“She didn’t say nice things about you,” Annie corrected, “but she didn’t say anything mean about us on the note.”
“What? Yes, she did. She said she hated children, that they’re sticky and gross.”
“They are sticky and gross,” Enola said. “I hate children too.”
“But you are a child…” I said slowly.
“No, I’m not,” Enola retorted. “I’m a CEO of a company.”
“And I’m the chief technology officer,” Annie said proudly. “Children don’t run companies.”
“They can, technically, if it’s a corporation,” I mused.
My sisters blinked at me.
“We need her to help us on our pitch deck for talking to investors,” Annie added.
I ground my teeth. “I told her to stay away from you.”
“That wasn’t very nice.”
I blew out a breath. “She wrote—”
“Tess was talking about children like Davy in Harrogate. He ate Nutella off the carpet.”
“That’s disgusting,” I said, making a face.
“What if she was having a bad day?” Annie said. “People have bad days. And we still need her input. There’s money on the line.”
“I can’t believe you fired her,” Enola scolded.
“I didn’t fire her from our lives,” I said. “That was a choice she made. I tried to get her back.”
“Not all that hard,” Enola said tartly.
Had I tried that hard?
Maybe not.
But did it matter at this point? Tess was gone. She hated me. Now my sisters were mad at me.
I wanted to sit and stew over the article, but I had more pressing business that morning. I needed to fire Cressida.
She was defiant and angry when she arrived in my office.
“All of this could have been avoided,” she said, “if you’d just picked me instead of Tess.”
“Cressida,” I said. “You worked with her stepfather to steal my sisters away.”
“That was a lie!” she shrieked.
People on the office floor looked our way. I guessed no work was getting done this week between all the firings and my family drama.
“I was trying to help you out to make sure that Tess and her awful stepfamily weren’t going to hurt your sisters. I was doing it for you, Beck,” she begged.
“No, you weren’t, Cressida.” I stood up. “Unfortunately, we have to let you go. You’re in human resources. I think you know the drill.”
“And Tess?” she asked slyly.
