Chapter 10
The rest of the day went by pretty fast.
Mira did go and see Suzanne’s doctor, who looked at her wound and then prescribed her some more painkillers. A very efficient nurse replaced the bandage with a large bandaid. That was the first time that Mira actually dared to have a quick look at her injury. Connor had been right. Despite the incredible pain, she had literally only gotten a scratch, even though it was a big one. She swallowed half a tablet and wondered how bad it must hurt when you are really shot and have a bullet stuck deep inside of your flesh. The doctor recommended that she come back and see him again in four days, and that had been it.
After that they went and visited their mom, as they had been doing every day since Mira’s return to L.A. At first, she had found it simply odd to sit at her dying mother’s bedside and talk over her to her sister, but by the third day they had developed a small routine. Suzanne asked Mira about her experiences in London, about her plans for her future, or even about trivial things, such as what she had eaten for lunch, and Mira answered. Once Mira had overcome the bizarre feeling of sitting in an interview with her sister, who already knew most of the answers anyway, she finally understood: She told her mother about her life. It didn’t matter that she painted a slightly rosier picture. The most important thing was that her mom heard their voices and knew that her children were there with her.
Connor had not returned to Nightingale Manor.
The memory of him sitting in that very chair, reading to their mom from “Wuthering Heights” was more painful than any wound. She remembered that the novel was still lying in her hotel room. She could not bring herself to leave it here, with her mom, even though it had been her mother’s favorite book. Connor was so full of contradictions! Or did these contradictions only exist in her head, meaning that he was, in fact, perfectly normal? The thought that he of all people had read to their mother from her book, was so strange that she decided there and then to return his book, and his present, and the impersonal “get well” wishes to him.
As long as she was still able to do that.
Before that, she had to face the big announcement of the great news that from now on she would be working together with Russell. Her sister had been playing the innocent one, pretending that Russell would be over the moon when he found out that he would be working together with both of them now – leading their father’s company. However, when they finally arrived at the building where Dumont Ltd now occupied a complete floor, Suzanne was unusually quiet.
“Good day to you, Mrs. Forbes. How nice of you to show your lovely face again.” The concierge was almost overly polite when he greeted them. Suzanne introduced Mira and immediately added that he would be seeing her sister more often from now on. “She has just gotten her degree in economic science and will be working for our company,” Suzanne explained to the extremely impressed Charles. For Mira it sounded more like her sister needed to convince herself.
When they stepped out of the lift, Mira saw for the first time just how much had changed in her father’s company. Her memory of Dumont Ltd had been that of an upcoming firm, that was settled amongst middle-class companies. At least, that is how she interpreted her memories of her father’s offices. A solid brown carpet, ten or eleven separate rooms, that had been purposefully furnished with desks and copy machines, and a modest little reception area for visitors. She wasn’t entirely sure how many people her dad had employed back in the day because the firm had also owned a couple of warehouses at a remote location. Her dad hadn’t taken her there very often. Back then, he had usually told her that he would be too busy and then he had left her with a not so thrilled Ms. Philips if he had to go somewhere.
Today, her first steps inside these offices were on shiny wooden flooring. She saw doors without name plates (whoever came here obviously knew where they were going) and she couldn’t find a reception. Maybe Charles, the concierge, announced everyone visiting Dumont Ltd. The walls had been painted in a light-colored beige tone and they had been decorated with a delicate border instead of a chair rail. Some modern style oil paintings were hung along the wall in a crisp and perfectly straight line. Just like in a museum, matt metal plates underneath them informed viewers of the name of the artist, when it was painted, and what it showed. As Mira followed her sister along a hallway to her left, she read the paintings’ titles. “Hotdog” by Cleo Jenkins showed a blue line in between weak yellow lines that were strangely arranged, and which may or may not have been meant to resemble coleslaw. A tiny matchstick man in front of a blue background was called “Child on Los Angeles River” and it proved that Russell Forbes supported local artists.
All of this was absurd. This was no longer her father’s company. Literally everything had Russell’s handwriting all over it, from the light fixtures all the way to the color on the walls.
Mira knew that she couldn’t even be mad at him for it. After all, she hadn’t done anything to take responsibility, once she was all grown up, and had allowed him to take Dumont Ltd and do with it what he wanted. As long as those checks were coming – she didn’t care. Not once had she asked to see the books or enquired about the financial status of the company. If anything, she had completely trusted her sister to keep an eye on her husband and to make sure that the company was run as their father would have run it. Russell had taken over this responsibility when they had needed him to. After their father’s death, he had married Suzanne and he had worked hard to free Dumont Ltd, once and for all, from any suspicion regarding money laundry for the Mafia, and to restore the firm’s good reputation to what it had once been.
The second to last door in the hallway opened. A woman came out and turned her head towards them. She looked vaguely familiar to Mira, but only when she stood right in front of her did she realize who the woman was. This was none other than Sarah Philips, her dad’s former secretary.
“I am sorry to inform you, Mrs. Forbes, but your husband is currently in a meeting. He won’t have time for you until later today. May I relay him a message?” She ignored Mira, who had come to a standstill behind her sister. Mira did not appreciate the cool and condescending tone Philips used, when she spoke with her sister, and it angered her more than she might have expected. She walked around her sister and pushed herself in front of Ms. Philips until she was forced to notice her. “Hello Sarah,” Mira greeted her in an exceptionally friendly manner. She held her hand out to the woman, but then didn’t even wait for her stunned opponent to take it. Instead she just grabbed the woman’s slack, hanging hand. “It has been such a long time since we last saw each other. How nice, that you are still working for us.” Mira didn’t like to be arrogant, but when the situation demanded it, she was more than capable of playing an intemperate person. “I am really looking forward to working closely with you in the future.”
One had to commend Sarah Philips. Not once did she lose control over her facial expression. “Mira? Is that really you?” She smiled from her considerable height down to a much smaller Mira, who suddenly felt catapulted right back into the past. “Oh, forgive me, I didn’t recognize you. It’s almost as if…” Sarah Philips’ round and slightly protruding eyes teared up. She had either completely missed her calling to Hollywood or she really was that moved to see Mira again after so many years. “…it seems like it was just yesterday that you sat in my office with scratched knees and a smudged mouth, asking me so many questions. You were such a curious child.”
“I still am. Curious, I mean.” Part of her initial anger evaporated, as she recognized the woman from back in the day, who hadn’t aged that well. She was still very attractive, given her age, but she looked very tired and somehow had a subdued beauty about her. Instead of those 80s costumes with the enormous shoulder pads that had been fashionable back then, and which Mira remembered all too well, she now wore a slightly understated light brown suit. Flat, practical shoes and way too much make-up, which hadn’t been able to hide the exhaustion, completed the picture of a stressed and therefore not always friendly woman.
“We don’t mind waiting for my brother-in-law,, Mira then said and hooked her arm into Suzanne’s. Her sister had listened to the conversation without saying a word. “I am sure, there is a reception room here somewhere.”
“No, but you are welcome to wait in my office until Mr. Forbes is done. Would you like a coffee or tea? Some Danish or sandwiches?”
“Oh, don’t worry, we just had lunch,” Suzanne finally spoke. “Is Mr. Bishop here today? We can go and wait in his office instead.”
It was strange for Mira to observe her sister in such a way. On the one hand, she acted like a petitioner in her own company, who needs attention from almost everyone around her. On the other hand, it had become all too obvious that she didn’t really know much of what was going on here, including when her husband had meetings, which only proved to Mira that Suzanne had not paid enough attention to Dumont Ltd either.
“Let’s just wait in Ms. Philips’ office,” Mira then suggested and stared at her sister with a slightly meaningful and, hopefully, inconspicuous look. “We can talk about the good old times. Well, as long as you are not too busy with work right now.” At this moment, the door at the end of the hallway opened. A gray-haired man appeared and ended their conversation. He might have been in his early sixties and walked ever so slightly hunched over. His face was vaguely familiar to Mira, but she had no idea where she had seen him before. He pulled his hat deep over his face and walked by them without saying a word. Ms. Philips had taken this opportunity to quietly slide back into her office. Mira followed the man with her eyes and caught a glimpse of Ms. Philips’ suddenly pale face. Before she could voice her concern, Luke and Russell joined the two women who were waiting. Russell seemed in the best of moods, as he grabbed his wife and planted a kiss on her forehead, before asking, “Hey, what is going on here that my two favorite women have come to see me? How about my best man and I take you ladies out for lunch?”
“Great idea,” Luke agreed immediately, but Mira shook her head. “We already ate but thank you very much. We came her for something else.” Dammit. Suddenly she knew how Suzanne felt and now it was she who felt like a petitioner. Mira pulled her shoulders back.
“How is your shoulder?” Luke asked.
“Just a scratch. I’m as good as new,” Mira replied. “Thanks to the big pharma industry and their wonderful pain medication.” She smiled to make her answer seem friendlier. “But let’s not talk about my injury. Russell…” she turned to her brother-in-law, “…do you have a moment for us?”
He had no choice other than to nod politely, especially since the door to Ms. Philips’ office was still open and Luke was also overly curiously listening in to the conversation. Should they maybe ask him to join them, since he was the official Deputy General Manager and Russell’s “best man”? She had the feeling that Luke’s presence would maybe have a calming effect on Russell’s choleric temper. As always, Suzanne had tuned into her thoughts, before Mira was able to say them out loud.
“Luke, why don’t you join us,” she said. “What Mira and I have to say does also concern you, although indirectly. Let’s go to the meeting room,” she suggested, but her husband refused.
“No, that is not possible,” he replied with such a furious frown that distorted his whole face and made it look like that of a wild bull. “Right now, the new computers for the IT and the HR departments are stored in there. Let’s go into my office.”
In his office, Russell very much projected the essence of a man who was completely in charge and who held all the strings in his hand. He immediately sat down in his luxurious chair and left it up to Luke to find additional seating for Mira. Russell folded his hands into the typical triangular shape that politicians liked to use, leaned back, and then started to swing back and forth slightly with his chair. He will almost certainly say: What can I do for you, thought Mira and felt her old resentment against him creep back up.
“What can I do for you?”
“Mira and I want to start working more in our company,” Suzanne opened the trial, because that was what it would turn into. The two women hadn’t come here as petitioners, not as the daughters of the founder of the company, or as mere shareholders, but they were also not in a position to just waltz in and dictate their conditions to Russell, even though the mathematics was simple. Their mother still owned 25% of the company, as did Suzanne, Mira, and Russell. Since Suzanne was their mother’s court-appointed legal guardian, she was actually in control of her share as well, for as long as her mother was alive. Looking at it that way, the odds were very much in their favor with 75% against 25%. Why shouldn’t they take advantage of this situation, for as long as they could?
“Now that our mother is dying,” Mira said in a purposefully factual way, “and since I not only have my degree, but also work experience, I would like to lighten some of your load.”
“I don’t need you to lighten my load, dearest sister-in-law. I have everything perfectly under control.”
“Of course,” she said. “I never doubted that. I can see it in the growing numbers and the money you have been paying me over the last few years. I don’t want to belittle your work — quite the opposite. Suzanne and I would like to thank you by having your back when we take the next step.”
With this last comment, she had won his complete attention. She could feel how Luke and her sister were now looking at her with great interest. “What exactly do you mean? What is the next step?”
Mira got up. During her studies, she had followed several lectures about psychology and at that moment she wanted — to say it exactly as it was — to elevate herself above Russell. If he really was as sovereign as he portrayed himself to be, then he would stay seated in his chair. However, if he felt that his authority was now being challenged by two women, he would mirror her and get up himself.
“The next step would be to end the year-long stagnation of Dumont Ltd,” Mira said calmly. The payments she had received over the last five years had not changed at all. This meant that Dumont Ltd was doing okay, but at the same time there had been no growth recorded in the business during that time. She had spoken directly to Russell and now quickly looked over to Luke, who looked at her skeptically. “I know what you are thinking,” she continued. “A new broom sweeps clean or even that I, having just graduated with my degree in economic science, have the audacity to tell you experienced veterans what to do now. Well, you know what? You are right.” She positioned herself behind the chair her sister sat in and placed her hands onto Suzanne’s shoulders. This gesture was meant to somewhat steady her as well as her surprised sister. “Let’s take Dumont Ltd and turn it into a truly magnificent company — together. A company that will be taken seriously by our competitors and maybe even feared.”
“And how are you planning on doing that?” It was Luke who asked that question. Russell seemed completely stunned by her forceful presence and at this point was obviously unable to provide her with a coherent answer. His face had reddened and if Mira hadn’t slowed down a little, she might have made her sister a widow soon. “We make money by importing and selling coffee. Are you suggesting that we expand our product range by adding tea?”
“No, of course not. None of us really know enough about the cultivation or preparation of tea, to be able to successfully produce and sell it. We would have to rely on middlemen and that is not something that dad would ever have done. He knew a lot about coffee because he loved drinking coffee and didn’t like the bean quality available in the supermarkets. That is why he was able to build up Dumont Ltd in the first place.”
“That’s really nice and all, but don’t you think we haven’t already tried to add products such as coffee filters or even coffee cans? I know the market and I am telling you right now, those kinds of knick-knacks are not the future of this company.”
“I agree with you completely,” Mira said patiently. “Suzanne and I have a different idea. We would like to open a coffee shop with the name Dumont Café. First just one shop, and then a whole chain.”
The silence that followed was long. Then Russell started to laugh out loud. It took him a while before he had calmed down. “And you honestly believe that I will put my money… I mean, the company’s capital into this ridiculous pipe dream of yours?”
He didn’t even try to hide his disgust. “Have you any idea just how many coffee shops there are in downtown L.A. alone, girl?”
“We don’t have to touch the company’s capital,” Suzanne added. Up until two minutes ago, she had had no idea about Mira’s plan to open a store with her, but right now she played her role as her sister’s business partner perfectly. “We can sell a few of our shares and finance our coffee shop that way.”
“The idea isn’t actually that bad,” Luke contemplated. Mira looked at him surprised. She had not expected that he would react positively to her improvised idea. “We would have to present our coffee as a luxury item in our specialty store. Especially in such metropolises as L.A. or New York City, where coffee has become more and more of a lifestyle product.” For a very short moment, Mira bathed in his admiring look, before she cautioned herself not to blush.
“Why don’t you two, I mean you three come to a compromise?” Luke’s correction told Mira that he was well aware of whose plan this had been. She only hoped that he wouldn’t suspect that she had no intention of actually turning this plan into action. She had to remind herself that all of this was just a hoax to pacify Suzanne and to be able to start her internal investigation.
During the coming days, she would have ample opportunities to think about her exact thoughts in this moment — and to regret them.