The Unexpected Heiress [ON HOLD]

One

Chapter One

“You planning on leaving anytime soon, Gem?” Vincent Braxton, a man in his late fifties, asked his daughter of twenty-seven years old. He wheeled himself into the back office of Gemma’s bakery.

Gemma lifted her head from the piles of paperwork on her desk and smiled at her doting father. “I’m good for now, Dad. I have a lot to do before I end the night.”

Vincent flashed her a disapproving look. “Sweetheart, you’ve been working yourself to the brim. I’m not so sure this is healthy.”

She sighed and glanced at the clock reading half past nine. “I promise I’ll be up at the end of the hour. You go on ahead and rest. Can you ask Kale to help you up?”

Her father left without another word, and she heard the soft murmurs of her father and Kale talking, finally the sounds of one of her employees helping her dad up the stairs to their small apartment above the bakery. Gemma blew stray hairs out of her eyes and focused her undivided attention once again on the papers. They were financial reports of Gem’s Treats for the last few months. It was safe to say they haven’t been the best numbers she’d seen so far.

She was behind on rent, two months’ tops, and her profit hadn’t been growing ever since summer ended and school kids went back to school. Although, Gemma was never one to back down from a challenge. She inherited the hardworking ethic from her late mother who passed away when she was just eleven years old in a car crash that took not only her mother, but grandmother as well. Left with only her father, the duo never had the best of conditions throughout her life. Gemma worked through business school with the fieriest spirit teachers had ever seen in a student.

It all paid off when she opened up this exact bakery three years ago after graduating. The first couple years were a brilliant success, achieving more with the bakery than she ever thought she would. However as the third year approached, customers filtered in through the doors less and less. It was only getting worse.

“Boss?” Kale appeared in the doorway in his work uniform.

“Yes Kale?”

Kale was a teenaged boy going through the same hardships as Gemma did when she was a teenager. She felt sympathy for him story during their interview and hired him on the spot a year ago.

“There seems to be no customers arriving any soon with this thunderstorm coming. Do you want me to lock up?” He scratched his dark skin, which happened to be one of his habits when he was shy.

“No, I’ll do that,” Gemma informed him with a smile from behind her desk. “You go on ahead. Thanks for working an extra shift today, Kale.”

“Uh, Ms. Gemma?”

“What is it?”

He coughed into his arm and looked away from her gaze. “I know Gem’s Treats hasn’t been doin’ so well, but I just want you to know that somethin’ better will come out of it. This bakery has really helped me when I needed a job last year. Keep your head up, Ms. Gemma.”

She couldn’t help but smile warmly at this boy’s statements. “Thank you Kale. You can take home those treats above the counter. Say hi to your little sister for me."

"Thank you, Miss Gemma!” He waved at her before leaving the bakery, leaving Gemma alone once again.

After her conversation with Kale, she couldn’t concentrate on the numbers threatening her and her bakery. She just had to have the same positive attitude her employee did and hope that this week would magically bring in lots of customers. As she was preparing to leave her cramped office, the phone started to ring startling her retreating back.