Morning all, lets jump into our morning prompt with no delay. Fifteen minutes with the above sentence as a start. No stopping to edit, not pausing for reflection just fifteen minutes of straight writing with no stopping. Lets wake up the brain and see what shakes loose. Timers set and off we go.
I like the hidden but integral member of a team leaving and everyone being smug about it start to a story. It allows the potential rise of one to contrast with the downfall of another. Plus there are other little fiddly emotional bits to play with. Fun stuff.
Thursday, April 16th: There was no discussion.
There was no discussion. Andy made his decision and the rest of them would simply have to live with it. Ellie sighed and tried not to let her annoyance show. She could see the whole thing crashing and burning. She could also see the steps needed to keep the whole thing from crashing and burning. She knew however that telling Andy anything when he already made up his mind was pointless.
He wouldn’t listen.
‘No,’ Ellie thought. ‘He wouldn’t just not listen.’
She knew he would ridicule the suggestion that his plan would not work and determine that the steps she suggested were no way possible. Then when things started to crash and burn and they needed to take steps to save things he would take any option except the ones she offered. If she kept quiet now then later when problems started to arise, cracks appearing in his perfect plan, she could slip the suggestions in. She would have to do so in a way that made him think the ideas were his, but it would help the company.
Andy left, striding out of the room, confident in his plan. The others at the table didn’t look worried.
‘Then again, they never do,’ she thought. Ellie let them walk ahead of her. As she followed along, she felt the familiar headache. How much time did she waste dealing with the others? It was a family company, but when it came down to it, it wasn’t her family.
She married Henry and when he was killed in the car crash she inherited his shares and place on the board. She knew the family wanted to keep her close because she was Henry’s widow, their last remaining tie to him.
She had already established her role as the person who managed Andy before Henry died as Henry wanted nothing to do with the family business, delegating it to her mere days after their honeymoon. And in that role she remained. As she left the conference room, she thought over the other members of the board. All were family of course, siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins. Andy was in charge. He was invested with the title of CEO and his decisions were the ones the followed.
He was both inept and short sighted. It was why Ellie stayed. She feared that of she left, things would very quickly go downhill for the family company. ‘But why is that my problem?’
It was a question she was asking herself increasingly. There was money of course. She had shares in the company and their profit was her profit. But those could be sold back to the family and she could quite comfortably live off both the proceeds and what she saved. She also had other interests she would love to spend more time with, many of them with the possibility of income.
‘And there would be less Andy.’
Without thinking, Ellie found her steps moving towards Terry’s office. Of the family, she knew he would be the most eager to buy her out of her shares. He was never close to Henry and resented she inherited the shares. He also seemed to reset how many times her suggestions helped them out. It seemed an affront to his family pride.
‘So maybe it is time to give him what he wants.’
“Terry, do you have a minute,” Ellie asked stopping in his doorway. As usual there was the expected heavy sigh and the glance to his watch. Since she knew his golf game wasn’t scheduled for another two hours and he had literally nowhere else to be she knew it was just for show.
“I am really swamped today.”
“It won’t take long,” she said. He signed again and nodded. She Stepped into his office and closed the door. His eyebrow lifted, his interest piqued.
Twenty minutes later, Ellie left the office. Her shares officially sold to Terry, her bank account heavy and her ties to the family lightened. Terry grinned with glee behind her and Ellie tried not to giggle as she went off to write her own letter to let everyone know she was stepping away, permanently.
Ten til Midnight 