A Private Affair (6 page)

He owned a profitable franchise
fixing and selling tools and small engine parts and also owned a rental property that made him extra money. His life was a far cry from the financial hardships of their past. But while he was making money, Lina spent it just as fast not understanding that although they made more than their parents they still had to be financially savvy. But his sister knew all he wanted to do was please her, which included buying an expensive nursery set and redoing the kitchen. She’d warned Glenn to talk with Lina, but he always brushed the thought aside. One time when she really pushed him he said, “At least my marriage has lasted longer than both of yours combined.”

He’d apologized soon after, but she’d stopped advising since and had stopped bailing him out. She didn’t know what their financial landscaped look like now and truly didn’t want to.

Someone knocked. Carissa inwardly swore knowing who it was. Wherever Lina went he was sure to follow. She opened the door.

Glenn looked past her to Lina. “I thought I’d find you here,” he said kissing his wife on the cheek as if he hadn’t seen her in days.

“We’re just having a girl’s chat,” she said.

“Hmmm something smells good.”

“Yes, doesn’t it,” Lina said. “Were you about to have dinner?”

Carissa nodded.

“And you always make enough to spare,” Lina said squeezing Carissa’s arm with delight. “Tell me when it’s ready,” she said making herself comfortable and sitting down in front of the TV.

“Is Morris coming over?” Glenn asked, following in her into the kitchen

“No, she broke up with him,” Lina said.

“Damn really?”

Carissa walked into the kitchen. “Yes, really.”

“I appreciate you having us over like this.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m sorry about what I said before.”

Carissa paused halfway while grabbing extra dishes. It wasn’t like him to apologize for something he’d done months ago. She spun around to him. “You need money, don’t you?”

“Just a couple hundred to—”

“No.”

“I told you I was sorry. Are you going to hold that against me forever?”

“And I told you I’m not going to help you live in a fantasy world.”

“Things have gotten tight and with a baby on the way—”

Carissa shoved the dishes into his chest. “You need to start acting like a grown up. You make more than enough money to live well. You just need to manage it better. I showed you how.”

“But Lina—”

“Is going to have to stop thinking about herself and start thinking about your family.”

“Are you sure you’re not just jealous?”

Carissa snatched the dishes back. “Do you want to eat at my table or not?”

“I do—”

“Then watch yourself little brother because I know you a lot better than you know me. We both came from a father who knew how to tear you down so he could manipulate you. You can try to come close to being like him, but we both know you’ll be a pale imitation. Now this is what I can offer you—a way to find an extra couple hundred where you’re falling short, but you’re the one who’s going to have to talk to your wife. That’s the deal.”

He sighed. “Okay.”

Carissa knew he had to be desperate, since he agreed so readily. “Good. We’ll talk later.” He had to learn to support his family because she didn’t know how much longer she’d have a job, and besides, she’d promised herself to stop rescuing him.

Glenn was quiet as he set the table in the dining room. He then returned to the kitchen and said, “I love her so much. I want to give her everything she wants. I want to be a good provider.”

“You are, but she has to learn that what you can provide has a limit.” She playfully nudged him. “You’re a great catch, remember?”

“Except when I’m a complete jerk. I shouldn’t have said that to you…about being jealous.”

“It’s okay.”

He shook his head. “I’m the one who’s a little jealous. You’re so smart and confident. The way I should be.”

She waved a knife at him. “Careful, you’re starting to sound like Dad again. You’re fine the way you are. You’re not only the first one in the family to graduate from college, you also got a four year scholarship from the Notrevir Fund, something we’d never even heard of,” she said with a sense of pride. That was rare for their family. There had never been a sense of pride in the York line. Her great-grandfather had been just as shiftless and reckless in America as he had been in his home country of Guyana. There was no American Dream story to hand down—no sense of purpose, except to get by, marry and breed. Not necessarily in that order. Her brother had broken that pattern by being the first person in their family to get a college degree. “You are a good man, a great husband and an okay brother.”

He rested against the kitchen counter. “Only okay?”

“Yes, when you’re in moods like this I have to deduct points.”

“I don’t want my marriage to fail.”

“It’s not going to fail.”

“I thought dinner was almost ready!” Lina called. “Isn’t it done yet?”

“Almost darling,” Glenn said, stopping Carissa from offering a rude reply.

Carissa sighed as she carried the baked dish to the table. “She’s right. The shrimp’s probably rubbery now.”

“I’m sure it’s fine. Is it really over between you and Morris?”

“Yes.”

He sighed. “Mom’s going to blow her top.”

“She’ll survive. In a month she’ll forget about me and,” she patted her stomach and did an imitation of Lina, “focus on little York.”

“You’re not giving up are you?” he asked as she returned to the kitchen and pulled warm wheat rolls out of the oven.

“Giving up?”

“On finding the right—”

She held up her hand. “Stop right there. It’s bad enough having a kid I used to babysit and my sister-in-law discussing my love life, I will not add you to the mix. Understand?”

“Yes. Although I think I know a guy who—”

She wet her hand under running water and playfully splashed him. “Get out of my kitchen or I’ll let you both starve. I’m through with men!” But even as she said the words, she briefly wondered if Riverton was enjoying his pineapple.

Carissa never thought that watching a man read could be so fascinating. But since she’d handed Riverton the personnel files he’d requested and started reading, she hadn’t been able to keep her eyes off him. She remembered providing a brief summary about each person while he looked at their file, mentioning that Mia had worked for the company nearly as long as it had been in operation and that Milo Farmstead had been integral in designing one of their key devices. She wanted to make sure that he understood the power he held in his hands, that he wasn’t just flipping through manila folders and sheets of papers, but looking at years of valuable experiences.

Carissa sat off to the side of his large desk, and kept her chair at an angle, not wanting to sit directly in front of him. She looked around his large, expansive office, furnished with expensive furniture and fixtures, but she sensed it lacked something. She wasn’t sure what. Warmth? No, that wasn’t it. Color? No, the dramatic wall art added flair and complimented the dark walnut furniture. It was him.

He looked too pristine—suit pressed to perfection, shoes polished to an immaculate shine—odd for such an early morning meeting. But perhaps the henchman preferred the light of day, so that he could see his ax glistening in the sun as he swung it destroying people and lives. She took a deep breath, she’d said her piece and he was looking over the files longer than she’d expected, so maybe that was a good sign. The fact that he was actually reading and not just scanning over them meant he was taking care to consider things. He appeared to be a careful man, perhaps she could use that in her favor. He closed the final file and rested his hand on it and sighed. “This part of my job is never easy, but it has to be done. They’ll receive a—”

“Don’t say it.”

“What?”

“Don’t say a ‘generous offer.’”

He lifted a dark brow. “What would you prefer me to say?”

“I’d prefer you to say you’re not terminating them.”

“Terminating?” He shook his head. “You’re putting words in my mouth.”

“Do words really matter when the outcome is the same?”

“If you want to have fun with words, would you prefer I say corporate downsizing or unavoidable restructuring? Besides, I haven’t announced my decision for all of them. However, Mia Wexler—”

“Has the highest respect of all the department heads,” Carissa interrupted in a clipped tone. She adjusted her chair and looked directly at him. “She has devoted her life to this company and only has a few years until retirement.”

“Now she can retire early.”

Carissa gritted her teeth. “She likes to work.”

“I thought you said I could depend on you.”

“You can, but I didn’t realize that meant you didn’t want me to express my opinions.”

“No,” he said slowly, maintaining her gaze. “I never worried about that. But if you can’t do this, I’d like you to let me know so that I can get someone else who can do the job.”

She deserved that, the sting of his words hitting their mark with painful accuracy, but she couldn’t let him have the final say. Not when her mentor’s job was on the line. “Mia Wexler is an amazing woman. I know that won’t mean much to you, especially when it only takes you a couple of minutes to read all about someone’s life here at Simus Labs. It seems callous to me that you can scan over all the work she’s done for this company, and just look at her age and qualify her as someone who can easily be replaced.”

Riverton smoothed down his tie then tapped a finger on the back of one of the manila envelopes, his steady gaze remaining on her face. “I believe I mentioned to you that my job is hard. I get paid a lot to make the difficult decisions others don’t want to. Barra Industries employs more than thirty thousand people.” He stopped tapping and flattened his hand on the table. “I’ve been given instructions to find new jobs for twenty of them.” A half smile crossed his face. “See, I have superiors just like you do and I don’t always like what I have to do, but it’s my job. One of the people I need to find a position for is a forty-two year old woman with three children, one of which has special needs.

“Presently she is working under a man who is one year older and threatened by her brilliance. She has no chance of promotion where she is and most of her ideas are halted. Her only option is to stay put or look for another job. With our acquisition of Simus Labs, I can see where personnel can be reassigned. Mia Wexler will receive a generous offer,” he said stressing the words she hadn’t wanted him to say, “for her long devoted service. I’m not here to discuss fairness, I’m here to discuss facts.”

Carissa fought back her anger and kept her voice even. “And what do you want me to do? Make you coffee?”

“I need you to take notes. I don’t want my decisions getting out until I get a chance to speak with those involved, so I apologize for using you as an admin.”

She was shocked he’d offer to apologize for anything. Carissa took out her laptop and waited then he started talking about what he’d offer Mia and her anger subsided into a reluctant awe. The man knew his stuff and she could understand why Hannah Broadstreet had left without incident. Mia would be equally impressed by the full medical benefits, one year’s salary, plus a settlement for the number of years of service. An amount he’d decide on later. He also discussed her savings and investment plans and other goodies that made Carissa know that while she’d miss her friend, she knew she would be okay. Mia would get a lot of money and although losing a job would hurt her pride, she hoped she wouldn’t see it as being tossed aside.

However, after nearly four hours of putting together several detailed severance packages the awe disappeared replaced by the reality of what she was typing. No matter how sweet the pill, the truth was that these people would wake up jobless. With no purpose. Their identity was being taken. She just wanted it to end. Even Riverton’s polished appearance had changed. Now his jacket hung on the back of his chair and his sleeves were rolled back, his tie off center.

He looked at one file and frowned then tossed a file on top of a stack dedicated to those to be replaced.

The move looked so seamless. It didn’t appear to bother him how easily he could alter lives. The file wasn’t that of some man near retirement age, he was a young man just starting out.

Carissa stiffened. “What are you doing?”

Riverton hung his head for a moment as if battle-weary, then looked at her. “You know what I’m doing.”

“You need to reconsider.”

“Why? Clyde Gelb has missed a lot of time this year. You’d think someone that young would have a better work record.”

“Did you even read his file?”

He sent her a dark look “Careful Ms. York.”

The look made her shiver inwardly, but didn’t intimidate her. She couldn’t let it—Clyde was worth the fight. “Because if you had read his file, you would know that he is caring for his mother who has early onset Alzheimer’s.
Her condition has worsened this year and he’s had to take off more time than expected. Not everyone can afford to put their loved ones in a facility or have a private nurse come in and care for them. If he loses this job you could put his career back by years. He’ll never be able to compete.”