Her Corporate Takedown: Entangled with a Billionaire

*CHAPTER 21: NEW JOB*

"My public name is Talia. But my birth name is Shelli-ann Albertha. Nice to meet you." She introduced herself in a hushed voice with her finger to her lips.

After a moment of stunned silence, I replied, "It's nice to meet you too. Are you the perhaps the heir to the Albertha family?" I asked, whispering.

She nodded in reply. "You can call me Shelli."

Just one week after learning Andrei's secret, on my first day of work, I met another Undercode family heiress. I was prepared to live with the secret, but I certainly wasn’t prepared to deal with the aftermath so soon. Then, I realized that I chose to carry this heavy burden of a secret only one week ago, but they have been living with it their whole lives under our noses. Now that I was living in Andrei's world, I was bound to meet others like him sooner or later.

"How did you add your number to this phone?"

"I got your code from him. By the way, don't give out your phone's code to people you don't trust."

'Then, does that mean Andrei trusts this girl?'

I checked the phone and her number was in my contacts along with the message, 'Hi, it's Shelli.'

"I heard that your family works with the government. Why are you doing an internship here?" I asked her.

"Andrei's family is the best at tech and programming overall, so other families usually send people to do an internship here. Our family even secretly asks him to appraise government programs for us."

"Oh, really," I said, impressed at Andrei's repertoire.

"I'll see you around then, Leiya. Let's hang out sometime."

She waved good bye and jumped into her flashy red car. I waved at her as she drove off. Then, I also made my way home.

The next day, I arrived at work early and ready to tackle my new job. I went back to the safe house yesterday afternoon and finished reading the manual before Andrei arrived. Then we spent some time going through the next module. I left the safe house at 9 and got home in time to relax and get enough sleep before today.

In the marketing and sales department there were 6 teams: Titanium, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Brass. This was also the order of their performance. The department was very competitive. Members that performed well were moved up to higher tier teams and people that did not perform well were moved to lower tier teams.

Leon was assigned to team Bronze and I was assigned to team Brass, the lowest ranked team. Well, that was fine by me. I don't want to draw attention to my relationship with the CEO anyway. I will put in the work so that no one questions my achievements or raises any suspicion about my connections.

The team manager was none other than Jeremy, who I met during my first interview. As the team manager, Jeremy was responsible for the three lowest ranked teams: Silver, Bronze and Brass.

Each team had 8 members, including a team captain, and a vice-captain. I was the novice on team Brass, so I was paired up with Richard, who was a junior on the team. Richard was around 5'8". He had short red hair and a slim frame that looked good in his tailor-made suit. He was friendly and made me feel like I was part of the team even though it was my second day here.

The custom was for the novices to watch and learn the ropes from their junior partner. I went to all of his meetings, listened carefully to his conversations with clients and read all the reports he typed up. I wanted to learn as quickly as possible, so that I could soon be independent.

It took everything I could in the first week to keep up with Richard and also keep up with Andrei's training. Every night I returned home exhausted.

In my second week on the job, I was given the chance to speak to clients myself. Unlike normal companies that may cold call hundreds of clients per day, Bolster's demographic was that of high-earning companies. They valued customer service more than quantity and spent time carefully assisting each client, no matter how long it took. Their clients were also satisfied by the relationship Bolster developed with them and remained long-lasting customers.

The current task for team Brass was to find new clients and promote a trial product, an enhanced security VPN software. Richard had a list of 6 clients left that he had to call and I was allowed to help him today.

As expected, I had no luck with the first client I called, who said that they weren't convinced about trying our new product. That was normal; it was my first time after all. If I didn't have success with a client, I wasn't allowed to call them back; Richard would take over the task and call them on another day. I was allowed to speak to one more client for the day; they hung up after saying that I couldn’t provide any details about the product and I should stop wasting their time.

The Monday of my second week went splendidly. I gained experience after testing the waters and I reviewed what I needed to know for speaking with my next client. The next time I speak to clients, I will succeed in getting them to try our new product, which will pave the way for my advancement in this company.

Good news - that plan crashed and burned. I was allowed to speak with two clients each day for the rest of the week and I had no success in signing anyone up for our trial product. Richard eventually called back everyone I failed to sign on and secured their business for our trial product.

On Wednesday, I saw Leon during lunch break. "Can I sit here?" I asked, standing by the chair across from him.

"Sure," he replied.

"Thanks. How have your first two weeks been going?" I asked while I sat down.

"Not good. My team members have been making fun of me for only getting 5 people to sign up for their trial product."

"You also have to sell a trial product? I have to sell the new VPN software. "

"Yea, but my team is in charge of the upgraded Bolster defence software."

"Oh, Bolster defence. You've already gotten 5 people signed up though. Isn't that good? I can't believe they're making fun of you." 'Since I didn’t even get a single client to sign up.'

"I wish they thought so too. How did you do? Got any sales?"

I didn't want to answer his question. "Not yet, I haven't spoken to that many clients. I've been mostly doing orientation with my junior. So, I think I'll soon get the hang of it."

"I see. I think I got my sales by luck though. I've worked in sales before, but not with these types of clients."

"Oh, no wonder you got people to sign up. You have some experience."

I learnt a little more about Leon during our lunch chat. He was 23. He went to college for 2 years after high school, then worked in sales at a Fortune-1000 company for 3 years. His manager said that he showed a lot of promise and recommended him for an interview at Bolster. He said that he loves sales and his goal is to be the sales manager at a Fortune-50 company. His curly hair bounced around with his exaggerated movements and he looked so vibrant talking about his aspirations that it cheered me up a little.

Even a prestigious company like Bolster was just a stepping stone for Leon. He has even already managed to get clients in his first two weeks. I started to feel as though I shouldn't have taken this job in the first place. Perhaps I should have gone into working as a waitress and then work my way up from there. But then I wouldn't learn any business skills that would help me in the future.

I was getting more depressed thinking that I would be stuck at this level for a long time. If they had an award for the worst performing novice of all time, I would receive that award along with the humiliation of being terrible at this job. I guess it was no surprise that I was placed on the lowest ranked team while Leon was placed on a higher-ranked one.

I could barely enjoy the rest of my lunch or the rest of the week. On Thursday, after another unsuccessful day, Richard asked me if I was free and would join him for lunch at 1. I was afraid to refuse his invitation so soon after joining the team, so I accepted.

We went to a nearby Mexican restaurant. He said that lunch was his treat and I could order anything I wanted. I went with my favorite spicy burritos while he ordered spicy tacos.

"Looks like we both love spicy food," he said.

"Yes, and those tacos look great," I replied.

"You should try them next time. I love these," he said as he took large bites of his crunchy tacos dipped in ranch dressing.

"Thanks for treating me today."

"My pleasure. Don't worry about this week. You'll soon get used to talking to clients and getting their business. As soon as you get one, more will follow."

"How long have you been at Bolster?"

"I've been here for a year now. I also had a hard time adjusting since I came here right after college."

That's just like me.

"How long did it take you to get your first client?"

"Don't laugh. It took me 3 weeks to get my first client."

"Really?" I looked at him wide-eyed when he said that. I was here getting depressed after just one week, thinking that I would be the worst regret of the hiring committee, but I suppose it wasn't that bad.

"I could never laugh. I think it might take me even longer."

"No way, you've been picking things up faster than I did. You'll get this in no time. Here, you can have my brownie and forget all about this week."

As I laughed, I thanked him for the treat. We left the restaurant stuffed and satisfied. I was also feeling better compared to this morning.

Before I got in my car, he called out to me.

"If you need anything or have any questions, feel free to message me," he said.

"Sure, I will. Thanks."

"I hope that we can have lunch again sometime, hopefully to celebrate you successfully landing a client."

He then got in his car and drove off.

I hoped he meant we could have lunch again as teammates. It was sweet of him to try to cheer me up by treating me to lunch and even letting me have his brownie. But I want to keep my relationships here professional. Andrei is already a handful to deal with, even though a relationship with a normal guy doesn't sound too bad.

That last thought lingered in my mind for the entire drive to the safe house. In no time, I had set myself on this path of revenge against Daniel and Michelle. But what if I didn't? Wouldn't I have just been happier finding another guy? A normal guy. But that would only have been true if I hadn't met Andrei again. That's because I can't win against Michelle without his help. The second reason I hate to admit is that I can no longer imagine being happy with any other guy except him.