Prometheus, Marieta Maglas [a court of thorns and roses ebook free txt] 📗

realized that he was lost forever. She looked right at his picture, on the wall. Her eyes locked in a pause, for a moment. Her eyes were frightened and she was really terrified.

She buried her nose into her sleeve and she tried to force her body to calm her heart pain. She heard the voices of the policemen and she felt tears trickle down her face, but she couldn't make any sound, even if she wanted to scream. She closed her eyes and she fell down the floor. She felt that her spine was chilling. That strange silence around her was thundering like the worst drum ever imagined. She lost her consciousness.

The police team entered the house and found Jeff dead because of an apparent suicide by gunshot. Two weapons were found on and near Jeff's body, a shotgun and a handgun.

Lisa opened her eyes. She looked around and she discovered the hospital room. Her heart stopped when she looked into Michael's amber eyes. His face was more opaque and it made her to stop breathing for a few moments.

"Breathe, girl," said Michael.

She gulped and took a deep breath.

"I saw you in our bedroom, making love with another woman. I know that Jeff is dead. "

"Forgive me, Lisa, but you had problems and I couldn't resist. You lost your baby, but don't worry, you will have another one, " said Michael, kissing her.

"I am not going to hurt your mistress. All I want to know is if you want to stay with me from now on. "

"Of course, my dear, you will be pregnant again. "

He felt a poke in his chest. He looked down and he saw Lisa, pulling back her finger. She touched him.

"I love you, " said Lisa. "I cannot afford to lose you. I fell in love with you from the moment I laid my eyes on you. Will you make love to me, Michael?" It was a kiss of forgiveness she had wanted and she had put her heart into her eyes and begged him to love her.

"Yes. "

"If you don't make love to me, nothing will happen. Don't give me your body because you feel that I am pushing you to do it. You are free to walk out of here, if that is what you want, " said Lisa.

He looked up into her face saying, "I will never leave you. "

Tears welled up inside her eyes. She felt his warm palm on her cheek.

"Something bad happened to Jeff. He was a real fighter, " said Michael.

"Yes, he was a real fighter, but he never knew to accept that he may lose. He committed his suicide because he had a big financial problem. "

Michael looked very strangely to her.

"He called his daughter to tell her that he is going to commit the suicide because you didn't return his phone calls and the messages he had sent to you, " said Michael.

"He already had a daughter with his first wife, when he married me. But, Michael, he didn't call me and he didn't send me any message. I can prove this. "

"Maybe he had a financial problem. Sometimes, I'm wondering how my boy will react to our marriage, " said Michael.

"We can be together without being married. You don't have to give up your marriage with Nora. I didn't know that you have a boy. What's his name?"

"I was married before meeting Ella. I divorced Alice because of my love for Ella. My boy, Jack, was only two years old, " said Michael.

 

Chapter 19

 

The Funerals

 

Ella has always wanted, for sure, one thing since she was a little girl. She wanted to buy a printing press. The problem was that she didn't have enough money to do this. Ella set out to find a way to do this. Ella had thought she was going to get away for her maternal period for returning to work. Her mother had promised to help her with some money and she wanted to take care of the baby, in order to give her daughter the opportunity to work. She had already published her book. She had been working on it for several years, acquiring a high-powered agent, having some brushes with two major publishers.

She could have tried to go to a small publisher, but she was told that her book was a bigger one, with more aspirations. She also learned that the small publishers could be wiped out by the self-publishing revolution of recent years, which had a major impact on mainstream media. The basic premise was that anyone could become a small publisher. She decided to associate with Laura and Sam.Ella couldn't really know what it meant to be a real publisher until she became a partner.She realized that she had to work hard for this purpose.

"I know that I must work hard for a very long time, in order to get to the point of making a lot of money from publishing books,"said Sam. He needed to learn about his job duty and other life skills, necessary for functioning within the press community.

"Laura, you are an experienced director and you can handle with a lot of money. You have a lot of experience in the publishing industry. It's a great goal because the benefits can be unlimited,"said Ella.

Owning a publishing company can be the ultimate hands-on experience. Each project requires personal attention. Generally, people who own publishing companies are prepared to work long hours and to face significant start-up costs. If they can deal successfully with the pressures of payroll, regulations and problem solving, the rewards can be great.

"I will share up to thirty five percent with a serious project manager, who can handle the whole publishing development. There is much to be discussed and I expect only very professional persons to be involved," said Laura.

"Do you need another manager?" Sam was making a ceaseless effort to understand the problems. The main reason Sam found himself in this situation was that he was not, in fact, prepared to deal with the business as he was going to find it.

"The affair is bigger now than before and the manager I have is not a very good one. In fact, I have thought of Michael.This is why I have invited him here," said Laura.

Michael thought of what she said for a few seconds and, after that, he said,"Make it forty percent and I'm your man,"said Michael.

"I cannot give you forty percent on this project and I know you wouldn't mind having just thirty percent, once this is up and running, but I give you thirty five percent and I am willing to discuss about a higher rate later when the level of sales will reach the target level of profit," said Laura.

"I expect a very good knowledge from your co-workers and the ability to create a system. It is a hard work, but only big rewards are expected. I understand that I'm hired. If thirty five percent is all the manager gets and the manager does one hundred percent of the publishing development, the question I have is what do the other partners do to warrant getting sixty five percent? The ratio of work to gain money seems to be unbalanced, "said Michael.

"I am looking for an exceptional book designer to work for me and this will cost me a lot. I need a high quality for the books and this is very expensive. I'm asking you to accept this proposal for a while. Ella and Sam will take twenty percent together. What I need to say is that I want you all to be true partners. We will start a very profitable non-risky affair. As I said in the beginning, we have to work very hard because, without this, we can lose everything,"said Laura.

"I don't know if a great book designer is the key to success," said Michael.

"The clients want to place their manuscripts in the hands of someone they can trust. A good book designer knows how to make the book to be the best one. It's a very creative process, associated with the production details, for making this book to be complete," said Laura.

"We must develop the business plan," concluded Sam, who was paying attention to everything.

Sam wanted to make money to become rich enough for being co-partner in an affair. For this purpose, he had to impose many restrictions on himself. He had been worth every penny of his salary. It was an unimaginable stress to work for ten years, having two jobs at the same time.There were plenty of ways to get money, including speculation, marriage, inheritance, theft, extortion, fraud, counterfeiting and prospecting, but Sam chose to invest his money in the stock market because it had already gained so much popularity. Because the stocks prices had been on the rise, he thought that he had found a safe way to invest. He believed that his stocks were his tickets to richness. He was right because those stock values didn't stop rising. Sooner than he expected, the stock prices were very high, as a result of the mass investments. The stock prices continued to rise until they reached their highest points. This way, Sam became a rich man.

"It isn't very complicated, but it has to be thorough," said Ella.

"It is very important to know how the business must be developed,'' said Laura.

"Without a few lines of credit and an alternative of start-up funding, no business can survive for long time. You have money, but not enough for your purpose.This is why you must get a loan, until the company gets established," said Daniel.

"How can we get the loan?" Sam became curious.

"You must open a bank account, in the company's name, for paying the bills.You must keep it separate from your investment, checking and savings accounts," said Daniel.

"Laura, it's wonderful to see you both together again," said Ella.

"I love him very much,"said Laura.

Laura had not realized what Daniel wanted from her, until they divorced. Even she was separated from Daniel, she didn't feel completely detached from him. She realized that it was much easier to think of their relationship, while they were living separately. She thought for a moment that living as a single would be better, but she concluded that, on the other side, the life can lose its sense. After this experience, Laura realized that Daniel was all she needed. She realized that she loves him and she cannot love another man. The divorce wasn't very easy. It was a traumatic experience, but their problems seemed almost impossible to be solved without this separation. When Daniel decided to return, Laura tried to be honest with him because she wanted to start a new life. Daniel told her to be mature enough to realize that the main problems in their marriage were caused by her attitude and he asked her to be honest enough to admit that she generated the main conflicts. He told her that he had learned to forgive and forget because he understood that it was easier to forgive and forget the past and look towards a better future, than to live with unsolved problems. Her reconciliation with Daniel was a long and difficult process.

"Covering the equipment is the first priority.We need to invest in equipment liability and workman's compensation," said Laura.

"We need to be shielded against some claims, arising from miscalculation, made during our activity," said Ella.

"We must carefully balance our estimations. We have to bend a little on pricing for a steady work flow," said Laura.

"You must know everything about all the risks.You must know how to plan on addressing damage claims and client disputes. All these will go along with strengthening your position as a contractor,"said Daniel.

"Daniel, you're