New York, Lyndon Label. 29/07/2012. 10:00.
On the 35th floors of the huge Lyndon Tower situated in Manhattan, in a huge office richly furnished, people could see at the window, a woman yelling at the phone. She was in her late thirties and was an extremely charming woman with jet long black hair. She was wearing a tailored blue dress with high heels who was adding to her charm and making her even more beautiful. The fact that she was really angry at the moment could not obscure that fact.
"How the hell is this possible! Find who leaked that album today and fired him!" Mary Lyndon yells on the phone before hanging up.
Sitting back, she starts taking slow breaths to calm herself. Someone in their Seatle branch office had just leaked the new album of one of their artists. Of course, the artist was furious, his agent was furious and she was also furious. Once leaked, their CD album would sell less, the downloading too and the label would lose money. More than money, when that happens, the label reputation would take a hit and that would impact the price of their stocks.
They had already taken steps to delete the original link posted but once on the internet, that was over. For each link they would delete, three more would be created. It was a losing battle. Like cutting the head of the Hydra. Looking to calm herself, her eyes landed on the framed picture of her family and her anger immediately subsided. Until recently, the only picture was of her wife, her son when he was ten and her. But after her parents came back in her life and her son did the same and finally came out of a coma, a brand new picture was sitting on her desk.
It was a picture taken before her son left for LA two month ago. They were all in the photo, her father, mother, wife and her lovely son, smiling and being happy. Even if her and her parents reconciled five years ago, when the accident happened, it was her son who made her family whole again. Just seeing her usually stern father smiling like that was warming her heart. She was not talking about his fake smile that he uses with the press or his business partners but a genuine, heartfelt smile.
When their son was injured and his status started deteriorating, Mary and Karine became some kind of expert on coma as they were reading every health related article they could find, searching for new experimental treatment and so on. They were desperate to find a cure so he could come back to them but they never found it. That causes them a huge amount of heartache. They both knew that the chance of her son coming out of coma without everlasting consequences was unheard of. She even found out that the percentage of that happening was 0.01%, it was astronomically low.
Even if she did not see her son for the last two month, they talked almost every day on the phone. She was missing him but just thinking about everything they were through, he deserved to accomplish his dream. That's why they did not object to him leaving alone even if they would have prefered to keep him beside them. Thinking about it, he should have come back home three weeks ago but the film had been delayed so she had no choice but to wait. She hoped she would not have to wait too long.
Feeling calmer, she was going to pick her phone again when someone entered her office without being announced or even knocked. She didn't know who had the nerve to enter like that as even her father would not come in on her office before knocking and she was going to yell at the person when the harsh word died on her lips.
Looking at the dashing young men entering her office, her heart almost leaped out of her chest.
"MY BABY!" Mary yelled happily, launching herself into the tender embrace of her son.
"Hi mom." Nathaniel murmurs in her ear, patting her hair.
"But how? When?" She asked, still shocked, tears of joy in her eyes.
"I finished the last scene last night so I took the first flight to come home. I miss you both." He said emotionally.
"We missed you too!" She said on the verge of crying. Her son held many secrets but his love for them was not one of them and she was very glad it wasn't. He had never been shy when he expressed his love to them and she was immensely grateful that it was something that survived his coma.
"Sorry, it was my fault. The director wanted to reshoot some scenes because I could do things that were not in the script. I have a place for the premiere for both of you and for grandma and grandpa too, I hope you will like it."
"Of course we will sweetie, you are on it we can't help but to love it." Mary said, soothing his worries. "Why did nobody give me heads up that you were coming? Nothing from the lobby and nothing from my two secretaries, they were sleeping?"
"No, I just smiled at them, they were too busy blushing to stop me from entering." He said, smiling brilliantly to illustrate what he was saying.
"Karine was right, we created a monster." Mary said with chagrin but her smile gave her away quickly. "By the way, did you call your mom to warn her that you were back?"
"No, I wanted to surprise her but I'm still banned from approaching the DA office so I plan to surprise her when she goes eating at noon." He smiled craftily.
"You are a monster sweetie." Mary said laughing and shaking her head.
"By the way, I have a gift for you two." Nathaniel adds, taking an envelope out of his pocket.
Curious, she opened the envelope and took out the brochure that was on it.
"What is that baby?"
"That is two tickets for a five day vacation in LA in the best resort of the city where the only thing you would have to do is relax, get massaged and take time with mom away from the city."
"It's adorable sweetie but we can't! We have important work, we can't just leave without notice. And how much did you spend on these? It sounds really expensive!"
"I know mom, that's why I already took the responsibility to book vacation day to both of you. In the system, your vacation appears to be reserved a month ago. And for money, don't worry about it, I could afford it. It's in one week so be ready and don't even think about rejecting, the tickets are non refundable."
"I see that you thought about everything." She sighed. "How did you manage to enter our system to book this vacation?"
"Mom, you should know that magicians never reveal their tricks."
"I don't even know why I bother to ask." She shakes her head. "Thanks for the amazing gift sweetie. You right, we do need some time off but we would like it better if you were there with us."
"No mom, you really need time with only you two. Don't worry, College starts in a month and a half. I would stay home during that period. I'm not planning to go anywhere. I need to prepare for College and finish my album by the way." He says.
"Alright sweetie. Now sit, i want to hear everything that happened to you the last few months."