SINGLE MOTHER AND CEO

On Paradise Island, the Narrator:

After having heard the words issued by Reyner everyone at the table, began to murmur. Not a minute had passed, when Sofia, bravely and without feeling embarrassed or humiliated, for that matter, expressed….

-And where in the bylaws or internal regulations of the shipping company does it state that because I am a single mother, I am not qualified to occupy the position of CEO? -Sofia asked scathingly, pronouncing each word with emphasis, “Tell me?

In the face of this frontal attack, without any prudence or sense, from Reyner against Sofia, Estefania assumed her defense and support. She made it very clear what her position is before what was her husband’s last will and closed by affirming….

-I share Sofia’s criteria, besides agreeing with my late husband’s last decision,” she said.

“Therefore, I fully support my daughter to occupy the position of CEO and I support this position with my thirty actions,” she concluded, she sternly.

Estefania, who until that moment had kept quiet, doing the same as she had done during her husband’s lifetime. She spoke, to exercise her right to vote, supporting the decision made by her daughter.

-I support what Reyner said,” said Ezequiel, looking disdainfully at Sofia and her mother, “It seems to me that he is indeed the one who has the most merits to hold the position of CEO.

-How many shares do you represent, Ezequiel? -Sofia questioned with a challenging look, raising one of her perfectly delineated eyebrows.

-Five percent,” he answered, lowering the tone of his voice.

-Secretary of Minutes, count the shares that support the votes, to elect the CEO, although it is something absurd, since this was made clear in the copy of my father’s will, which states his proposal for the position and which was sent to each shareholder,” she said.

-However, we cannot let just anyone manage our patrimony,” said Jose David, resentfully.

-I support my friends! I will go to Reyner,” declared Noah, “even though he has been in the Executive Management for a few months, he did well, and what we are interested in are the results. We must not get carried away by sentimentality,” he said, looking at Benjamin.

-How many shares do you represent, Noah? -Sofia asked without showing any gesture on her face.

-Five,” he confessed.

-I support my father, with my ten actions,” said Jose David, avoiding looking at Sofia and referring to the way she became pregnant.

He considered that a person who, under the effects of whatever, loses his five senses, gets pregnant and does not know who the father of his children is, lacks the morals to lead a company of the magnitude that Naviera represents,” he affirmed.

-Well, if that’s the case, he also lacks morality who, taking advantage of another person’s esteem, manipulates him, so that he can put his daughter on a silver platter,” Sofia said.

And in this way, to get his son to move up in economic position and social status,” she blurted out, without flinching, discovering their hidden desires.

-At no time did I persuade my friend Juan Carlos to enter into a marriage engagement between you and my son Jose David, for economic or social purposes,” Reyner answered, “I only wanted to unite our families,” he finally confessed.

-And it is precisely the fact that you did not accept that engagement that has led you to this confrontation today, without any legal basis whatsoever,” she clarified, with a feigned and arrogant smile.

Legally, my thirty shares, plus my mother’s thirty, add up to sixty percent of the company’s capital, more than enough for both of us to elect the CEO, for the time established in the bylaws,” she said.

-I am opposed! And I immediately request a modification to the bylaws, so that decisions are made by head and not taking into account the number of shares of each owner,” argued Reyner.

-I request a right to speak,” requested one of the lawyers of Sofia’s father, to clarify the legal aspects of the decisions in this Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting.

-I object! -Because this is a shareholders’ meeting, in which only we “the shareholders” have the right to speak and vote to elect and decide,” he added arrogantly and obstinately.

-That’s enough, Reyner! -The bylaws are clear: absolute majority, fifty plus one, for the appointment of the CEO, and a qualified majority of seventy-five percent, for modification of the bylaws,” he clarified.

In view of the fact that you do not have either of the two, because my vote is for Sofia, she is the new CEO of the Shipping Line and for the time established in the bylaws,” he said, making the observation to the secretary, who immediately recorded this decision.

Quickly, the election and appointment process was closed, and the decision was recorded in the minutes. At the end of the process, Sofia, her mother and Benjamin went to the CEO’s office so that she could take her position at once.

In the meantime, the lawyers proceeded to draft the minutes, to take the signatures of all the shareholders. In this way, they proceeded to register it immediately, mainly for legal purposes, both nationally and internationally.

Simultaneously to the act of appointment, the networks in Paradise Island and Ciudad La Rosa uploaded a photo of the new CEO of the most important international shipping company. The great majority celebrated that such a young and beautiful woman assumed such a high position and responsibility.

In any case, the defeated and resentful Reyner, Jose David, Ezequiel and Noah, remained in the boardroom, frustrated. Each one of them had a proposal ready to make changes that would allow them to remove the widow and the heiress from the Naviera’s domain.

They left with their heads in the sand. Especially Jose David, who has always had high aspirations to become the Executive Director of the Shipping Company, taking advantage of his relationship with Sofia. Now he regretted this decision.

“I should not have confronted Sofia so radically, it was a mistake on my part, letting myself be guided by my father. I just buried any possibility of conquering her and becoming her husband,” Jose David deliberated, acknowledging his grave mistake.

“I also shouldn’t have brought up her pregnancy and the fact that she doesn’t know the father of her children. No one on the island knew about this, except for my father and me,” he said, regretting what he said and did at the meeting. However, he will not give up.

Three years later…

Sofia:

Starting spring again in Ciudad La Rosa, with a torrential downpour, together with my mother and my beautiful triplets, in a four-door Golden Bentley, I arrived at the inauguration of another branch of Naviera.

-Mommy, I’m going into the subway parking lot, so we don’t get wet,” I said, since she has a phobia of this type of parking lot.

-Calm down, daughter! I told Shayla and Sheyli where we were going to park so they could come in with us,” my mother answered.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

So, when we arrived at Larcomar, a shopping mall by the sea, in the back of which the new offices of the shipping company were located, I went directly to the basement to park my car.

Behind came in their respective cars, my two friends, who will be the Directors of this new Branch, in spite of Reyner’s objection…