The next day went well. Mason even bought her in her favourite coffee.
“Louisa told me which type you liked. I want my top staff here well looked after.”
“Thank you. Maybe you could be my new secretary?” she joked.
He laughed. “About that, hire whoever you want or let my team deal with it. They can recommend the best people.”
This bending over backwards from the new owner impressed her. The previous management kept her out of the loop; she felt under-appreciated. Now things were looking up.
Mason confirmed their dinner date that evening at the swankiest restaurant in town. Again, very impressive. The previous old boy network met at strip clubs and the golf club. Places she wouldn’t have felt comfortable. Although she held a position of authority, she never felt part of the inner circle. They patronised her – too young to be the FD and too pretty. Aware of the gossip when she first got the role – she must have slept with someone to get it – she had to work damn hard to prove she earned the position. The old inner circle consisted of old-fashioned men who’d been there for donkey’s years. It was refreshing to have someone around her age in charge, someone who hopefully wasn’t a sexist old pig.
Throughout the day, he asked for her opinion and ideas. With his vast knowledge of failing companies, she had a lot to learn from him. Who would have imagined that cold, rude man on the street yesterday could actually be quite charming? Now she found herself looking forward to their dinner.
At home, she checked on her mother before getting ready.
“Are you sure you don't mind me going out? You’ve been on your own for most of the day.”
Her mum smiled and patted her hand. “I’ll be fine. Ruth came over earlier to see me so we had a nice chat. I’m comfortable and I’ve got lots of telly to catch up on. I’m just pleased you’re actually going out.”
“It’s just work, Mum. Not a date.”
“It’s dinner with a billionaire. A handsome billionaire according to Ruth. You don’t get a lot of those in Stillwaters.”
How Ruth knew, Polly had no idea but in a small town like this, everyone gossiped.
“Don't get any ideas, Mum.”
Polly dressed in her best power suit. A black suit with a skirt teamed with a crisp, white blouse. Along with her laptop bag, she looked smart and professional.
“Let me see you,” called her mum before Polly got the chance to step out of the door.
Polly went to the living room. “Well?”
Her mum scrunched up her nose.
“What?”
“Polly, it’s dinner in a posh restaurant with a handsome man. You look lovely but a bit... boring?”
“Professional, not boring. It’s a business dinner, remember?”
“Go and throw on your nice black dress. It’s smart, formal but a little sexier.”
Polly took no notice and left the house in the waiting taxi. Although Mason Archer had been much friendlier that day, she still didn’t quite trust him and didn’t feel the need to impress that man. When she walked into the restaurant, there was no sign of him. That was okay, she ordered a drink to calm her nerves and sat and waited for him. Twenty minutes later and still no sign of him, she checked her messages – nothing. She sent a text to say she was waiting. No reply. Another ten minutes, she decided to call him. His phone went straight to voicemail. By now, she was annoyed. She called his hotel but there was no answer from his room. There was no way she wanted to wait even longer so she paid for her drink and stormed out.
How completely unprofessional of him, she fumed.
Chapter 7
Mason
* * *
He strolled to the restaurant, she was there before him, nursing her drink. Sitting straight up, all prim and proper. Very business-like. The intention that evening was to turn on the charm. Use her, dump her and then destroy her career by undermining her at all junctures. But Mason had underestimated himself, he couldn’t do it. It wasn’t in him to pretend – to be someone he wasn’t and when he saw her, the anger flooded back. This anger from childhood that he’d been carrying around for many years. And it was this anger that made him turn around and return to his hotel and switch off his phone.
The next morning, she knocked on his office door.
“Yes, what is it?”
“What the hell happened to you last night? I waited for ages.”
With a tilt of his head, he asked what she was talking about.
“Dinner! We were supposed to meet for dinner.”
The impending smirk was difficult to hide. He’d pissed her off – good.
“Sorry, it happens. I’m very busy. I’m dealing with fallouts left, right and centre.”
She remained at his office door, expecting some grovelling – grovelling that was never going to come.
“And I’m dealing with one now, so if you don’t mind,” he said as he shooed her away.
Her pursed lips suggested she was not impressed. A smile spread across his face as he continued typing. Tormenting Polly would be fun – and he’d only just started. How far was he prepared to go?
Chapter 8
Polly
* * *
She stormed back to her office. That pompous pig. Who the hell did he think he was? Standing her up and then dismissing her. She thought they were on the same side, but apparently not and now she had a meeting with some of the shareholders to let them know what was going on. She had no idea – this was something she and Mason were supposed to have discussed last night. Well, he could chair the meeting and take the questions himself.
In the boardroom sat some of the old faces. Even some of the useless management who had resigned – they still retained their shares and somehow expected good news. She sat to the side of the table, Mason could head the meeting. Again, he was a no-show. For some reason, she poured everyone coffee and made small talk. Why was she doing this? She wasn’t the secretary. A clearing of the throat by a particularly nasty shareholder, to indicate she should start. She had nothing. Panic seeped in. She called Louisa, demanding to know where Mason was. Finally, he sauntered in, went around the room with individual introductions and a handshake. All the other men were obviously impressed by this preening peacock. He ignored her and sat down, loosened his tie and leaned back.
“Well?” he indicated to her.
“Well what?” she asked back.
“The projections you’ve been working on. We’re all interested to see what you’ve come up with.”
This was news to her. The whole room looked at her. She racked her brain, did she miss something?
“What projections?” she asked.
The room silent except for a tut.
Mason shook his head. “The ones I asked for yesterday.”
She glared at him. He did not ask for any damn projections.
“So, what did you think we were doing today?” he shrugged.
“I don’t know,” she grimaced. “We were supposed to meet and discuss it.”
“You’re the FD. I thought this was your job?”
Her cheeks burned, the faces around her shook their heads. Who the hell were they to shake their heads at her? They were the incompetent ones. Fine, she was good at her job and although she didn’t have the damn projections, she could blag it. About to open her mouth, Mason stood up. Before she could say anything, he apologised to everyone about their wasted journey and that next time maybe their FD would be a little better prepared. She shook her head at him and walked out. Leaving the old boy network behind to gossip about her. It was evident that he was just one of them.
She dashed up to Louisa. Did Louisa know of any projections? Were they in Mason’s diary? Yes, they were. She opened her laptop. Checked her tasklist – it was there. She gasped. Only she had access to her task list and she didn’t remember putting them there. A shadow loomed over her and his finger pointed to the task on her screen.
“See, it’s all there. If you’re not up to the job, let me know an
d I can get someone else to do it.”
She stuttered. “I...I can’t explain it...I have no idea how it got there…”
“Just get it done okay?” he interrupted.
“Okay.” She meekly agreed.
Chapter 9
Mason
* * *
Round one to him. He almost felt sorry for her when he saw her squirming in the boardroom around those pompous idiots. Of course he never mentioned this piece of work. Through one of his clever IT guys, Mason had access to all her files on his computer. All he had to do was log into it whenever she wasn’t using her laptop and change whatever he liked. He intended to sabotage every piece of work she oversaw, cancel meetings and add more random work she’d never heard of. Her life would be made a misery and she would experience what it felt like to be him.
Chapter 10
Polly
* * *
Things went from bad to worse. Was she losing her mind? Becoming forgetful or worse – becoming ill? Every piece of work she oversaw contained at least one error. Normally so diligent, so efficient, this had never happened before. She blamed her team for lowering their standards but no, it was when the work came to her for the final check, that’s when the errors occurred. It got to the point where Mason demanded that every single file had to be checked by him. It was humiliating. She felt like a child, getting a teacher to mark her work. He even printed it off and marked it in red pen. And no matter how sure she was that it was one hundred per cent correct, it always came back with at least one error.
“I’m beginning to see why the financial records were such a mess. I thought it was due to bad decision making from above but maybe they were receiving bad information from the Financial Director?”
He threw the latest piece of work at her desk, shook his head and stormed off without saying a word.
She felt on edge all of the time. Work overran every night, with triple checking and quadruple checking. She took her work home giving a final check over in bed. She couldn’t sleep. When she did manage it, she dreamt of spreadsheets and being mocked by the old team. A feeling of dread accompanied the entire day. She felt sick. The walk up from the car park felt like a march to her execution. What did the day ahead hold for her? What the hell could she screw up this time?
And there he was waiting for her at her desk with a print out of the latest work she submitted – at 1 a.m. the previous night. He’d been through it already.
“Good news, Polly,” he smiled.
That was the first smile he gave her for weeks.
She breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe today wouldn’t be so bad?
“Do the figures look okay?” she asked so damn desperately.
So eager to please.
“Yes, only one error today.”
Her shoulders flopped. How? How could there still be one error?
“A pretty big one actually. It would have been embarrassing for me to go the board with this.”
She grabbed the file off him. She’d been through it so many times, the numbers scorched into her brain.
“Ha,” she knew it. “This is definitely not what I submitted.”
At last, proof that something else was going on. She logged onto her laptop, Mason remained, arms crossed, looking impatient.
“Please, bear with me. I need to show you this.”
She opened the file and presented her laptop.
“Look, I submitted the correct file.”
He shook his head; “I think it’s time for your one to one. I’ll get Louisa to arrange it for tomorrow.”
He walked away. She checked her file. The figures were wrong. How could that have happened? That’s not what she submitted. How could it have changed? She slumped her head on her desk. She was going mad and now she had to attend a one to one with that man and discuss her terrible performance.
Early the next day armed with details of her achievements and of her hard work – before Mason’s arrival, she attended the meeting hoping to salvage some credibility. She hated to admit it but he looked handsome in his trademark navy suit. No tie, just the top button undone, giving a glimpse of his tanned chest. The navy, the tanned skin and his dark features all just worked together. Whereas she just looked a mess. Barely able to get to sleep last night, sleeping past the alarm and in a panicked state just threw on a crumpled shirt from the floor. Why did he have to organise a meeting at 8 a.m.?
He looked relaxed. Hopefully, he’d be kind to her as she felt as nervous as hell, accompanied by the usual sick feeling she carried around, almost daily.
“It’s not been going well, has it?”
Nope. He wasn’t going for kindness.
She shook her head to agree, hardly in a position to defend herself.
“I’d heard positive things about you when I arrived but I fear the rumours may have been true.”
“What rumours?” she demanded to know.
He scratched his chin. “Hmm, I’m not sure how to put it. That you got this job based on your looks and other things.”
She knew what ‘other things’ he was referring to.
“I can assure you that I never slept with anyone for this job. I got it because I proved myself. I was good at my job. Take a look.”
She handed over all the evidence she spent yesterday evening compiling. He took it and flicked through it.
“I’ll read it later. In the meantime, I’m concerned that my Financial Director can barely add up. And I’m not sure what to do about it.”
Oh god, should she just resign? Right now that felt like the only option. She couldn’t carry on like this. But she needed the money. Where else could she get a job in this town? Plus it would be unlikely that she’d even get a reference. No, she had to figure it out.
“Look, I’ve been terrible lately. I admit it but I promise, I’m good at my job. Please give me one last chance to prove myself. I promise not to make any more mistakes again.”
She loathed begging and how could she not make mistakes when she didn’t know why they were happening in the first place. All she wanted to do was crawl out of his office and cry in a corner. But she would not cry in front of this man.
Chapter 11
Mason
* * *
My god, what a transformation in such a short time. He almost felt sorry for her. From the confident, pristine woman who greeted him outside the office only a few weeks to this nervous wreck. Her neat hair was now unruly. Her perfectly ironed clothes were creased. Her clear, radiant skin, now looking slightly pale offset with bags under her red eyes. Red rimmed eyes, probably due to crying.
Finally, she was getting a taste of what it was like when he grew up here – when he cried himself to sleep every night. How does it feel Polly Taylor?
“Well, I think I need some time to think about what I’m going to do here. Whether we can retain your services or not.”
Sheer panic struck her face. With her widened eyes, she suddenly looked more awake then she had for the past few weeks since project sabotage.
“No, no. Please! One more chance. I’m begging you.”
That’s what he liked to hear.
He let out a sigh. “Okay, let me have a think about it and I’ll get back to you.”
A pathetic, grateful smile fell from her lips.
“You can go now,” he ordered.
She backed out of his office, thanking him.
It was all going perfectly to plan so why didn’t he feel that happy?
Chapter 12
Polly
* * *
That was worse than she imagined. She grovelled, pleaded and even thanked the man as she backed out of his office. Now her job was hanging by a thread. She spoke to her senior finance manager and told him to bypass her and send everything to Mason directly. Knowing it was unprofessional as it should come from her but she didn’t trust herself. As long as she didn’t touch anything, maybe her bad luck would go away.
For the first time in weeks, she left on time. She s
lumped on the sofa with her mum and watched TV.
“You’re very quiet lately, darling? Is everything okay?”
Not really.
“Fine, Mum.”
“You’re looking very skinny. Are you eating?”
She couldn’t keep anything down. The constant nerves saw to that.
“Don’t make a fuss, Mum.”
“Darling, you look so sad. Please tell me?”
Polly couldn’t control herself and sobbed into her mum’s arms and explained how awful work had been.
“Quit?” her mum suggested. Polly’s earnings were high so she had decent savings.
“What happens when the savings run out? There’s nothing else in this town. Are you going to move away with me?”
“Don’t Polly,” whispered her mum.
Now Polly had upset her mum. Her mum would never move away. She couldn’t leave the few close friends she had. She was completely reliant on them – and on Polly. Due to her MS, she was confined to a wheelchair. Polly had gone to great expense to convert the house and she was also the main carer in the evenings. Of course, she’d been neglecting that duty of late too.
For the next couple of days, she kept her head down at work. The fact Mason wasn’t around either was a huge relief. And then he emailed her. A solution to her problems. He set a meeting for the next day. Whatever his solution was, she probably wasn’t going to like it.
Mason's Revenge Page 2
