Chapter 24
It didn’t take me long to finish my breakfast. Pouring myself another mug of coffee, I moved over to the sofa, gathered up my cell phone and before I popped it into my purse I quickly took a photos of a smiling Victor, and sent it to Jenna with the message: “bringing this hottie with us to Salty’s this evening. He’s already smitten with your picture, so wear something sexy. He could be your Mr. Right.”
Then, much as I really didn’t want to, I turned on my laptop and accessed my email, and was not at all surprised to see five emails from the HR department of Fredericks Design Co. Each email had an employee’s name in the subject line along with the notation ‘staff audit‘.
Surprisingly, the audits on Bonnie, Angela, and Jenny showed the women were hard workers and very proficient in their positions. There had been no staff or client complaints on any of them, quite the opposite. Each of the three women had recieved multiple letters of commendation from the clients they had worked with, praising them for their knowledge and professionalisn.
I took the time to review the interviews of each of these three yesterday. All three of the women had clearly stated that Adam was the one that initiated the relationship. That he had been persistant, and wouldn’t take no for an answer. When asked why they hadn’t reported. him to HR their responses were all the same. He had claimed that he wouldn’t get in trouble because he was engaged to me, and that I knew about and agrred to an ‘open relationship‘. They also claimed that he told them he would have them fired, and black–listed with every business in Halifax.
This made me realize that an their employer, I owed these three women justice. I emailed HR and asked them to do followup interviews with Bonnie, Angela, and Jenny. I needed them to get information on the approximate dates, times and places that Adam had began preying on. my staff.
If even half of what they said in their interviews was true, Adam could be charged with s**** harrassment. His actions had placed Fredericks Design Co. in a horrible situation, leaving the company open to three possible s**** harrassment lawsuits. I had to talk to Spencer about this right away.
I made sure to save each interview, and email as a PDF word document. I wanted to get a handle on the situation as quickly as possible. This also made me realize there was no possible way I could give any part of the ownership of Fredericks Design Co. to those four 1 now called vipers.
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It’s a good thing that I am a ‘go with the flow‘ type of person, because all the plans I had made in the past couple of days now have to be scrapped. And come to think of it, now that plans are changing, I am not going to send those four on vacation at the company expense. I had to rethink that.
Who knows, maybe one of them could be a honeymoon trip for Bradley and me. And if I could get the other trip changed to the same ship as the cruise I would want, maybe Jenna and
Victor could tag along. I smiled at that thought. I couldn’t wait for those two to meet.
I didn’t have time to read the HR performance audit on Adam or
Fiona before Hector messaged me to let me know he had arrived and was waiting out front.
When I told Bradley and Victor this, they gathered up our luggage while I placed my laptop in my briefcase and did one last check of the suite to make sure I was leaving nothing behind.
Confirming we had everything we left the suite and took the elevator to the lobby. I stopped at
the front desk and handed over my keycard, thanking the staff for their continued attentive
service, as this is where I stayed when I cam to Toronto on Graystone International business.
I turned from the front desk to find Bradley waiting for me. Taking my hand in his, we exited
the hotel and immediately entered the limo. I spent the twenty minute drive fielding questions
from Victor. I laughed and refused to give him any more information about Jenna, stating they
would have nothing to talk about if I told him everything I knew.
His disappointment was reflected in the puppy dog eyes he gave me, which made me laugh all
the more. “Look at Jenna like that and she’ll be scratching behind your ears in no time.” I
snickered.
Victor started to reply just as the limo came to a stop and I am sure the next words out of his
mouth were not those he had originally intented. “Brad, I’m going in with you two. Maybe
Spencer can start paperwork for a special marriage license for me.” He hasn’t even met Jenna
yet and here he is talking about a marriage license. Does he think they are going to meet and
instantly fall in love? But I guess anything is possible. I mean, look at me and Bradley. I guess
when you know, you know.
As soon as we entered Spencer’s office he gave me all my new documentation showing my
name changed to Graystone. This also contained a new passport in my Graystone name.
Spencer was also looking after having all my diploma’s and professional designations
changed. It was a lot of paperwork, and I was thankful he had everything in the works. He was
worth every single penny of the very generous salary paid to him by Graystone International.
After this, I think he deserves a raise!
Spencer had called in a favor and arranged to have one of the City Hall employees that
Chapter 24
processed marriage licences to be here in the office while we signed the licence application, providing our appropriate ID’s. By the time we completed the process, thirty minutes had passed. The lady smiled as she handed us the approved license, congratulated us on our upcoming marriage, and excused herself to return to her office.
Victor had been a bit disappointed that he couldn’t start the process, but cheered up when told that a license could be granted the same day as applied for, that he just had to make an appointment. I could hardly hold back my laughter when he made an appointment for the following Thursday. This dude is either crazy, or extremely confident in his ability to convince Jenna to jump right in with both feet!
I now took the opportunity to ask Spencer for some advice regarding the situation at Fredericks Design Co. I opened my laptop and accessed the email app, then asked him to read the employee interviews as well as the employee performance audits. I did tell him that I had yet to read the interviews or audits for Adam or Fiona. But I would appreciate it if he could take the time to read through those too.
Thankfully, the HR reps who wrote up the interview notes and the audits had been concise in the reports. Bullet points made reading and understanding the details of the issues very clear. She didn’t waste words, just noted the information, without judgement. I reminded myself to commend her on her ability to get to the heart of the matter. She had been with the company. for the past fifteen years and was very well respected within her field. Fredericks Design was lucky to have her.
Spencer finished reading. I took back the laptop, shutting it down and tucking it back inside
my
briefcase. The whole time, Spencer was sitting back in his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose in concentration. I let him think. Finally he broke the silence.
“Well, that’s quite the mess you are going to have to deal with, Anna. I can tell you now, you
are going to have to review every bit of security footage since each of those three women were
hired. If what they say is true, you need to act fast. Until the investigation is completed, you will need to suspend both Adam and Fiona without pay, pending the results of the internal
investigation. And based on their interviews, you will also need to remove Alan as a director. I would suggest you message HR now, telling them to have Adam, Fiona and Alan in the offce by four this afternoon. Make sure to have security there, and myself and Tony will be there as
your legal advisors. You have got to suspend them today,”
I had my phone out texting HR with these instructions, and then my pilot to see if we could
move the flight up to one. I recieved positive confirmation from both, much to my relief.
“Spencer, can you and Jill be ready to leave by one? That’s the only way I can make the meeting with those three and HR by four this afternoon.” Good heavens, was nothing simple?
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“Jill should be here in about ten minutes. I texted her as I was reading Adam and Fiona’s
I
interviews.” Leave it to Spencer, he must have been a boy scout in his younger years, because he was always prepared.
“Also, the plans you were thinking of implementing regarding ownership of Fredericks Design Co. will need to be put on hold indefinitely.”
“That’s what I figured after I read the interviews and audits of Bonnie, Angela and Jenny. But did I miss something concerning Alan?” I know there was nothing about him in what I had already read.
“It was in the interviews of both Adam and Fiona. You need to read them as soon as possible,
and definitely before we land. Apparently Alan has been aware of Adam’s activities with the three young women, and even encouraged him. Though how a man could encourage his daughter’s fiance to cheat on her is beyond me. Spencer just shook his head, his disgust of
Alan evident.
“Spencer, Alan Fredericks has never considered me as his daughter, even before he and mom divorced and I went to live with my grandparents. I suppose with Fiona being two years older than me, he figured he already had a daughter. I still can’t figure out why he even married mom when he was already in a relationship with Lydia, and had a child with her. It doesn’t make
sense.”
I caught the look that Spencer exchanged with Bradley. Something tells me there is much.
more to the story than I know. But I am going to find out.
