NO NEED TO GET EMOTIONALLY VESTED

Miss Sarah Zen had been working in her cabin, which was also her bedroom. The walls in her bedroom were completely covered in screens.

The one facing the bed displayed the details of all the companies that she owned, which is a lot considering that they owned close to fifty. She could inspect the work-stations, give commands, take decisions, and authorize others to do the work for her using that single screen.

She would get so tired seeing through so much footage that she rarely checked the footage of her house which was displayed on the screen behind the bed.

There was a beep and the screen behind her displayed a notification from ‘ Roxy Roy’ who was the supervisor of playtime.

‘Madam, your son has not been interacting with his playmates at all. Does he not know how to interact or is he unable to cope up?’

Unable to cope up!? Who was she kidding? Mrs. Zen was confident that her son was brighter than all the other children. There must be some other problem. She decided to investigate immediately. She signaled Cuppy Cake to put on the video chat but there was no response.

This was a first. Cuppy Cake was programmed to follow all her instructions without fail. It had been designed by her company exclusively for her. She worried that there was a security breach. So, she activated the intruder alert.

She was about to check through the footage of Zuben’s room but she received a notification that Rocky was bringing Zuben. As a result, she got busy studying financial statements.

“Momma….” she heard her son’s sweet voice behind her. Right at that moment, a wrong tally caught her attention. She had to get to the bottom of the mismatch immediately or they would face heavy losses.

“Zubie…Why have you not been interacting with your playmates? Mommy is very angry! Promise me you will chat with your playmates.” She said without turning back.

When there was no response for a long time she prompted in a stern voice, “ What did momma say?”

“Okay….momma, Zubie promise.” Sarah was relieved when she heard his promise. Though he sounded reluctant she knew that he will chat with his friends. He always did what he promised.

“Good boy! Rocky takes him back to his room and see what is wrong with Cuppy cake. I have work to do. Put me on DND mode.” She said and started scrolling through the data in an attempt to figure out what had gone wrong.

“Momma…. Zubie wants a huggie first.” He said stretching his arms towards her.

“Not now, Zuben. Momma will come to meet you in your room in a while. She has to sort out a problem first.”

“But…….”

“ Rocky take him to his room, now!” Sarah said in a bland voice.

Zuben’s little heart was shattered to bits. He had been waiting eagerly for his mother to hug him but she didn’t even look at him. Tears rolled down his cheeks and his body shook as he started sobbing loudly but by now Rocky had already carried him out of Sarah’s earshot. So, she never found out.

She was busy trying to get to the root of the problem with full concentration. She couldn’t figure out what was wrong even though she used up all her brainpower and tactics.

When she couldn’t see any option she sent a call request to her husband, Arnold Zen in brain wave mode. It was always much easier and quicker to communicate through brain ways. She also felt that they could connect better if they communicated in brainwave mode.

He would be mad at her but she had to tell him. She was unsurprised when he declined it and called her manual mode. She often wondered if he didn’t trust her but she never got the opportunity to question him. She picked it up quickly lest she angered him.

“I am in an important meeting….so this better be an urgent matter.” He said in clipped tones.

She got flustered and blurted out, “ The revenues of Zuben Limited are mismatched…..”

Before she could continue further he said, “Mole spotted and weeded out. Wrong details planted.” Then he disconnected the call without waiting for her reply. As usual, he had sorted out the problem even before she came to know about it.

Her pupils turned black as her heart filled with despair. It stung each time he talked to her as if she wasn’t worth anything.

She sighed as she tapped an icon on her watch to change the scene to their wedding pictures. The people all over the mainland had logged in to view their marriage but Arnold had appeared in the video conference for only five minutes.

He hadn’t even bothered to look at her once. He had made an announcement placed his digital signatures and left the meeting without waiting for her to sign. Loud cheers erupted when she placed her digital signatures on the document, thus legalizing their marriage.

But, she knew that none of them were truly happy for her. She had snatched a great opportunity from many eligible women.

She knew that this was a part and parcel of being the wife of an Inspy  (A social rank which consisted of the people who were just below the rank that had attained immortality). Hadn’t she greed to their marriage only in the hope of going one step higher on the social ladder?

As for Arnold he had agreed to this marriage as Sarah’s father had agreed to give all 50 of his enterprises to him. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that it was like any other business deal. There was no need to be emotionally vested in it.

When she married Arnold he had clarified that he wouldn’t be able to spend time chatting and engaging in video calls with her. He had worked very hard to set up his business empire and now that he was on the verge of acquiring enough power to join the immortals he wasn’t going to waste time on useless stuff.

He had promised that once he had garnered enough power he would treat her as if she is a queen. She had no option but to be patient.

Sarah felt drained after so much of contemplation. She went to the energy dispenser and her hands wavered only for a second before she pressed the double dose button. With such a high dose of energy flowing through her body, she wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. But, maybe that was what she needed.

“I will prove to Arnold that I am an equal contributor in our quest to attain immortality.” She muttered and bit her lips.

Then, she got back to her task of managing her business empires with full focus.