Who is The Better CEO?

Maryanne's thoughts were still in shambles following the hair-raising ordeal she had been through in the past 36 hours. In fact, she would not wish it even for her worst and sworn enemy. To bring you up to speed, Maryanne had lost her mother to a fire whose start is still a mystery not just to the firemen that helped put it out but also to the investigators on the case.

Secondly, her lingerie and cloth retailing business had gone under after the stock prices took a dive in a span of less than 24 hours following the fire. On top of these, Maryanne had been kidnapped, starved and tortured till she could no longer feel the pain. Or did her veins numb? Or was it the pain receptors? In short, her brain no longer bothered to register any more pain administered to her.

Maryanne had escaped from her captors by jumping down two floors through a bathroom window. Luckily, she did not fracture any bones and was capable of finding her way home. At the moment, she did not have time to think who was behind her tonne of misfortunes.

As a matter of fact, Maryanne imagined stopping to think things through might increase the number of unfortunate events likely to happen to her. The only thing she knew was that she had to move fast. Or else, her captors would locate her. And this time round,Maryanne knew she would surely die.

Maryanne did not have the courage to look at herself in the mirror. She was dead sure her face was thoroughly disfigured from the thorough beating she had received earlier. Even there was some blood that had dried near her lips.

Maryanne knew that confirming her face was thoroughly disfigured and her eyes swollen to the point of squinting would definitely dismantle her composure. In order to save on time, she hurriedly threw a few essentials into a backpack and stepped into the shower.

God, it felt heavenly taking a shower after over 48 long and agonizing hours. Imagining the shower would wipe away all the bad things that had happened to her and she would step out and find everything the way it was three days ago, Maryanne scrubbed every inch of her body thoroughly. In total, she took approximately 20 minutes to get ready.

Yes. 20 MINUTES. NO MAKE UP WAS NECESSARY AT THIS POINT.

Since withdrawing money from one of her accounts might alert her kidnappers, Maryanne decided to get some cash from her father's study, weeeell, now her study. Interestingly, even the two $100 dollar bills she had left on top of the desk were still there.

Just when Maryanne had finished stashing the money she had taken from the inbuilt safe on different parts of the backpack and self cause you never know, she heard two cars pull up the drive way.

Maryanne's heart rate increased to a point you would think she had the over $100 million jackpot on a lottery on first trial. She held her breathe, hid behind the desk and waited patiently.

Thank goodness! She had not switched on the lights of the house. Instead, Maryanne had opted to use the small spotlight attached to her keys to find her way around the house. This, as evident by the turn of events was a blessing in disguise.

Damn! They were fast, faster than lightning! And what did they want? Were they after money? What did she do to deserve this? Or is it about the multi million contract to supply African wear to Amazon she had signed last month?

She sure did beat some well established companies in their own game in that one. Was it something her parents or her brother had done? And where could he be by the way? These are some of the questions that were running through Maryanne's mind as she tried to think of a place to hide.

She was brought back to the situation at hand by the shutting of the main entrance door. 'Oh My God! What should I do?' She asked herself part in fear, part in despair.

"That idiot is not here." She heard a familiar voice say.