3: 3
On the company's fifth-anniversary open house, Karl invited me himself.
Before we left, he looped my scarf around my neck with his own hands.
"Mom was wrong yesterday. Today I'll set the record straight. We built the first store together. No one gets to take your credit."
I brought along the album from our startup days and photocopies of the old orders.
This was my last handover before I left.
The founders' wall in the main lobby was ringed with people.
It listed the deliveries made before dawn, the apologies given at customers' doors, the collections chased down. My name was nowhere on it.
The second half was crammed with photos of Janice training the stores.
A new employee handing out water mistook me for Karl's sister.
I took the paper cup.
"I'm his wife."
Janice happened to walk up just then and smoothed it over for the employee with a smile.
"Autumn's been at home all these years. The new hires have never met her. It's just a mix-up over a title, don't take it to heart."
One of our early suppliers recognized me and brought it up in front of everyone, how back then I'd made three trips in a single day begging for grace on the payments, how I'd even used my mother's pension to keep things running.
The employees around us whispered.
Karl heard the stir and came over, glancing at the photos on the wall.
"The company's first two years, Autumn saw me through them. Without her, there'd be no first store."
He turned to admin.
"Take down the photos of just Janice. Put up the group ones."
In that moment, the little scrap of hope in me that had been on the verge of dying lifted its head again.
Outside the doors, the key clients were arriving.
Janice leaned in to his ear at once.
"Karl, tearing down the wall right now, the clients will think the company's unstable inside."
Several executives chimed in.
Karl hesitated, then took it back after all.
"Cover it with flower baskets for now. We'll redo it after the event. We can't let the clients laugh at us today."
I laughed coldly.
"In front of the suppliers you said you'd give me justice. The clients show up and I get pushed to the back. The shelf life on your promises keeps getting shorter."
He didn't answer, just turned to go greet the clients.
The display area was busy.
Janice was in charge of checking the document folders. I sat in the rest area, flipping through the old album I'd brought.
Inside it was one original payment-confirmation slip, a photocopy bearing my mother's own signature.
The original had always been kept in the company archives.
Ten minutes later, a cry went up from the display area, Janice's.
"An original is missing from the folder!"
Admin and the staff all crowded over.
Janice went pale, her voice rushed and soft.
"That confirmation slip has a signature on the back, it's early financing paperwork, losing it is a real headache. Could everyone who touched the display case today check their things, voluntarily? I'm not suspecting anyone, I just don't want the clients laughing at us."
It was a pretty little speech.
But every eye in the place turned to me.
Because a moment ago, only that supplier had brought up, out loud, the money my mother and I had put in.
I had never gone near the display case.
But to keep from wearing the name of someone with a guilty conscience, I opened my bag myself and let a female employee check my coat.
The next second, that confirmation slip fell out of my coat's inner pocket.
The whole room went silent.
Janice was right there in an instant, her eyes reddening on command, the timing pitched just right.
"Maybe Autumn only wanted to take it back as a keepsake. Everyone, don't put it too harshly. She surely didn't mean to."
That one line, didn't mean to, nailed the charge in tighter.
I lifted my eyes to her.
"Pull the security footage."
Janice sighed.
"The circuit tripped during setup. Nothing was saved for that stretch. Autumn, if you want to look, I'll go to the monitor room with you."
Karl arrived, didn't press about the footage, just held his hand out to me.
"The clients are all here. Give the original back to the company first. Anything else we'll discuss at home."
I gripped the paper tight.
"I never touched the display case. She touched the folder, and she came near my coat too. You don't question her, you question me first?"
He lowered his voice.
"The document was found in your pocket. I didn't say you stole it, but you can't hold on to the company's original like this."
I turned the slip over and pointed at the signature on the back.
"This money came from my mother's pension. You erased the two of us from the startup story, and now you won't even let me touch this piece of paper?"
Karl thought I was using the original to force the company into going public with it.
He reached to pull it away.
"You want your name on it, you want compensation, all of that's negotiable. Don't back me into a corner today over one piece of paper."
I didn't let go.
Rip.
The aged paper split along the crease, and my mother's signature was torn clean in two.
I looked at the broken name in my palm.
There was nothing but emptiness inside me.
I set the startup album I'd brought into the display case.
"The five years you want, I'm giving them all back to you."
Karl sensed something was off and started after me.
Janice cut in.
"Karl, the partner's rep is on stage. They're waiting on your remarks."
He stopped, and in the end left me with just one line:
"Go home first."
I walked out the doors and heard him tell the security guard,
"Don't let her back in today. I don't want her clashing with Janice again and putting off the clients."
The sunlight stung.
I took out my phone and opened the reinstatement system.
A prompt popped up:
【Once a cross-state inspection assignment is confirmed, mid-assignment withdrawal is, as a rule, not permitted for the duration of the task.】
I pressed confirm.
