At the sound of the knock the voices within grew silent then the distorted voice said:
"I'll be sure to call you at another time." then ended the call. Mr. Frederick cleared his throat before finally asking whoever was at the door to enter.
Michelle walked in with an air of obliviousness, she watched as he let out a startled sound in worry of what she might have heard.
"Miss. Hart. How long have you been standing there?" He asked suspiciously.
"I just got here sir and knocked on your door the moment I approached it. Is something wrong?"
"No. So why are you here?" He asked.
"I'm-."
"Don't tell me you're here to ask for a time extension. I specifically told you to get the job done by lunchtime. No exceptions."
"That's right sir, and I did. I'm here to submit it. Like you asked," She placed the files on his table, "I've calculated and reorganized by year."
He stared at the stack before him, his mouth wide in shock. In disbelief he grabbed one, looked through it and saw that she had indeed done everything. Not wanting to let her off just like that, he made a last ditch effort to criticize her.
"When did you finish?"
"By lunch, like you asked me to."
"Yet, you're submitting it now?"
She smiled at that, "You clearly said you wanted me to be done by lunch and I was. You said nothing of me submitting it by lunch."
"Well obviously I meant you should submit it by lunch."
"Then you should have said so. I simply followed your orders to a T." she replied shrugging.
He opened his mouth trying to find what to say but words escaped him. Sighing in defeat, "Very well, you can leave now."
"Alright." She turned to leave.
"Wait." He said suddenly, as he remembered his task. "I have other things for you to do."
"Really? Like what?" She asked in response wondering what bizarre task he'd give her this time. Last time he had her run errands for the floor, sending her up and down the entire building. Would the change in her actions result in a change of his actions.
"Peter reported you to me."
"Peter?" She asked feigning confusion, "Who is that?"
"My nephew. He said you spoke to him disrespectfully."
"Did he? What exactly did he say happened?"
"He said he was correcting a coworker's actions and you interrupted him and went on to insult him. What do you have to say for yourself?"
"Well, I can definitely say that is not what happened." She replied simply.
"Really? What reason could he have for lying?"
"Maybe he didn't want to tell you about how he scurried away like a rat after being put in his place."
"Ah so you admit you insulted him."
"No, I didn't insult him. I reminded who truly works for whom." She responded as she stared at him her gaze unwavering, a silent warning in her eyes.
He shrunk back from her gaze and said instead, "You're here to work as an assistant manager. You should not be using your familial ties to intimidate your coworkers."
"Oh but I was only following his lead. Also you forget Mr. Frederick; I'm not going to be an assistant manager forever."
"Mr. Hart would not accept your attitude."
"Which Mr. Hart?"
Her question startled him and he wondered if she heard the conversation he had before, recovering he quickly responded, "Your grandfather of course. He would not approve of your current attitude."
Michelle broke into a huge smile, "My grandfather loves me and because of that love he sent me here to learn the inner workings of the company before I stand by his side at the top. He may have told me to humble myself but do you want to know what else he said."
"What else did your grandfather say?"
"He said I am a Hart and one day people like you will work under me and I should act like such. I'm very sure that translates to I shouldn't take any disrespect from a simpering fool like your nephew who thinks his relation to you is enough to make me tremble."
"Why you!"
"Get one thing straight through your head Mr. Frederick, I'm only working with you at the moment not for you. Make sure to relay that to your cousin, because if either one of you cross me, you'll face the consequences." She paused, smiled sweetly at him and said, "Now what other work did you say you have for me?"
Stunned out of his mind, he could barely manage a feeble, "Let your cubicle mate put you through everything you need to learn, assist her with whatever she needs. That will be all."
Nodding her head, she spun on her heels and walked out of his office, her heart thumped in her chest as the gravity of her actions dawned on her.
Consequences? What consequences? She took a huge gamble and could only hope that neither men ever tried to see if her words had any weight to them. For now, she'll keep riding on her grandfather's name till she could ride on her own.
She sat back at her desk and relayed his words to Meghan who was all too willing to show her the ropes.
"Though I don't think there's much I could teach you, from the way you handled the task Freddy there gave you, you already have quite a reasonable amount of knowledge."
"Yes, but I still want to learn from you. Also Freddy?"
"Oh that's what we call Mr. Frederick when he's not around, calling Mr. Frederick all the time is such a handful isn't it?" She responded dismissively. "You really want to learn from me? That's so sweet to say."
"Of course, you've been here longer than I have, you're more experienced." Meghan had been working at the company for three years and she was currently twenty-six, so yes she did have more experience.
"Alright, let's begin."
The rest of the day Michelle learnt who was who in the office, who the nice ones were and the group that always hovered around Peter and Freddy. Overall she had so much fun working, something she never once thought she'd say, that she didn't realize that it was already closing hour.
"Would you look at the time?" Meg exclaimed, "I have to hurry else I'll miss the bus." She turned to Michelle, "What about you?"
"Oh I already have a car waiting for me downstairs, if you want we could drop you off wherever you want."
"Really? Sweet. Thank you."
Michelle arrived home in the evening after dropping Meghan off at the train station, at her insistence, she felt exhausted but it was a positive kind of exhausted. She entered the house to find everyone seated at the table waiting for dinner to be served. She steeled herself in readiness for the barrage of questions that were sure to come.
"Oh wonderful, Michelle's back." Abigail exclaimed, "Come sit with us and tell us about your day, how was your first day at work. Tell us everything."
"Oh I would love to," She really wouldn't "But I'm so tired, I think I just want to lay down and have dinner upstairs. In my room. Alone." Translation: She wanted to be left alone, but as she had come to understand, her family didn't care about her feelings and Abigail kept on insisting till she finally accepted but she went upstairs to freshen up first.
Seated at the table, Abigail gazed at her inquisitively, "So how was it? Hope it wasn't too tasking?"
"Um, it was at first, but I found my pace and everything became easier."
"Really?" Lionel chimed in; he had been staring at her intently from the moment she'd walked in the house, "No crazy workload or demanding supervisors?"
From the way he asked, it was though he wanted her to say that her first day was difficult, his tone and questions confirmed her suspicions- he was the one on the phone with Freddy.
"Really dad? Why would they give her so much to do, it's only her first day." Lucy responded chuckling slightly. The twins remained silent, staring at the dishes before them as though they were more entertaining.
"Yeah, dad. Why would they do that?" Michelle asked tilting her head.
"I'm just asking because of how it was when I worked there. It wasn't easy and I had to do a lot to prove myself." He responded quickly.
"Hmmm, well it wasn't like that for me." She responded shrugging her shoulders.
"It might be later on." He added. Michelle turned to him and stared not saying anything in response.
"Oh let's all dig in, all this talk of work will make us lose our appetite." Abigail said trying to sound cheerful, "No need to talk about work here at the dining table Michelle."
Michelle turned to her as well, "You're the one who brought it up. I clearly told you I was tired and wanted to have dinner in my room. You didn't let me. So why are you telling me to not talk about work when it was your idea in the first place?" She grabbed her plate, spooned some portions of the meal into it and headed up the stairs, "I'll be having dinner in my room, like I said I wanted to."
She left everyone at the table stunned. The Hart family had dinner in stunned silence as not once had Michelle ever spoken to any of them like that. Lionel gazed up the staircase squinting his eyes as though if he tried hard enough he could see up them into Michelle's room.
Frederick's report of how her first day had gone was not what he was expecting. He'd need to work harder to break her spirit as well as ruin her credibility with the old man, Michelle standing up for herself was not part of the plans he had.
Logan stared at his dish absentmindedly, his spoon playing in it. The last thing on his mind was Michelle's albeit surprising outburst. He talked to his father again about the business idea he had and like always he shot him down. His father wanted him to work at Hart Industries first before venturing into anything else, but he wasn't sure that was what he wanted. He sighed heavily.
Lucy looked up at Logan's sigh and found her family pensive. She frowned, she didn't like them giving Michelle any thought whatsoever, she should be their only concern.
Clearing her throat she started, "It seems big sis must have been really tired and just snapped." Turning to her mum she said, "Don't pay her words any mind, I'm sure she'll come see you soon to apologize. You know Big sis Elle doesn't like it when any of us is angry. Ok mum."
Abigail perked up at that, of course Michelle would come and apologize, she always did. Tomorrow, she'll be at her doorstep first thing in the morning regretful and apologetic. She pinched Lucy's cheek affectionately, "You're right my dear, how could I have forgotten."
With Abigail's mood improved, the rest of the table's mood improved with it and everyone dug into their dishes heartily as they laughed and talked about how their days went, uniformly ignoring the small crack that had started to form in their family dynamic.
Upstairs in her room, Michelle ignored the laughter that travelled up and instead arranged the information she'd gathered that day.
First, Lionel had Frederick observing her and hindering her work life by making it difficult. This also meant Freddy was working for Lionel and she had to find out what connected them to each other.
Secondly, there was a possibility Freddy only stole the money under Lionel's orders. It was a strong possibility because as she'd proved from her confrontation with him in his office, he was somewhat of a spineless man.
Her list of targets seemed to have a new person added to it- Mr. Frederick in what way would Michelle Hart make you pay for your crimes against her family.