"Ms. Rowe, I just ran the numbers."
Finance Manager Dickerson had come in too, and he handed the report across the desk.
"If we relocate before the end of the month, once you count the lost deposit, the renovation, and the moving company, the one-time outlay comes to about this. I want you braced for it."
I glanced at the figure.
He kept going. "That's nearly double the total of a full year's rent increase."
The office went quiet for a few seconds.
He picked his words carefully.
"So I wanted to run something by you. This pay raise plan of ours, should we hold off for now?"
"Make it up once things settle? If we explain it clearly, everyone should understand."
I didn't answer.
My phone lit up. A message from Dirk.
"Kid, I hear you've been out looking at buildings for days now. Found anything that suits you?"
"If you want my two cents, stop wearing yourself out. Hold out any longer and it won't be ten grand anymore."
There was a little grinning emoji stuck on the end.
I didn't reply. I looked at the two people in front of me.
"The raises go through as planned, not a dollar short, into everyone's account this month."
Frederick Dickerson opened his mouth to say something. I raised a hand and stopped him.
"And HR sends out a notice today."
"The new site will be somewhere more convenient than this one. The commute and the amenities will only get better, not worse. I want everyone at ease about that."
"As for anyone who wants to leave, I won't force them to stay. Full severance, whatever they're owed. We do right by them."
Leila blinked, then nodded. "Understood."
The two of them exchanged a look, and neither pushed it any further.
Once they'd gone, I sent Ramona a message.
"No need to keep looking. That building you mentioned last time. Take me there tomorrow."
Early the next morning, I'd barely reached the office when I saw three people sitting on the couch.
Dirk, and my parents.
Dirk sat dead center, one leg crossed over the other, a done-deal smile on his face.
The second my mother saw me she was on her feet, grabbing my hand.
"Maddie, Uncle Dirk says you're moving? Everything's fine where you are, why move? You've been just fine here all these years."
My father stayed where he was on the couch, his face dark, and only cut me a look.
"Mom, what are you all doing here?"
"Uncle Dirk called us," she said, dropping her voice.
"Said you were throwing a fit at him over money, so of course I came straight over to see."
"Maddie, Uncle Dirk is family too, he's your uncle. Back when you first came here to start the company, he rented you the place cheap. Have you forgotten?"
I looked at Dirk.
He smiled at me and said nothing.
"Mom." I kept my tone as even as I could.
"He rented it to me cheap back then. I don't deny it. But in five years he's raised the rent more than ten times, and I paid every one of them in full."
"Rents everywhere around here are dropping now, and he's hiking mine ten grand a month. It's not that I won't pay. It's that it's not reasonable."
"What's ten grand?" My father spoke up suddenly.
"You've got a company of more than eight hundred people now. You can't cover a little money like that?"
"It's not that I can't cover it. It's that I can't cover it like this."
"What do you mean, can't?" My father slapped the coffee table.
"When Uncle Dirk helped us back then, why didn't you say no? Now that your wings have grown you won't even honor a little kindness?"
Dirk chimed in right on cue. "Zion Rowe, don't be angry, she's just a kid."
"Runs a company for a few years and thinks she's something. It's understandable."
He said understandable, but the sneer was practically spilling out of his voice.
My mother tugged at me quickly. "Maddie, just take this one piece of advice."
"It's only ten grand. You've been so obedient all these years, why now would you—"
