Chapter 18: Testing

Abigail woke with her alarm again, though she’d set it a few times to make sure she was up by breakfast. She didn’t want to have such an amazing night wasted simply because she couldn’t wake up the next morning and be on time for her breakfast with her father.

She also knew that if she was on time, neither Olivia nor Charlotte would be there, and she would get some time with him alone before either of them arrived. Then she would be able to make an exit if they did appear, without having lost any valuable time with her father.

She really couldn’t imagine what kind of mood they might be in, after everything that had happened last night at the party.

Though Abigail was very far from feeling guilty, everything that had happened to Olivia had been her own doing. She would simply have to be a big girl and deal with the consequences of her actions. And if that meant she couldn’t inherit the company because she couldn’t behave like a sane adult, then Olivia should just be grateful that she hadn’t been disinherited and cut off entirely.

Abigail thought about dressing for breakfast, but she wanted this to be her home, and she wanted to feel comfortable in her home. So, just running a brush through her hair, Abigail made her way to the dining room for breakfast.

“Good morning Abby,” her father greeted her as she walked in for breakfast with him. He seemed to realize what he’d said, “Uhm,” Adam stuttered. “I mean, Abi, Abigail.”

Her father was dressed for the day to begin, but he barely seemed to notice that Abby had decided to stay in her pajamas.

“Abby is fine,” Abigail reassured him, sitting down. “Though I don’t think you should call me that in board meetings, then, it’s Miss Woodtriche to you, sir.”

Adam beamed, “Have you decided to take my last name, then?”

“Both,” Abigail said, as a servant behind her poured a glass of orange juice and a cup of tea. “I’m going to have it changed to Miller Woodtriche.”

“To honor your mother as well,” Adam nodded. “That is very wise to do so. You would lose public favor if you suddenly turned your back on her, and everything she has done for you.”

Abigail frowned, “That’s not why I’m doing it.” She told him, as she pointed to the salmon and another servant placed it on her plate for her. “I am trying to honor her, and I would never turn my back on her and everything she has done for me, but it’s not because I’d lose public favor. It’s because it’s the right thing to do.”

“Ah,” Adam smiled at his daughter. “Speaking of the company and all it’s attachments,” Adam reached for his cup of tea. “I have something that I’d like you to take a look at.”

“Oh?” Abigail asked, spooning honey into her tea. “A project?”

“Something like that,” Adam told her, smiling. “If you have nothing on today, I’d like you to come by my office around ten, and we could work on it together. What do you say?”

Abigail beamed, “I would love that.”

She had never come to live here, believing she would start working for her father. But if it gave them more time together, and more time doing something that was especially important to Adam, how could Abigail refuse?

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After breakfast, Abigail headed back to her room to shower and change. Neither Olivia nor Charlotte had shown up for breakfast, and Abigail and her father had had an entire hour to themselves, just talking about anything and everything.

Abigail had left promising to be in his office and ready for the work at ten.

And at ten sharp, Abigail was seated on the same sofa she had been yesterday, three very similar folders placed in front of her.

“Acquisitions and Mergers,” Adam said, just a little dramatically. “One of the most pivotal survival points of every company, is to recognize our weaknesses and threats, and eliminate them before they destroy us.”

Abigail glanced at the three files before her, “And that means buying up all the competition?”

“Not always,” Adam told her. “Sometimes, it means merging with them, creating something new both for them and our own selves. Its important to always be growing. The world changes, the needs of the people change, and so we must change our businesses, to better suit the world we live in.”

Abigail nodded, realizing that the business world made as much an impact on the world around them as anything else, that a company was no less useful than a hospital.

She pulled one of the folders towards her.

“I will give you my office to use for the day,” Adam told her, getting up and walking towards the exit. “Your task is to find which of these three companies is best for us to acquire, and what is the best means to do so, both for them, and us.”

Adam then left her alone with the folders, and Abigail started reading through them.

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Abigail had spent nearly three hours in her father’s office, trying to make sense of the task in front of her. But while she knew, roughly, what he wanted her to do, the wording was difficult to understand.

And she worried at the amount of things she had had to google. And Abigail wondered, was she doing the right thing? Was she doing this the right way?

Since she had no one else to turn to, she decided to call her mother.

Her mother picked up on the first ring.

“Abigail, are you alright?” Her mother’s voice came worriedly through the phone.

“Yeah mom,” Abigail laughed, “Please don’t worry about it. I’m perfectly fine.”

Abigail heard her mother breathe a sigh of relief, and since it was her lunch hour, they spent a few minutes talking about how everything has been going so far. And after a few minutes, Abigail told her mother the reason for the call.

And for a minute, there was a tense silence on the other end of the call.

“Abigail,” Her mother’s voice was stressed and tense when she did finally speak. “I heard what your father did. I heard he made you heir to the company.”

“Yeah,” Abigail continued, dragging the word. Where was her mother going with this exactly.

“Abigail, you need to be very careful in that world,” her mother pleaded with her. “You don’t know them, you don’t know that life. He’s going to expect so many things from you in return for this, now.”

“What do you mean?” Abigail demanded, irritation floating through her voice.

“Abigail,” her mother warned her. “Be reasonable, think this through. Does it make sense for him to have suddenly given you control of his entire company? Does it make sense for him to have given you preference over the daughter he’s raised and groomed for this position? You need to be careful, there’s going to be a heavy price for what he’s given to you. Don’t think any of this is just given on a silver platter. There was always going to be a price for your involvement in that world.”

“Why do you keep telling me that?” Abigail asked, suddenly angry at her mother. “If you can’t help, then say that. But why do you keep telling me that I can’t trust these people?”

“Abigail,” her mother said, trying to calm her. “That’s not what I’m saying.”

“No,” Abigail told her mother. “It’s not what you’re saying at all. What you’re saying is that I shouldn’t even try. You’re telling me to only watch my back around these people, but they’re my family, though I’m sure you hate that more than I could possibly imagine, given how you kept me away from them all my life.”

“I never kept you away from them,” Emma intruded. “He chose to stay away from you.”

“No?” Abigail challenged. “Then why not even tell me my father’s name? Why keep that hidden from me for so much of my life? If you were truly not hiding him from me, why wouldn’t you let me go to him?”

“He didn’t want you, Abby,” Emma reminded her daughter.

And it was true. Even Adam had admitted that to her. That he couldn’t have claimed her when he had just found out about her. But that wasn’t the whole truth of everything.

“Because you put him in that position,” Abigail reminded her mother. “You told him about me after I was already over a year old. Two years, you waited to tell him about me. And you decided to tell him when he was already married to someone else, already expecting a child with someone else. What was he supposed to do?”

Emma kept quiet, and Abigail knew her even her mother had to admit the truth of her words. Abigail’s separation from her father had been as much her mother’s fault as it had been her fathers.