Chapter 24

Jacob

THE MOMENT the door shut behind Charles, the room burst into chaos, most of it directed at me.

“How could you?”

“What the hell?!”

“We all needed this, you asshole!”

The screams came hard and fast, but I shook my head. “I’m sorry,” I said loudly. “It was the right thing to do for Sierra, who I know you all respect.”

That gave everyone except Joe pause, who took the momentary silence as an opportunity to shout, “Go fuck yourself, Jacob!”

He strode towards me, as if gearing up for a sucker punch, but Amy gripped his arm mid-stride and stopped him dead in his tracks.

“Don’t you dare, Joseph,” she seethed. “You’ve already made an ass out of yourself.”

Joe panted, red in the face, and everyone looked on, anxious to see if Amy’s intervention would work.

The sudden slackness in Joe’s form suggested that it had.

“You should never have fired her,” Amy continued. “That was a horrible mistake. She was smart, hard-working and kind, and she’s bent over backwards for the company. You overreacted to that damn Instagram video that was up for half an hour. Who’s checking a construction company’s social media? And now you’ve massively overreacted to this. You need to rein yourself in, because I don’t recognize my husband anymore.”

In an authoritative voice, Tom ordered the rest of the room, “Get out, please, everyone. Go to your rooms. Keep an eye on the company Slack chat for updates.”

People scurried out in droves, probably to avoid the marital showdown that seemed to be brewing. I tried to fall in with the crowd, but Tom said, “No, Jacob. You stay.”

Reluctantly, I peeled away from my co-workers, who were out in seconds and shut the door quickly behind them.

“Yes?” I asked Tom as I shuffled back over to him, Joe and Amy, who were all clustered towards the front of the room.

“You should’ve told us about your previous relationship,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “Aren’t we past that now? What’s to be gained by chiding me?”

“I’m not finished. You should’ve told us, because we need company disclosure about that kind of history… but the rest of it? That’s our fault.” He loosened the tie at his neck and took off his suit jacket. “We should never have asked you two to pretend to date. It was unprofessional in the extreme, and I regret it immensely. Two single people wouldn’t have made a difference in our family values presentation. I see that now.”

I nodded slowly, agreeing with his words, but worried about what potentially fraught corridors they could go down. “In both our defenses, I didn’t know that Sierra worked for you and she didn’t know that I worked for you. Different departments, different branches, in different cities. I hadn’t seen her in two years until Thursday night.”

“And,” Tom continued, “given that it was our error, Sierra shouldn’t have been fired. Technically, by the book, fraternizing isn’t allowed within the company, and yes, it could be grounds for dismissal. But we didn’t play by the book either — we threw out the whole thing when we asked you to fake a relationship. Sierra didn’t deserve what happened to her, Joe.” This last part, said with his eyes affixed on Joe’s face, which was downcast.

“Wouldn’t you agree?” Tom prodded his brother.

Amy added, “Dear, I won’t blame you for making mistakes, but I will blame you if you don’t try to make up for them.”

I watched and waited while Joe processed the words of his brother and wife. At last, he lifted his eyes from the floor. His lips drew tightly together before spreading apart as he whispered, “I can’t believe what I’ve done.”

I let out a sigh of relief I hadn’t even known I was holding in.

“I just fired our best employee,” Joe admitted. “Sierra was, beyond a doubt, holding this whole thing together.”

“As evidenced by what just went down,” Tom added, gruffly referring to the conference room melee.

While it gave me immense relief to hear Joe own up to his errors, that didn’t do squat for Sierra or for Pillers’ pitch. She was still out of a job, and we were all still out of the biggest contract of our lives. My bosses needed to do something to make this right… and then, maybe after I’d orchestrated that, I could begin to make things right with her. I know, I know, it was a long shot, but these were desperate times.

“Joe,” I said, staring down the co-CEO. “We need Sierra. She’ll know how to fix this pitch.”

Joe opened his mouth, but it was Tom who shook his head and replied, “It’s too late. Charles is a, uh, difficult man. Once he’s gone, well, that’s it. There aren’t second chances around here.”

“Maybe,” I allowed. “But if that’s not true, Sierra’s the only one who can make it right. She could you sell you your own nose if she had an Excel spreadsheet and an hour. Besides, the very least you guys can do is apologize. Give her a call.”

I’m not sure where all my chutzpah was coming from — since when did I talk to my bosses like this? Perhaps it was because a part of me knew that, if they didn’t hire Sierra back, I wouldn’t be able to continue working for Pillers — I just wouldn’t feel right about it. No sooner had I realized that than a shiver ran down my spine — my fate was inextricably linked to hers. That was a new and terrifying twist.

Tom’s brows furrowed, and he licked his lips, hesitating. “That might open the floodgates to a wrongful termination lawsuit.”

Amy, who had been quiet for some time, laughed sardonically, “Oh Tom, those floodgates are wide open already. In fact, I’d bet if you gave her a call, Sierra would be less likely to sue you, which would be a boon for us all. And, setting aside all the legal mumbo-jumbo, Jacob’s right — this young woman deserves a damned apology.”

Joe and Tom both avoided her eye contact, and for the first time, I could see their familial resemblance — they both had the same look of contrition and shame, like boys who’d been caught with their fingers in the pudding. I would’ve chuckled if the stakes weren’t so frighteningly high.

They were dragging their heels, so I reiterated my point. “You have to call her. It’s the only moral thing to do.”

Finally, Joe caved. “Oh, fine. Let’s do it.”

“You have the number?” I asked, trying to conceal the excitement in my voice.

“I’ve got the number,” he muttered.

He put his fingers to the bridge of his nose, and the phone to his ear. After twenty seconds of the phone ringing, he said, “Sierra? It’s Joe. Mind if we talk?”