Pros: he was rich, he was packing some girth based on my lap time, he was willing to do whatever he needed to do to make me happy—maybe that was a con, I wasn’t sure yet—he was an amazing kisser, and he smelled so good I wanted to wrap myself around him forever.Maybe that was a con, too.
Obviously, the possibility of forever was what was holding me back the most.And he’d already given me a solution to that.
I thought of how he’d reacted every time I’d been upset and knew he was right about one thing—he would do everything in his power to be the man I needed and never give me a reason to want to leave…or stab him in the heart.
“Fine.Let’s give it a try, but only that.No official dating yet.”
“Does that mean we’re unofficially dating?”
“I think you’re going to manage the one annoying thing a day just fine.”
He grinned at me, the hungry look returning to his gaze.
“Eat your burger, Konni.Then take me home.”
“Anything you want, kitten.”
Mom was standing justinside the door when I walked in.I took one look at her puffy post-cry-fest face and dropped my bags to hug her.
“What happened?”
“I think Konni is right.I think someone’s been behind my job losses since the beginning.”
“Let’s sit in the kitchen.I’ll make some tea while you talk.”
As I brewed us some chamomile and lavender tea, she recapped her meeting.The old coworker said that after firing Mom, the company had reestablished the same position a month later, but under a different title.
“Same job responsibilities,” Mom said as I handed her a cup.“I checked.”
After that, she’d searched online for the other places that had let her go due to restructuring, only to find the same thing.The exact position that’d been eliminated had been recreated under a different name.
She’d started calling the people in those new positions, posing as a headhunter for Steele Corp, to ask how long they’d been in that role.
“It was the same everywhere.About a month after I left, they recreated the positions and hired someone else.”
I sipped my tea, considering all the angles.
“It doesn’t make sense to me.Does it to you?If it were Hestian, why wait years?Why wouldn’t he approach you directly like he approached me?”
“Maybe it was never me.Maybe it was always you.I checked.His youngest is eight.Maybe he was setting the stage in case the last one in his litter wasn’t as smart as he wanted?”
The way she used litter just made him even more disgusting.
“First, I hate the way that man is trying to create his perfect heir.His poor kids,” I said.“Second, that’s so much work.Eight years ago, my grades were crap because of the divorce—no blame, just thinking out loud.He had no reason to think I was the level of intelligence he wanted.”
“Actually, that’s a valid point.Not the grades, but how young you were when the targeting started.He had no reason to even look at you.I mean, he does marry his wives fairly young, but always in their mid-twenties.Why would he look at a fourteen-year-old?”
“So gross even talking about this.”
“I know.”She sighed and stared at her cup for a long moment.“Can you let Konni know I was impersonating Steele Corp people to get information?I didn’t think he would mind.If he does, he should just announce a scam caller is posing as a Steele headhunter.”
I texted to ask, and he replied almost immediately.
“He said he trusts you and knows you won’t do anything to damage Steele Corp’s reputation.He’ll let HR know he’s outsourced a headhunting agency so they can back up any calls they might get to verify.”
“He’s smart.”She looked up from her tea suddenly.“It makes me wonder why he can’t figure this out on his own.Why does he need us?”
It wasn’t something I’d considered, but now that she’d asked it, the answer was bold in its simplicity.
