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Since my classes finish at one p.m. today, I spend the rest of the day at the company headquarters in order to get some work done. I try to slink to my office area, hoping to avoid talking to Dad about the engagement party, but I should have known better than to even attempt it. He’s waiting in the break areawhen I pop in to get a bottle of water and immediately asks me to see him in his office.
I groan internally as I follow him, feeling like the only thing I’ve talked about, or even thought about since Saturday is the stupid engagement party. I really want to move on with my life and leave thoughts of it in the past. If I’m lucky, this will be the last time I have to recount all these events.
“So how was it?” Dad asks immediately, sitting in his leather computer chair and leaning back. “The engagement party?”
I take the seat across from him. “What exactly do you want to know?”
“Everything, but I know neither of us has the time for that. I guess it’s too much for me to hope that something terrible happened and everyone was miserable, huh?”
I crack a reluctant smile. “Nope. No drama, Dad, sorry. Dan’s family really did a stellar job hiring vendors and planners. It was a successful gathering all around. And the couple still seems very much in love, much to your displeasure I’m sure.”
Dad pinches the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “Men fall for their mistresses all the time, but your brother would be the one to marry a woman that is, at best, mistress material. Roxanne Feng should have never been granted the possibility of becoming a Van den Bosch wife.”
I must look slightly displeased because Dad waves me off. “I’m not saying I have a mistress,” he clarifies. “Just that there is a place for women like Roxanne, and it’s not at the altar, I’ll tell you that much.”
Even though I’m no fan of Roxanne, a flash of anger goes through me. I despise her career, but she’s been kind to me lately, even after I’ve been an impossible thorn in both of their sides for quite a while now. Dad talks about her like she’s trash, and it rubs me the wrong way, which takes me by surprise.
“You might be the only one that thinks that,” I point out with more vitriol than I intended. “Everyone else was there. Oma Margaret, Aunt Yara, Maud, Uncle Alex… everyone. The only disapproval seems to be coming from you, Dad. Do you really plan on keeping this whole campaign of breaking them up going?”
“Your mother doesn’t approve, either,” he adds, but I shake my head.
“Do you really think Mom would have missed that party if you hadn’t been boycotting it?”
He seems momentarily disturbed at the thought, but quickly redirects that negativity toward me. “That’s enough, Elise. I’m trusting that you will find an adequate way of splitting the two of them up because that’s the job I’ve given you.”
“I’m just saying that it’s going to be difficult, especially if the only opposition he’s facing is coming from our side.”
“Then maybe we need to change our tactics to get Roxanne to end the relationship first. After all, I’m sure you don’t want an escort linked to you as your sister-in-law. Maybe she has some skeletons in her closet we just don’t know about yet.”
The cabaret, my mind offers, but I don’t say it out loud. I don’t want to give Dad something else to force me to focus my attention on, and if he knows Roxanne is hiding something that substantial from Andries he will fixate on it––pouncing on the chance to ruin their relationship.
My silence might also be related to the fact that I promised Dan that I would keep that secret no matter what. If I think about it too hard, I have to face the uncomfortable question of where my loyalties really lie.
After I finish telling Dad about the party, obviously skipping anything to do with Dan and I’s alone moments, he tells me that I’m free to go back to work. He looks thoughtful but annoyed, and maybe just the smallest bit sad. I wonder if he regretsstarting down this path and if he wishes he could have been there for his son last night after all.
I’m only at my desk for a short time when my landline rings. I’m only supposed to be in for a few hours today since it’s also a school day, just to help catch up on some things for other employees around the office, but I shouldn’t have any appointments to speak with clients. I frown, but after a few rings, pick the phone up.
“Elise, it’s Karl,” he says, causing me to roll my eyes upon hearing his name. “Why don’t you come down to my office? There’s something I want to discuss with you.”
I get a chill, thinking about how much my brother and Dan have warned me not to spend any time with Karl alone, but he’s been nothing but courteous and helpful with me, so what else am I supposed to do?
“What, exactly?” I ask.
“I know you had a meeting with your father an hour ago, and I wanted to see how that went. I have an idea to make that breakup you want so badly happen, but I’d really like to get your opinion on it before I set my plan into action. So, can you come down here?”
My interest is piqued, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Karl has every reason to hate Roxanne and want revenge on her, so it’s easy to see why he would want to be involved in splitting up her engagement, too. It feels like I can’t escape this topic, and it’s driving me insane. First, Dan was on my mind all morning during class, and now I can’t even get through a single email without someone wanting to talk about my brother and his fiancée.
“Fine, I’ll be right down.”
I don’t hurry, taking the long walk through the open layout as a moment to breathe and collect my thoughts. I still haven’t quite decided what I will do about Andries and Roxanne, butthere’s no harm in hearing Karl out, and if somehow he’s figured out a way to separate them without it leading back to me, I might even consider it. I am torn because I want my brother to be happy, but I still think that Roxanne makes him happynow, but she can’t possibly do so for the rest of his life. It’s just too odd of a match, and those differences will have to make themselves unavoidable at some point.
I knock a few times before entering Karl’s office and find myself once again annoyed at how lavish it is compared to my cramped little desk in the open layout. It will be different when I’m CEO. I indulge in a brief fantasy of moving Karl’s office to a broom closet when I take over as I sit across from him and smile, my humorous thoughts completely my own.
He doesn’t look like someone that has been drug through the dirt with the media for months now. Instead, he’s relaxed and comfortable, clearly the king of this little corner of the world. It must be the confidence that comes with being so successful for decades.
“How can I help you, Karl?”
“Before we go any further, I need to ask you one thing: do you really want to separate your brother and Roxanne once and for all?”
