Chapter 84 The Business Heir
CHAPTER EIGHTY FOUR
Valenticia’s POV~
So much had changed in the last few months, and I would wake up in my apartment every morning to a phone that was buzzing with emails about shipments and contracts instead of just peace, quiet and coffee. Stepping in to take over the family business, I spent my time in meetings and on calls, making decisions that affected dozens of people and to my shock got used to it all pretty quickly. I had never pictured myself running Clawford Enterprises, but there I was, day by day managing it with a strength even I was surprised at times.
That morning, I got to the office early. I took the elevator to the top floor and walked into my office, where papers lay on my desk, reports from new vendors, and sales numbers for last quarter. I sat and read them, marking in the margins as I went along. There was a knock at the door, and it was Lena, my assistant, with her short brown hair and tablet perpetually parked under her arm.
“Good morning, Valenticia,” she said with a bright smile. “The board meeting is in ten minutes, and I have coffee set up for you all in the conference room.”
"Thanks, Lena. Have those projections from marketing arrived yet?”
She nodded right away. “Yes, and they’re strong, up 15 percent from last month.”
I felt a little bit of pride wash over me because that meant our move into an eco-friendly packaging world had effectively paid significant dividends. "Great. We ought to emphasize that today.”
We made our way to the boardroom, which had a long wooden table and chairs alongside big windows with views of the city below. Eight others were seated. I could get a pretty good guess as to who they were. They must have hailed from sales, finance and operations, and when I entered, each rose while saying hello, then settled back down again when I was at last in position at the end of the table. The room became quiet quickly.
“Ok, everyone,” I began, trying to keep my voice even. “Let’s go there and let’s dig straight in for sales, Mark. What do we have?”
Mark from sales coughed and clicked a button for his projector, throwing up some numbers on the screen behind him. “We are on plan for the year, and our new line of toys has already sold out in three regions. The fact that we used recycled materials is a huge hit among families.”
I leaned forward a bit. “Glad to hear, but I need the scoop on those West Coast shipping delays. That’s damaging relationships with customers.”
He nodded quickly. "Understood. The port failed us, but we have a rail partner now, so next week deliveries are back to normal.”
“Let me know every day,” I told him, flatly. “We can’t have problems like that.”
The conversation changed from there, and we discussed budgets, as well as a potential partnership with a tech firm that would enable smart packaging to track shipments in real time. Ideas had been flying around the room as everyone chipped in, and one manager, Carla from finance, floated the idea of cutting advertising costs to be able to save money elsewhere. I paid attention and then I raised my hand. “No, we’ve got to double down on it because sales lead to awareness. Not to worry, let's take it out of the travel budget instead.”
She hesitated for a moment, and then she did. "That makes sense. I will sum it up and get back to you.”
When it was all over, everyone was energized and eager to move forward, and they appreciated how I’d conducted business, sharp, quick and straight to the point without wasting anyone’s time. A couple of them stuck around to make small talk, and Tom from operations even patted me on the shoulder as we wrapped up. “You are so good at this, Valenticia. It reminds me of your mom."
I smiled back, but his words stung a little because Eleanor had founded this company out of nothing, and I’d barely held it together for them. "Thanks, Tom. Let's make her proud."
He nodded and left, but not everyone was feeling quite that way. As I left the room and walked back to my office, two employees who were also walking in the hall had a low-voice discussion about it, as if they didn’t want me to catch it.
“She’s tough, but you know her background,” a junior accountant said. "That whole Galden mess. Wonder if her past comes back to haunt her eventually.”
The other whispered back. "Her lineage helps, though. Connections everywhere."
I just walked away and acted like I didn’t hear anything, but whispers of that kind followed me around, because they knew parts of my story, the exposure, the drones, the fire at the docks, and it made them respect me and also watch me a little closer than was probably necessary. I ignored it and concentrated on the work, because that’s what carried me through hard days.
We had a bigger challenge in the afternoon with a joint meeting with Helix Corp, which also cut through our areas on supply chains for electronics parts. Helix managed distribution, and we supplied the pieces, so a deal like this might increase the returns by twenty percent if we played it well. But tension always appeared there because of my history with the company’s CEO, Stefan.
We had been crossing paths more since I took over, first through some emails that became phone calls and later in real-life conversations, and every time the unspoken connection we had always shared hung between us like a heavy fog, present in each sidelong look. I remembered that it all began with a marriage of convenience to keep us safe in the midst of madness and ended neatly after Galden's downfall when we decided to part ways and have some air to breathe. He lost himself in Helix, going further and farther to enter new territories as I concentrated on Clawford, trying to restore all that Gregor had fought against.
All this came flooding back to me when I walked into a borrowed space in downtown Manhattan, and shook off my coat to find myself in yet another conference room with bare walls and chairs arranged for the participants in front of a screen at one end. Team Helix was seated on one side, five people in suits holding tablets, and Stefan standing in front of them, tall and composed with his dark hair neatly parted.