The mood was merry, the weather gorgeous, and her man was by her side. Alana Goodwin's life had never been more fulfilling than it had been now. She and her boyfriend Kole were visiting his hometown of Jezebel Falls, as they tried to do every month. The inhabitants of this small town were the closest thing Kole had to a family, and after being away for years while struggling on the streets of the big city, he was anxious to make up for lost time.
Paul, Kole's closest friend, was recounting an embarrassing story from their childhood. "Kole was halfway up the tree that just five minutes earlier he bragged he could reach the top of without trouble. At this point, he was making little progress and moving slow as a slug upwards."
"My arms were tired. That's all," Kole said in his defense.
"Didn't you just tell me how you won the school's pull-up contest every single year," Alana said, teasing him.
"Maybe I was tired from practicing pull-ups earlier in the day...," Kole said quietly.
"Uh-huh. Well, eventually, even that slow progress stopped, and he was now just frozen mid-way up this large oak. I yelled, asking what was wrong, and he just shook his head. Anything I asked, he just shook his head. I went and got his parents, and he answered them the same way," Paul said, continuing his story.
Three months ago, when we became a couple, Alana would have been worried hearing someone mentioning Kole's parents would send him to a place of despair. After all, they perished tragically when he was eighteen, and their deaths are what caused his life to spiral, leading to his homelessness. But Kole had been working hard with a therapist, and through a lot of tears and self-reflection, he was in a much better place. He had more progress to make, but she was proud of him for making it this far.
"You're afraid of heights, Kole? That makes no sense. You flew us in your plane here," Alana questioned.
"I'm not afraid of heights! I said I was tired and needed a rest in that tree. Also, my foot was stuck. Besides, in a plane, I'm not in danger of a branch breaking and sending me falling to the ground below. Not that I was scared of that happening," Kole said. Something about the sight of this highly muscular man defending his honor against a fear of a tree was highly amusing to Alana.
"His parents had no other option but to call the fire department. Except the normal crew was helping put out a barn fire in the next county over. So they sent over one of their retired ex-firefighters. A sixty-eight-year-old woman who probably weighed 110 pounds at most. She moved the ladder to the tree and slowly climbed up and eventually got the shaking Kole to come with her down the ladder. He hugged her afterward. It was so cute," Paul said, finishing his story.
"Awww, that's adorable," Alana said, going in for her own hug with Kole, who begrudgingly accepted.
"Thanks for that, Paul. Now that the story is done, we can move on to other topics," Kole said anxiously.
"But it's not done, is it Kole?" Paul said with a devious smile.
"Paul....," Kole said, giving his friend an annoyed look.
"Cause it happened twice more, didn't it? Each time requiring the fire department."
"Twice? How? Why?" Alana exclaimed.
Kole sighed and knew the cat was out of the bag. "I kept telling myself I could do it, but I kept... getting my foot stuck. Like I said. It was an extremely difficult climb."
"His parents finally had to put up a locked fence around it to keep him away. Maybe you should give it a shot, climbing it now? It would be a metaphorical symbol of you entering adulthood." Paul teased
"I'm twenty-seven years old, Paul. Besides... I don't want to get my nice clothes dirty," he said sheepishly. Paul and Alana both eyed the ratty t-shirt and jeans he wore and smiled. But they both conceded they had met their quota of Kole teasing for the day.
"Is that asshole Franklin in prison yet," Paul asked, changing the tone of the conversation. Franklin was a partner who had worked for Alana at her company and had nearly got the board to kick her out if she hadn't found proof he was committing fraud.
"He's out on bail until his trial in a few months. But he's under close supervision, including his electronic monitoring. His brother, though, is another story. He's still out there, and that worries me the most," Alana explained.
"He sent us some threatening messages, which we turned over to the police, but that's the last anyone has heard of him," Kole added. Franklin's brother, John, was his partner in crime. As part of their attempted fraud, John had bought a lumber mill in town that they wanted Alana's company to buy at a highly inflated price. Kole and Alana had a run-in with him here in town, but he managed to escape.
"John's going to try something. It's not a matter of if but when and how," Alana said. Her life would be perfect if not for this one loose end. While she wasn't expecting him to simply try and attack her some time, she was expecting something.
"Enough about that, I've heard Kole and you have successfully changed your company's strategy," Paul said, changing the subject.
"We just merged a previously failing cardboard manufacturer and marketing firm into a one-stop packaging solution company aimed at toys. Already, they've beaten their previous profit forecast. Now that we've proven this method can work, we are rapidly increasing our acquisitions to merge more companies together. And it's all thanks to this lug of muscles," Alana said, giving a playful punch to her boyfriend.
"My idea would be dead in the water if it weren't for this woman's negotiation abilities. The previous owner of the marketing firm went from wanting to strangle her for daring to make an offer to inviting us to his daughter's wedding. But that shouldn't surprise me. She is the girl that got me to agree to help in order to get my life back on track." Hearing him say that, Alana couldn't help but lean in for a kiss, which was happily accepted.
The two lovers continued to enjoy their getaway from the hectic city life, but the following morning, they returned to the city via Kole's family crop duster. Its days of treating farms were long gone, but it was now the couple's preferred mode of travel. Once they arrived back, they headed to the Goodwin Acquisitions headquarters in the city. There, they had a regularly scheduled meeting with the company's board where they would seek approval for new acquisitions and learn about the status of others.
"Ms. Goodwin, Mr. Braun. I hope you are doing well today," the head of the board asked, kicking off the meeting. But before they could answer, he got right into business. "I regret to inform you that the cement manufacturer you had previously negotiated the buying of has fallen through. As has the shipment company that we approved the acquisition of last week. This is happening more often and is beginning to seriously impact our profits," he said, distressed.
An analyst took the liberty of speaking up. "We've just discovered that it's the same company that has been stealing these acquisitions from us by offering competing deals to them. They're fairly new. West Island Procurement. They're based right here in the same city as us," she explained.
"It seems they are specifically targeting the exact same companies we are. Records show them as relatively small, so it seems they are purely focused on undermining us," a board member commented, taking a look at the documents the analyst had put together.
"I don't like this. Find out who is running the show at West Island Procurement. And fast," Alana commanded. She had already formed a hypothesis about why they were being targeted but kept that to herself for now.
"Maybe we need to re-think going back to our old way of doing business," the head board member said.
"No!" Alana cried out, being more emotional than she intended. She took a second to compose herself before replying further. "What I mean to say is this is just a bump in the road. We overcome it and stay the course."
Her days of running a company that prayed and tore apart companies and people's lives were over. This new model of turning failing companies around by strategically merging them was what she wanted to do from now on. It's what her love had inspired her to do. Giving up now would feel like she was giving up on Kole. She would rather this whole business collapse than see that happen.
They continued business as usual, however this new rival company was always at the top of her mind. At dinner that evening with Kole, she voiced this concern. "Businesses don't do this. You don't form and then solely focus on competing against a single other company. Many other businesses are doing the same thing we are, even within this city. Yet it's rare for any of them to end up trying to acquire the same single company we are, let alone all of them. Someone is trying to send us a message. A warning. Or worse," Alana said worryingly.
For the majority of their meal together, this was the sole topic she brought up, which concerned Kole. "There's nothing we can do about it now. How about we focus on relaxing and enjoying our meal," he suggested.
Alana then got a call from her analyst, who she had instructed to contact her the second she learned anything. "What if you let it go to voicemail, and we worry about this tomorrow, Alana," Kole suggested.
But she paid his advice no heed. "Talk to me," Alana said, accepting the call. The analyst explained she had found out the name of the woman who had started up West Island Procurement. "Who the heck is Miranda Darkwood? I've never heard of her. Where did she get her funding? Who is backing her," Alana asked aggressively. However, answers to these questions were unknown currently. "Well, keep digging," she angrily said before hanging up.
Fuming a bit that putting a name to this company offered her no additional insight, Alana chugged the rest of her drink and slammed it onto the table. It was then she noticed Kole having an odd look on his face. At first, she thought it was him judging her attitude, but that wasn't it. "You know that name, don't you? Who is Miranda Darkwood," she asked her lover. He didn't immediately deny it, and she knew her assumption was correct. Kole took a deep breath before responding.
"Miranda is an old friend from when I was living on the streets. No, that's not the whole truth. She and I dated for nearly half a year. She was homeless, too. At first she proved to be a reliable person I could trade with. But we grew closer and eventually became... more," he admitted.
