AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Her father has plenty of money and she is the only heir to it. Why would she throw all of that away to work for you?”
“Well, excuse me but I am not a bad person to work for. Ask any of the guys you hang out with all day.”
I shook my head, “you’re missing the point.”
“You sound like you don’t trust me.”
“I trust you Julian, I trust you a lot, but I don’t trust her. I feel like she has some ulterior motive. I’m just saying. We’ve been together for a while and you know on things like this I’m always right.”
“Maybe not this time.”
He turned and picked up his suit jacket from the back of the chair.
“I’m off to work now,” he said as he walked away.
I was not wrong on this. I could feel my grandmother prodding me but at the same time I felt guilty. He was my husband, and I should trust him. Maybe I was just being over the top jealous. Maybe I could try to get to know her. My instincts told me to be careful, but my brain told me to trust Julian and allow her into our lives.
Thoughts of Marissa began to flood my mind.
Our first encounter was when she visited the shop. Her and Julian had just finished a meeting and decided to stop by to see the new designs that would be launching soon.
I wish I had been given a heads up then I could have at least mentally prepared myself. The way she talked to him on the phone grated on my nerves and I was not sure I could keep myself on a professional level around her.
When they arrived, I had been in the production bay helping out. I was wearing a blue jumpsuit with a head lamp wrapped around my messy bun, goggles to protect my eyes and holding a soldering iron. We had been working on all of the components both in the engine and the electrical circuitry. I knew how to build an engine but was working on learning the more delicate features of the technology.
Julian came up to me, wiped something off my face, and gave me a kiss. I was so involved in my work that I did not see her at first.
“Marissa, I want you to meet the Production Manager and the big brain behind the latest engine design, youngest racer to ever win a De Apollo, and the love of my life, my beautiful wife Rylie Fletcher Seven. Three big names huh?” he leaned in to kiss me on the mouth again, pride shining in his eyes.
In that moment, my insecurity vanished and my trust in Julian was renewed. I would just let him take care of Marissa on his own.
“This is Marissa, our new sales manager. She’ll be the one handling the big launch party of your new engine, baby.”
She stretched out her hand to shake mine, but I showed her they were full. She awkwardly lowered her arms to her side.
“Nice to know you will be working for us Marissa. Julian has nothing but good things to say about you. We’ll have to have you over for dinner sometime.”
“It is a pleasure to finally meet the brain behind the new engines.”
I showed her around the shop and introduced her to the staff all the while she asked questions. We did not become best friends, but I was able to relax. The way she talked to Julian on the phone was the same way she talked to the others at the shop that day. I chose to fully trust Julian in his hiring choice and thought she would do well for the company.
The next thing I knew I was reading bad reviews on the internet. We had just released the new designs and things were not going well. Julian was out trying to do damage control, but he kept getting frustrated. No matter how hard he tried, we kept sinking.
I was at the shop day and night trying to figure out what had gone wrong. I disassemble the entire protype and reassembled it multiple times. I even worked on so called faulty engines that had been sold but nothing became apparent. The technology was groundbreaking, and we had patents pending. I was not sleeping trying to figure it all out.
No matter what we did, the negative articles and reviews just kept coming.
He handled all press conferences because he did not want to put me out in the open. In his own way, he was protecting me. He finally announced that the model would be completely removed from market until further notice.
That was a gut punch. I had worked so hard on the project, and it was supposed to be my debut moving from driver to innovator.
I kept insisting that the new engines were perfect, and he should do his own analysis on them because this was his background. My grandfather had taught him everything he knew.
Julian kept telling me he did not have time to tinker when he was busy putting out fires in the media. He even hired someone to track down the sources quoted in the articles, but the investigator only found dead ends.
The vultures circled more and more to the point where I could not even go into the shop. I was stuck at home with the paparazzi camped at the end of our long driveway.
Oh wait, that’s the shop…the house…
