Early morning light bathed the beautiful mansion where Neuvillette and Furina were having breakfast. As Neuvillette made his way to the dining room, he found his mother on the phone.
"Fine then. I understand," Furina said, ending the call. She saw her son enter the room and pouted at him.
"Did you have a good night's sleep?" Neuvillette asked as he sat down to the left of Furina, sipping on his water.
Furina ignored her son and just looked at him.
"I need to tell you something," Neuvillette said.
"No need, that was Monsieur Quintin on the phone just now," Furina cut him off.
"That means you know everything. I'm going to fire him," he said.
"What? Says who?" she continued.
"Instead of the contracts being bid on, he signed people close to him," he explained.
"Hmm, don't be hasty. Don't forget he achieved a lot for the company working under your predecessor," she tried to defend.
"He built a house on land meant for a new factory, called in the employees for his personal affairs. He'll do it all over again if we don't do something about it," Neuvillette argued.
Furina groaned as she wasn't looking forward to discussing work so early in the morning.
"You know, Monsieur Quintin's father, his name is Sebastian. He was an old friend of mine and a founding contributor of the company. You know what his dying wish was? That I take care of his son," she reasoned.
"So fire him then. You can still take care of him personally," Neuvillette insisted, sticking with his decision.
"Oh, come on. In that case, you're gonna do me a favor in return," Furina sighed. Neuvillette looked at his mother, nodding.
"Go on the dates," she said, and Neuvillette sighed.
"Mother, that's—"
"Enough with the excuses. Just do it," Furina exclaimed.
"I'm breaking an old promise I made with a dead friend for you. It's the least you could do, so don't say no to me," Furina demanded.
Neuvillette sighed, hearing what his mother said.
"Okay, fine. I'll go on the dates."
As Furina celebrated with joy, Neuvillette couldn't shake the feeling that he might have made a bad decision.
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"Oh, Archons, why'd I have to go and lose my temper?" she complained to herself as she sat on the bench in the company's resting area.
"Okay, wait a minute. It's 800,000, so from my monthly tiny pay, we subtract savings, then there's my workload, and then there's my spending money. After that, I barely have anything left," she mumbled and groaned, frustrated.
