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“Is that him?”
Mr. Stanley nodded. “Andrei Rusu. He truly was a great man.”
“And he loved my mother,” Olivia muttered to herself, the whole idea still astounding her to the core. There were so many questions she wished she could ask, but her mother was dead, and whenever she asked him about personal matters, Mr. Stanley always gave her the same old, “I don’t know. I was just his lawyer.”
“And you said he has a sister, in Romania?”
“Yes, Elena Rusu.”
“Why did he leave nothing to her? He had so much.”
Mr. Stanley shrugged. She knew his answer, so she beat him to it: “You don’t know, you were just his lawyer.”
Mr. Stanley laughed. “Quite right, but they didn’t seem to have a relationship with one another. But don’t ask me why . . . I was just his lawyer.” He grinned, and this time Olivia did too.
“Come now, we still have to finish this tour, and I have a meeting this afternoon.”
She nodded. “Yes, thank you for showing me around. I know this goes beyond your duty.”
Despite all the questions on her mind, she was more than thankful to Mr. Stanley for being her tour guide and accompanying her to important meetings, such as the “Rusu Corp New Owner Meet and Greet.” Although Olivia wasn’t involved in the business aspect of the Rusu Cooperation, she still was the silent majority shareholder and, as such, had to attend a few meetings. Boy, were those awkward. Olivia had sat in a large leather chair at the end of a long mahogany table in the conference room at the Rusu cooperation headquarters while a bunch of old, important-looking men in suits stared at her, their eyes intense and unwelcoming as if wondering if this was a joke. Without Mr. Stanley by her side, she would have melted into that seat like a popsicle in a microwave
Moving into this mansion was just one of the many things that changed in Olivia’s life, and all of it was jarring. At first, she was ecstatic and danced and jumped around her tiny living room, Mr. Right tightly squeezed in her arms. But then, after actually living there for a few days, wandering through all those empty rooms, it made her feel even more lonely than she was before.
A soft vibration woke her from a deep Sunday-morning slumber. Her eyes slowly opened to find the same scene she had for the last few days: cream silken sheets on a king-sized bed, a spacious bedroom with luxurious, white furniture, and the burnt-down charcoal from last night’s wood in her stone fireplace.
“Look, Mr. Right,” Olivia said to her tubby cat, who was sleeping by her feet on a red cashmere blanket, purring like a king who had finally come home to his palace. “We’re still here; it’s not a dream.”
Olivia grabbed her phone from the wooden nightstand and glanced at it. A missed call from an unknown number.
“My phone never rings in the morning. In fact,” she said, staring at the number, “it never rings at all.”
Mr. Right ignored her, closing his eyes and purring even louder. She couldn’t help but grin. Cats truly were divas.
A worry crept into Olivia’s mind. She had taken off from work for two weeks. She’d had so much unused vacation time, she could have flown to the moon and back. Was something the matter? Did they fire her thinking she didn’t need the job any longer? It was ridiculous to be anxious about an accounting job with all the money she had now, especially considering the pressure from Mr. Stanley to quit, as it was “unfitting, in view of her new circumstances.” But what would she do all day without a job? She’d worked her whole life, just like her mother and father. A loaded bank account wouldn’t change those values overnight.
With a pounding heart, she called back the missed call. It rang only one time before a woman shouted “Olivia!” in an energetic, high-pitched voice. The tone was so sharp and unexpected that Olivia jerked her head away from the phone.
“How wonderful! This is so cool!” The woman’s voice was so enthusiastic, her words rolled off her tongue almost too quick for Olivia to grasp.
“I’m sorry, I’m not sure who I’m speaking with,” Olivia said.
“Silly! It’s Elizabeth. You know, from work,” she replied, and the voice began to sound familiar. But Olivia had never taken a call with Elizabeth . . . in fact, the last memory she had of Elizabeth was when Elizabeth and another coworker had been talking about a Halloween party, but had grown quiet the moment they saw Olivia.
“Yes, Elizabeth.”
“Yeah, from work.” Elizabeth hesitated for a moment before asking, “How have you been?”
Olivia frowned. It felt strange hearing that question from a colleague who never spoke to her; and after the whole Halloween party thing, it felt almost deceitful and insulting.
“So . . . I heard what happened, Olivia. Incredible. Amazing! It must be exciting?”
Olivia sighed and pressed her hand on the bed, marveling once more at how extra soft the silk was. It felt like sleeping on clouds.
Elizabeth mercilessly went on, ignoring Olivia’s silence. “I even saw you on national TV when you came out of that big shiny skyscraper. Wow! And you looked so damn gorgeous and important with that sleek lawyer by your side. So how much money—”
“Um, can I call you back?” Olivia cut in and ended the call before getting a response.
National TV? She’d thought those cameras when she came out of the Rusu Corp meeting were maybe a local, short clip at the most.
