew members.

"Haha! I need to behave like the secretary of the famous CEO Laura Williams!" Lily sat opposite to Laura

"The news won't stop until next week, I guess?" Lily was proud of her best friend.

"But was there any need of buying the company? I'm afraid it will not be of any good to our company."

"Nothing is good in the world. We make it the best, it is our responsibility." Laura winked.

"Whoa!" Lily laughed.

"The company's stocks were fluctuating and the market value decreased by 27%, which is not appropriate for a company to stand in today's market. Putting the statistics aside, the company's clients switched to other companies. Majority came to our company. It was a good decision to buy both the clients, employees as well as the company. After all, we spent a considerable amount to buy GreenStock. The money is not even one third of it's real worth." Laura clearly explained.

"We did contact Mr.Lim for this before, but he had declined the offer. But suddenly, getting a call previous day from him, was kind of strange." Lily grew suspicious.

"A man can do anything for money. Mr.Lim had taken loan from the banks and spent his company's money for his own luxury. The banks were about to seize all his property. He made a wise decision coming to our company, reconsidering the offer. As promised, clear all his loans and pay the promised price to him." Laura took a file out of her drawer and signed on a few pages.

"Here is the cheque. And send a photocopy of this file to Mr.Lim." she handed over the file to Lily with a cheque on top.