Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Harriet
I settle into my new life as a ridiculously busy and under-duress person. It’s April now, two months since I left Karsovia. The trees are budding, and the days are getting longer. Summer will be here soon.
I wake before sunrise on weekday mornings to bike the dark path along the Silverton River to the InovaSpire offices.
Mom hates that I bike there. A tourist went missing last week. He was staying at one of the Airbnbs and went out for a vape and never came back.
The going theory is that he fell into the Silverton River and drowned. The current’s so high this time of year, he’d be swept out to Lake Erie by now. But Mom worries that there could be a more sinister explanation.
InovaSpire occupies the coveted top floor of The Foundry, a high-end refurbished warehouse in Creighton, the town just up the river from Ashwood.
The building is generally dark when I get there, aside from whatever lower-floor startup is pulling an overnighter. Serena would never make us do that. She says if your team has to work all night, you’re under-resourced.
It’s a gorgeous space to work in, all exposed brick, glass walls, and floor-to-ceiling views of the Silverton River.
Photographs from Serena’s travels are displayed all along the walls because, of course, she’s an accomplished photographer on top of everything else—a true Renaissance woman. Up top, there’s a pretty rooftop patio where she and I love to eat lunch and brainstorm.
It’s an obnoxious time to be at work, but pre-dawn in Ohio is midday in the EU, which makes it the perfect time to manage the bonkers amount of red tape involved in taking over and running Alexandru’s empire.
And by bonkers, I mean bonkers.
The process of establishing myself as the decision-maker across five banking systems, rewriting medieval power-of-attorney forms, and digitizing Alexandru’s minor holdings has been outrageous.
And I’m paranoid about slipping up, so it all takes extra long because I’m double-checking almost everything. I can just feel him back there in that castle, monitoring my progress. Every banker and broker I’m dealing with right now could be reporting back to him.
He was so angry at being bested.
Sometimes, when I’m lying awake in the middle of the night, I wonder if it was selfish to have tricked him like I did just to get out of there. If I’d stayed and followed his rules, the entire world of people I loved wouldn’t be at risk.
Though Alexandru is nocturnal and therefore does share waking hours with me, he refuses to use the phone or tablet I gave him, let alone Zoom. So Gregor becomes our intermediary, getting Alexandru’s signature when needed, though I suspect he DocuSigns for Alexandru here and there.
Gregor has become pretty good at technology. He’s even able to use Microsoft Word’s annoying track changes update.
The master is displeased with the wording of Section 4.7.
The master wishes to know why the Holland property is flagged orange.
The master requests clarification on the term “favorable easement.”
Little by little, I get things under control.
I hope.
Sometimes things seem very much out of control, and I have to remind myself that I’m doing the job perfectly. I’m fulfilling the contract perfectly. He can’t hurt me or my people as long as I keep my end up.
So I continue coming in early. I work both jobs.
It’s not like Serena would mind me using company Wi-Fi and other resources for a side project. She’s all about surrounding herself with high achievers, and a lot of us have side projects.
But one day, she calls me on it.
It’s lunchtime, and I’m spending mine juggling three client calls and a missing order of register tape for the antique store when she stops by my office. “Soooo... the access log has you coming in at 3:30 a.m. for the last few weeks.”
“Yeah,” I say. “It’s EU stuff.”
She gives me a strange look. “You running an EU startup I don’t know about?”
“No, I would never!” I laugh. “No, it’s just... helping out my late father’s boss. His systems were from the Stone Age. You wouldn’t believe it.” She literally wouldn’t, so I don’t bother going into the details.
“That’s really thoughtful of you,” she says. “Just don’t overdo it.”
“For sure! Once I get this guy’s EU systems settled, I’m gonna help him delegate it.”
Serena nods her approval. She’s big on delegation. “By the way, that app contract? Legal had zero changes, and it was so perfectly strategic. Very 3D chess.”
“Thanks, boss,” I say.
She sticks a pen in her bun. “I mean it about overdoing it. You could tip into burnout at this pace.”
Too late for that.