Chapter 41: Complication

Soon, everything was on a good flow for Abigail.

She was living with her father, visiting her mother often, and spending time with Mark. She almost had a routine down, she almost had an adjustment to normal.

So she woke up this morning like she had every morning so far, and expected everything to go the same.

Abigail showered and dressed and arrived for breakfast as she normally did.

She should have known, as soon as she went to breakfast, that things were not going to be going as smoothly today as she had hoped.

Sitting at the breakfast table was her father at the head, as usual. Olivia was still at the table which wasn’t too unusual. Sometimes her sister went to work earlier than either Abigail and their father, and sometimes she lagged a little and went to work when they did. This morning probably just happened to be one of her lazy mornings.

But what was unusual at the table, was Charlotte. Sitting dressed in a near identical suit to her and Olivia.

Oh. So today was a working day for Charlotte, was it? Abigail didn’t think too much of it, in the entire time that Abigail’s been here, Charlotte had gone to work all of once.

Abigail went to sit in the seat next to Olivia, and Olivia immediately began passing her some food.

“Mother is trying a new diet,” Oliva said to Abigail, slightly stiffly. “It’s supposed to boost weight loss and keep your metabolism active. But I wouldn’t eat the green salad if I were you.”

Abigail understood the hint and took only the food that Olivia passed her. Charlotte looked affronted, but not necessarily distraught, so Abigail thought the food probably wasn’t poisoned, it would just be safer not to have of it.

“Shall we get going to work, dear?” Charlotte asked her husband sweetly. “I do so hope we could get an early start today.”

Adam looked at his wife skeptically but put down his paper.

“All right, then,” Adam said, standing up, “We can go.”

Olivia and Abigail ate their food, barely looking up as Charlotte and Adam left the room.

“What is she up to?” Abigail asked, at the same time as Olivia turned to her.

“Where were you?” Olivia demanded. “I’ve been waiting half an hour for you to show up.”

“Oh, sorry,” Abigail said, half affronted. “I didn’t know I was supposed to be here.”

“You could be a bit earlier, you know,” Olivia hissed. “Mother moved her entire calendar around this morning all of a sudden, and I don’t know why. I just know it has something to do with Lyall.”

“Lyall?” Abigail asked, genuinely surprised. “Why?”

“He’s working in the office today, they whole day,” Olivia clarified. “Mother wanted her schedule arranged to look like his.”

Abigail frowned at her sister, “And how do you know all this?”

“I bugged her room,” Olivia tossed her hair over her shoulder. “How else would I know?”

Abigail stared at her sister in shock. And then shook herself out of it. After having nearly been poisoned by Charlotte, she couldn’t really fault Olivia for the steps she took to protect herself from her mother.

They both left for work not long after, taking their own cars. Abigail wanted to be able to go to Mark straight from work, so she never drove with anything or took a lift with anyone. If she took her own car, she could leave immediately.

So she called for her driver, and was on her way to work within minutes.


_________________________________________


The morning was very ordinary at the office. Charlotte’s presence was felt and noted, but she didn’t seem to be doing anything too drastic. Abigail kept a watchful eye on her just in case. There was no way she was going to drop the ball and get complacent around Charlotte now.

Not a chance in Hell.

Abigail was called to her father’s office in the early part of the morning and went in to find a man buried in work.

“Abigail,” her father greeted her as she entered his office, not even looking at her, leafing through papers on his desk.

Abigail had never seen her father this frantic, his office a complete mess. There were boxes and boxes of documents everywhere, the couch, the coffee table, the desk, every surface was covered with something.

“Need help cleaning up?” Abigail offered, only half joking.

“Yes, actually,” Adam answered, searching his desk for something. “But not this mess, another mess. Just hang on for a moment.”

Abigail watched her father search through two more boxes, before he came up with something.

“Aha,” he said, “I knew I had this article in here somewhere. Taneka thinks he’s so smart.”

“Do you need help with something for Taneka?” Abigail asked her father, wondering where she had heard that name before, it was so familiar.

“No,” Adam shook his head. “I had a meeting with Jacob Bronston, the head of the human resources department at Old Mutual, I needed to find out what the problem was from one of our employees that left here and went to work there.”

Ah, Abigail had heard about that. There was a rumor going around that he had been mistreated at the company. But no one seemed to know which company it was. It could have been here, or it could be by his new company.

“We need to rule ourselves out from this investigation,” Adam told his daughter, handing her a file with all the details in it. “I need you to take this meeting. I’m swamped with this Taneka thing.”

Ah, Abigail remembered now. The merger.

“Oh, the Taneka Ascot Merger?” Abigail asked, glancing at her father.

“How do you know that?” Adam asked. “Where did you hear it from? You know what,” Adam waved his hand. “That doesn’t matter. Are you sure that it’s happening?”

Abigail thought back on her conversation with Mark, he’d spoken about it like it was a done deal.

“Sure,” Abigail answered. “But I don’t want to say who I got it from.”

“Smart,” Adam told her. “Smart girl. Then there’s no implications in that.”

Adam came over to her and hugged her, “You might have just single handedly brought in the most profits for this company this year.” Adam told his daughter. “I need to make a phone call.”

“Glad I could help,” Abigail told her father, taking the file he had given her, and heading to her office.


_________________________________________

It was almost lunch time, when Abigail glanced at her phone, feeling in vibrate against her pocket.

‘Hey, can I see you quickly? It’s urgent. I’m already outside your office.’

A text from Mark, Abigail smiled at her phone as she typed out a response. ‘Sure. I’ll be down in a second.’

He was a little early for lunch, but Abigail wasn’t going to refuse to see him.

Abigail smiled, it was sweet of Mark to have come all the way to her work. Also attentive of him to know where it was, since she had only told him once. And her father had a few branches scattered around town.

“Hey,” Abigail greeted, coming up to Mark outside the building. She started towards him for a hug, but he stepped back.

“Did you tell your father about the merger?” Mark asked, his tone slightly angry.

Abigail pulled up short immediately. She had never heard his voice like that before, and the sound well and truly bothered her.

“Huh?” Abigail asked, very confused. Was that what was so urgent he needed to see her about?

“The Taneka and Ascot Merger that I mentioned to you,” Mark said again, his voice rising slightly. “Did you tell your father about that?”

Just this morning, Abigail recalled.

Abigail frowned, “Yeah, I mentioned it to him. What’s wrong, why are you so upset?”

“That was classified information, Abigail,” Mark reprimanded her, his voice hard. “You weren’t even supposed to know. I trusted you with that.”

“Hold on,” Abigail answered hotly, her face burning up. “You never told me that was privileged information, how was I even supposed to know that it was going to be anything important?”

“Right,” Mark nodded, his lips pressed into a hard line. “I see you’re not even going to deny or apologize for anything.”

“Apologize for what?!” Abigail asked, incensed. “You came here accusing me of breaking trust when you never even told me that you were giving me sensitive information.”

“You know what,” Mark told her. “I need to get back, I don’t have time for this. I’m going to have to work late tonight, so I won’t be home. I’ll call you when I’m free.”

Abigail felt her anger rising as Mark spoke to her, like she was something that was in his way right now.

“You know what,” Abigail answered. “You do that. And I’ll answer when I’m free.”

Abigail didn’t wait for him to answer, her anger still coursing through her, she walked away from him, heading straight to her office.