Chapter 2

Rumor had it that Valery Kupriyanov, Matvey Ivanovich's older grandson, was a gambler, a spendthrift, and a man it was better not to have serious dealings with. He inspired no trust—not through his actions, not through any apparent desire to work for the good of the family corporation, and certainly not through the thin little smile of a well-groomed playboy that never left his face.

A vile little smile, I should add.

During the time I had worked at Sezam, he had appeared there twice, and neither time did he stay long. For two months or so, he hung around the office, occupying the room next to his grandfather's with the grand title "Executive Director" on the door, drove out to construction sites, attended meetings, but was openly bored there and took little interest in project management or the company's strategic planning. Then there would be a serious conversation with his grandfather (behind the general director's closed office doors), and Kupriyanov would vanish.

Personally, I considered him a lowlife with neither shame nor conscience. Of course, I did not think that right away, but only after I heard about the ruined contract that had nearly damaged Sezam's reputation and the frightening amount of money he had squandered, and after I came face-to-face with his vile self when he once locked me in reception and tried to get under my skirt. And of course, he had no problem dumping a bucketful of filth on me over my supposed affair with his grandfather.

Back then I lost it and smacked him in the forehead with a water carafe. I thought I had killed him, but no, he wobbled on his skinny legs and came around. He did not understand the warning, though, so a year later I had to repeat the carafe technique.

When Kupriyanov appeared at Sezam for the third time, he had finally learned something and kept his distance from me.

It happened a few days after Matvey Ivanovich was rushed by emergency flight to a clinic in Switzerland and the general director's chair was left empty. Kupriyanov showed up at the company's head office looking terribly important and announced that he was taking over management of the corporation. Anyone who did not like it was free to leave immediately. Apparently he was not keeping anyone there.

He said it and looked at me with a nasty squint.

Of course I was upset. How could I not be upset when disaster had struck my dear boss, I had children and a mortgage around my neck, and once again I had no idea what tomorrow would bring? My contract really did contain a clause stating that I was under the personal patronage of the general director and could be fired only with his direct consent. But when I heard the news, I was already mentally saying goodbye to my workplace and packing my things. It was obvious Kupriyanov would not keep me on as secretary. Because this time I would definitely break the carafe on him.

I was already preparing for the worst when a huge surprise landed out of nowhere.

Voronov's lawyers called an emergency meeting of the board of directors and announced that the old man had left all his assets and the corporation not to his older grandson at all, but to the younger one. And that only Andrey Igorevich Voronov, and no one else, could take his place by the owner's personal instruction.

Even as "Acting General Director."

To say everyone was surprised would be to say nothing. Little was known about Matvey Ivanovich's younger grandson. Supposedly he was unmarried, fairly young, had lived abroad for the last six years, and ran his own business there. People said he was smart and had achieved a great deal on his own. That he had a sharp business sense and hard principles, and had inherited his grandfather's character. That he preferred to manage his own life and his own time, and so he and Matvey Ivanovich did not get along all that well.

But whether grandfather and grandson got along or not was not especially important in light of the problem before us. The important thing was that all the rumors listed above gave the team hope that Sezam would not go bankrupt and that all of us would keep our jobs.

Everyone talked about it heatedly, discussing Andrey Voronov's arrival from morning till night for an entire week. And in practice, it turned out…

In practice, it all turned out exactly that way. Except that the "hero's" list of virtues came with a few nuances.

Andrey Voronov was tall, broad-shouldered, and very good-looking, which threw every woman in the office building into raptures. Especially the unmarried ones. I will not argue about the business qualities he had inherited from his grandfather; he truly had those in abundance. But he also turned out to be hard, pedantic, meticulous, impatient, and dry.

And unlike his grandfather, he was in no hurry to get close to people, preferring to keep his distance and conduct every conversation with a businesslike chill. He gave the impression that he rationed every minute he spent in human company and made visitors sweat.

When he spoke to subordinates, I could practically hear cracked ice in his voice. As for me, he treated me with outright arrogance. Not only did the bastard take away my bonus (not just mine, actually, but half the office's too, explaining it by the need to review every department's finances and reconcile the numbers), he also kept glancing my way with such haughty contempt, as if I were parading around in front of him in a wrinkled negligee or with a squashed fly on my forehead.

As soon as Voronov took over the general director's office, he began rushing from site to site and working from eight in the morning until nine at night, keeping me beside him. I kept quiet and ground my teeth, but because I understood how important this was for Sezam now, and above all for Matvey Ivanovich, I endured it.

As a woman, the new boss did not notice me at all, so the carafe remained untouched on the table. But as a secretary, he noticed me very much indeed, and from the very first day he began exploiting me mercilessly.

I have no idea exactly what rumors about me had reached him, but I suspect they were the least flattering ones. Because no matter how hard I tried to deal with him correctly and efficiently… we started snapping at each other from the very beginning!

As for Kupriyanov, although he did not like his grandfather's will, to everyone's regret he did not disappear from the company. He did not even move out of the executive director's office. On the contrary, two weeks after young Voronov took charge of Sezam, beautiful little Nelly appeared at headquarters too: a marketing analyst and Valery Alexandrovich's personal assistant.

Ha! I don't know about anyone else, but the moment I saw the lace tops of her silk stockings peeking through the high slit in her skirt, I knew exactly what she was really a "super-specialist" in. She made no attempt to hide them whenever Voronov was in sight, and her eyes gleamed with the excitement of a gold digger.

And later I found proof of her collusion with Kupriyanov when I caught the pair in the utility room and overheard the crime they were planning!