Chapter 11
Lydia
I had a list of tasks from Chris and Dianne to keep me busy.
I scheduled a meeting at our office with a Mr. Howard and then went back to a pile of documents that Dianne gave me.
I needed to sort through them to make sure they were all reviewed and signed by Mr. Mason and then take them to the relevant department—most of them were for R&D, and a few to Legal and HR.
Once I was done going up and down the elevator to deliver the docs, I spent some time with Dianne.
She was in her fifties, tall, and dressed in a bright yellow shirt and dark blue pants.
She spoke with a harsh tone, but I thought her eyes looked friendly.
I tested that out by asking her to show me how to use the very large coffee machine in the kitchen, which had her jumping out of her seat so fast that I grinned—something that didn’t happen often.
“See? Not so complicated,” she said, after going through a few quick steps.
“So noisy though.”
She laughed in her deep and throaty voice. “Yeah, it’s good that the kitchen is so far away from the meeting room, but you can probaby hear it from your desk. Mr. Mason can hear it, too, if his door is open.”
“Thanks for showing me.”
“Of course. It’s nice to have another human on the floor, and we really do need the help. Chris will probably fill up your time once he gets used to you.”
I took a sip and walked with her back to my desk.
“Yeah, I already have a few tasks from him. He seems nice.”
“He’s really sweet. Always running around with too many things to do. I’m sure he’s happy you’re here.”
We heard the phone ring at reception, which had her speed-walking back and shouting, ‘good luck’ over her shoulder to me.
I was just going to take my lunch break when my email pinged, and my phone buzzed with Chris’s name.
?? I forwarded you the emails from Mr. Howard. Go over them so you’re ready for the meeting. Thanks for scheduling that BTW!
?? Sure. What would I be doing in the meeting? Do you want me to take notes?
?? No, I’ll do that. Dianne will prepare the room and take care of drinks. You just need to be a fly on the wall and take it all in
?? Got it. Thanks, Chris.
I ate my sandwich at my desk while poring through the emails.
It was back-and-forth correspondence between Chris and Donald, who was Ethan Howard's executive assistant.
The emails started with an introduction from Donald, saying that Alec Mason had directed Mr. Howard to speak to Daniel Mason regarding the acquisition of a company owned by the Mason family.
Based on the correspondence, it appeared that despite being the one to acquire the company, Alec was too busy to deal with such a small acquisition and pushed it off on his younger brother, Daniel.
There were quite a few emails between Chris and Mr. Howard, and I was surprised to see how much of the initial discussion was handled by Chris.
It seemed Mr. Mason only entered the picture when there was a solid offer.
I went over the document that Mr. Mason had been forwarded the day before. It was a letter of intent—an LOI—detailing the terms and offer for the acquisition of a truck and maritime telematics company.
I didn’t have any experience with these kinds of documents or processes, but I understood enough from the emails and filled in the gaps with information I found online.
Then I looked up Ethan Howard. He was in his sixties and very rich.
My guess was that his family ran in the same circles as the Masons.
There was a lot of information on him, though none of it seemed very helpful.
I still read as much as I could, hoping it would give me a bigger picture of who this guy was.
He owned a lot of companies in different industries, none of which stood out to me, except for one he was a major shareholder in.
It was the only tech company on the list—the others were in retail and real estate.
The tech company was in the field of semiconductors, a corporate giant called Condukt.
The name was familiar to me—I read about it or saw the name somewhere recently, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
I didn’t find anything else interesting, so I looked up the small company that Howard wanted to buy.
It was acquired by Mr. Mason’s brother, Alec, three years prior, shortly after it was founded.
I found a PR with a quote from Alec, boasting his confidence in the new and innovative telematics solution, and how he expected the startup to explode.
It was a private company, so I couldn’t see any financial reports to determine if it ended up being a bad investment.
Nor did I understand enough to know if an investment could even be determined as good or bad after only three years when buying companies.
I read more about the technology and what they actually did.
I had never heard the word ‘telematics’ before, and it was interesting to get lost in a new topic and learn about a technology I didn’t know existed.
They had a bunch of videos and interviews on their website that explains how their software and sensors worked.
Basically, they helped companies manage their truck and ship fleets, and gave them access to a bunch of data about the cargo and fleets for maintenance and monitoring.
I kept digging through the website and marketing materials I found online to see what else their product could do. It felt like I was looking for something specific, but I didn’t know what it was, and it made me a little bit uneasy.
A sharp sting on my thumb startled me. I was bleeding.
I must have twisted the flower off my ring and stabbed myself with the pointy edge.
I usually played with my ring when I was uncomfortable around someone or when I felt unsafe.
Doing it so absentmindedly that I injured myself was new, and it threw me off.
I went into Mr. Mason’s office, which was surprisingly unlocked, and checked the additional door, happy to see that it was a restroom as I had suspected.
I washed my hand and ring, and was going to go back to my desk, only to freeze at the sight of Mr. Mason blocking the exit.
“Oh.” Shit. Am I in trouble?
“Why are you in my office?”
“It was unlocked, I thought it was okay. I needed to use your sink, I cut myself.” I held out my thumb, which was still bleeding into the folded paper towel. “The floor restroom is near the elevators, and I didn’t want to bleed all over—”
“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
Thank god he stopped me. Since when do I babble? I would have been twirling the ring again if my thumb wasn’t throbbing. Where was Chris?
Mr. Mason walked closer to me and took my hand, removing the paper towel.
“How’d you do that?”
I shrugged and looked behind him to my desk. I needed to go. “I’ll just—”
“Why are you here?”
He was standing too close to me, still holding my hand, and I was starting to panic because his desk was behind me and I couldn’t take a step back.
“I just said. I was using your—”
“No, why are you still here at work? It’s late.”
“What?” I looked at the clock on the wall, and my heart dropped. How long had I been lost in those documents? Why didn’t I notice that it was dark outside?
I could feel the warmth of his hand on mine, and my head started to spin. I was still overwhelmed from the uneasiness I felt before, and the cut didn’t hurt so much now, but the fact that it happened to begin with scared me.
“Hey,” his voice was softer. He put his hands on my shoulders. “Are you ok?”
I looked up at him. He was standing even closer now. I couldn’t breathe.