I was already reaching for the pile of mail to hide my smile. “Hmm?”
“Your father loves you.” She said it simply, without the teasing. “He’s not just proud of what you do for the company. He lovesyou. You don’t need to worry about him quite so much.”
She left before I could answer.
Which was good, because I wasn’t surehowto answer, and just stared out my open door with my lips parted slightly.
Huh.
Maddie thought…what? That my father wasn’t interested in looking good? OfcourseI worried about my father, and what he thought. That was my job, wasn’t it?
It was easier to focus on what Maddie’s words revealed—that she’d been having some personal conversations with Daddy—rather than what she’d actually said.
Shaking my head, I reached for the pile of mail and scooped it in front of me. It was the usual batch of corporate catch-all, correspondence that didn’t quite have an obvious owner, and I was glad for the distraction.
The Fairbanks Foundation quarterly report, addressed here rather than the main office, was for me.
An invoice from the catering company—also me.
A letter from the youth league board, which I slid aside to pass on to Joshua. A note from the rink manager about the Zamboni service schedule—that should have gone to maintenance, I think.
And at the bottom, a heavier envelope. Cream stock, official looking. Addressed, not to Rex Fairbanks or to the Foundation, but simply to:
The Ownership and Management of Bramblebluff Ice Complex.
No sender’s name on the front. Just the OHL crest embossed in the upper left corner.
I frowned at it.
I shifted everything off to the side and picked up my letter opener.
My heart was already thumping against my ribs, in that dull sense of dread you get when you justknowthis was going to be bad news. Why would the Orc Hockey League write to the ownership and management of the complex, rather than Fairbanks Enterprises or the team itself?
The answer was in the memo field across the top:
Re: Franchise Compliance Review:Teal Terrors
Compliance review? The Terrors were out of compliance? Then why write tous?
Taking a deep breath to steel myself, I began to read.
“What in the world?” My voice cracked as my eyes scanned the words with growing horror.
It has come to the attention of the OHL Franchise Compliance Division that a personal relationship may exist between a member of the ownership-adjacent party of this facility and a current member of the Teal Terrors roster.
I frowned at the letter.
Ownership-adjacent. They meant…my father? Someone associated with my father— I gasped as I understood what they meant.
Me.
Kardok and me, ourpersonal relationship.What did they care?
My fingers crinkled the paper as I read on.
As you are no doubt aware, Section 7.4 of the OHL Franchise Agreement requires that all facility arrangements involving OHL franchises be conducted on a demonstrably arm’s-length basis, free from personal or familial relationships that could reasonably be perceived to influence the commercial terms of said arrangement.
Me and Kardok. Reduced to a compliance issue?
