My Holiday Bonus Was a $5 Million IOU! I Quit and Their Company Collapsed novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Ansel's Side

Ansel's POV

Constance Sjoberg received me on the day after Christmas in a glass office with a view of the lake.

She had coffee ready, in good cups, and a plate of shortbread nobody was going to eat.

"Mr. Strandberg," she said, and took my hand in both of hers. "I'm so glad you came. I've wanted to thank you for three wonderful years."

"Mrs. Sjoberg."

"Constance, please. Sit."

I sat.

She told me Mara was unwell.

She said it softly, with her head tilted, and she told me the surgery in November had "changed her."

She said Mara had turned on the people who loved her and that she was being, in her word, led.

"By whom?" I asked.

"I'd rather not say."

"You'd rather I said it."

She smiled, a little sadly, and slid a paper across the desk.

It was an extension of our sponsorship, three more years at the current rate, with her signature already at the bottom.

"Nothing needs to change," she said. "I'll keep Mara quiet and happy at home, and Luther will take you out to dinner. You'll have the same videos you've always loved."

"Mara owns Sunday Table."

"Mara owns a password and a camera."

"She owns what I'm paying for."

"That's a very big word, 'owns,' for a young woman who can't sign her name without help." Her smile stayed exactly where it was. "I'd hate to see a man in your position embarrassed."

I put the paper back on her side of the desk.

"I wrote your company three letters," I said.

"Did you?"

"One each January. Your front desk put them on your desk. Mara never saw one."

For a second the room was very quiet.

"Hattie Lund talks too much," she said.

"I notice you didn't say it isn't true."

She folded her hands.

"Mr. Strandberg. My daughter is fragile. You saw her on Monday. She is the kind of girl a man like you could ruin without meaning to."

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