Chapter 2“Good morning, Mr. Singleton, welcome to Harte Industries.”
“Thanks. And it’s Chad,” he said. “No need to be so formal with me.”
“Things are certainly changing,” said Rona, the pretty front lobby receptionist.
“Let’s hope so,” Chad said with a smile.
Harte Industries was a stuffy old company located in a boxy brick building in the center of downtown Eden, at the corner of Fifth Street and the main drag known as Eve Avenue. For over sixty years they’d specialized in making overpriced trinkets for rich people who didn’t know how better to spend their money and in the process, had become rich themselves.
Chad’s uncle, Aldous Harte, and his son, the always-unpleasant Augustus, were the old guard of suit-wearing, tie-strangling executives who hadn’t seemed to move forward—themselv
