NIKAELEON***After dinner, I carried Sophia up to her room and tucked her into bed. She wanted me to tell her a story first before she slept. I sat on the edge of her and tried to remember any children stories I may have heard but as I began to tell a paraphrased version of Goldilocks and the three bears, Sophia shook her head.“No, Uncle Nik. Not that kind of story, a real life story, something interesting.” She said and blinked at me with those adorably irresistible eyes.I tried to think of anything exciting to tell her about my life, something that would interest a child of her age, but my mind was blank. I couldn’t exactly start telling her about my victories in a board room or the latest merger or acquisition I acquired. I realised then that my life was pretty boring, I couldn’t remember the last time I had any fun. My life revolved around work, security concerns, revenge and more work. I’ve achieved a lot in my short time as Don and will still achieve more but the monotony of

NIKAELEON**“I knew you would forget.” Aina sighed.“My press conference is tomorrow, right after the first court hearing for the lawsuit against me by my stepmother.”“Oh, right.”“It’s fine, I know you’ve got a lot on your plate right now with Sophia here and this unknown person that’s out to get you, among other things.” She said.“It’s on my schedule though, so I would have been reminded of it in the morning.” I said to her.“Do you have any plan on how you want to handle the situation? I told you that I’ll let you take the lead on this since it’s your issue, I’m only here for support.”“I don’t really have a plan, I just intend to be docile, let them play their hand and then I’ll counter it in the best available way. I want to see what angle they want to argue their case with. Do they want to use emotional blackmail? Maybe try to make it seem like I was a bad daughter, using the fact that I vanished for months after my father’s death to make me seem immoral. Or do they want to g

NIKAELEON***I could tell that Aina hadn’t yet figured out the angle the lawyer was coming from and how he was trying to trap her into saying something that could be used against her in the court.“You’re stupid if you think I would waste my time and resources protecting someone just because they offered to sleep with me.” I cut in before Aina could reply to the other lawyer.The lawyer turned to me and the sneer on his face faltered as I glared at him, silently daring to try and say any rubbish that would anger me. He could talk smack to anyone else in this room but I would not permit him to talk to me anyhow he likes. He must have seen the promise of retribution on my face so he turned away to face the judge instead.“Objection, your honour, the questions are directed to the defendant and should be answered by her. If Mr Roch wants to speak, then he should wait for his turn to be interviewed as I see fit.”“The questions you ask involve me, therefore, I’m well within my rights to r

NIKAELEON***“The lawyer said he heard a rumour that you joined my company, I don’t believe that trashy excuse. One of the board members I removed must have told my stepmother about it and she told him, I need to figure out which one. Whoever it is may also be affiliated with the Black Knights and we may be able to get something useful to use against them.” Aina said as we were being driven to the venue for the press conference.“I’ll have all of them investigated. It may not even be one of the members that got removed, there may be an informant among the members that retained their seat.” I said to her and she sighed.“You’re right. All this scheming is getting really annoying.”“You haven’t seen anything yet so better brace yourself.” I chuckled.“You make it look so easy. Handling your company, taking care of your family business, keeping everyone close to you safe and destroying your enemies at the same time. Yet you’re so composed, I only have to deal with about half your worklo

NIKAELEON***The car stopped in front of the coffee shop Aina said she was in. I could see her clearly even from the car, she was seated at the window sipping what was probably a cup of the creamy abomination she preferred to drink and call coffee. Well, except her tastes had changed, I only knew she preferred a lot of milk in her coffee from when we were together years ago. Some people might take it as a sign that I was still in love with her just because I remembered some details about the things she liked and the things she didn’t like. But that was just how I was, I paid careful attention to detail, and I hardly forgot things I committed to memory. I still remember my foster mother’s favourite tea brand, and my foster father’s preferred pizza combination. I really hated the fact that they had died before I became wealthy enough to take care of them and repay them for their kindness to me when I was younger. If they hadn’t taken me in, who knows what would have happened to me, may