Chapter 2 The Invitation

Six Years Later

"Please, baby, can't you just sit still for a minute? I've counted three times and it's not the same because you keep taking one or two apples out of the box."

Forest, a chubby, reddish-cheeked boy with dirt, grinned and scratched his curly-haired head.

"I'm just picking out the overripe apples for Hunter, Mommy," he said with his head tilted. "He's crazy about ripe apples."

Laurie took off her gloves. "Tsk! You're just looking for an excuse to mess up my work. Come here, you naughty boy!"

Laurie approached Forest menacingly and when she had caught the boy, she lifted him up and tickled his belly by making funny noises with her mouth.

Hunter squealed in amusement and struggled. "Please, Mommy, please, I won't do it again."

Laurie let go of Forest and held him in her arms while kissing his vanilla and lavender scented neck.

"Don't spoil Hunter too much, baby, he'll become lazy and you can't use him for training," Laurie said while nuzzling Forest's plump cheeks.

"Yes, Mommy, sorry," Forest said obediently. "I don't want him to starve."

"Come on, honey, he won't starve because Mr. Edmond always gives him lots of grass and apples every day regularly," Laurie replied while putting her son down. "Ugh, you're getting heavier now."

Laurie led Forest out of the warehouse and met Valerie on the way to her office. Valerie stopped and pinched Forest's cheeks affectionately.

"Hello, young man, are you bothering your mother again?" Valerie asked with a raised eyebrow.

Forest rubbed his cheek while glaring. "Aunty V will get karma," he said in a fierce tone.

"Hm? What karma?" Valerie asked while bending down until her eyes were level with the cute boy.

"Because you like to pinch me, you will be eaten by monsters," Forest replied with a serious expression.

Valerie laughed and took out a colorful lollipop that looked pretty.

"I'm so scared, young man. Can you help me get rid of that karma with this candy?" Valeri said while handing the candy to Forest. "This is grape flavored."

Forest took the candy from Valerie's hand, then hugged her neck. "Of course. Thank you, Aunty V. Your karma is gone."

Forest then let go of her hand and looked up at Laurie. "Mommy, I'll visit Hunter for a moment to show him this candy."

Forest had already run towards the stable before Laurie could answer. Valerie laughed seeing the little boy running and jumping like a basket ball being bounced on the floor.

"Don't keep giving him candy, Val," Laurie said. "You'll make his teeth decay faster."

"I just spoil him a little because his mother is too strict with him," Valerie argued. "Ah, I was just about to see you. I thought you were in the office."

"Is this about the Sunrise company? Did you get the tender?" Laurie asked enthusiastically.

"Of course. Starting next month, all their restaurant branches will only buy Apple, peach, and pear from us," Valerie said proudly. "They even want to try the processed wine we make."

Laurie felt very happy. She held Valerie's hand, turning towards her house.

"Let's celebrate by opening a bottle of wine after lunch," Laurie said. "I was already sure we would win the tender, but this still makes me very happy."

When Forest had fallen asleep after dinner, as usual, Laurie opened her laptop and started working. Mostly just checking some incoming proposals to do the final validation, sorting and replying to emails, or just looking at the graphs of each division in her company.

She was satisfied to see the trend of sales of plantation products and the factorie had continued to increase in the past three years.

This was all thanks to the cooperation of the people around her who were so compact and solid, including one of them, Valerie, the marketing director who never knew the word give up.

Laurie also feels grateful that she did not give up, even though at first she was lost in confusion because she did not know what to do with an 80-hectare apple, peaches, and pears orchard, inherited from her parents.

"Your father said that one day you might come back. He saw the signs long before you realized what kind of man you married," said Nelson, Laurie's uncle, her father's youngest brother, who managed and guarded the orchard.

"But I don't know anything about this orchard, Uncle Nelson. Especially about the factory," said Laurie with great concern that she might make what her parents had inherited be destroyed because of her incompetence.

"I'll help you, but you have to be serious and study. I'll retire once I think you're capable enough to manage all this. You know, your aunt wants to live in the tropics and I've bought a house and a potential restaurant that she wants in Bali, Indonesia," Nelson said.

"I... Don't want to be alone, uncle. Can you and aunt Bella stay and be with me?" Laurie said with a little sob in her voice.

Nelson stroked Laurie's hair gently. "You can do it, honey. Get up and show that jerk that you're not down and out just because he ignored you and divorced you. Don't you want revenge?"

That motivation made Laurie study hard about how her parents managed the apple, peaches, and pears plantation that they had owned since they first got married. Also, restarting the canned fruit processing and dried fruit processing factories, which had been abandoned for a long time.

She had her ups and downs at first, but thanks to Nelson and Bella who always accompanied her, becoming people who always supported her wholeheartedly like her own parents, Laurie slowly began to see the results of her hard work.

Laurie turned off and closed her laptop while looking at the clock. It was almost midnight. She was checking the doors and windows, when her phone rang.

She saw Valerie's name on the phone screen.

"Val, you haven't slept yet?" Laurie greeted when she received the call. "We have a meeting with the Southern production team tomorrow, right?"

"I just finished sorting my emails when I saw something interesting, Lau," Valerie said enthusiastically. "The message went into spam and I almost deleted it. I checked and it was true, but the sender might have been careless so the invitation went into spam."

"Hm? What is it?" Laurie asked curiously. "An invitation?"

"Yes. It was an exhibition invitation held by a consortium of world tourism industry entrepreneurs. They invited us because our company is considered the top processed food supplier in America and Europe," Valerie said enthusiastically. "They sent it this afternoon and asked for a reply of attendance within the next three days."

"Are you serious?" Laurie asked happily. "Oh, that's a great opportunity to start pioneering our desire to penetrate the Southeast Asian market, right?"

"Of course!" Valerie replied. "However, that's not the only thing that makes me excited, Lau. Do you know who will be participating in the exhibition?"

"Huh? Who?" Laurie asked curiously. "Our competitors, of course, right?"

"That's no problem," Valerie said. "I think this will be your chance this time. He's already confirmed his attendance and his name is on the exhibitor list."

"He... Come on, Val, don't make me wonder."

"Silver Light company. Tommy McCharty."

Laurie's heart suddenly started beating twice as fast.