Chapter 19 #2
Behind the intent look in his eyes, I see something else, an emotion that makes me tighten my hands around his. “I’m happy. This is my choice, remember? A new start.”
I recall what Sarah said to me, and given how he seems so ready to put everything at my feet, I feel humbled and overwhelmed at the same time. “I’m happy, Ethan. The past has no place between us. I mean it.”
Letting go of past grievances is difficult, but I’m beginning to learn if I don’t let go of them, I might let my happiness slip right past me.
“Let’s stay here.” I smile at him. “I’m fine with how things are at the moment.”
His expression flickers. “If you say so.”
As he walks away from me to go shower, I wonder if I imagined the hesitance in his eyes.
Returning to work feels strange, but walking down the familiar halls makes me breathe easier.
I don’t know who is more relieved to see me: Layla or Vanessa.
“Miss Thorne!” As soon as my assistant sees me, she throws herself out of her chair, leaping at me. “You’re finally back!”
Layla is known to be very professional, so when she hugs me, I stand in frozen shock. “What’s happening?”
“Sorry.” She squeezes me once more before letting me go. When she steps back, I see the sheen of tears in her eyes. “Please, never leave again.”
“What happened?” I ask, startled .
“Nothing.” She shakes her head, wiping her eyes. “I forgot how easy it is to work under you.”
“Vanessa is good at her job. I personally recommended her.” I frown, puzzled. Ethan never told me that there were any problems in the HR Department.
“I am.” Vanessa Taylor steps out of her office. “But I cannot work with a CEO who can’t stand me. Sorry, Natalie. Mr. Wilder is an incredibly hard man to please. And I’ve worked with difficult bosses. This one’s a tyrant.”
“Ethan?” I gape at her.
I’ve seen first hand how Ethan looks after his employees. “Sure, he’s a little strict, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call him a tyrant.”
Vanessa just sighs. “I’m just happy you’re back. When you called me last week, I reached out to another prospective employer. I start next week. I’ve handed everything over to your assistant. I was just waiting for you to arrive so I could hand over the keys to you before I left.”
“You’re not going to stay today?” I ask.
She gives me a quick smile. “Sorry, Natalie. I can’t wait to get out of here.”
She puts the keys in my hands, and I watch her leave. Technically, Vanessa wasn’t even supposed to be here today. Everything had been handed over, and I thought she would hand over the keys to Layla. I glance at my assistant. “What happened when I was gone?”
Layla swallows. “Mr. Wilder was in a terrible mood. He fired a bunch of people. I thought he would fire Miss Taylor as well. There was some confusion with the files, and he got so mad. I think Miss Taylor cried. When I came back from lunch the other day, her eyes were red. After you called last week, his mood suddenly improved.”
I’m trying to process all this information. “He told me she was good. He liked her. ”
My assistant gives me the side eye. “If that’s what Mr. Wilder’s favor looks like, I hope he never likes my work.”
My lips twitch as I make a mental note to ask Ethan what he did to Vanessa. She and I did some certifications together, and I know she’s excellent at her job. To see her practically run from this company because of Ethan is astounding. He really must’ve done something terrible.
I enter my office and Layla follows me.
“When you called me that day, I thought you were planning to quit. That’s what you said. What made you change your mind?”
I sit down at my desk and look at the files Vanessa has left for me. “Ethan. He wouldn’t accept my resignation.”
“But why were you trying to resign in the first place? You said you would stick out the contract you had.”
I give her a brief smile. “I changed my mind. Anyway, I’m back now. Do you have a list of the people he fired?”
She hurries back to her desk and returns with a piece of paper. “I’m going to email you the copies of all the termination letters. The reasons were given in each letter.”
I go over the names, not surprised by most of them, but a few of the names make me uneasy.
“Send me those letters,” I say grimly.
It takes Layla all of ten minutes to send me the termination letters of the seven employees. Letters and records in hand, I march up to Ethan’s office, gearing up to pick a fight.
When Clarice sees me clearly on a warpath, she tries to stop me. “He’s in an important meeting?—”
“Don’t worry. This is just as important. Ethan!”
I throw open his door. To my surprise, it’s not an employee he’s with, but his father.
“Mr. Wilder,” I stammer, shocked. “I—Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you. ”
“Clearly you did.” Harold gives me a faint smile before getting to his feet. “I was just leaving.”
“Not on my account.” I take a step back, feeling embarrassed. “I can wait outside. This is not urgent.”
He looks between the two of us. “No. I have to go. I’m going to the club to meet a few friends.” His gaze focuses on Ethan. “Think of what I said. There’s a lot I can tolerate, but not this.”
Ethan doesn’t look very pleased. As his father walks past, he pauses and gives me a long look. “My wife will be happy to know you decided to come back to work. Give her a call. She wants to get lunch with you but doesn’t want to bother you.”
I blink at his abrupt words. “Ah, sure.”
His eyes flicker towards my feet. “I would also advise you to switch to flats for the next couple of months. Heels cause a considerable amount of back pain. Helen stopped wearing heels after the first time.”
With that, he walks out, leaving me dumbfounded.
That was definitely?—
When the door closes behind him, I look at Ethan. “He knows, doesn’t he?”
“If my mother knows, he knows. They don’t have secrets between them.”
I look over my shoulder at the door, and a small smile tugs at my lips. “He’s really like you, you know.”
“What does that mean?” Ethan ushers me forward, pulling out a chair. “My father and I are nothing alike.”
“If you say so,” I murmur, sitting down.
I still remember what Helen had told me about her relationship with her husband.
She claimed they got along, but that her husband had married her for her money.
But I saw the protectiveness in Mr. Wilder’s eyes as he spoke about his wife, the tiny details he still remembers.
A man who married a woman for her money wouldn’t notice these details .
“So what brought you to my office so early in the morning? Did you miss me?”
The wicked smile he reserves only for me is playing on his lips, my stomach twisting in response. I hold out the list of employees Layla gave me. “No. This did.”
He accepts the paper, a wary look in his eyes. “What’s this?”
“Why don’t you tell me? You’re the one who fired these people.”
Ethan’s eyes skim over the list, his expression calm. “Yes, and?”
“Want to tell me why you fired them? Or at least these seven names that are highlighted?”
Ethan eyes the copies of the termination letters in my hand and plucks one of them from my hand, the one I was reading.
“You’ve clearly already read the termination letters.
So you know.” He glances at the paper. “This one has consistently been arriving late to the strategy meetings. She’s also not showing up on time to work. ”
I take back the piece of paper from him, and my brows raise.
“Letty Morne. Letty’s teenage son is in the hospital.
Car accident. He’s fighting for his life.
She’s a single parent and trying to make ends meet.
She has two other kids. Her husband passed away last year.
She’s been struggling with everything, and then her son was in the car accident.
She ended up using up all her vacation days, but he’s still critical and the company doesn’t believe in giving paid leave for emergency situations like these.
She needed the health insurance to cover the costs, so she continued working.
I was aware of the situation and allowed her to come in late.
Her team lead knows, as well as Nirvani, the head of Strategy and Design. ”
Ethan goes still. “She never said that to?—”
“I was told that she was late for a meeting that you were attending. And that you fired her as soon as she walked in through the door. You weren’t even supposed to be part of that meeting. You just showed up.”
“I wasn’t aware of the situation. HR did not inform me.”
“Before I came up here, I read Vanessa’s report about the situation. According to her, she came to your office to try to inform you of Letty’s situation. You wouldn’t hear it. You told her not to question your judgment and not to get ahead of herself.”
Ethan purses his lips. “I vaguely remember?—”
“Of course, I’m sure it’s very vague. As would be the case with Harper Beckett.
He’s a Junior Data Analyst. He joined last year.
He was fired for,” I look down at the copy of the termination letter and read, “‘inconsistent and constant errors in his work.’” I look up at Ethan.
“He typed his name wrong on a report. You fired him for misspelling his own name.”
“A fool who can’t even spell his name right doesn’t deserve to?—”
“His laptop wasn’t working, Ethan. IT was in the process of getting him a new one. Someone spilled coffee on his keyboard. Some of the keys weren’t working. You fired him for that. And once again, Vanessa approached you about this, but you were rather rude.”
“Is that what she said?” Ethan looks irritable.
“Look,” I sigh. “Some firings I understand. They were justifiable. The rest? You didn’t investigate any of the cases. You didn’t consult HR. You didn’t go over the reports of any of these employees. These were impulsive firings.”
I hand over the copies of the termination letters, and he goes through them, his jaw tense.