Second Chances

15. Adrianna

Today was an important day for Adrianna. After a hiatus of almost a year, she was finally going to assume all of her responsibilities, meet her old team, and join her father! Not to forget the added responsibility of being the co-CEO of Scott Enterprises. Though she had taken the time to understand the business and the legacy, she couldn't understand why Uncle Marvin had insisted on this. Didn't he trust his own blood?

Whom was she kidding, really? Elton had proved time and again that he wasn't that great a businessman. Hadn't she been willing to help him out initially to handle his family business? But what had he done then? Adrianna shook her head, she didn't want to dig up such past incidents. She was anyway a bundle of nerves today, and remembering instances that undermined her ability and made her feel small was the last thing she needed.

***

"Good morning, Mrs. Adrianna! I am Travis Murphy, Mr. Elton's personal assistant. I was informed of your arrival by Mr. Scott two days ago. At his behest, your cabin is opposite Mr. Elton's. We are also in the process of hiring a personal assistant for you. Till then, I shall be assisting you," and Travis stood by the cabin door to allow Adrianna to enter her office and look around. Though he had seen the news, he hadn't really believed that his boss was married. In fact, who would believe, given his liaisons of the other kind that were quite popular in the office.

"Thank you, Mr. Murphy. And please, call me Adrianna," she responded as she walked around the space. Her father definitely must have had a hand in this place's décor as it matched perfectly with her taste.

"Oh! I am sorry, but I won't be able to. I don't want Sir to take any disciplinary action against me," he smiled slightly before adding, "Your system has been set up and the list of potential candidates for the post of your PA has been fed into it. Is there anything else you would like me to do?"

"I think this is all for now. Will let you know if there's anything," and she smiled warmly, before powering on her system.

"Sure, I will take your leave then. My extension is 102, if you need something. Have a good day," and he closed the door shut, leaving Adrianna alone to let the reality sink in. She had finally managed to take the first step towards healing herself, loving herself. Just then her phone rang, not at all surprising her as she knew her dad would call her. Silly of her to have limited all interaction with him over her stupid husband and the sad state of her marriage. But those days were gone now. With a grin, she received his call.

***

"Mr. Murphy, could you please line up the interviews for tomorrow? And it would be great if you could set up a meeting with the department heads. I want to know the current state of the company from them," Adrianna requested.

"Sure. Shall I schedule a meeting at 3?"

"Uhh... I won't be available post 2 for the next few days. Can it be done before that?"

"Hold on, I will check," Travis responded as Adrianna could hear him tapping away something on his keyboard. "Everyone's calendar is free from 11.30 to 12.30. Would that work?"

"Oh perfect! Thank you, Mr. Murphy. And please also share an invite with Elton."

"Uh... Ma'am, sir doesn't come to the office this early," he replied a bit hesitantly. Till now, he was under the impression that Scott senior had appointed her to take care of the workings in the first half. But after hearing her, he didn't know what was the deal between them. All he could hope was to not get caught in the crossfire should something happen between the couple.

"Hmm... I see. All right. That's all for now. Thank you, Mr. Murphy," and Adrianna kept the receiver down. She leaned back in her chair, eyebrows frowned as she wondered how did Elton run the business if he started his day so late? But didn't he leave early every morning? She mentally rolled her eyes as she realised that he simply left to be away from her, and to be near his love. How could she be so foolish? Anyway, she had better things to do than ponder more over someone who didn't deserve her time. With a firm resolve, she went back to shortlisting some more candidates for tomorrow's interview.

***

"If we compare our reports from the first quarter and the second quarter, our profits have declined significantly. We had projected a growth of 15% basis our new project launch but things didn't take off as expected," the senior manager from the finance department explained, pointing towards the graph on the slide.

"And why are our projects performing so badly? Wasn't any sort of market research conducted before launching them?" Adrianna asked. Elton's poor business sense was a known fact for her. What she didn't understand was how come Marvin uncle allowed this to happen? She remembered the call she had with him in the morning, wishing her luck on her first day and asking her to keep an open mind and not jump to any conclusion. Okay, she wouldn't jump to any conclusion for now, but she was definitely planning to ask this and a lot more when she would meet him this evening.

"Uh... Ma'am... the thing is..." the senior manager hesitated. He knew the reason behind many of the new launches was their boss' flavour of the week or month. But how was he supposed to be this blunt with the boss' wife?

"Okay..." Adrianna suddenly stood up from her place, making everyone look at her in surprise, some in fear. "I understand you have been employees of this place for a very long time now. And I believe your loyalty should lie with Mr. Marvin Scott rather than Mr. Elton Scott." She could see many nodding as she continued, "So I would appreciate it if everyone could simply be honest and open about the workings here so that we all can together turn this around. From what I have gathered, the company is operating at a loss. Though the situation is not as bad as it was last year, it might soon be if corrective steps aren't taken..." Adrianna then went on to add what she hoped to achieve during her tenure here, how employees were free to approach her or Elton with any ideas they would have, and how she was going to turn things around here.

***

"Good afternoon, Ma'am. Would you like me to get anything?" Travis got up from his chair the moment Adrianna walked out of the elevator.

"No. Mr. Murphy, I am fine. Could you please schedule a meeting with the board? Notify Elton too. Is he in?"

"He... uhh.... He might be on his way?"

And that was enough for Adrianna to know just how serious Elton was with the business. Shaking her head, she entered the office, mentally going through all the information she had gathered during the meeting. After her speech, the staff had seemed more comfortable in showing the true state of the company. So Elton launched projects as per his whims, without any market research. His previous ventures had all been failures but that hadn't deterred him from making some pretty huge financial transactions from the corporate account. Basically, the money that was pumped into the business was actually used by him to fund his extravagance. The nerve of this man to make reckless decisions and then blame everything and everyone for the troubles in his life!

She rolled her eyes, at the different aspects of the person she was once fond of and at her stupidity, for falling for such a person. She took out her diary and was making some notes when her phone rang.

"Mr. Scott is here to meet you."

"Oh! Please send him in," she hurriedly said before getting up and moving towards the door. Just then it opened, as Marvin entered her office with an infectious smile on his face.

"How is my pretty girl doing?" He opened his arms wide.

"The day has been hectic, but feels good to finally start working," she honestly responded as she hugged him.

He gave her a peck on her crown before breaking the hug. "I have been hearing so much about the new boss who is interacting with employees. That is a good start."

"Something I learned from dad," she smiled.

"You learned just the right thing. I heard you have asked for a board meeting? That is a great idea. Come with me. We will both be attending it."

She was about to open her mouth when he beat her to it. "No, Elton is still not in his office or reachable on the phone."

With that, they exited her office and made their way to the boardroom.

***

After a long meeting with the board members, Marvin had taken her leave and Adrianna was now in her office, busy packing stuff so that she could leave. It was ten past three and she was already late on her first day to Morgan Inc. With one final look around the office, she was about to turn and leave when the door was pushed open with a loud bang. Taken aback, she turned around with wide eyes only to find an angry, no livid, Elton standing at the entrance, as if he was ready to kill someone. At a distance behind him, she could catch a glimpse of Travis, who was visibly terrified.

She broke into a cold sweat and gulped. Never had she ever been this scared before. Why was Elton so angry? And what was he going to do to?