A Signature That Bound Us

Chapter Five

Aurelia’s POV

Ava Brooke: “How is the new job going? And don’t tell me you’re too busy to reply.”

Despite myself, I smiled, Ava had a remarkable ability to appear at exactly the moment I needed someone who didn’t work in a building where people looked as though smiling might violate company policy. I typed a reply, “do you have a minute to talk?

Her response came almost immediately, “for you? Always, call me.” I checked the time, then picked up my phone and stepped into a quieter corner near the office windows, she answered on the second ring. “Finally! I was beginning to think you had become too important for your old friends.”

“I’m not important, I’m trapped.”

There was a brief pause, “trapped where?”

“At work, under a man who appears to believe that basic human courtesy is an optional extra.”

Ava laughed softly, “oh Aurelia. What happened?” I leaned against the wall and looked out at the busy street below, I told her about the acquisition assignment, the three payments, and the way Lior had admitted that he already knew about the inconsistency. Then I explained the contract clause and his decision to place me under his direct supervision for a year, by the time I finished, Ava wasn’t laughing anymore. “Wait,” she said. “You mean you signed an agreement that says you’ll report directly to him for a whole year?”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t know?”

“I didn’t read that part carefully enough, I was tired, I was relieved to have the job, and I wanted to secure the opportunity before something else went wrong.” I rubbed my forehead, “I know I should have read everything. You don’t have to remind me.”

“I wasn’t going to,” her answer was gentle, and that almost made me feel worse. I had spent the entire afternoon trying not to show how much the discovery had shaken me, hearing someone acknowledge it without making me feel foolish loosened something in my chest. “But, Aurelia,” she continued, “you can’t let your anger make decisions for you. You need this job, and you worked hard to get it. So do your work properly, keep records of what you’re asked to do, and make sure you understand any instructions that affect your position.”

“I know,” I said sadly.

“And don’t assume that every difficult situation means you’ve lost.”

I closed my eyes briefly, “I’m not assuming that. I’m just wondering whether I can survive a year of him.”

“You survived high school with that mathematics teacher who insisted you were always arguing.”

“That woman was unreasonable,” I said.

“You argued with her in front of the whole class.”

“That was because she was wrong Ava!” She burst out laughing, and this time I laughed with her. For a few seconds, I forgot about the contract, the assignment, and the man waiting upstairs to find fault with my work. That was one of the things I loved most about Ava, she could make me laugh without pretending my problems didn’t exist. We had been friends since grade two in school, long before either of us understood how complicated adulthood could become. I still remembered the first time we spoke properly, I had been accused of taking another pupil’s pencil case. I hadn’t taken it, but the girl who owned it was convinced I had, and when the teacher refused to listen to my explanation, I became so frustrated that I argued back. I was sent outside the classroom to calm down, I had been standing near the corridor window, furious and embarrassed, when Ava appeared beside me with a small packet of biscuits in her hand. She didn’t ask what I had done, she simply offered me half. “I believe you,” she had said, just three words.

At that age, I hadn’t known how much those words would come to mean to me. The pencil case was eventually found beneath another pupil’s desk, and I was allowed back into class but I never forgot that Ava had chosen to stand beside me before she knew how the story would end. We became friends after that, we attended the same high school, shared notes before examinations, complained about difficult teachers, and walked home together whenever our schedules allowed it. We both came from families that had to think carefully about money, we knew what it meant to want something and hear that it would have to wait. We understood that sometimes our parents weren’t refusing us because they didn’t care, they simply had other responsibilities to meet. Ava never made me feel ashamed of our circumstances, she never treated my ambitions as foolish or suggested that I should lower them because of where I came from. She was gentler than I was, less likely to challenge someone openly and more inclined to think before speaking but gentleness had never meant weakness. When I needed her, she showed up. When I made mistakes, she told me the truth without making me feel small and when other people misunderstood my stubbornness, she usually understood what lay beneath it.

Over the years, our friendship had survived school, graduation, disappointments, and the uncertainty of trying to build a life with limited resources. She was more than my best friend, she was family and

she knew me well enough to recognize when I was pretending to be stronger than I felt.

“So,” Ava said, bringing me back to the present, “are you going to be all right?”

I looked through the glass partition toward the rows of desks, “I don’t know but I’m not giving up.”

“That’s my girl, just remember that being strong doesn’t mean you have to fight every battle at once.”

“I’ll remember.”

“And please eat something, you get dramatic when you’re hungry.”

“I do not get dramatic.”

“You once threatened to resign from a group project because someone used the wrong font.”

“That was a serious formatting issue,” she laughed again. For the first time since leaving Lior’s office, I felt some of the tension leave my shoulders, “thank you.” I said quietly.

“For what?”

“For listening.”

“You never have to thank me for that, Aurelia.” I swallowed around the sudden tightness in my throat, “call me later okay?”

“I will.”

“And don’t let that man convince you that you don’t belong there.”

“I won’t,” we ended the call, and I remained by the window for another moment, holding my phone in my hand. Ava had not offered to solve my problems, she couldn’t change my contract or make Lior easier to work with but she had reminded me of something I needed to hear. I had faced difficult situations before, and I had not come this far to surrender at the first sign of trouble. I returned to my desk, the records request had received a response from Finance. Some documents could be provided immediately, while others required executive authorization because of the sensitivity of the acquisition. I forwarded the restricted document request to Lior’s office, explaining precisely what I needed and why. Then I resumed my review of the available material, it wasn’t a glamorous work. I spent time checking reference numbers, comparing entries, and tracing the same amounts across several documents. I made no dramatic discoveries, and I wasn’t foolish enough to expect one.

Instead, I found more questions. The first payment had a supporting invoice, the second had a payment record but no corresponding invoice in the material available to me, while the third referred to an approval form linked to an archived record I couldn’t access. All three had been approved by the same executive, despite appearing under different categories. That alone did not establish wrongdoing, there could be a legitimate explanation, and I intended to find it before making any recommendation. I documented each discrepancy and clearly separated what I had verified from what remained unconfirmed, when

I finished, I checked the time, it was later than I had realized. I saved my work, sent the updated document request, and prepared a brief progress report for Lior. I didn’t want to leave him wondering what I had done, nor did I intend to present incomplete research as a finished conclusion. I was about to shut down my computer when a message appeared on my screen.

“Mr. Vale’s Office: Mr. Vale requires you to submit your preliminary findings before leaving tomorrow, please ensure your notes are organized.” I read it twice, tomorrow? I had expected to continue the assignment, but the message made the deadline feel more immediate. Lior wasn’t going to give me much room to settle into the position before judging whether I could handle it, I replied that I had received the instruction and saved a copy of the message with the other assignment records. Then I packed my bag, as I walked toward the elevators, I could see the glass wall of Lior’s office. He was inside, speaking to someone on the phone, his posture was rigid, his expression unreadable. For a moment, I considered going upstairs to ask whether he had received my request for the restricted documents. Then I remembered the look he had given me earlier, I could send a formal follow-up in the morning.

I wasn’t going to spend my entire evening searching for excuses to stand in front of him, outside, the air was cooler than I expected. I took a deep breath and started toward the bus stop, already thinking about what I needed to do the next day. My first official day at Vale Enterprises was turning out to be far more complicated than I had imagined, still I had a job to do, a family depending on me, and a friend who believed in me even when I struggled to believe in myself. I could work with that, at least, I hoped I could because tomorrow, I would return to the same building, face the same impossible man, and continue searching for answers he seemed determined to make me find on my own and I had a feeling that the missing documents were only the beginning.