At three o’clock in the morning, Hisham was alone in the Empire Commercial Tower—thirty floors of glass and steel, holding the dreams of three thousand employees and their families.
On his desk lay three letters. The first, from the bank, demanded repayment of a one-hundred-million-riyal loan within 48 hours. The second, from the company’s largest client, canceled a contract worth fifty million. The third, from the tax office, imposed a ten-million fine for delayed payments from last year.
The total: 160 million riyals.
The bank balance: 3.2 million riyals.
He closed his eyes and remembered how it all began two years earlier. A massive government contract the company had won—everyone celebrated, the media wrote about the remarkable success. But the contract required huge upfront investments, and the government payments… never came.
“Bridge financing will solve the problem temporarily,” the CFO had said at the time. So they borrowed from one bank, then another, then from private investors. Each loan paid off the previous one; each promise postponed the problem by another month.
Now the circle was complete. The banks refused extensions, clients demanded new guarantees, and suppliers refused to deliver without cash in advance.
He glanced at the clock: 3:17 a.m. In five hours, employees would arrive to begin a normal day. They would drink their coffee, discuss their projects, plan their weekend. They had no idea that everything was over.
On the side table lay a draft message to employees: We regret to inform you… He erased the sentence and wrote again: We are facing temporary challenges… He erased that too.
How do you tell three thousand people that the company they built their dreams upon… no longer exists?
On the distant horizon, dawn began to seep through the city lights. Hisham looked at the scattered papers on his desk, then at the photos of employees hanging on the wall from last year’s celebration—smiling faces, eyes full of hope.
He took a deep breath and placed the pen on the blank sheet of paper.
Within a few hours, a new life would begin. For everyone.
The sun began to rise over the Empire Commercial Tower, as it had every day for the past ten years. But this morning… was different.
What awaits the employees? And how should one act?
