“A new account? Are you kidding me?” Semele finally let her anger fully surface. “I’m in the middle of one I happen to care about!”
She and Mikhail were supposed to spend the next several hours going over the collection and hammering out potential strategies for the auction next month. She had also been anxious to discuss the manuscript and Marcel’s note. And now her account was being handed over to Fritz?
“What if I say no?” she asked. Raina laughed and Semele wanted to throttle her. She shouldn’t even be here.
“I’m sorry, Semele.” Mikhail met her eyes.
During the five years they had been working together, she and Mikhail had developed a strong mutual respect as well as a shorthand for communicating with one another. He was telling her the decision was final.
“Where is the client?” she asked.
“Beijing,” Raina informed her with barely disguised glee as she reviewed the file.
Semele closed her eyes. She couldn’t believe this was happening. Part of her wondered if this was some sort of plan to get her out of the picture. Why Beijing? Why now? She should be swamped with preparations for the auction. Now she was being shipped off to China.
Raina stood up to leave. “I’ll get with the new clients and set up your travel,” she said and sauntered out.
Semele waited until the door closed and then turned back to Mikhail. “Is this a roundabout way of firing me?”
Mikhail let out a surprised laugh. “No, I give you my word. I know this seems out of the ordinary. But sometimes I have to make decisions for the good of the company. The Beijing account is more important. You’re needed there.”
Semele refrained from questioning him further. She sipped her coffee instead and tried to make sense of what was happening. She didn’t see how an account in Beijing could be more important than Bossard. And Mikhail didn’t even know about the manuscript yet. She needed to broach the subject.
“There’s one piece in the collection that I think is going to be significant.”
He cut her off. “Turn your notes over to Fritz by this afternoon and he’ll sort out everything. Why don’t you take the rest of the week off?”
Mikhail was already walking toward the door. Semele stood in a daze and followed him.
“Recharge, get rested,” he said. “We’ll discuss Beijing first thing Monday morning.”
Semele looked from him to the open door, not ready to walk through it yet. “Seriously? You’re giving me the rest of the week off.”
His eyes softened at her bewildered look. “You’ve earned it.”
Her mind was in a tailspin. Yes, she had earned it. But she didn’t want to go anywhere next week.
This was all so unlike Mikhail. Normal Mikhail would want to go over each piece of the Bossard collection with her immediately. He would follow her down to the tenth floor and get so caught up that he would cancel his afternoon appointments so they could keep talking. Normal Mikhail would never want her to take time off, and he would never reassign a collection.
“Give Fritz your files and I’ll see you Monday,” he said, holding the door open for her to go.
Semele left, knowing her face betrayed her hurt and confusion. She couldn’t help thinking this turn of events was because of the manuscript. Ever since she had found it, she’d been on edge. Her gut told her someone knew she was reading the memoir, and clearly Mikhail didn’t want her to discuss it.
“Semele,” he called her back.
She turned around and saw the concern on his face.
“There will be other collections,” he said gently. “Let this one go.”
She nodded, not sure if she could.
Could I have saved my family if I had only foreseen the fire?
The question haunted me until I read Wadjet’s scroll. She explained how the future had a course, yet our lives remained fluid like water, leaving us with a choice in all things. Life’s greatest mystery was how these conflicting truths existed in harmony. It was the reason why intuition existed at all.
Perhaps pain was a teacher. After the fire, I began to cast the Oracle’s symbols to divine the future. I no longer questioned what they were telling me, and my intuition grew stronger.
I began to prepare for the journey they foretold. I had to believe that from the ashes of this tragedy, a new life was waiting for me.
