AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sure. We usually have new joiners come in batches each month so that they can have orientation together,” Jay explained.
“Great. I’d like to speak at the next orientation.” Patrick paused. “Maybe it’s time I get to know my employees a little better.”
Jay made a little noise of surprise, but he rallied. “Of course. I’ll contact the training leaders and schedule you in.”
“Thanks, Jay.”
“Anytime.”
“Now head home. It’s getting late.”
Jay chuckled over the phone. “Sure thing, boss.”
Patrick hung up and sat back in his chair. It had been a good day. He’d acquired Aurora at last, and he had found a new way to improve his work.
Now he just needed to dive back into the mountain of work that was finally starting to taper off as the workday came to an end.
CHAPTER 3
EMMA
Emma sighed in frustration and closed the laptop.
It had been two days since Aleksander caught her breaking into his office. Two days which Emma had spent intensely researching how to get Aurora from Patrick Daniels. She didn’t even understand why Aleksander wanted it so badly. Although Aurora was breathtakingly lovely (Emma had spent more than a few minutes looking at an image of it she’d found online), it wasn’t particularly special in any way she could put her finger on. The only thing unusual about it was that Patrick Daniels had spent an exorbitant sum, well over what the painting was worth, when he’d bought it in a recent auction.
The significance of the painting wasn’t the real problem, though. The real problem was that there seemed to be no way to get to Patrick. She’d looked for openings at his company, LWC Capital. A few open positions in accounting were posted, but they were at a senior level and there was no way Emma could be hired for any of them. There were no entry-level positions in any department, which was strange for such a big company.
Hoping to approach things from another angle, Emma had looked up interviews with Patrick and found that he was a private man who rarely shared personal details in public. The only thing helpful in the interviews was that Patrick kept a personal collection in his Chicago penthouse, which must be where the Aurora was. He wasn’t on social media, so there was no way to contact him or get details about his movements so she could stage a random meeting.
In desperation, Emma had even looked up his address on a database and spent several hours casing his apartment building. It appeared to have a state-of-the-art security system, based on the cameras outside and the guard at the main entrance, so even if Emma had been ready to just break in, she would have been thwarted by the security. And even if she got past the guard, his penthouse would probably have additional security measures that she had no way of anticipating — or getting past.
“What am I going to do?” Emma moaned aloud. She was alone in her studio apartment, sitting cross-legged on her bed. Her laptop and a collection of printouts lay on the sheets in front of her, evidence of the last few days of research. Emma couldn’t give up, not if she didn’t want to face jail time, but she wasn’t sure what else to do.
Just then, her phone dinged. She checked and felt a surge of relief when she confirmed it was her personal phone, not the burner Aleksander had given her. Emma clicked on the notification and saw that it was a response to the monitoring program she’d put in place to alert her of new positions at LWC Capital. Her heart soared when she saw the new position. It was perfect, even more than she could have hoped.
LWC was looking for a new art appraiser. Emma read through the job description, her excitement rising. Not only was this an entry-level position, meaning she had a good chance of being hired, but it was a job she might have applied for anyway because it was in the art department. Even better, she knew from her research that Patrick was personally involved in the art acquisition department and considered it a special project.
This was perfect. If Emma could get this job, she’d have to run into Patrick around the office at least every once in a while. She’d flirt a little, hopefully befriend him, and get an invitation to his house as a personal acquaintance. He must have people over sometimes to see that personal collection of his, after all.
Now Emma just needed that job. She pulled up her resume and started editing it to match the job description. Once she was satisfied, she chose a pseudonym to use. Emma Reynolds seemed like a good choice. She’d had one art-related position as Emma Reynolds before, so there was more than the usual fabricated history to back up her application.
Finally, she crafted a cover letter. She poured all her corporate knowledge and all her love of art into the letter and hoped it would be enough. This had to work. She wasn’t likely to get another opportunity like this, and certainly not within the month Aleksander had given her.
Emma uploaded the resume and cover letter to the application portal and clicked submit. She couldn’t help feeling anxious about whether her application would be accepted, but for the first time in a few days, she was able to relax a little. At least she had a plan now. Finally.
She laid back on her bed, her head resting on a print-out of an interview with Patrick about a piece of art he’d acquired several years ago, and closed her eyes. She was making progress.
She was so relieved, in fact, that she found herself drifting into a deep sleep for the first time since Aleksander had caught her in his office. A fuzzy dream about Aurora drifted through her mind, in which Emma herself was the woman in white standing in the ocean, feeling the salt breeze on her face and hearing the crash of the waves and the calls of the seagulls. Emma felt at peace for the first time in a very long time.
Suddenly, a foghorn blared, cutting through the serenity of the ocean scene. She clapped her hands over her ears, but the sound only grew louder the more she tried to drown it out. Then, suddenly, as though she was being pulled up into the sky, Emma woke.
The sound wasn’t a foghorn at all, but her phone ringing. Emma looked blearily at the clock and saw that it was just after nine. For a confused moment she wondered why it was light outside so late at night and just who was calling her at this time before she realized it was nine in the morning! She had been so exhausted that she’d slept through the evening and the night without realizing it.
Emma quickly swiped to answer the call and held the phone to her ear.
“Good morning.” Her voice sounded slightly gravelly from sleep and she held the phone away from her mouth as she cleared her throat.
“Hello, this is Julie Peterson from LWC Capital. Have I reached Emma Reynolds?”
