Unbound, Boundless Series, Book 2

Chapter Twenty Four

When I returned to Duration Fitness, I tendered my two-weeks-notice. Guilt for abandoning a job that had given me a chance to start my life over wracked through me, but I knew in my heart that my talents and goals were being wasted in my role as Director of Sales. The job didn't challenge me, and I didn't believe there would be any upward mobility within the company. I thanked them for the year of employment and hoped I left it open enough for me to come back in case the Pentagon position didn't work out.

However, I intended to make it work, but the Pentagon men were shrewd businessmen, and I was sure they intended to oust me from the Board. All I wanted was to gather enough executive experience to move forward to another company, leaving Pentagon and Matt behind me for good.

I had broken the news to Chelsea on Sunday evening after Carson dropped me off from our practice session. She was sad for me to leave but understood it was a much better opportunity. Mostly, she was surprised I had decided to go into business with the very men who conspired to destroy my marriage and used me to steal a business that could've been mine. When I told her about my encounter with the group at the restaurant, I omitted the threats to release my own sex tape and a full coverage expose, if they didn't cooperate and include me into the fold. She thought I was ballsy for the way I handled the situation. I fought with myself about telling her just how tough I really was. I was iron on the outside, but deep inside my core, I was a puddle of goo. I was afraid I would fail in my plans. Most important to my success was the other shareholder's full cooperation.

Cooperate, they had. I was sent boxes full of reports, minutes, and documents in regards to Pentagram's construction. I spent the week reviewing and taking notes based on the documents I had in my possession. I reviewed Pentagon's organizational plan to see where I could fit in an upper-level executive role. There were so many duplicate roles in upper-level management, and when I saw the salary structure, I gasped. I couldn't fathom earning six figures up to millions of dollars in base salary for executives.

I scheduled a meeting with Zipper and Kent to further discuss where I would fit in the organization and created an executive role for myself with a job description and salary requirements for my new position. I was very conservative in my assessment of my worth, but I felt it was commensurate with my experience and needs for cost-of-living expenses in Boston.

While studying the Pentagram project—the hotel, conference, and residential complex, I learned the foundation for the last phase of the build would be poured within the next month before winter set in. Based on my experience in the construction industry, the projected dates for completion were reasonable, barring a few setbacks, natural disasters, and acts of God. 

Pentagram was poised to be completed by May of the following year. Pentagon ensured to lock down as many construction companies and subcontractors as they could to guarantee their plans were met on time. The thought of seeing this project from beginning to end excited me. I thought working for Pentagon for a year was palatable enough. The sooner I could move on from the warlocks who schemed to begin this project, the quicker I would take my executive experience, relocate to another company and city, and leave them all behind.

The design and business plans were adequate. The design plan for Pentagram made it a sophisticated, upscale 'witches' coven. The fabrics were rich and dark colors in crushed velvet and satin with touches of brass and wood in the accent pieces and furniture. The furniture designs for the hotel were more modern with traditional curves and lines. They were striking, but the designs verged on the gothic and played too severely off of the dark history of witches in Massachusetts. I wrote a plan to reduce the harshness of the entire design, which I would deliver to the team during the design meeting I'd requested for the end of the week.

Ignoring my heartache over Matt, I felt alive with the work and the plans I was making for Pentagram. I expected resistance to my ideas as an interloper in their group. They never intended for a woman to infiltrate their boy's club and throw her weight around in a company they'd been growing since they were teenagers. 

I hadn't wanted to become part of their gang. Matt had thrust me into this situation, and Brady blackmailed me into taking charge. I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth and took every advantage.

Informing Papi of the breakup was difficult. I'd spent the last two years withholding my problems. He knew I had major hardships after my divorce from Ben. Yet, he wasn't privy to the details of my divorce settlement. He'd only witnessed my working hard to get back on my feet without anyone's financial help. I mentioned the new job opportunity but didn't connect the job with Matt's company. 

Papi was sad about the end of us and expressed his concern about my being alone. Trying to alleviate his fears, I told him Matt was the first relationship after Ben and I needed to date around before settling down with a man again. I'm sure that in my father's mind, I only wanted to fuck every man who came across my way, which couldn't have been further from the truth.

I didn't want to deliver the news to my sisters and begged Papi not to tell them. He was respectful of my wishes, but in his old age, there was a bit of uncertainty as to his ability to remember to withhold information. My sisters had long ago branded us hermanas malditas, the cursed sisters. We'd been unlucky in love, and I refused to join their pitiful club. 

Even if I was miserable, I stood on a very lonely principle—I was not unlucky in love. My love was delayed by circumstances beyond my control. I would love again. And I would be fiercely adored by someone, even if it wasn't Dr. Mathias Keene.