Is this destiny?

~ Los Angeles ~

Grand opening of Emma\'s rehabilitation center…

Wednesday, 3:00 PM

Days passed quickly and Emma was busy with preparations for the grand opening of her rehabilitation center.

Rehabilitation center is registered as an independent branch of LA Medical Center, so JoAnna organized resources of LA Medical Center to handle all legal and media preparations in order for the grand opening to be well publicized and without any issues with the law.

Emma has 40% of ownership, JoAnna is the next one with 30%, Charlie has 15%, Jarred, Sarah and Aiden have 5% each.

Emma\'s original plan was that she and JoAnna have about two-thirds and the rest to be owned by the bank (and eventually end up on the stock market, available to the highest bidder) because she needed additional financing. However, Charlie, Jarred, Sarah and Aiden came unexpectedly and said that they want to own a piece of her center because they believe that it has a bright future and it\'s a great investment. After all, Charlie, Sarah and Aiden are Emma\'s patients and the three of them experienced her treatments first-hand. Jarred also believes in Emma because he knows how many doctors told Charlie that he will never walk and yet, here he is, moving around with no wheelchair.

With money which came as apologies after \'the dress incident\', and investments from others, Emma managed to get the rehabilitation center built and equipped without any bank loan. She is very happy about that.

Charlie signed away his voting rights to Emma, and so did Sarah and Aiden which puts Emma to 65% when decisions need to be made. Jarred said that he is busy and has no plans of attending board meetings and that he should be treated like a silent partner.

In this way, Emma has the right to make all decisions related to the rehabilitation center and JoAnna said that she has no plans of meddling, but she hopes to have a role of an advisor.

Back to the grand opening…

As Emma\'s personal assistant, Tiffany was the main point of contact related to organizing of the press conference, ribbon-cutting ceremony and the cocktail party at the end of the event. She is proud of the outcome, considering that it\'s her first time to do such an event. Bridgette provided her inputs and assistance, just to make sure everything is done well.

The location of the rehabilitation center was separated by two office buildings from the main LA Medical Center building and JoAnna and Emma negotiated to buy those two buildings. Once the existing tenants relocated, those two buildings were demolished and in their place there is now a three-story high tunnel-like connection between LA Medical Center and Emma\'s rehabilitation center through which patients (and employees) can move between two locations without stepping outside.

The connection has several resting areas and on the main level there is a café which opens up to a large private garden which is closed off from public by the three-story high tunnel-structure.

The garden is landscaped based on Emma\'s vision of a quiet oasis where patients can enjoy in the shade of large trees or next to the pond which features a waterfall, enjoying the sound of birds. It\'s very relaxing and after today, it will be available to all the patients of the LA Medical Center (which includes Emma\'s rehabilitation center as well).

The event started with a press conference in the garden.

Reporters from medical and local media asked questions and Emma, JoAnna and three other directors from LA Medical Center provided answers on how rehabilitation center will serve patients and its role as an extension of the LA Medical Center.

Charlie allowed them to use his data to show how Emma\'s techniques helped him walk again as part of the promotion campaign. JoAnna requested that they omit the part about her experimental surgery for which JoAnna provided a convincing alternative.

The ribbon cutting ceremony started with a speech given by the mayor of Los Angeles. He spoke about LA Medical Center and its role in the city and how he sees a bright future for the rehabilitation center… mostly standard stuff. As a mayor of the city, he gives these speeches often.

Emma and JoAnna used super-oversized scissors to cut the red ribbon in front of the main entry of the rehabilitation center.

That \'snap\' caused a large applause after which everyone entered the hall and that meant that the cocktail party can begin!

Other than the reporters, shareholders, directors and city officials, there were other guests present.

All three Ronin brothers are in the attendance, and so are Sarah\'s and Aiden\'s kids. Of course, present are also Jeff (he would not let JoAnna go by herself), Penny, Ben, Ellie, Jasper, Sophia and Felix.

They invited a number of online influencers who will blog about the rehabilitation center as part of the marketing campaign.

Other than Jarred, among guests are five other members of the Smith family. Emma met few of them one weekend at Jarred\'s villa, but it was just an introduction because Charlie dropped some documents to his Uncle, and they didn\'t stay to socialize.

Charlie is not happy that his relatives came here, if it\'s up to him, he will stay away from them and keep them as far as possible from Emma, but they insisted on coming to see the rehabilitation center which gets the credits for making Charlie walk again. Charlie knows that none of them care if Charlie is walking or not and they are just coming up with excuses because their real agenda is to get close to Emma, but Emma advised him to relax.

"We are bound to interact with them sooner or later.", Emma told him.

"And if it\'s up to me, it will be as later as possible.", Charlie said grumpily.

"At least here they are coming to our territory…", Emma tried to reason with Charlie.

Charlie agreed with Emma, but he told her that he still does not like it. "We will double the security. Make sure you are never-ever alone. I can\'t be at ease knowing that they are nearby. OK?"

Back to present…

The entry hall has large tables set up with drinks and snacks and there is soft music to complete the ambience of an upscale afternoon cocktail party.

People approached Emma in small groups to congratulate her on this grand opening and to wish her good luck with running the center. Charlie stood by Emma\'s side proudly and she is happy that he is there to support her.

While standing by Emma\'s side, Charlie kept an eye on other Smiths. Other than Jarred, there is Charlie\'s Uncle Thomas and his two children: David and Aileen. Present are two more Charlie\'s cousins: Logan and Caleb. Charlie finds that those five Smiths are acting… normal. Logan and Caleb even brought dates with them! They approached Emma to congratulate her and greeted Charlie, but other than that they are standing on the side, chatting and keeping to themselves.

Charlie does not trust them, and he believes that they are waiting for their time to act. However, he does not know when that will be. Today? Next week? Next year? The suspense is eating him alive and if it\'s up to him, he would just ask all five of them to leave.

Organized tours showed to the interested guests various treatment rooms.

Emma already hired the staff for the rehabilitation center, and they are in attendance, celebrating opening of their workplace (they officially start working tomorrow).

Therapists are present in treatment rooms and giving demonstrations to volunteers from the audience.

It was not surprising that no one wanted to try the electric-therapy where nerves and muscles are stimulated by low electric currents. But even with an incentive of swimsuits, they had no volunteers for the water therapy because no one wanted to get wet (they all came to attend an upscale event and getting wet is not part of the plan).

Other than those two, the other demonstrations went well.

The largest line of volunteers was for the deep tissue massage. Emma was expecting that, it was Charlie\'s favorite as well and even now he asks for it occasionally.

Sarah and Aiden used this occasion to give mini-missions to their kids.

Ade saw this as a chance to redeem himself from the fiasco of being the only one not completing his mission at Jeff\'s birthday party. And maybe, just maybe, he gets reinstated as a general. Ade can see that Sarah wants to give him his title and privileges back and she is waiting for an opportunity to do so. He is confident that this is his time to shine!

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