Epilogue
Sven
Sven read the email, once more feeling his outrage build at the threat from this Pierre person to sue, not the company—no, he’d given up on that it appeared after Sven’s lawyers responded to the threats—just Remy, for what had happened during one of the hot air balloon rides.
Remy needs to be held accountable for his actions.
The decision he made without consulting me resulted in a person gaining a free ride who, to my mind, planned this whole thing, and why he got injured.
He is only after ruining my business, a personal vendetta.
Someone needs to be held accountable for the damage to my name and reputation along with giving suitable remuneration for my distress.
I might point out to you, I’m the innocent party in all this.
Sven thumped the desk in temper.
Yes, Sven would agree that Remy giving up his seat to a person who had not paid for the balloon ride, it could seem on the surface, like Remy was accountable.
Only Remy hadn’t had to pay for that seat in the balloon either, it was part of the deal Remy had struck with Pierre, so that Remy was on hand to assist if there was a problem with a customer.
And yes, there was a problem with a customer—in the loosest sense, as Toby hadn’t paid—but it was Pierre’s actions that caused the problem in Sven’s mind. He was the one in charge of the balloon, not Remy, when it landed badly and launched the poor soul out of it.
Toby was the victim, as he was the one who got injured, except Pierre didn’t want to take any responsibility and from his email, he believed Remy should shoulder the burden.
What Sven was confused about was that it wasn’t Toby suing the hot air balloon company, or even threatening Sven’s company.
But no, there was nothing from Toby, just Pierre.
The owner of the place where Toby had gotten injured hadn’t put in a claim either.
Clearly, Sven was missing something in this whole situation when Remy had become Pierre’s focus, but what?
Was Pierre, in some bizarre way, interested in Remy? Trying to attract Remy’s attention?
Sven rubbed at the center of his chest working to remove the odd clenching.
Was this like the other symptoms he had developed since the accident?
Every time Sven thought about the possibility of Remy being injured, of being hospitalized, and being alone, it sent him into a panic attack.
He’d had to look up his symptoms. Inability to think logically, his heart was racing so fast that he was unable to catch his breath.
This resulted in lightheadedness and nausea, a state he’d never experienced before.
It frightened him, and why he’d researched them on the internet.
It was lowering to admit to himself late at night when he couldn’t sleep—which was a lot since the silly event—that he could suffer a panic attack.
This lack of control over his emotions over the incident kept Sven from having a conversation with Remy.
He kept his correspondence to email. No personal contact.
No FaceTime calls to avoid him revealing this disquiet.
Such an unusual position for him to be in, Sven was at a loss to explain it to himself.
Except that now, this Pierre person had upped the ante and switched to more personal threats against Remy.
Sven would not tolerate that. He’d gotten his lawyers to check out what their liability was to Toby, the person actually injured and the only person Sven thought was entitled to any compensation.
He gave a hard, flinty-eyed stare at his computer screen, resolve forming at dealing with this numbnuts.
This Pierre wasn’t going to get a red cent from Sven’s company and certainly not from Remy.
Sven was going to make sure of it, and why he’d already decided to go and pay this Pierre a visit to make sure he understood Sven would not tolerate bullying of his employees. He most certainly wouldn’t.
He reached for his phone to call his personal pilot.
This gave Sven a valid reason—not that he needed one to go to where Remy had his office—to meet with Pierre and explain his feelings on the subject.
If by any chance he had time to pop into Remy’s office to check he was okay, that was just him reassuring himself things were as they should be before they decided on the next event.
“Yes, sir.”
“Stephen, please prepare the plane. I’ll be at the airport in two hours.”
“Can you please give me the destination on the flight plan?”
If Stephen sounded uncertain when Sven hadn’t given the information, that he’d normally supply straight away, Sven dismissed it and detailed where he wanted to go.
Stephen recited the information as usual, as Sven’s gaze returned to the open email. Yes, this was the right decision. The only decision.