Who is The Better CEO?

Maryanne's thoughts were still in shambles following the hair-raising ordeal she had been through in the past 36 hours. In fact, she would not wish it even for her worst and sworn enemy. To bring you up to speed, Maryanne had lost her mother to a fire whose start is still a mystery not just to the firemen that helped put it out but also to the investigators on the case.

Secondly, her lingerie and cloth retailing business had gone under after the stock prices took a dive in a span of less than 24 hours following the fire. On top of these, Maryanne had been kidnapped, starved and tortured till she could no longer feel the pain. Or did her veins numb? Or was it the pain receptors? In short, her brain no longer bothered to register any more pain administered to her.

Maryanne had escaped from her captors by jumping down two floors through a bathroom window. Luckily, she did not fracture any bones and was capable of finding her way home. At the moment, she did not have time to think who was behind her tonne of misfortunes.

As a matter of fact, Maryanne imagined stopping to think things through might increase the number of unfortunate events likely to happen to her. The only thing she knew was that she had to move fast. Or else, her captors would locate her. And this time round,Maryanne knew she would surely die.

Maryanne did not have the courage to look at herself in the mirror. She was dead sure her face was thoroughly disfigured from the thorough beating she had received earlier. Even there was some blood that had dried near her lips.

Maryanne knew that confirming her face was thoroughly disfigured and her eyes swollen to the point of squinting would definitely dismantle her composure. In order to save on time, she hurriedly threw a few essentials into a backpack and stepped into the shower.

God, it felt heavenly taking a shower after over 48 long and agonizing hours. Imagining the shower would wipe away all the bad things that had happened to her and she would step out and find everything the way it was three days ago, Maryanne scrubbed every inch of her body thoroughly. In total, she took approximately 20 minutes to get ready.

Yes. 20 MINUTES. NO MAKE UP WAS NECESSARY AT THIS POINT.

Since withdrawing money from one of her accounts might alert her kidnappers, Maryanne decided to get some cash from her father's study, weeeell, now her study. Interestingly, even the two $100 dollar bills she had left on top of the desk were still there.

Just when Maryanne had finished stashing the money she had taken from the inbuilt safe on different parts of the backpack and self cause you never know, she heard two cars pull up the drive way.

Maryanne's heart rate increased to a point you would think she had the over $100 million jackpot on a lottery on first trial. She held her breathe, hid behind the desk and waited patiently.

Thank goodness! She had not switched on the lights of the house. Instead, Maryanne had opted to use the small spotlight attached to her keys to find her way around the house. This, as evident by the turn of events was a blessing in disguise.

Damn! They were fast, faster than lightning! And what did they want? Were they after money? What did she do to deserve this? Or is it about the multi million contract to supply African wear to Amazon she had signed last month?

She sure did beat some well established companies in their own game in that one. Was it something her parents or her brother had done? And where could he be by the way? These are some of the questions that were running through Maryanne's mind as she tried to think of a place to hide.

She was brought back to the situation at hand by the shutting of the main entrance door. 'Oh My God! What should I do?' She asked herself part in fear, part in despair.

"That idiot is not here." She heard a familiar voice say.

"That idiot is not here." Maryanne had the familiar voice swear once again. That was Mellie, her best friend.

"I do not know where she else she could have gone to. Give me time to think." Mellie continued. The people she was talking to ignored her as Maryanne could hear doors to various rooms in the house opening and closing.

When one of them was about to open the study room door, she heard Mellie yell, "Let's get out of here." Shortly, Maryanne heard several footsteps descending down the staircase and sighed heavily. She was not even aware she was holding her breathe.

In total Maryanne had counted a search party of around 8 people with the exclusion of her "BEST FRIEND." That was really close she thought while getting up from under the desk.

Suddenly, Maryanne heard Mellie yell once more, "Wait! We need to get some money, I know where Maryanne keeps some money for emergencies."

Knowing Mellie must be forced to come behind the desk to access money from her drawer, Maryanne hurriedly moved to hide behind a stack of books. These were shelved in the bookshelf nearest the door.

Maryanne imagined that if worse came to worst, she would try and run out of the house. How she could manage that was a mystery to her that she had no time to attempt solving considering her ever growing amount of fear.

However, she could not dwell on that as the room was suddenly filled with light making Maryanne's eyes squint in an effort to adjust to the blinding light.

Mellie first grabbed the two one hundred dollar bills and stashed them in her bra. Thereafter, she emptied the drawers and was happy when she found money in the last drawer.

Her ear splitting grin would have had you guessing she had won a beauty contest and the prize was to spend a night with Prince Charles, Edward Mu from My Wife is an Aloof Beauty, Charles Lu from The Substitute Bride, Carlos Huo, Wesley Li or even Sheffield Tang (jack of all trades) from Take My Breathe Away.

The only downside, there was no one to envy Mellie's reward. She stuffed a few more bills into her bra on either side. The rest of the cash Mellie kept in a duffel bag she had carried with her. Maryanne imagined that was the only cash she would share with the crew. Having gotten what she looking for, Mellie left the study room without even bothering to return back the drawers she had completely pulled out.

As evident, it seems luck was on Maryanne's side since she had not even remembered the money in the drawer. She had only taken money she had kept in the inbuilt safe.

This forgetfulness could mainly be attributable to the fact that, in her mind, the money was already spent. Specifically, about 50,000 dollars meant to pay their domestic staff, shop for groceries and the rest be used in refurbishing and decorating the house was in the last drawer. Well now in Mellie's pockets.

Once everything was quiet, Maryanne tiptoed out of the house through the kitchen door. She now knew she had to be extra careful. This is taking into account her attacker was someone Maryanne had known for the longest time possible.

Maryanne imagined they may even decide to get someone to watch the house to catch her unaware. That is if she decided to "show up" not knowing Maryanne was there the entire time Mellie and crew had visited the house.

Once out of the compound, Maryanne walked a few metres from the house, hailed a cab and left.

Maryanne could not believe that the woman she had loved and treated like the sister she never had for so many years could do this to her. To her innocent mother. In fact, it would take a lot of work to convince both her heart and brain that her dear friend Mellie could hurt her and her family that much.

The cab dropped her at a motel by the name Secretive, waaay out of town. Maryanne did not want to risk being seen by anyone who might identify her and inform her offenders.

It was while in her room in the motel that Maryanne realised how hungry she was. Knowing macaroni or rice would not quench her hunger, Maryanne chose to have ugali, fish and some greens.

While eating, Maryanne decided to process what had transpired. Because she was still afraid, she decided to take more or precaution. She went back to the reception and asked to be transferred to another room under an alias.

For the trouble, she generously tipped the receptionist. Before leaving, Maryanne also instructed the receptionist to say she stayed for a few hours then left in case anybody came asking. She then gingerly went back to her room.

Just as Maryanne had anticipated, in the process of going out for a jog the following morning before 7 am, she heard Mellie at the reception making inquiries about her. She froze on the stairs.

" Maryanne is not here. It seems the stupid cab driver lied to us. Does he even know what he was talking about? It seems he only wanted to scam us the $5000 we had promised as reward money. Finish him off." Mellie said.

"Yes Ryan. We will get married soon, first let's find the idiot and take everything she has." Mellie continued.

Good Heavens! Her fiancé (Ryan) too. To think that she was on her way to buy a burner cell and call him.

Betrayed by two people she trusted the most, Maryanne was rendered both speechless and immobile. In fact, even her thoughts left her and she stood there staring blindly ahead.

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On hearing that her fiancé Ryan, was involved in her current nightmare, Maryanne was devastated. Remembering they were expected to get married in less than six months, Maryanne felt weak.

Her legs gave way. And she started preparing for the crash. In Maryanne's mind, her life was already over. She felt she had nothing left to fight for.

However, before her body could hit the floor and roll or rather slide down the stairs, someone caught her. Though Maryanne did not fully understand at the time what had happened, she was greatful. It's a miracle she did not scream her lungs out when falling.

Seems Maryanne's guardian angel was working overtime. This is mainly because either of two prevented tragedies would have alerted Mellie. One, the fall and two her scream when falling.

Also, taking into account her injuries from the beating she had received were still fresh. The fall would have been disastrous.

The waiter first held Maryanne and tried to confirm she was okay. Still in a daze, Maryanne was not able to communicate with the waiter. In fact, it took a while before she registered someone was talking to her.

Before she could answer, she heard Mellie still talking on phone. Listening to her conversation, Maryanne was able to tell Mellie was talking to her fiancé. Wait a minute, her ex fiancé as of a few minutes ago.

Feeling a headache coming, Maryanne lifted her hands and tried to massage her temples. Luckily, her right hand held the key to Maryanne's room. Seeing this, the waiter had an idea.

He took the key card from Maryanne's hand, checked the room number and carried her bridal style. Instead of taking the lift, the waiter opted to use the stairs.

He believed in doing so, he will be able to avoid the morning traffic. This is mainly because the motel's lift was stopping at each floor picking clients that wanted to have breakfast.

Besides saving time, using the stairs would be helping him keep fit. Since Maryanne was of medium built, the decision to use the stairs was attractive. Her room being in the second floor also influenced the waiter's choice.

Once in the room, the waiter placed Maryanne on the single couch available. Fetched her a glass of water. And offered to call the doctor.

The word doctor registered in Maryanne's mind. And she immediately shook her head indicating no. This left the waiter a little bit confused.

In her mind, Maryanne could not believe a stranger had offered her a helping hand. This is while the people close to her betrayed her mercilessly. Thinking of this, tears filled Maryanne's eyes.

She tried wiping them away, but more flowed out. This is to a point of blinding her vision. Since the last time she cried she was 10 years old, Maryanne was embarrassed.

Seeing the concerned look on her good samaritan's face, Maryanne remembered something that dried her tears instantly. Her father had punished her when she cried. This is while claiming cried solved nothing. And it made someone weak.

This change surprised the waiter immensely. Maryanne's claim that she would be okay with a shaky voice had Jude clocking his head to one side while interestingly looking at Maryanne.

Clearing her throat, Maryanne explained all she needed was rest. She further explained that she was stressed from work. To make it more convincing, she informed Jude that her parents and friends had insisted she take the break.

For this reason, he should not worry much and head to work. Not wanting to delve deeper, Jude agreed. This is with a promise he will check on her later on.

The need for money is one of the main reasons he gave up trying to help this interesting lady. Getting his grandmother medicine and saving some money for college was his main priority.

Before leaving, Jude decided to leave Maryanne his personal number. He moved to the table in the room, took out a pen from his pocket and wrote down the number on a piece of paper. This is with instructions for Maryanne to call him if she needed his help.

This gesture once again resulted in Maryanne's eyes filling with tears and a lump forming in her throat. Just before the door closed, Maryanne shouted, "Thank you very much."

This brought a smile to both Jude's and Maryanne's faces. For Jude, it was an indication she will be okay. The smile on Maryanne's face was due to her voice not breaking.

Despite there being no solution in sight, Maryanne was hopeful. All she knew at that moment is, she had to sought out her emotional state. And the only way she knew how to reduce the hurt was crying.

As such, once Jude left, Maryanne went to the door just to confirm it was locked. Thereafter, she turned the TV In high volume and decided to let her tears flow.

Do not be mistaken. Maryanne, did not cry the silent tears flowing down your face in fashion or rather sophiscatedly. Nope. She let out the child-like loud cries and bawls. That was the only way she felt she was going to feel better.

Indeed, after approximately two hours of just crying and various thoughts racing through her head, Maryanne felt her tears had dried up. She then started to analyse afresh the events that had taken place and her life all together.

Three days ago.....

Maryanne had just come out of a strategy meeting with the different head of departments when Brenda her secretary came to her. Being dog tired, she barely paid attention to Brenda. Her brain and senses only became fully alert when she heard Brenda mention "emergency" and her "mother."

Not waiting to hear more, Maryanne simply rushed out. Instead of going to the office as intended, she ran to the elevator. Brenda was left mouth open with other words stuck in her throat.