Daniel Carol held the phone in his hands as steadily as he could and listened to the person on the other end of the line.
   He had spent his entire life building his empire, The Carol Store chain. So hearing these words shook his very foundation. "I don't understand how this can happen."
   "The store has been going downhill for a while now sir, but we all thought the new manager could sort it out. Clearly we were wrong."
   "We need to get that man out of my store and find someone who can actually do their job," Daniel said, his voice raised a little more than he had wanted.
   "I will head over there right now sir, and sort this out."
   "Good. I'll be in touch," Daniel told him and put down the phone. He rested his head against the cool, yellow wall and let out a sigh. He had spent too long building up the store chain to let someone bring one of this many stores to its knees. If he had to go down there himself and run it, he would, rather than let it go out of business. Yet he knew that wouldn't happen.
   He hoped it wouldn't come to that.



   He left the study and headed towards the living room where he knew his wife, Sharon, was sitting. He could smell her perfume, a heavenly scent of roses. As he walked around the corner, she looked up from the book she was reading and smiled at him, that lovely smile that never failed to warm his heart and send his troubles away.
   "Hey sweetie," he said and placed a loving kiss upon her forehead.
   "I heard you raise your voice. Is everything okay?" she asked, closing her book.
   "Just something to do with work. It's nothing to worry about."
   Sharon smiled. "If you need to talk to me about anything, I'm always here."
   Daniel returned the smile she was still showing him, yet his was no where near as real as hers. It felt as if everything he had worked for could be in danger. His investments in Europe were doing okay, but not as he had expected. Maybe he was worrying too much?
   He hoped it was just that, worry, and nothing more.
   His life was good. He had a lovely wife, two daughters, Steff and Tess, and everything he could ever need. Yet he worried, worried too much. It was a weakness he hid well in the boardroom, hid well from everyone but Sharon.




   Kelly Strong poured the eggs with red and green peppers into a frying pan and set it on the counter. She listening to her sons talking, and couldn't help but smile. She had had her eldest, Troy, when she was just fifteen, and then Mark when she was seventeen, with a man she thought she loved. Yet he had left her just two months after Mark was born, and left her to raise her boys alone. She had done well, considering what she was up against. Neighbours has always helped her when she needed to go to work, taking care of them and making sure they got home from school safely. She had been lucky, in some respects.
   So looking at her boys, her lovely boys, she was filled with pride. They had not lived in Alpine Heights long, eight months, but already they were settling down.
   Hopefully she would too, and find a job, because what little savings she did have left would soon be gone...and they would be in trouble.



   Sam James sighed at her picture in the newspaper. She had always hated the fact they printed the worse one next to her column. It was as if they were trying to show her flaws, although she knew they were not.
   She read over what she had written, a story about the fire that had burned a coffee shop to the ground a few miles out of the town. It was okay, but not her best work. She had been stuck with small stories for months, and it was one mistake that had taken her down this path.
   A local man had reported his wife dead, and it was Sam who had covered the story in the local newspaper. It all seemed to show a suicide, however a tip given to Sam by a normally good contact seemed to show foul play. So, she had run with it and printed what turned out to be an untrue story. She was still haunted by it to this day, and ever since she had made one hundred percent sure her contacts information was good.
   "Stupid thing," she said as threw the paper into the ground.
   Jade Doyle looked away from The Young And The Restless for a second, turning her head straight back to it when she had noted what had happened. "What's wrong?" she asked, not really interested.
   "I wish my boss would give me a break already. I mean, I try my best to write good stuff but he has still not forgiven me for that one mistake."
   "Ask him for something better?" Jade suggested.
   "I guess I should. It's just..."
   "It's just nothing. Get off your ass and ask him girl."
   Sam sighed at her roommates attitude. She hated to cause a scene at work, hated causing any scene at all. She didn't know if she could ask him. Her shyness had always pushed her backwards in her life. It was always the same story, repeated over and over. She didn't want to argue with Jade about it, not that she could anyway, so she get up and headed for the kitchen where a cold glass of ices tea had her name on it.




   Jack Adel had been writing notes for an hour. He looked at the page and wondered how his pen still had any ink left. The figures on the page made for grim reading, and he knew that as soon as Jake Andrews came into the room he was going to have to break the bad news.
   On cue, Jake knocked on the door and walked in. "Hey hun, so what's the word?"
   "I think that even if we sell the cars, we will struggle to get the money together for that building," Jack told him.
   Jake sighed, running his hand through his hair. "I knew it. We should be looking for a smaller place."
   "I know that, but that building was perfect. Maybe I'm setting my sights too high, but I want this club to be perfect," Jack told him. "I want it to be ours."
   "We can make a smaller building ours, it's just going to take more work. I'll get on the phone with Sandy and see if I can't get him to show us a really nice place, with just a little less space."
   Jack nodded and picked up his pen once more. He waited until Jake left the room before starting work again, rechecking the numbers. It was their dream to open the first rock and heavy metal club in Alpine Heights. The town was small, but it drew in a good crowd on the weekends. The only club Alpine Heights had had closed six months before, the owner packing up and leaving the country to be with his sick mother, and Jack had set his sights on getting it and opening his own place there. So the fact the numbers didn't stack up and money was tight made him more than just upset.
   It made him angry.
   Hopefully Jake could find something just as good. But it would never be the same as the old Alpine club. The place screamed out for him to take over.