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Emma didn’t know why. There were no urgent meetings that required her to be there. Nothing at all going on that would make her father notice her presence. Or rather absence. He barely acknowledged her existence anyway. Everyone was well aware that, despite how hard Emma had worked earning her degrees, and the hours she put in at the office, she wasn’t the daughter he intended for the C Suite. All his talk of her ‘duty’ was just to make sure she would do what he needed her to without question and would stay out of his hair. Because no matter what Emma did, her father would always make her feel like a burden.
Emma wasn’t going to respond, but she saw the three little dots that told her Maddie was typing another message.
Actually, don’t tell me where you are. Can’t say anything if I don’t know. Can’t believe you ditched! Video call in ten. There’s an announcement.
Emma groaned. There had been talk all week of this ‘announcement’, but no one in her family seemed to want to make it. Until now. Dread settled like lead in her belly.
Emma scooped up her clothes off the floor, quickly changing into her jeans and rushing out of the bedroom. Slipping into the other bathroom, she made sure she looked presentable before taking a seat at Alex’s large dining table, which seated twelve. It was a quiet space that they hadn’t once used. Idly she wondered if he had it there just to fill what would otherwise have been an empty space. But thoughts of Alex’s social life were wiped from her mind the moment her phone began to ring.
Whatever they were going to say, Emma was determined not to react. Fixing in place the mask of indifference she often wore at work, she answered the call.
Her father sat at the head of his meeting table, with his business partner to his right and her mother to his left. Maddison sat beside her, with Lauren opposite and the head of HR taking the final occupied seat.
‘Good day, everyone,’ Emma greeted.
Anxiety bloomed in her chest. She could handle herself at work without batting an eyelid. It was what she’d spent so many years studying for. To prepare herself to one day lead the company in some way. The problem was that no matter how hard she tried to separate the two, her family life was inextricably woven in with her work life. She would never be able to escape that, and now, looking at her father, she felt her confidence waver.
‘Emma,’ her father said.
Peter Brown was a large man with greying temples and dark hair. He had cunning hazel eyes that, despite their colour, held little warmth. They simmered with anger now. A look she had often seen directed at her mother during their blazing rows. But the one thing his treatment of Emma had done was make her strong. So now she could hold her phone in her hand and appear to all that she was unaffected by him.
‘We have an announcement to make, and we need you to stand beside your sisters tomorrow when we do.’
‘Okay...’ Emma said hesitantly, unsure of what was coming. She just knew she wouldn’t like it.
Alex shut off the taps and left the en suite bathroom. He smiled inwardly at the disappointment of finding the bed empty. Shaking his head, he opened the closet door to get out a set of clean clothes. That was when he heard Emma’s voice, and another. She was on a call, by the sounds of it. Nothing unusual about that, except something made his skin prickle.
Dressing quickly, he followed the sound of her voice to find her at the dining table. A little vertical line had formed on her forehead between her furrowed brows as she listened attentively, not noticing his presence in the doorway.
Alex knew he should be giving her a bit of privacy. After all, he never appreciated being eavesdropped on. But something about the way she sat, so stiffly, and the way her voice tried to show no emotion at all kept him in that doorway. Watching.
‘We have taken the decision to move Lauren up to be VP of Services...’
Emma clenched her jaw as her father spoke, remaining silent.
‘...and Maddison will be taking her place.’
‘So Maddison is now my boss’s boss?’
Emma hadn’t meant for the words to sound as sharp as they had. Especially when Maddison shot her an apologetic look. But it hurt. Again. Her younger sister, less qualified and less experienced, was now soaring far higher than her in the career stakes.
Part of her was happy that Maddison was getting some recognition for the work she’d put in, but the biggest part of her saw this for what it was. Evidence that her sisters would always be chosen over her, no matter what she did to prove herself to her father.
‘Yes. Can we count on you to do your duty to this family?’
Hearing her father ask the question crushed her. After everything she had done, she’d hoped her commitment to her family, to the company, would never be in question. Seemed she was wrong.
‘Of course. I will always do what the company needs me to. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it,’ Emma said. ‘I just have one question. How did the vote go?’
‘It was unanimous, darling,’ her mother said.
Unanimous. She should have expected it. ‘I see.’
Emma managed to keep her voice steady as she tried to quell the crushing disappointment that was ripping at her insides. That one word meant that even her mother, whom Emma had always been close to, had chosen Maddison.
It was no real surprise, if Emma was truly honest with herself. Internally, she was glad that for once she’d decided to do something that made her happy. Any tiny trace of the guilt she’d felt when she’d agreed to spend more time with Alex vanished.
‘That’s it. Your mother can give you the details.’
