Chapter 7

Helena's POV 

The words cleared the sleep from my eyes before I could read them twice.

I blinked twice, staring at the words on the screen for the second.

Then I followed the lines till I read a set of words that spread chills over my body.

An Official Offer Letter from Barron Technologies

I stared at it for a full ten seconds, wondering if this was the point I go call Tessy or not.

After more thought, I pushed it aside, I couldn't be disturbing her by this time of the day.

So I gave my phone a tilt to each side before finally opening the mail.

Junior Strategy Analyst with a competitive salary and an immediate start.

My chest tightened as those were the breakdown of the first few words I spotted on the small screen.

Wait, does the mean that—?

“I got it,” I whispered aloud. “I got it,” I repeated, still in schock.

I mean, yeah, of course I did. The interview was intense, yeah, but I matched his pace as much as I could remember.

Left for me, I deserved this.

I rose to my feet as my legs carried me straight to Tessy’s door. I hesitated right infront of it, realizing that this was clearly not necessary.

“I'll tell her by daybreak,” I murmured and walked back.

But I couldn't find any sleep, I kept staring down at my phone in intervals, still hoping.

I practically sat awake till sunlight seeped through my window. I just about held myself till I heard some rustling coming from Tessy's room.

I rushed over as fast as I could and knocked frantically.

“Come in,” Tessy's called and I walked in to find her already dressed.

“I got it!” I announced as I stepped in.

She wasn't staring at me at this point. “Oh wow, good morning to you too, Helena,” she murmured sarcastically.

“I got it, Tessy,” I announced again excitedly.

She was halfway through applying her make-up at this point, then she froze as she probably was just getting what I meant.

“You got it?” She asked slowly, turning to me.

I nodded frantically and she screamed, throwing her hands in the air.

She skipped over to me and threw her hands around me, but in that moment, I lost the interest in it.

Seeing her so excited about the whole situation looked like I was staring at a mirror, and I soon began to question my choice of anxiety.

It wasn't what I wanted, it wasn't what I needed anyway. It was Tessy's idea from the beginning, not mine.

As she peeled back, I stared down at the screen, rereading the email like it might disappear. Maybe I needed it to.

I didn’t need this job, atleast not financially.

But I actually needed something that wasn’t my grandfather, something that wasn’t that house.

Something that was mine.

“See?” Tessy said triumphantly. “There was nothing to worry about,” she added with a smile.

I rolled my eyes, but I didn’t argue.

“Now, go get ready for your first day,” she exclaimed excitedly.

“First day? Already?” I asked in shock.

“Uhm, yeah! Let's go girl,” she exclaimed and I couldn't argue any longer.

My first day couldn't come any faster. The glass building loomed even larger under the bright sunlight.

Inside, everything moved quickly with little to no words being said.

We passed by men with security badges, went through digital check-ins and stepped into a seamless elevator that barely made a sound.

No noise, no wasted second. It was a different kind of power from my grandfather’s.

The little HR orientation passed by quickly as I was shown to my desk, a very sleek one if I may add.

Most employees gathered in small groups, till he walked through. I didn’t see him at first, but I felt the shift.

Their conversations paused immediately as ther shoulders straightened and their eyes followed where he passed.

Then he passed by the glass conference room in a dark tux and a crisp white shirt, just like the other day, but no tie this time around.

He didn’t look at anyone directly, but everyone noticed him.

I hated that I noticed him too, but he didn’t glance my way as he walked past.

That shouldn't have bothered me, right?

By midday, I was sitting in my first internal strategy meeting.

There were ten people around a long table with digital projections on the screen before us.

Barron stood at the head with one hand resting lightly on the back of a chair.

“We’re pivoting the Q3 rollout,” he said calmly. “Digital acquisition isn’t converting at projected velocity,” he added professionally.

No one said a word till he was done.

“Any ideas?” He asked generally and they poored out in response.

Ideas were presented, data was analyzed. I kept silent all through, barely looking up.

But as they threw words around, I spotted something. I noticed a flaw in the model, something neither of them pointed out.

My fingers tightened around the pen in my hand. I shouldn’t speak up, it was my first day. But the numbers were wrong.

So I cleared my throat and forced my breathing steady. “There’s an assumption error in slide eight,” I spoke up and everywhere fell silent.

Then every head turned to my direction, including his.

His gaze locked onto me with an unreadable expression across them.

“Explain,” he said casually.

I stood slowly, walking towards the screen before I could double think.

“The retention projection assumes user behavior remains consistent from the last quarter. But we introduced a new onboarding interface three weeks ago,” I explained.

I tapped the screen where it made sense. 

“That changes early-stage engagement patterns. The conversion lag is expected,” I continued.

The room went very quiet. Barron didn’t move. “Continue,” he said.

So I did. I broke down the flaw, suggested an adjustment, and proposed a testing period instead of a pivot.

When I finished, my heart was pounding as he studied the screen, then me.

For a long moment, he said nothing.

“Noted,” he finally said and that was it.

He moved on to the next agenda point like I hadn’t just disrupted his projection.

But I saw it, the slight shift in his expression.

He hadn’t dismissed me at first, he had evaluated me. And that felt strangely cringy.

The rest of the meeting went by without much of a disruption, especially from me, and by the end of the day, most employees had filtered out.

The offices grew quieter, but I stayed behind.

Partly cause I wanted to review the corrected data, and also cause I didn’t want to return to Tessy’s apartment just yet.

Now I have a job, I can't be pestering her with my presence all the time.

I didn’t notice how late it had gotten till a voice broke the silence from behind the door.