Page 3 of Fate and Fortune

He stood behind the desk, pulled out his own laptop, and started up the screen. There would be no slow transition, no period of mourning for the old ways. If Winslow Financial was going to survive, it would be because he’d yanked it out of the past by its expensive lapels and forced it to look forward.

A soft knock sounded, and Leigh entered, a legal pad balanced against her hip.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I thought you’d want to see this before the meeting.”

She handed him a manila folder with his name already written on the tab.

The first page was the org chart, something of his father’s creation, arranged like the branches of a family tree, only with less warmth. Beneath it were performance reviews, each annotated with his father’s red-penned comments. They read “too ambitious,” “unfocused,” and “potential, if groomed correctly.”

Sam didn’t trust his father’s opinions even a teensy bit. His father was blinded by his own ambition and narcissism. Hadn’t they all found that out the hard way?

“Compliance is our weakest link right now,” Leigh said, bringing him back to the present. “You’ll need to address it, or it could get ugly.”

“It’ll be addressed.”

He had plans. Lots of them.

“Anything else?” she asked.

He looked up, rubbing at his chin. Leigh was a good person. He already knew that. But she’d always been loyal to Joel.

“I’m not my father. If people want to stay on, they’ll need to get used to change. There’s going to be a lot of stomping and screaming for a while. Are you okay with that?”

“I am. This won’t be the first time feathers have been ruffled.”

“I want you to be honest with me, Leigh. If you think I’m making a mistake, I want you to feel like you can talk to me. I’ll listen with an open mind. I may not change my decision, but I know that I don’t know everything in the world. I’m human, and I make mistakes. I want there to be an open line of communication between me and our staff. No more of my father’s ‘my way or the highway’.”

“Some people are going to love that,” Leigh said with a smile. “And some are going to hate it.”

Before he could answer, she turned to leave, the legal pad tucked under her arm. He couldn’t help but wonder which way she would jump if forced. Joel or Sam? Old or new?

But he liked her. She was the only one in this place who seemed to remember he had a brain and not just a last name.

Sam turned to the expansive windows and surveyed the city. People were waking up and finding out that one of the town’s most prominent citizens was fighting for his life in the hospital. There would be questions, lots of them.

Who was in charge? What would happen? Would it all just stay the same and be just another day?

Sam already saw what needed fixing. The only question was how long it would take for everyone else to see it too. His siblings trusted him to make it happen, and he wouldn’t be letting them down.

Let the war begin.

Chapter

Two

“I’m going to be living in a box down by the lake,” Allison declared, slapping the lid of her laptop closed. “I’m going to become one of those cautionary tales about looking before you leap.”

She was having breakfast with her brother and sister-in-law, sitting at their large kitchen island while picking at some lovely fruit and yogurt. The food deserved better appreciation. Normally, she would have scarfed this down along with a scalding hot coffee with too much cream and sugar.

Three versions of her resume sprawled across the granite countertop, each marked with edits in red pen. Her life was quickly spiraling out of control, and she didn’t know if she could stop it. Had it only been a month ago that her boyfriend of three years had told her she had to move out because he’d fallen in love with someone else?

It felt like yesterday, and then sometimes, it felt like it had all been a nasty nightmare. She’d wake up any minute now, and life would go back to being the same as it always was. A regular job, a loving partner, a nice condo in Southern California.

“What are you going to wear for your interview this afternoon?” her brother Brian asked as he refilled his own mug of coffee.

He’d taken a few days off of work to help get her settled in, but tomorrow he’d be back in the office. Because he had a job. Unlike her.

She was pretty sure he’d asked about her outfit because she currently looked like something the cat had dragged in.