Contractually Yours

CHAPTER 32

Lisa

I work through lunch at my desk with Karen. There are so many tasks that have to be completed before the launch can happen, and other than me, she's the biggest champion for this collaboration within Cartier.

"The timeline's too tight now," she says. " Seok woo is taking too long to make decisions, and we can't do this."

"I know." I try to speak calmly, but my voice is too tight with frustration.

She taps her chin with her index finger. "Can we select another partner?"

"That might delay us more."

"But it's a sunk cost. Maybe the realization that they aren't the only ones we can work with might get them off their butts."

She's right, but I hesitate. I don't want to go through the pain of vetting another conglomerate.

"I'm not just saying this to make you uncomfortable, but you need to realize there are people who question your leadership. So this project's progress is even more important."

"I'm...aware of that."

"It isn't just people within the company. Some of our shareholders are becoming concerned. You being a young woman doesn't help matters, either." She sighs. "It's the same kind of misogynistic attitude everyone had when Wilhelm was in charge."

Karen would know. It must've been much worse over thirty years ago when she started her career at the company.

"But people like that will always find fault with me for my age and gender." I say it mainly to reassure myself. The fact that the collaboration isn't going as well as I hoped is an acidic knot that's permanently occupying my gut at this point. It was supposed to be my chance to prove to the board that I have what it takes.

"They do, and they'll undermine your efforts. They assume the accomplishments from the last two years are due to Roderick's oversight. Even now I hear whispers—where is Roderick? Why isn't he doing more to help?" Karen bites off the last sentence. She doesn't get along with Roderick. She blames him for the division within management.

I grind my teeth, since I agree with her assessment. The only thing he's good at is submitting expense reports. But somehow people at the company act like he was the engine that Bvlgari.

He sure knows how to manage his image.

"Anyway, we should keep pushing ahead but not limit our options," Karen adds. "Plus, we need to think of some ways to highlight our wins, so you can defend yourself if some shareholder expresses doubts about your ability. The shareholder meeting is next month."

That's true. It's happening earlier than usual this year, which is worrisome, given the lack of significant progress on the project. "Since there isn't much to say about the collaboration, why don't we create a list of other accomplishments we can take to the meeting? Our stock price has gone up a fair amount in the past few weeks. That's a good sign." I wish the audit team was done going over executive expenses, but they told me it's going to take a while, so I can't even bring that up as something I'm doing to clean up our less-than-ideal corporate culture and control costs.

"I'll get on it," she says.

After Karen's gone, Bianca hands me a sandwich from the deli next to the office. "Grabbed you a turkey and cheese."

"You're the best." I smile. She made sure the sandwich has nothing but turkey, Swiss cheese, tomato and basil mayo. I don't like anything else on my sandwiches.

"Karen should've let you have a lunch break," Jisoo says.

"She didn't have anything either. Can you see if she needs anything?"