plenty of internal transfer positions available within the company,” I said, seeing the woman was about to become my brother’s heart patient if I didn’t slow it down some on her. “Look them up.”
“Thank you,” she muttered.
I turned and felt Avery on my heels. “Ms. King?” I called out to the other woman who seemed to work alongside Ms. Spokes
“Yes, Mr. Mitchell.” She popped over to me as a young college intern would.
“We will be making changes to this department. Until then, no child will be turned away. You will find a way to ensure they’re taken care of. The additional staff will be hired, trained, and working by the end of next week. You will also be reporting to someone besides Ms. Spokes.” I saw her expression fall. “If you’d like to resume working here, I would like to know here and now.”
“Absolutely, Mr. Mitchell.” Her eyes darted from Avery to me.
“Very well, then,” I said. “I should have never needed to accompany one of my employees down here to find our childcare facility wasn’t operating correctly. The blame falls squarely on Ms. Spokes, but for the future, please know that there is a chain of command that ends with me. I decide the fate of every department, and I need to know what everyone needs. This all will be fixed, and I do hope you are more than welcoming to little Addison.”
I left with a certain amount of bubbling rage inside that the old bag had made decisions for my company without telling me. Bullshit. It was unacceptable, and a horrible fucking way to reconnect with Avery. God only knew what she thought of my company after this debacle.
“You almost gave that woman a heart attack.”
“My brother’s a heart surgeon. He would’ve saved her miserable life,” I said, angrier than when we left the daycare, but feeling more than familiar with Avery. I wasn’t like this with anyone but Alex when I was this fucking pissed. I was, however, holding in more shit than I was letting Avery know.
Avery laughed. “She reminds me of that old bitch who gave you trouble on the tour.”
I tried to smile at the memory, but I was too busy wondering how many other departments in my company were fucked like this.
“Possibly yes.” I looked at her. “It is nice to see you again, Avery. I hope Addison enjoys her new preschool.”
Avery was stiff, and I knew she was probably pissed off at the curt way I was responding to her. I couldn’t mask my irritation, though. I couldn’t bring her into my arms like I wanted to. I couldn’t steal her over to the elevators that led up to my office and tell her I regretted everything—that I now made exceptions in fucking my employees, and that exception was her and her alone. I couldn’t do anything but get my ass involved with these department heads and fix all of this shit.
When I was back on the top floors, Alex met my short fuse. “I want more surveillance on that daycare until a replacement is found.”
“On it. Everything cool with Avery and her daughter?” he tried to probe, but I wasn’t interested in small talk.
“Addison is in the facility. I need someone on those cameras. We can talk more about it later. I just pissed off the woman running that place, and I want her watched until she’s replaced.”
“I’ll handle it now,” Alex said, leaving and knowing we’d catch up after I cooled off some more.
What a fucking joke. In order to fix this, I would assemble a new team to inspect all of my departments. Never again would something like this go undetected. Of all places for things to go wrong, I couldn’t believe it was with our employees’ children. Good God.
I was embarrassed, pissed, and now fucking furious that I couldn’t give in to what I really wanted—to express my apologies to Avery. To beg her for another chance. No, the asshole CEO had to leave and do his damn job instead.
Chapter Seventeen
Avery
My mind was a shit-storm of a mess about Jim. Period. I was ready to rip his throat out when I assumed that he was pissed when he spotted Addy in the office with me yesterday. Then he knelt next to her. The James Mitchell façade that he carried—and everyone seemed scared shitless of—faded, and the Jim I’d been with in London, knelt to talk kindly with my daughter.
I watched Addy interact with him, all while observing Stefanie