chapter89

Kylie blinked in surprise. Yeah, she's the one. Did you run into her at the office today, Lydia?"

Lydia nodded. "I did. The company's been losing money for a while now. Did you guys know about that?"

Kylie gave an awkward little laugh. "Well... when we first set up that fashion business, we send Rose's husband to run things. Never thought it'd be in the red year after year."

"Then why not just find someone else to take over, or shut it down?" Lydia asked.

Kylie hesitated. "Your dad and I talked about it. But Rose and I have been best friends since we were kids. She's had such a rough time. A couple years ago, she got really sick and needed a ton of money for treatment. She actually cried and begged me to give her husband a job. I couldn't turn her away, so we kept letting them run the company. The losses weren't enough to ruin us, so we just treated it like helping them out."

Kylie and Cameron both knew the story inside out. At first, the company was bleeding over fifty million a year, then the losses dropped to thirty million, then twenty. This year, the loss was just over ten million. Since things were slowly improving, Kylie decided not to make a fuss. Besides, Parker had called and promised the company would finally start making money in the second half of the year.

Cameron, thinking Lydia might be worried about messing things up even more, jumped in to reassure her. "Lydia, that company's always been a money pit. We handed it to you just for fun. Even if you lose more, it doesn't matter. Worst case, we just close it down."

But Lydia shook her head. That wasn't how she saw it.

"Dad, Mom, I want to actually run the company right." Now that she was in charge, she wasn't going to let it keep losing money. And she could tell there were a lot of shady things going on inside that needed to come to light.

She wasn't going to let anyone off the hook, not even her mom's best friend. It was obvious they were using their friendship with her mom to get her trust and make money on the side. Her parents had no idea what was really going on.

When Cameron and Kylie heard how serious Lydia was about turning things around, they looked at her with real pride.

Lydia, it makes us so happy to hear you say that," Cameron said. But running a business is tough. Just try your best. We don't want you burning yourself out."

Lydia nodded. "I know. But honestly, the Ragains don't seem too happy about me being transferred to the company." She wanted to see how her parents would react. Kylie's face hardened. "Why would they have a problem with it? We let them run that place for years, and it's always been in the red. We never said anything. If you can actually turn things around, we'd be thrilled."

Cameron agreed. "That's right, Lydia. Do whatever you need to at the company. If the Parkers aren't happy, they can leave. Your mom and I have done more than enough for them."

Kylie squeezed Lydia's hand. "Whatever you want to do, just go for it. We'll always have your back."

Sitting off to the side, Lucinda watched Cameron and Kylie shower Lydia with unconditional support. She felt a hot stab of jealousy, like literal sparks shooting from her eyes.

So just because Lydia was their real daughter, they'd hand her a whole company to play with?

What did Lydia know about running a business?

And make it profitable? Please. Lucinda found the whole thing hilarious. She couldn't wait to see Lydia crash and burn. When the company failed, Rose's family would blame Lydia, and even her parents would have to admit she was useless.

Lydia headed back to the company and walked in right at two thirty, as everyone was returning from lunch and the afternoon workday was kicking off.