Page 97 of Take Her
“You’d better,” he grunted, and then waved me off. “Get outta here.”
I turned and quickly walked to the elevator, and waited until the doors were closed before straightening my hair out.
41
LIA
“Are you hearing what I’m saying?” Jessica demanded.
How was it possible that I was hearing the best words of my life coming out of the mouth of the world’s worst woman?
Maybe this was God’s way of punishing me.
“And it’s not a mistake. I’m keeping it. You’re going to be a father, whether you like it or not.”
“That’s fine.”
“That’s fine? That’s all you have for me?”
“I don’t know what else to tell you. Other than to maybe stop smoking, for the baby’s sake.”
—Caleb, from One of a Thousand Wishes by A. R. McGeorge
The first thing I did was get my computer set up the way I liked it—with the help of an IT guy who came in and gave me my new passwords to my own email too. I was LFerreo in the system now, and seeing my name blink on the screen instead of Mrs. Armstrong’s gave me a strong sense of pride.
After that, I frantically googled whatever the fuck it was an investor relations officer did, and hoped that the IT guy I’d made nice with wouldn’t rat me out for being clueless when he got back to his own desk, wherever it was.
Seemed like there was going to be a lot of public speaking in my future. All the women in the photos online looked like they’d come from some stock image warehouse after a search for “professional” and “updo”—they made my fingers itch to throw my hair up into a bun.
But they also appeared confident, and I realized that was mainly what they were there for. To have the right answers, and if they didn’t, to give off that shine that said they knew where to get them.
I could do that. With Rhaim feeding me and some practice in advance—he’d have to get me up to speed—I was looking forward to twenty hour days already.
Especially if they were with him.
There was a knock on the glass—I looked up, expecting to see Rhaim outside, and was instead dismayed to find my cousin.
I knew I couldn’t let a moment of that onto my face.
I was Business Lia now, all the way.
I waved him in, giving him the same kind of smile other girls at boarding school had usually reserved for me around assorted professors—the forced kind that showed teeth, but that didn’t reach your eyes.
“Hey, Junior,” I said, and realized Rhaim was right to move us. My cousin was in my territory now. I wasn’t an interloper, this was my space, and I was going to hold it like that, no matter what my stomach thought.
“Did you know about this?” he asked, tapping his phone’s screen. He seemed messy—I got the impression he might have jogged all the way from Blackwing to confront me in person.
I did my best to channel Corvo’s CFO for my response. “Does it matter if I did?”
His eyes narrowed. “My father didn’t even know.”
“What does he care? He’s about to become extraordinarily wealthy.” I shrugged as though it didn’t matter, and then realized I should tone it down.
Not because I didn’t know how to act, now that my new title had been thrust upon me.
But because I wanted him—and his father—to underestimate me up until the moment I ousted them from the board.
“I mean, I’m looking forward to making a ton of money too,” I said, with a vastly sweeter smile and an I’m-just-a-silly-girl shrug.