30. Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty
Ava
We’ve been in recovery for a week and a half, not doing much more than eating and playing various board games, when I call Jenny and Nancy to come to Stephen’s house for meetings.
While I could do the meetings online, it’s hard to know who’s listening on their end.
With a new cologne line in the works and with the recent decisions I’ve decided to enact for the company, I need to see both Jenny and Nancy in person.
When I broached going into the office for an hour or two to Stephen, he went into full caveman protective mode and suggested I wait a few more days before testing my limits.
The old Ava’s come out of hibernation, though, and I’m nothing if not a limit tester.
Jenny is the first to arrive, right on schedule. She has a small purse-like container, and she sets it on the kitchen table. Our nurse for today is doing laundry in the room that adjoins Vanessa’s apartment, so I don’t have to worry about her overhearing top-secret company information.
Jenny unsnaps the case, and inside are two samples. She plucks out the first and holds it out to me. I uncap it and take a whiff. Landon wanders over just as I close my eyes and release a deep sigh. I seriously want to bathe in this scent.
“Can I smell?” Landon asks.
I hold it down to him, and he sniffs. Then he sniffs again, peering up at me with curiosity. “Stephen?” he asks.
“It does smell a bit like him, doesn’t it?” And by a bit, I mean it completely does. Jenny could not have nailed it harder.
“Smells like trees,” Landon says.
“The scent profile is top secret,” Jenny says. “This is your mom’s newest scent.”
“I like it,” Landon says. “Makes me feel all warm and safe.”
Tears spring to my eyes, and I blink them away. Given what just happened to us, the fact that Stephen’s smell makes my son feel both of those things immediately is such a testament to the kind of man Stephen is.
Jenny hands me the second scent, and I take a long whiff of it, too, before leaning down to let Landon smell it.
“Do you make both?” he asks.
“No,” I say. “At least not right now. We have to pick one to lead this new line.”
“The first,” Landon says. “I want everyone to feel warm and safe.”
I run my hand along the top of his head, and I pass the second fragrance to Jenny. Landon doesn’t realize that the scent is tied to the person, and it’s not the smell that triggers those feelings but who the smell is attached to in his memory.
“Which one has tested better?” I ask.
“The second one, by a narrow margin. I don’t think you can go wrong with either. High scores for both.”
“I’m hoping to be back in the office soon, so I think I’ll make the final decision then. There’s a lot of coordinating that needs to be done, and it’ll probably be too much for me right now.” Not to mention the changes I’m hoping to make at Reckless.
“I wouldn’t want you rushing back to the office,” Jenny says. “I was surprised to get your call, actually. Your accident looked…” She glances at Landon.
“Landon,” I say, turning to him, “do you want to take Battleship to the laundry room to see if the nurse wants to play a round with you? You can tell her I said it was okay with me if it’s okay with her.”
“Okay,” Landon says, going to the coffee table and plucking the box off the top of the pile we’ve accumulated.
“How’s your husband?” I ask when I know Landon is gone.
“He didn’t have anything to do with your accident.”
“I wasn’t accusing him.”
“He hasn’t been quite the same since he found out that some of his union people might have been involved. Shook him to the core to realize some of them were that radical.”
I’m not sure what to say because while it had been clear that the union’s antics were escalating, I never would have anticipated real harm either. “Are negotiations going any better with the board of directors?”
“Oh, yes,” Jenny says with a relieved smile. “They made some progress yesterday, for sure. My husband thinks the board is being reasonable, at least.”
“Unlike my husband,” I say with a wry smile.
“Oh, well…” Jenny grimaces. “Different strategies.”
“It’s fine, Jenny,” I say. “I don’t have any illusions about who Raul Santos is.” Suddenly, I feel a bit tired, and I sink into one of the kitchen chairs.
“How is he?” Jenny asks.
“Alive,” I say, “and still in an induced coma. Until they can wake him up, we won’t know the full impact of his head injury.”
“But he will wake up?” she asks.
“That’s what I’m told.” Even the possibility exhausts me more. “Do you have enough to keep your department busy until I’m back?”
“We’ll hit pause on the cologne line, no problem,” Jenny says, “and we can move along with testing our next perfume fragrances to narrow those ideas down.”
“Great,” I say, and when the doorbell rings, I realize Stephen’s going to know I went against his wishes when he sees Nancy on the doorbell camera. “I think that’s Nancy.” I use the table to stand.
“Do you need help?” Jenny asks.
“No,” I say, offering a faltering smile. “Just realizing Stephen might have been right about my energy level.”
“Do you want me to tell Nancy to go?” Jenny asks, concern etched in her brow.
“No,” I say. “I’ll walk you out. It’s important that I see Nancy today.”
At the door, the two women greet each other, and then I lead Nancy through to the kitchen. I take a seat almost immediately, and Nancy pulls out her laptop next to me, opening a new note.
“I don’t want to tell you that you look terrible, but…” Nancy examines my face, which is likely pale.
“Yeah,” I agree. “I’m going to make this quick, but I want to get the ball rolling on some changes.”
“Okay,” Nancy says, hands poised above the keyboard. “What can I help you with?”
“I sent an email to the board of directors for Reckless this morning to let them know I want to reorganize. This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, but honestly, almost dying has changed my perspective on a lot of things.
” I give her a forced smile. “I’m going to keep my role as the brand manager, and I’m going to lead scent testing and product development.
But I’m going to hire someone with more vision than me to figure out how we take the company to the next level.
I’m also going to expand our marketing department. ”
“Is this because of what’s happening with The Nile? You’ve always said you didn’t need to worry too much about marketing because Raul’s algorithm at The Nile would drive sales at Reckless.”
“That has been true in the past,” I say, though I’m certain it won’t be true in the future.
I don’t even know if Reckless will exist in the way it currently does if I divorce Raul, but I have to try to make the company sustainable without him.
“We need to expand our reach and diversify how customers are finding us. A stronger marketing department is a good investment.”
“Will I still be your secretary?” Nancy asks.
“I’d like you to be,” I say. “The other thing I want to focus more on is employee satisfaction and retention. How do we build a company bigger but still make it feel like a family, like we’re all in the successes and failures together?”
“Ambitious.”
“Yeah.” I breathe out the word with an exhausted sigh. “We’ll see if I can do it.”
My only hope is that Raul doesn’t wake up the same man who went into the coma. Because I’m pretty sure if the Raul who wakes up is the man who’s been going to war with his employees, I’m going to have a hell of a fight on my hands to keep my company and my son.
After a nap, Landon and I are feeling better, and then, because I’m trying to be on the offensive if Raul wakes up, I call Caitlin, who’s my cousin and a family lawyer. She managed to untangle Maren from her first marriage without too much damage, and I’m going to pray she can do the same for me.
“Ava!” Caitlin says when she answers. “God, I was so sorry to hear about your accident. How are you feeling?”
“Just had a nap, so better than a couple hours ago. I’ve never hurt myself this badly before, and I think I’ve overdone it today.”
“I got your email,” she says.
“Okay,” I say. “And?”
“Filing for divorce while he’s in a coma is a lot trickier than either waiting for him to wake up or for him to go in the other direction.”
“Because he can’t contest it? That’s kind of the point.”
“Right, well, the court doesn’t see that as a bonus for the person who’s being served. There’s a complicated process, through the courts, to dissolve a marriage when someone is in a coma. We can go that route, but I’d wait a while longer, especially if the doctors are telling you he will wake up.”
“Yes, but they don’t know what he’ll be like when he does wake up.”
“What have their tests indicated?” Caitlin asks, all reasonable and rational lawyer, the opposite of the response I want right now.
I just want her to tell me the divorce is in process, filed, will be finalized in a few days. More than anything, I want out.
“Scans have indicated his brain is functioning. They don’t know if he’ll undergo any personality changes or have to relearn particular skills. Some of it is unknown until he wakes up. What if he’s not mentally fit to be divorced?”
“The courts won’t force you to stay in the marriage if he’s cognitively impaired in some way. There’s precedent there, so no need to worry about that.”
I rub my forehead and wish I’d had the guts to do this before the car accident, that I’d taken a hard look at the separate lives Raul and I were living and cut the cord. I’d let his threats and my fear of the unknown stop me.
And if I’m honest, part of the reason I want to push through the divorce right now is because I’m not sure if I’m strong enough to risk what Raul will want to take. I want to be strong enough. I want to be strong enough so badly.
“As soon as he’s awake—”
“We can serve him. We can prep all the paperwork and be ready. I’ll courier it to Boston the minute he’s conscious.”
I hate that my happiness hinges on Raul waking up and being a totally different version of himself. It feels like false, na?ve hope.
“Okay,” I say. “As long as we have a plan.” Even if it isn’t a good one.