Page 12 of Omega's Midlife Love
“Papa?”
“Oh, sorry sweetheart. It’s great. I really love it here. It’s a completely different pace than the restaurant, but just the change I needed.”
There was a moment of silence, then the tone of her voice shifted to one I knew meant that something was on her mind. “You… said his name was Beischel, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Alan Beischel.”
She sighed.
“Spit it out Sam.”
“It’s just… there are a lot of people angry at him out here.”
I blinked. “Why?”
“Well… you know how there’s this big restructuring going on at my work, right?”
“Yeah?”
“That was part of the reason I got the job. The company needed to fix its image, and hiring mostly white male alphas wasn’t helping things. A white female alpha isn’t much of an improvement, but it is something…” She paused. “Well, your boss was apparently some big wig at the equity firm that bought the company. I guess there was this plan that would let most of the staff stay on. There would be retirement bonuses in order to free up some positions naturally, and lots of lateral shifting. The deal was something put together by Alan Beischel to get all the necessary people to sign on.
“Then, as soon as the ink was dry, he fucked off and left his family company without any notice. Things… went downhill fast. My job is safe because I’m on a core product team, but nobody has been transferred in like they were supposed to be, leaving us short of the people who took the retirement package. Other teams have been gutted, with massive layoffs. Everybody is calling it a bait-and-switch, and apparently we’re not the only company this happened to.”
I frowned. “That doesn’t sound like him.”
“Apparently some of the managers who were left asked about it. They were told that he didn’t have the authority to make the promises that he did. Then they were told that if they didn’t like it, they could quit. None of them have so far, but they’re all calling it a case of vulture capitalism. That’s why my team is safe, for now. It’s one of the things that would fetch the most if resold.”
I closed my eyes, but somehow couldn’t put the pieces together. Nothing Samantha described meshed with the man I knew.
Granted, I barely knew him at all. Maybe it was all a case of my hormones blinding me.
“I’m sorry papa,” she sighed. “I know he’s probably different in private. I just… I worry.”
I smiled and opened my eyes again, staring at a photo of her on the bookshelf. “I know you do sweetheart. But I promise that he’s been nothing but polite and professional with me.”
“Ok. Just let me know if I need to come out there though.”
I laughed. “I will.”
She seemed about to say something else, then I heard her mate call for her in the background.
“Go take care of Eddie, Sam. This pregnancy will be over in a flash, and you don’t want to feel like you spent too much of it on the phone with me.”
She chuckled. “It’s almost bedtime here anyway.”
“Sweet dreams then. I love you.”
“I love you too, papa.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
The phone screen went dark and I stared at it for several seconds. Was Mr. Beischel really as cold as it sounded?
