A Signature That Bound Us

Chapter Four

Aurelia’s POV

He reached into a drawer and pulled out a document, he placed it on the desk. “You signed an employment agreement.”

“Yes.”

“You remember that?”

I gave him a look, “of course I remember.”

“You didn’t read it carefully.”

My stomach dropped, “what do you mean?” He slid the document toward me, I walked back to the desk. “This is my contract.”

“Yes,” I looked at the pages, my heart began beating faster. I remembered yesterday, how

exhausted I’d been. How relieved I’d felt, I’d signed because I needed the job, because I needed the Certificate. I had been terrified that one more opportunity might disappear, I turned the page.

Lior pointed to a paragraph, “read that.” I did, I read it over and over and my face slowly changed.

There was a clause I hadn’t noticed, a clause that gave the company the right to reassign my duties and place me under the direct supervision of a designated executive for the duration of the initial contract period.

I looked at him, “you’re the designated executive?”

“Yes.”

My throat tightened, how long?”

He didn’t answer immediately, then he said quietly,

“One year.”

I stared at him, “one year?” He nodded, I looked back at the contract. “You knew I hadn’t read this?” He shrugged, “is there a reason I wasn’t informed about this before I signed?”

“You were given an employment agreement, it was your responsibility to read it.”

His tone was so cold, as matter-of-fact I almost forgot I was speaking to a human being, “I understand that I should have read it carefully. I am not denying my mistake but the arrangement could have been made clear to me.”

“Would that have changed your decision to accept the position?” He asked, I hesitated and he noticed.

“Exactly,” he added.

My fingers tightened around the pages, “that doesn’t mean you should use it against me.”

His expression hardened, “be careful with your accusations, Miss Laurent.”

“Then why are you showing me this now?”

He leaned back in his chair, “because you need to watch your tone with me, tomorrow, your assignment changes.”

I frowned, “to what?”

His eyes held mine, “you’ll be working directly with me.” Silence filled the room, I looked at the contract again, then back at the man sitting across from me. Yesterday, I had thought my biggest problem was getting through my first week at Vale Enterprises, now, I was beginning to understand that the job I had fought so hard to secure might be far more complicated than I had imagined and somehow, without realizing it, I had just placed myself in the one position in the company where I would have no choice but to see Lior Vale every single day. For an entire year.

For several seconds, I remained standing in front of his desk, staring at the employment agreement as though the words might rearrange themselves into something less disturbing if I looked at them long enough. One year, twelve months of reporting directly to a man who appeared to take pleasure in making every conversation with him unnecessarily difficult. I had spent the previous evening celebrating my new job with my family, I had allowed myself to imagine what my first salary might mean for us, how much I could contribute toward household expenses, and how I might finally begin taking some of the pressure off my parents.

Now, I was beginning to wonder whether I had celebrated too soon.

“Is there anything else, Miss Laurent?” Lior asked.

I lifted my eyes from the contract, I pressed my lips together. There were several things I wanted to say, and none of them would improve my situation if I said them exactly as they came to mind. I needed this job, I needed the professional experience, the income, and the opportunity to secure my Certificate, walking away simply because my employer was insufferable would be an expensive decision, and I wasn’t prepared to make it. Still, needing something did not mean I had to pretend I liked how I was being treated. “I understand that I signed the agreement,” I said carefully. “But I would appreciate being informed of significant conditions before they become a problem.”

“You should have read what you signed.”

“I have already acknowledged that,” I said.

“Then I don’t see why we’re still discussing it.”

I looked at him, genuinely struggling to understand how someone could make a conversation feel like an examination he had already decided I would fail, “perhaps because I’m the person who has to live with the consequences.”

For a moment, his fingers stopped moving over the papers on his desk. Then he leaned back in his chair, “your employment is not a personal arrangement, Miss Laurent. You will do the work assigned to you, follow the company’s procedures, and meet the required standards. If you can manage those three things, we won’t have a problem.”

“And if I disagree with you?”

“Then you will learn to distinguish between a professional disagreement and an unnecessary argument.”

My jaw tightened, “I know the difference, Mr. Vale.”

“Good, then demonstrate it.”

He returned his attention to the document in front of him, dismissing me without actually saying I could leave. I picked up my copy of the agreement, “am I free to go now sir?”

His eyes rose slowly to mine, “unless you have another question you haven’t already asked.” I turned toward the door before my face could betray just how badly I wanted to answer that, by the time I reached my desk, my anger had settled into something heavier. I placed the contract inside my bag and sat down, staring at my computer screen without absorbing a single word on it. I had known that working at Vale Enterprises wouldn’t be easy, the building practically radiated pressure, and the employees seemed to measure their words carefully whenever Lior’s name came up but I had assumed the difficulty would come from the workload, the expectations, and the challenge of proving myself in a competitive environment. I hadn’t expected to discover that my own signature could become a chain around my professional future.

I took a slow breath and opened the acquisition file again, whatever else happened, I still had work to do. The inconsistencies I had identified earlier bothered me, three payments of the same amount had appeared in different records under different descriptions. Lior had already known about the discrepancy, but that didn’t mean the explanation was harmless, it also didn’t mean anyone had committed a crime. I needed evidence before drawing conclusions and that was the difference between noticing a problem and understanding it, I began making a list of the documents I had reviewed, the questions that remained unanswered, and the records I would need to examine more closely. I was halfway through the list when my desk phone rang.

“Miss Laurent,” Lior’s voice came through the receiver.

I sat upright, “yes, Mr. Vale?”

“I want you to continue examining the acquisition records tomorrow, start with the supporting documents behind those three payments. I want to know whether the different descriptions are justified, whether the payments were properly documented, and who approved them.”

I glanced at my notes, “I’ll need access to the original invoices, payment vouchers, and approval records. Some of those weren’t included in the file you gave me.”

“Then request them through Finance.”

“I already did sir, they couldn’t explain the discrepancy.”

“I’m not asking you to repeat the same conversation,” he answered rudely, “request the underlying records.”

“And if access is restricted sir?”

“Then bring the request to my office.”

I held the receiver a little more firmly, “understood.” I said rolling my eyes.

“One more thing, I don’t want assumptions presented as findings, if the records support a legitimate explanation, say so. If they don’t, tell me exactly what is missing.”

“I wouldn’t accuse anyone without evidence sir.”

“See that you don’t.”

The line went dead immediately after that, I stared at the phone. “A pleasant man,” I muttered, then I wrote down his instructions. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of finding my work careless, no matter how determined he seemed to be to make my life difficult. For the next hour, I reviewed the documents I already had, identifying the specific records required to trace each payment. I sent a formal request to Finance and copied the appropriate administrative contact. I kept the message factual, listing the document references and explaining why I needed them. I had barely returned to my notes when my phone vibrated beside my keyboard, it was Ava.