“Yes, absolutely,” he reassures me, and I feel some of the tension drain away.
“Okay, great. Nice to see you, Hayden. I can’t wait to see you in Jace’s designs. Bye, Spencer.”
He waves as I take my leave and power walk in the direction of the conference room. I slip inside and look around. Emma, Molly, and Nana are all seated at the head of the table with a spare chair for me, and there’s a woman sitting opposite them.
“I am so sorry. Hayden Christie was in reception, and I couldn’t brush her off,” I explain to everyone as I take a seat at the table. Pulling out my laptop, I get my shit together before looking up. There’s a reflexive frown that takes over when I see that the first woman we’re interviewing is Lindy.
“What’s going on here?” I ask, slightly confused. Lindy applied, but she didn’t even make the short list. Never mind the fact I don’t like her, she doesn’t have any suitable qualifications.
“Lindy here decided to take it upon herself to schedule herself an interview.” Nana sounds pissed. When I walked in, I hadn’t noticed that all three women were upset, but I can’t miss it now.
“Why would you do this, Lindy? Molly and I explained to you why you hadn’t made the short list,” Emma asks, sounding bewildered.
When I see the stubborn glint in Lindy’s eye, I pull out my phone, sending Riku a request to join us in the conference room.
Lindy crosses her arms and looks defiant. “Well, if you don’t give me the position, I’ll announce to the world that the two of you are in a relationship with Brad Summers.”
“Did she just say what I thought she said?” Nana asks incredulously.
I start to chuckle, while the other two ladies are silenced by shock.
“What’s so funny?” Lindy demands, but I shake my head.
“You do know what happened to the last woman who blackmailed us into giving her a position?” I ask her, and she looks confused. “Cecelia is dead,” I gleefully share, and she blanches. Of course I’m letting her assume the worst even though her death had nothing to do with the blackmail. What Lindy doesn’t know won’t hurt us.
Nana gets over her shock and picks up the phone on the conference table. “Yes, could you please call the police? Have them come pick up Lindy for extortion.”
Lindy looks panicked after Nana puts the phone down, but then she gets that smug smirk again. “You can’t prove anything.”
I chuckle even louder this time. “Lindy, I swear I have no idea how I put up with you for so long. You’re as dumb as a box of rocks. We record all of our interviews because we go back over them afterward. See the little red dot in the corner over there?” I point out the camera. “Smile.” She pales considerably with that news.
The door to the room opens, and Riku sticks his head in. “You wanted me, Ms. Summers?”
“Yes, thanks, Riku. Could you and Franklin escort Lindy down to the security offices and wait with her until the police arrive? Oh, and Lindy, consider this your notice of termination.”
She jumps to her feet, hands clenched at her sides. “You’ll pay for this!” she shouts, and I roll my eyes at her cliché parting remark.
Riku grabs her by the arm and escorts her out while she screams profanities at both him and poor Franklin who I can see waiting in the hallway. Thankfully, the door quickly closes behind them, blocking out the sound.
“Holy fuck, that woman is batshit crazy,” Molly murmurs into the suddenly silent room. The four of us exchange a look and start to laugh.
“She wasn’t always like that,” I tell them, and Nana shakes her head.
“No, she was such a sweet girl when we first hired her, and she did a great job. It’s only in the last year that she started to change. I think a little bit of the notoriety went to her head. She was Jacinta Summers’ personal assistant, and we allowed her access to the Wardrobe and tickets to movie premieres and concerts and things. I think she got a little too big for her boots and over-imagined her own importance.” Nana sounds sad about that, but she’s always been one of the nicest of us all. Do I recognize that Lindy is in a bad position? Yes. However, I don’t see any way that it’s not entirely her fault. Plenty of people have spent a lot of time around our family without losing their minds.
“I don’t know what happened, but I’m not sorry to see her go. How she thought she was qualified to run a business like Neighpalm Couture, I have no idea. And blackmail? I wonder who put that idea into her head!” I’m still slightly flabbergasted by the whole situation.
“Shall we get on with interviewing the real candidates?” Emma asks, and we all agree. She picks up the phone. “Susie, please have the next applicant come up.”
ChapterThirteen
Jacinta
It takes us a good two hours to interview three applicants, then I need to leave for the press conference Cole arranged.
“Do you want us to wait?” Nana asks as I pack my laptop away, but I shake my head.
“No, don’t make them wait any longer. Interview them, send me the recordings with all your recommendations, and I’ll have a look over them tonight after I’ve had dinner with the guys.”
