Chapter 2
Daniel
I watch the new interior designer get out of her car and walk up to the mansion from my second-story bedroom window.
My brother, Samuel, can be a difficult boss. He’s a great guy. I might be biased because I’m his brother, and I also work for him, but I think he’s awesome. But he didn’t get to be a billionaire by being nice to people. Although, he’s very generous with his time and money, and he’s funny and a great boss for the most part. But he doesn’t accept excuses, not from himself and not from people who work with him either.
This interior designer seems so sure of herself. So...innocently na?ve.
I’m probably Samuel’s exact opposite. Too easygoing and fun-loving for my own good. Not that I’m a party animal, because I’m not. I definitely know how to work hard. But I like to think I’m more in touch with my compassionate, human side than Samuel is. And that interior designer has her work cut out for her. Sheila, our designer this year, who took over from Richard who quit in a huff last year, had the unfortunate luck of needing emergency gallbladder surgery before the decorations were complete.
I heard she went through the surgery well, and I know for a fact that Samuel sent her a huge bouquet of flowers. I also know for a fact that there were at least eleven other interior designers who had been called and asked to complete the project, and none of them were able to do it on such short notice.
Most of them didn’t like the idea of stepping into someone else’s design either.
Finally, I told Rosie, the receptionist that works here out of my mansion in Christmas Tree, that she needed to stop telling people that they were going to be taking over someone else’s design, to play down the fact that Samuel was a difficult boss, and to offer them as much money as it took.
The decorations have to be perfect. After all, Mom will be here at tomorrow’s gala.
If there’s anyone who can intimidate my brother, it’s Mom.
I turn from the window, and my eyes land on the small desk I have in my room. It has the instructions that Sheila left for the new designer, guessing, I’m sure, that the new designer would take one look at the immensity of this mansion and the amount of decorations and need some type of guidelines to go by.
The pressure is on, because the ballroom still needs to be decorated. The miles and miles of tinsel that Richard, the designer last year, put up was the talk of the party. Everyone raved over it, and Samuel wants it redone exactly the same way this year. It’s a little bit difficult because Richard got angry after the party and stormed out of the mansion and out of his job last year. I’m not sure what all the details are, but he barely got everything taken down and put away before he raged out the door, smoke flying from both ears, and I’m pretty sure he was waving one finger behind him.
I think that he might have been having some kind of tryst with the housekeeper’s daughter, and when Mrs. Merriweather found out, there was a bit of an explosion.
Anyway, my job here is mostly to keep people from having those types of things. I grease the wheels, so to speak, between other people and my brother. Sometimes he even calls me in to help with business negotiations. Just because I’m a peacekeeper. I’m good at being friends with everyone, and I never get upset.
I grab the instructions off my desk, which Sheila had had her daughter run over before she went to the hospital, and move out to the immense hall and down the stairs.
Sometimes this house is a real pain in the butt, because it’s so easy to lose people in it. I’m going to assume that Mrs. Merriweather took the new designer directly to the room that holds the decorations.
That’s where I go first, but I didn’t time it quite right, and she’s no longer there.
I text Mrs. Merriweather.
Where is the new designer?
I left her in the decoration room.
Do you have any idea where she might have gone from there?
I think she might have been going to look over the house to see what needed to be finished.
The only thing that needs to be done is the ballroom.
I didn’t tell her that.
I stare at my phone. Why wouldn’t she have told her?
Another text comes in.
You told Rosie to not tell the new designer that she was going to be jumping into someone else’s design.
That’s fine. I’ll handle it.
I see. My instructions from yesterday were taken a little bit too literally. I didn’t mean that she could never find out. Obviously when she walked into the mansion and there were already decorations up, she was going to start to wonder. But regardless, this is something I can handle. I shove my phone back in my pocket, set the instructions down on the table, and go in search of our newest employee.
This is both for her benefit and for mine. The ballroom needs to be decorated and needs to be spectacular. If it is, she will be paid handsomely, and my brother will be happy, which benefits me. If it’s not, I wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised if my brother gives her an insultingly low amount, and he will most definitely be in a bad mood tomorrow during brunch. And we’re entertaining some very distinguished guests. Also, did I mention my mom is coming?