Dark Intentions - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,48

embrace both of them with a big bear hug.

"Oh my God! I’m so happy for you guys. When are you due?” I ask, pretending that I don’t already know.

“October,” they say, beaming.

I hug and congratulate them again and again, trying to fill the room with my own happiness to make up for my mom's lack thereof.

It takes Mom a few moments to recover her composure. She quickly paints a smile on her face and gives both of them a hug.

I hope that they can't tell, but I sense some hesitation. Still, there's only so much they can do and so much that they can expect from her.

For now, it seems to be enough.

Right before dinner is served, my phone rings and I have to take it.

"We're going to be sitting down," Mom scolds me like a child.

"Listen, this is work. I'll make it quick. I promise."

"Hey, how's it going, Cedar?" I ask.

"How's it going?” he roars into the phone. “I talked to Vasko again and he said that you never called him back.”

My jaw tightens up.

"Listen, I went over the financials, taking out what I thought about Vasko personally, and that company just doesn't make sense. There's so much money going out and then a bunch coming in from unusual sources.”

"So what are you trying to say?" Cedar asks.

His voice sounds gruff on the phone and I can practically hear him sucking down a cigarette and smell the bourbon on his lips.

"I don't want the investors to put their money with Vasko. I'm not going to make that recommendation,” I say, standing firm. "I wasn't lying when I said that I went over the financials again and there were a lot of red flags. It's almost as if the entire company is some sort of shell organization."

"Listen, you don't have a choice on this one,” Cedar says, moving in his chair as I hear that loud creaking sound of oak and leather underneath his substantial mass. "This is going to happen. We're going to invest with Vasko.”

I pause for a moment. I've walked into another room, the library with old leather bound editions, many of them quite rare and signed by authors.

Cedar has never talked to me this way. I was always the one in charge of the investors that I brought in and the ones that were assigned to me. My entire job is to use what I know and my own intuition to decide whether or not to trust a certain company with our money.

This is very subjective work, but I've become quite good at it over the years. Often investing in businesses that are fledgling, but had the type of CEOs who would go to the ends of the earth to grow their sales and to become successful.

I saw none of that in Vasko. He is lazy and bored.

It's almost as if he was handed the company by someone else and told to run it and he has no idea what he's doing.

I go over all of this with Cedar.

He listens as I pace around the lacquered, hardwood floors, feeling the material of the twelve-foot French imported curtains sewn with silk thread.

This is part of the house that retained its original charm. There's a large oak desk in the corner, looking out onto the pond outside. This is the place where I would sit as a kid and read every Isaac Asimov book I could find, imagining worlds filled with spaceships, aliens, and large intergalactic battle scenes.

"Listen, I know that you and I have not had any problems up until this point, but I'm not budging on this. Dante, you either call Vasko back and tell him that we're going to be starting the onboarding sequence or I'm going to find someone else who can do it. And then I can't make you any promises about keeping your job.”

I press my hand so hard on the table that my knuckles turn white.

This is an ultimatum. It's either invest five million of investors’ money who trusted me with it or get fired.

“You have twenty-four hours to decide,” Cedar says and hangs up.

I stare at the phone for a few moments, looking out onto the pond. Two ducks float around on the partially frozen lake, one following the other without a care in the world.

29

Dante

The sun has been hidden behind clouds all day and when sunset comes, very little changes, except it gets slightly darker. Someone clears their throat behind me and when I turn around, I see that