is your response to the recent attacks?"

A microphone was pushed into her face before the flash of a camera nearly blinded her. Nyla did not know what was going on. The entrance of the Renne Headquarters was buzzing with reporters. Last time she'd check, she hadn't particularly done anything newsworthy.

Anthony helped her navigate the crowd. "At this time, Ms. Malhotra will not be commenting," he shouted over the loud voices of the crowd.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, she was able to slip into the building. She straightened her suit before walking towards the elevator. She found Anthony following her behind, phone pressed to his ear and she cocked an eyebrow.

"I've got her now. We are coming up."

Nyla stood in the corner watching the buttons light up as they went higher and higher.

"Who was that?"

"Hyeon."

"Why is she calling you?" Nyla pressed on.

Anthony held open the elevator and Nyla stepped out. "You're going to find out soon enough."

Sure enough, the top floor was in pandemonium. Sawyer—her lawyer was present as was almost every executive. The C-Suits were bursting with people. Nyla looked at the boardroom and she was almost certain that every shareholder was present. Hyeon ran towards her.

"I have eight media outlets calling for a comment, what should I say?"

Sawyer followed behind her. "She can't say anything right now, we need to release a press statement," her eyes scanned the room, "where is the Public Relations Director?"

Hyeon grimaced. "Downstairs, she's trying to get into the building but it's impossible with this crowd."

More people came up to her and began asking questions. The noise was just too loud for Nyla and she absentmindedly massaged her temples. More people badgered her for answers, but Nyla couldn't hear the words.

"Enough!" she shouted.

Everyone in the room froze and there was pin drop silence. "Now, would anyone like to tell me what is going on here?"

It was Hyeon who passed her the newspaper. Nyla quickly scanned the paper and after reaching the end, she felt something creeping up in her stomach. She was going to throw up.

"Drink this," a softer voice said.

George passed her a glass of water and Nyla downed it quickly.

Dead. There were six people dead in the new vitamin line division factory. An explosion had occurred last night.

She was responsible for this. It was her job to keep the employees safe and she had failed. Numbly, Nyla walked towards her office. She was aware of the looks she was receiving from the other employees, but she ignored them. Instead, Nyla shut the door softly and walked away from the world momentarily.

Nyla dropped her bag on the empty chair. Her phone was lighting up with messages, but she ignored them. She looked at the view from her office and for the first time, she felt a bit scared of the height. Raymond had trusted her with this view, and his people—she'd let them down.

Nyla wasn't stupid enough to take all the blame, but she did shoulder some responsibility. She took a deep breath in, trying to calm her nerves. Her ship was on fire, so she needed to lead and set an example as the captain now, more than ever.

She picked up the landline before placing it back down. The lines to Hyeon's phone were probably busy right now. Instead she called for Hyeon.

Seconds later, Hyeon stumbled inside which made Nyla believe that her secretary was probably lurking just behind her door for the last few minutes.

"Get Sawyer and George both in here. I'm going to draft the statement right now so that you can pass it over to the other members of the public relations department." Nyla tapped the pen on the desk as she pondered over her decision. "Call Darius' office and see if they want to submit a joint statement or prefer releasing one of their own," she added.

Hyeon nodded and both Sawyer and George arrived in her office. "Have a seat," she said crisply. "We are going to be here for a while."

The two exchanged looks that didn't go unnoticed by Nyla.

"What are you going to do about the board members in the conference room?"

"Let them wait their turn."

"But—" Nyla didn't let him finish his sentence. "They are the least of my worries right now. I need to get the media under control."

George slumped further into the chair and Nyla took a moment to really look at him. It really hit her in the moment that he was much older than her. His eyes seemed weary with the bags more prominent than ever. The wrinkles were etching deeper into his skin—George looked exhausted.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly.

George jolted awake before giving her a stiff nod. Sawyer and her exchanged worried glances.

"I can always call the VP of operations..." Nyla suggested.

"I'm fine," he snapped.

Nyla was taken aback by his attitude, but she let it slide. There was lingering silence in the office until it was broken by George's apology. "I shouldn't have said that. I'm just stressed that's all..."

Nyla accepted his apology with a nod of her own. "Let's get to dealing with this issue now."

The three of them sat in her office for the next hour as they went through multiple drafts of the statement they could release. Sawyer was very particular about the wording.

"If we say it like that, it leaves us open for a lot of lawsuits." Sawyer said at one of the drafts they had written.

It was frustrating. Trying to write a statement while feeling emphatic for the individuals but also trying to avoid potential lawsuits. She didn't know how long they had been holed up in her office, but they were disturbed by Hyeon's knock.

"I've been trying to get into contact with Mr. Giordano's office, but nobody is picking up."

Nyla frowned. "Maybe their lines are just busy from media calls."

Hyeon shrugged her shoulders. "Do you want me to keep trying?"

Nyla went for her own phone. She dialed Darius' phone number twice but the automatic voice on the other side told her to leave a message.

"Try once more, if nobody answers we are going to release the statement with or without their permission."

Hyeon nodded. George was staring at her. "How can you not get into contact with Darius?"

"I don't know, he's not picking up his phone."

George made a sound but didn't say anything. He didn't have to, it was clear that he did not approve of Darius' availability. Nyla made sure to morph her features into one that couldn't care less. However, underneath, she was boiling. Darius was leaving her alone to deal with the issue. She needed his assistance in order to make a joint statement and show support for each other in this time.

"I don't care if we need to someone to drive to their headquarters, but I need to talk to someone from G Health now."

Hyeon nodded but the phone was ringing so she went outside to pick it up. "It's Mr. Giordano's secretary, Oliva."

Nyla got up and held out a hand for the phone. "Hi, do you know how I can get into contact with Darius?"

"I'm sorry Ms. Malhotra, but he's gone for a few days."

"I'm assuming you know where he is?"

There was a brief pause on the other line. "I don't."

Nyla gritted her teeth. "Well, is there someone else I can talk to? We are releasing a statement and if nobody from your office approves it in the next five minutes, I frankly don't care about the shit storm after."

"Mr. Giordano hasn't arrived at the office yet, but he could look it over?"

Nyla was confused. "Didn't you just say that he's going to be gone for a few days."

"I meant Vincent, Ms. Malhotra."

Nyla looked around the floor to see that phones were still ringing madly. She just didn't have time. "Is there no other executive around who can sign off on this?"

"I'm afraid not."

It seemed like Oliva was less than willing to cooperate, so Nyla took a blunter tactic. "Do you mean to tell me that Darius left nobody is charge?"

"We are quite capable of running things smoothly on our own." Oliva's stiff voice came from the other side.

"I'm sure you are," Nyla replied sarcastically. "Well, wherever Mr. Giordano is, you can tell him that I'm releasing a joint statement and tomorrow we will hold a press conference at the Riz Carlton Hotel. If it's not too much work, please send a representative there."

With a quick goodbye, she slammed the phone receiver down. Hyeon looked at her for a brief moment but didn't say anything. Nyla marched back into the office with determined eyes. "Release the damn statement."

♠♠♠♠♠♠

Nyla looked in the mirror once more making sure that she didn't have any lipstick or food in her teeth. Beside her, the PR manager, and Sawyer looked on nervously.

"It's a large crowd but keep your cool. Try to sound empathetic but not defensive. We haven't done anything wrong yet." Sawyer coached her.

Nyla nodded, only half listening to what Sawyer was saying. G Health had not sent a representative yet so it seemed like she would be answering the questions for both companies. How charming.

There was a flutter of activity behind her and Nyla spun around to see Darius striding their way.

"I hope I'm not too late." he said with a grin.

Nyla felt the anger boiling up inside her. How dare he grin.

"Too late?" she said, her voice high pitched, "Oh no you're just super early to all of this. All the statements have been released, and lawyers have been contacted. There really isn't much need for you anymore. You should have just stayed in your hole and crawled out after we spoke to the media."

Darius' smile slide off his face and Nyla felt a sense of satisfaction. Good she thought. Make him realize all the stress he had put her through. She hadn't been able to leave the office until midnight and even after that, Anthony personally escorted her all the way inside her condo because people were still asking for statements.

"I can explain, Nyla." he said softly.

She saw the hurt in his eyes and ignored it. "Save it."

Darius' eyes narrowed at her tone. "If you really treat all your friends like that, no wonder you don't have many."

The words were like shards of glass, slowly piercing her skin. They were meant to hurt, to break her down. However, she wouldn't give Darius the satisfaction of seeing the harm he'd caused. Instead she'd turned away only to nearly bump into Sawyer.

Her lawyer looked anxiously between both her and Darius but didn't say anything. Seconds later she spoke, "That's your cue, the media's ready for you."

Nyla plastered a fake smile on her face and went on stage to greet the media members. She was vaguely aware of Darius following her and the two of them stood on the podium with a respectable distance between them.

"Mr. Giordano and Ms. Malhotra will now be taking questions."

Hands immediately shot up and Darius was the first one to select the person.

"HuffPost here, my question is for Mr. Giordano. According to shots obtained by the paparazzi, you just arrived in New York early today. Is it true that you were on a personal leave of absence?"

Nyla tried not to look taken a back by the question. It was a surprise to her as well that Darius' hadn't been in New York.

"Did TMZ get my best angles at least?" Darius asked with a relaxed smile. "I wasn't present in the office yesterday but the best part about technology is that you don't really need to be. I was able to get the information quite quickly yesterday and act upon in."

Nyla noticed his body was anything by relaxed. His fingers were clenched tightly at his sides but of course nobody could see that behind the podium.

The next question was aimed towards her. "Reporter from the Los Angeles times, there was a lot of speculation when this project was announced and Mr. Giordano and yourself would not be able to get along. Do you think that there was some truth to it? A follow up question to that, were you able to get into contact with Mr. Giordano after the incident?"

Nyla made sure that her smile was int act. She wasn't aware of how the reports had picked up the tension between the two of them, but it seemed like they had. It was time to stretch the truth. "We are both professionals and understand that. Therefore, we have done our best to maintain and respect one another. Trust takes time to build but seconds to destroy."

The last words were said with a little more force that necessary. She could see Darius almost flinch beside her. "As for your follow up question, I'm sure Mr. Giordano will be pleased to answer it."

Nyla realized her mistake as soon as she finished the sentence. She had referred to Darius as Mr. Giordano which indicated a sense of formality between them. Some of the reports looked up but most seemed busy writing down her comments.

Darius slightly turned towards Nyla who stepped further to the left. "There were members of my office that were able to get into contact with Nyla however she has my full approval of how she handled the situation."

"Are there any leads on the accident itself?"

There was a moment of silence before Nyla realized that Darius wasn't going to answer because he didn't know. "We are working with the police in order to get the bottom of this and as soon as we have answers we will let you know."

"Last question," Sawyer announced to the group.

"Have you spoken to the families of the victims? What are you planning to do?"

Nyla nudged Darius with her foot to speak. "We will be getting into contact with the families soon. Our heart goes out to them and we will do anything we can in order to help them in this difficult time."

The two of them were escorted off the stage. Nyla made sure there was a healthy distance between her and Darius.

"Wait Nyla," he said reaching to grab her hand as she walked by.

Nyla dodged him and walked on as if he was invisible. She had better things to do then to engage in a pointless argument.

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

Things are starting to go downhill for Nyla and Darius. Do you think Nyla should have listened to Darius' reasons?