The next morning I wake up on the couch with a massive headache, and Zoe’s face in mine. “Ugh, go away.”

She puts her hands on her hips scowling down at me. “Is that anyway to say bye to your bestie?”

“Bye, bestie. Now go away.” I roll over and put a pillow over my head. “How do you not have a hangover?”

“Because I didn’t drink as much as you did and you my dear, are an amateur.” She lifts the pillow and kisses my cheek before walking out the door, promising to call when she gets home.

I pull myself off of the couch and jump in the shower. Now that I’m awake, I might as well go into Du-Kane, Inc. and see what I’m about to get myself into. After showering, drying my hair, and applying a light coat of makeup, I walk into my closet to get dressed. I grab the first outfit I can find. It’s a pair of black dress pants, a white silk shell, and a one button black jacket. I grab my favorite Louboutin black patent pumps with a red sole. It only takes ten minutes to reach Dad’s company. When I enter the lobby I’m relieved to see Mugs Cafe is still here. I need a latte ASAP. I thank the nice barista for my drink and get into the elevator. Dad’s office is on the top floor, which is only the fourth floor. As I walk out of the elevator, I see Uncle Richie entering the conference room so I follow him in. Imagine my surprise when I see there is a board meeting going on.

I walk in and sit down at the head of the table before Uncle has a chance to. He looks shocked and taken aback. “Hello, Uncle Richie. I wasn’t informed of a board meeting.”

He stammers for a moment, and then seems to gather control of his emotions. “Lovely to see you here, Alice, but we assumed you would still be grieving.”

I give him a small smile. He is so transparent. “I am still grieving, but my responsibility is to this company, and I take that very seriously. Please sit down, Uncle. I’m getting a cramp in my neck staring up at you.”

He sits down and begins shuffling through paperwork. Paperwork that everyone at this table has except me. I clear my throat and press the button on the intercom sitting on the table. “Mrs. Stearns, could you please bring me a copy of whatever papers were issued to the other board members?” Mrs. Stearns has been my dad’s secretary for as long as I can remember. She used to let me play at her desk when Dad had to bring me to the office.

“Alice, is that you dear? Of course, I’ll get those for you right away. Give me five minutes to make copies and I’ll bring them to you,” she says.

The other board members all sit around, looking a bit uneasy while we wait on my paperwork. A few minutes is all it takes for Mrs. Stearns to enter the room with a stack of papers and a pen. I love this woman.

“Here you are, Alice. It is so wonderful to see you at the head of the table. This is where you were always meant to be.” She gives me a knowing smile and wink before she turns and heads out of the conference room. I really love that woman.

A cough brings me back to the present and I see Uncle Richie glaring at me. “Let’s get down to business. Alice, since you don’t know anything about Du-Kane, Inc., why don’t you just sit back and take some notes. Use this time as a learning experience, if you will.”

I stare at him, slowly blinking my eyes before I respond. “That is so gracious of you, Uncle, but I know all about the ins and outs of my company. My dad made sure I was well versed in the business. All aspects of it.” I’m so lying. Dad wanted me to stay far away from the company until I finished school. I know of the small operations we have, such as the rental properties, the sanitation services, and the two restaurants we have. As far as the crop business, I am at a total loss, but I will never give Uncle Richie the satisfaction of knowing this.

“Very well then, Alice.” He takes a moment to scan the faces of each board member before he begins again. “As you all may have heard, Daniel left Alice with the majority shares of Du-Kane, Inc. Due to her age, and inexperience, I would like to take a vote to make her a silent partner.” He looks directly at me as he continues. “This would mean that all business would run through me. All decisions, buys, sells, all of it, would have to be either approved or declined by me. Alice will continue to hold her shares, and she would receive a shareholders pay each quarter, but she would not be involved in the day to day runnings of Du-Kane, Inc.”

Oh, you sneaky bastard. “Alice,” Mr. Utley speaks up, “how do you feel about this? Your father left his shares to you for a reason. Do you feel like you would be better suited as a silent partner?”

Thank you Mr. Utley, I silently say to myself. I stand up and address all five board members, and my Uncle. “Du-Kane, Inc. has been in my family for generations. The head of the business has always been passed down to the oldest heir. It was passed to my dad, and he trusted me and my abilities to run this company enough, that he passed it down to me. I can, and I will, run Du-Kane, Inc. I understand I have a lot to learn, but I can do this.”

“What about school? Aren’t you in the middle of law school?” Mrs. Bell gives me an intense look, waiting for me to answer her question.

“I only have a few weeks left of this semester. Afterwards, I’ll be taking a sabbatical from school until I’m settled into my position here. I can take classes at night and on Saturdays so it will not interfere.”

“Who do you expect to teach you? We’re all involved in someway or another, but none of us are deep in every aspect.”

I look over to Mr. Andrews, my dad’s golfing buddy for the last twenty years. “I hope that each of you will help me. You are all in charge of one area of Du-Kane, Inc. Mr. Andrews, you are over Breeze and Main Street Cafe. You could teach me everything I need to know on the restaurant side. Mrs. Bell and Mr. Pipkin, the rentals, Mr. Williams, you can help me with the dispensaries, and Mr. Utley, the sanitation service. As far as the agriculture side goes, I would hope that my Uncle would be willing to step up and teach me what I need to know. I can also reach out to other Grow-Op owners for help.”

“You can’t possibly be thinking about talking to other companies! They wouldn’t tell you anything, and I will not allow another Grow-Op owner to become involved in this company.” Uncle Richie is beginning to turn an interesting shade of red while he continues to berate me. “This type of thinking and inexperience is exactly why she should have no say in the running of Du-Kane, Inc.”

Mr. Andrews speaks up, “I think we should put this to a vote. Arguing will get us nowhere.”

“I agree.” Uncle Richie stands, addressing the room once more. “By a show of hands, all those in favor of Alice becoming a silent partner in Du-Kane, Inc., please raise your hand.”

I hold my breath when the hands of Mr. Utley and Mr. Williams, both raise their hands.

“Those of you in favor of Alice staying on as a contributing partner, in the same capacity as her father, please raise your hand.”

When Mr. Andrews, Mrs. Bell, and Mr. Pipkin raise their hands, I let my breath out.

“I vote yes,” Mrs. Bell says, “but, I do so with a stipulation. I think we should give Alice a year to learn the business and maintain the current fiscal standing that we have now. If the business begins to lose money, or if there are any issues that happen because of her poor decisions, we meet back and vote again. I, for one, have faith that Alice will succeed, and make her dad proud of his decision.”

“I can accept those terms, Mrs. Bell. Thank you for having faith in me.”

“Nonsense, Alice. Your dad was a very smart man, and I know he didn't take the decision to pass down his shares to you easy. I’m sure I speak for the rest of the board,” she turns her stare to Uncle Richie, “when I say, we will all do whatever we can to help you succeed as the new President of Du-Kane, Inc.”

Mrs. Bell and the rest of the board members all stand and come around to shake my hand and offer me words of encouragement. Even Mr. Utley and Williams, who both voted against me. Once all the members have left, I sit back down and kick my feet up on the conference table. Leaning back, I say a little prayer to whoever may be listening, to give me the strength and knowledge to do my dad proud.

I pull into the parking garage at my apartment, utterly exhausted. Between my hangover, lack of sleep, and Uncle’s shenanigans today, I have no energy left. All I want is pizza, wine, and a bubble bath. In that order. I walk into my penthouse and immediately remove my shoes and jacket. The next thing I do is place my order for a Hawaiian pizza from Bruno’s, and open a chilled bottle of Pinot Grigio. The pizza arrives thirty minutes and two glasses of wine later, and it tastes like pineapple heaven. There is only one thing left to do before going to sleep. I start the water in my jacuzzi tub, pull my hair up into a messy bun, and pour my favorite coconut oil bubble bath into it. I remove the rest of my clothes and slide into the glorious bath with another full glass of wine. After soaking for a while, I get out and dry off. I’m too tired to get dressed so I climb into my California King bed and fall asleep almost instantly.

I’m deep asleep when a shrill noise wakes me. I start throwing my hand out, trying to quiet the awful noise when I finally come to enough to realize that noise is my phone ringing. I answer it before it goes to voicemail and what I hear on the other end has me hopping out of bed and throwing on the first thing I can find. I take the elevator down to the garage and run to my car, heading straight to my dad’s house. On the way over, I replay the conversation with the Memphis police officer:

Miss Du-Kane, this is Officer Bigsby of the Memphis PD. I am calling to inform you that the alarm at your home on Elm Street has been activated. The police have already been dispatched over there.

Someone broke into my dad’s house. Why? Please don’t let them have destroyed his things. The street in front of the house is full of police cars with blinding blue and red lights. It takes me a moment to adjust my vision before I make it to the front yard. “Ma’am, you can’t go in there.” I look up at the officer and demand to see Officer Bigsby. He uses his radio and a few seconds later a tall, older gentleman heads toward me.

“Miss Du-Kane, I’m Officer Bigsby, we spoke on the phone.”

I shake his outstretched hand. “What’s going on? Was there anyone in the house?”

“The house was clear when our officers arrived. Only one room was disturbed. It looks to be an office or study on the first floor. Nothing else has been touched. We found where they entered, and we’ve already called a locksmith to repair the locks for you tonight. He should be here within the hour.”

“Thank you so much.” I reach for his hand again, this time, grabbing his one with both of mine. “Can I go in now? I would like to make sure nothing else is missing and check the damage in my dad’s office.”

Officer Bigsby gently pats me on the back and leads me to the front door. When my feet meet the grass, I look down and realize in the rush to get over here, I forgot to put on my shoes. While we walk across the lawn, I take inventory of what exactly I did put on. I somehow grabbed a pair of red spandex shorts and a purple t-shirt that is inside out and on backwards. Get it together, Alice.

We enter the house and I notice the lock on the front door has been busted. I need to see about getting a better, more sturdy door. Maybe I need to add an iron door as well? We walk through the foyer and past the formal great room. At the base of the stairs, we turn left and follow the hall to my dad’s office. I gasp at the sight before me. The couch that once sat up against the wall is now ripped to shreds, the batting is strewn everywhere. The two leather chairs that faced dad’s desk are both laying on their sides. My dad’s desk, that was once his father’s and before that his grandfather's, is covered in papers, folders, and glass from the lamp that once stood on the corner. His chair is overturned and all of the drawers in both file cabinets have been pulled out, the papers all over the floor.

“Miss Du-Kane, I know this is a mess, but can you identify anything missing?”

I walk further into the room and behind the desk. I see the drawers have all been torn out and their contents dropped onto the floor. When I look under the desk, I notice a cord to dads laptop. I stand back up and look under all the papers on his desk, not seeing it. “His laptop is missing. The cord is still here, but I don’t see it anywhere.”

“Do you remember the make and model of the laptop? Maybe the receipt or paperwork with the serial number on it?”

“I don’t know. He recently bought a new one, but I can’t recall what he said it was. I can try to find something on it.”

Officer Bigsby takes out a small notebook and begins to write something in it. “Did you notice anything else, Miss Du-Kane?”

I walk around the room again, stepping on glass shattered from pictures that had been on his desk. I stop when one catches my eye. It’s one of him and my mom taken on their wedding day. What bastard would do this? Why break into his house and only touch one room? I ask my question to Officer Bigsby.

“I can’t say for sure until the investigation is over, but in my professional opinion? It was done deliberately. Someone knew where they needed to go. I would bet that they tripped the alarm on purpose when they were leaving. Do you know anyone that would have any reason to break into your father’s home and only go through his office?”

Before I can digest what he just told me, I hear someone calling my name. “Alice!” I turn toward the front of the house and see my uncle racing down the hall. “Alice, I just got a call from the alarm company and got here as quick as I could.”

Office Bigsby takes a small step in front of me. “I’m Officer Bigsby, and I’ll be leading the investigation here. Who exactly are you?” he asks as he takes his little notebook back out.

Uncle Richie looks livid. He assumes everyone should know who he is. “I am Richard Du-Kane. This is my late brother’s home.”

“Well, Mr. Du-Kane, Alice is the owner of the home, therefore the only one allowed inside. I am afraid I’m going to have to ask you to vacate the premises until our investigation is over.”

“Excuse me? She is my only niece. I need to be here to make sure she’s okay and everything is being taken care of properly.”

Officer Bigsby turns his back on Uncle Richie to address me. “Alice, this is your home, so it’s ultimately your call. Do you feel like you need him here?”

I lean around him and look at my uncle. Glancing back at Officer Bigsby, I shake my head no. “No, sir. I think I can handle this on my own.”

Without looking back, Officer Bigsby tells my uncle, “You heard her, Mr. Du-Kane.”

I hold in the laughter that is threatening to come out. The amused look on the officer’s face isn’t helping any. He holds his arm out, and I turn to head back into the office. We take the next thirty minutes going back over the room and double checking that everything that should be here is. It’s during this time, that I come across a folder that had somehow gotten wedged under the desk. I pull it out and have to shake my head to make sure I’m seeing what I think I am. It’s a dossier on the Michaelson brothers. There is a page on each one of them: Cash, Ridge, Oren, and North. Why would my dad have information on them? I put the folder into a drawer for now. I’ll come back and look at it once the police officers leave.

Two hours later, the officers, including Officer Bigsby, and the locksmith have all left the house. Thank goodness the locksmith was able to replace the lock. I walk back through the entire house, checking the locks on all the doors and windows. Once I have done that, I drag my tired body up the stairs and head to my old bedroom. I’m too exhausted to drive back to my apartment, so I decide to crash here. I throw myself on my bed and sleep takes over before my head hits the pillow.