Chapter 129

Aria’s POV

Joanna stepped up to the microphone. “Thank you. As I’m sure things have been run with some measure of success around here, I want to confirm that I have no intention of disrupting that process. In fact, I only wish to increase the output of that success.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Jackson whispered to me from beside me.

“I’ve worked for several different teams in the past and bring that experience with me to this position,” Joanna continued. She then proceeded to list her former employers and the accolades she received there, which were admittedly, quite impressive and extensive.

All the while, Jackson crossed his eyes and glared.

“You’ll soon find that I can be a demanding boss,” Joanna said. “But with that insistence, I will help mold you into the kind of team worthy of winning the championship.”

She paused then, as if for applause. After a moment, someone politely clapped, though everyone else remained still and quiet. The moment stretched, awkward.

“Please stay and mingle for the rest of your morning break,” Joanna said. “I would like to personally meet as many of you as I can before we get back to work.”

On the other side of me, one of my co-workers whispered to her friend. “Wait… this is our break? Since when are mandatory work meetings considered breaks?”

Since Joanna, apparently.

As someone who liked to stretch my legs during my breaks, I wasn’t particularly fond of having given mine up today to attend a mandatory meeting. A few others whispered their complaints. Some just walked out, though watching Joanna, I could see that she was tracking who sneaked out, likely making a mental note.

I decided to stay put for now.

“My buddies over at the last place she worked told me she’s an absolute nightmare,” Jackson whispered to me. “Impossible to please. They absolutely hated her over there.”

“Did she get results?” I asked.

“Does it matter, if she went about it in the worst possible ways? People need their breaks, and they deserve to be treated like humans. I heard she treats everyone like they are her servants.”

“Jackson, you know believing too many rumors leads to trouble,” I said. “Joanna deserves a chance, just like everyone else.”

Yes, I had a few run-ins with her today, where she treated me like I was invisible, but that could have been the stress of her first day taking over her. I wasn’t ready to treat her like she was the bogey man just because she was a little rude.

“We should judge her by her own merits, and not what we’ve heard people say about her,” I continued.

“I’m only trying to prepare you for the hell to come,” Jackson said. “Trust me, I hope the rumors aren’t true, more than anyone. I don’t need anyone getting into my headspace while I’m trying to drive. But when my buddies tell me she is relentless and mean-spirited, I’m inclined to believe them.”

“Liam has been overworked,” I said. “It’s good for him to have help.”

“Then they should have hired someone who was going to actually help him,” Jackson said. “Not someone who’s sure to add more drama for him to deal with.”

Jackson seemed set on believing the worst in Joanna, but I couldn’t allow myself to fall into that trap. It was easy to fall into a doom state of mind, but I still believed, to help Liam, Joanna’s hire might have been a good thing.

Jackson could know Liam was overworked without really understanding it. Jackson wasn’t at our house seeing Liam barely able to keep his eyes open, even to undress himself, because he was so exhausted. Nor did he know that Liam had been sacrificing time with our kids to see this expansion to fruition.

At this point, I was ready and willing to accept a harsher taskmaster as our boss, so long as it meant Liam could finally have his well-deserved, and much-needed rest.

“Rumors can just be rumors, Jackson. We should wait and see for ourselves what happens.”

“If you say so,” Jackson replied, sounding unconvinced.

Despite our run-ins that morning, I was ready to believe the best in Joanna.

At least, that was what I thought – right up until I heard some of my other co-workers gossiping behind me.

“I heard Joanna is Liam’s fiancé, and that’s how she got this job. He didn’t want to be without her for long.”

“Fiancé, are you sure? I heard they were secretly married.”

“But Liam doesn’t wear a ring?”

“He wouldn’t, if it was a secret. But does Joanna?”

Both of the gossipers’ heads swiveled towards Joanna, as if attempting to get a good look at her left hand.

I hated myself a little, but I looked too.

There was no way these rumors could be true. After all, Liam was married to me. But something about them made me uneasy, and I felt compelled to look and see for myself.

Indeed, even from the distance between Joanna nearer the front of the conference room and me near the back, I could see a glimmer on the ring finger of her left hand. That diamond had to be massive to sparkle like that, even at this distance.

The gossipers seemed amused and overjoyed that the rumors they’d heard seemed to have merit.

I, meanwhile, did not share this sentiment. At all. In my discontent, I wondered where these rumors came from.

Joanna had an extensive resume, working for many years in the race world. It was very possible that she and Liam had crossed paths in the past.

But what was the extent of their knowing each other?

Liam had never mentioned her before. Yet for people to assume they were engaged, they must have interacted enough to give people the wrong idea.

I wished I could talk to Liam about this, but I doubted he would have the time to discuss anything with me, let alone this. He hadn’t even warned me about a new boss coming in, and he would have had to know that in advance, being the president and partial owner.

Jackson and I waited while Joanna made the rounds. When she reached Jackson, she recognized him at once.

“The hotshot driver,” she said, after shaking his hand.

“I do my best,” Jackson said, haltingly.

Joanna sized him up, frowning. “You’ve been cold lately. I want to see a win in your future, or we might have to renegotiate your contract.”

Jackson was stunned. “My contract…?”

“We are paying you to win,” she said.

“I’m nearly in the top ten, points-wise,” Jackson said.

“Nearly isn’t good enough.” Dismissing him, Joanna turned her attention to me. “You are the trainer, aren’t you? Why haven’t you been doing your job?”

The annoyance that filled me with the way Joanna talked to Jackson doubled as she turned that same prickly attitude toward me.

“If you read my reports, I –”

“I don’t care about reports, I care about results.” She was slightly taller than me, and seemed to look down the side of her nose at me while she talked.

She sized me up, just as she had Jackson, and seemed utterly unimpressed.

“Perhaps we should have a chat later, you and I,” she told me. “We have much to discuss.”

She meant work, I knew that, yet my eyes were drawn to the massive engagement ring on her finger.