Secrets

By Lucille Skelton

Claire begins her career at the Beltner Manufacturing Company with a secret. Then, as her role in the firm's development progresses, she finds herself balancing her work life with her feelings for Ryan, feelings that he shares, feelings that they have to keep private because of their respective posts within the organization.
When an unknown adversary continues to threaten the company's chance for growth, Claire is glad to have Ryan's expertise and support. However, Ryan has secrets of his own, secrets that have the potential of causing serious ripples in their professional and personal lives. As the hidden parts of his life gradually come to light, this potential is realized, and the bond that both he and Claire share is threatened, to the point that she ultimately has to decide if their chance for a relationship can survive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468541618

Lucille Skelton

Lucille Skelton lives in the Caribbean and teaches mathematics at a community college. Secrets is her second novel.

Book preview

Chapter 1

What had happened?

The project that Claire Leigh had worked on so diligently the first spark, the blossoming concept, the research, the time, the re-thinking, the re-doing, the final product, three months of solid, hard work – had been sabotaged.

To foster creativity, employees of the Beltner Manufacturing Company had been given the opportunity to work on a job re-design project. The firm’s main focus was the hand-crafting of specialty items from wood, with a view toward only using forest resources that had been given an opportunity to have reached a certain maturity stage, without razing all of the trees from the designated areas. This was easy to control, as it owned much of the lands from which the wood came and used a limited amount of imports to supplement its stock. A continuous re-planting effort also allowed for the replenishment of the local forest reserves.

It meant, though, that each year the company had only a certain amount of local, natural resources to work with. After all, the firm was located on the island of Picture Cay, a ninety-eight square mile U.S. territory located about forty miles north of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Although the island’s name implied a size much smaller than it actually was, Picture Cay was still relatively small compared to other islands of the hemisphere.

The company also owned forest land on the nearby island of Grand Pinnacle, which was twice the size of Picture Cay, as well as on some uninhabited islands in the territory. Still, the constraint of the overall availability of local wood, as well as the adhering to the environmental preservation promise, meant that its home-grown resources would be limited compared to those that its competitors in larger territorial areas had access to. In the early years of the company’s forty-year history, in the quest of gaining access to other local forest resources, but not having much cash on hand to bargain with, 10% of the company had been exchanged by its founder, Andrew Beltner, for a considerable acreage of land which held some premium quality woods. Otherwise, he owned the rest of it, and had headed the firm’s management team until his retirement from oversight activities a few years previously.

From the firm’s inception, Andrew Beltner had spring-boarded on the idea of creating specialty items of a quality that matched the increased cost brought on by the limitation in resources. This innovation had worked so well that the level of demand for the company’s products had far exceeded its ability to supply orders within any particular quarter. There had actually been a point when the average waiting time for one of their models or pieces was about one year. Customers, both nationally and internationally, were so satisfied with Beltner’s products that they were willing to wait and to spread the news about the masterpieces that they were about to receive while doing so, creating another level of demand that greatly assisted any of its marketing campaigns.

Then, within the most recent year or so, things had started to change. Not noticeably at first, but the aura of it was there in the air for those who had been with the company long enough to be sensitive to it and to know the difference. Then the evidence became more plain in bad decisions, indecisiveness that led to lost business, and finally, sub-standard products.

Actually, the products weren’t really of a poor quality. Pitted against any standard products of their kind, they would more than pass muster. However, this was a niche company of sorts, and standard was not a word that any of its self-respecting division heads wanted to hear as a synonym for what the company stood for. When demand had started lagging, Andrew Beltner had had a hunch that general economic conditions was not the cause, and had picked up on the negative changes quickly enough to take steps to curtail much of the damage, even though he was no longer involved in day-to-day operations. Part of his plan to fix the company had involved a re-design challenge that had been proposed to interested employees.

Re-designs could include duties as well as physical spaces. At the end of a three-month period, all of the work would be collectively displayed, and any of the plans that were approved would be integrated into the process of creating an in-house model. Bonuses and other rewards would be distributed depending on how implementable each submission was.

Ryan North did not work in Claire’s division, but sometimes he would bump into her during break time in the employee lounge and they would talk generally about what they were focusing on at the time in their respective units, as well as about the re-design challenge that the company had provided. He wasn’t working on a re-design project, but from when Claire had first began hers, he had been eager to see what she would present. She never gave away too many specifics, but he found that his interest wasn’t wavering.

Well, today had been the day, and what had happened was not what he had expected. In fact, he had found it quite incredible…

She had been too gullible. She didn’t have what it took. She should have known her limitations and stayed within those boundaries. Those were some of the thoughts being bandied about the company about Claire’s re-design.

About four months previously, Lana Griffin, who worked in Marketing, had taken one look at Claire as she was introduced at a staff meeting as one of the new employees and wondered how long she would last. This thought had come particularly as she had been placed in the Finance Unit with some potentially vicious colleagues.

Claire had apparently been sent to replace an employee who had left the company a few weeks before her arrival. In Lana’s opinion, the woman looked almost nondescript. She was attractive enough, Lana had conceded, but probably not aggressive enough to last through that vulture-laden environment. She had said as much within earshot of Ryan, who had also newly joined the firm and who headed up the Research and Development Unit. He had replied, Give the lady a chance, will you?

If I were to provide you with a detailed description of where they’ve placed her, you’d understand, had been Lana’s answer. And don’t tell me that looks can be deceiving, she had continued as he was about to return a contrasting response.

As she had said so, she had turned to regard Claire again and shook her head, almost feeling sorry for the woman. She’ll figure it out, Lana had thought before informing Ryan that she was going back to her office.

She had gotten what she had deserved. After all, I’m the one with the real handle on things in this firm, Jack Whitner thought to himself regarding Claire’s presentation as he entered his vehicle and left the parking lot shortly after. Who did she think she was? He could match idea for idea, as well as surpass hers, any day.

He left the compound and was heading west to meet his friends for some Friday afternoon golf. It had been a lovely sun-filled day, and after the presentations had been made, he had left work early, even though he had recently taken some personal time away from the office. They would have a couple of hours of natural light to get in a good workout, a perfect end to the day. As he came to a stoplight, and braked, he thought back on the scene he had just left and laughed out loud. Just who did she think she was?

She had been set up.

Claire had just gotten home and had flopped onto the couch and put her feet up. After assuming this comfortable position, she closed her eyes and played the afternoon’s events back in her mind.

The process for submitting presentations had been simple enough: All items were to be submitted by the stated date to a secretary at Administrative Support, from where the department’s coordinator would direct the process of having the ideas presented to the company’s internal community. One of the requirements was to re-design for efficiency without cutting jobs or salaries, which meant that much of the focus would have to be on reducing overhead and increasing production while preserving, or even better, enhancing quality.

Claire’s design had yielded some key results that would take some courage to implement, as well as the support of individuals with the right attitude and drive. The problem was that the core of her ideas had been left out of the report. It hadn’t just been a case of an obvious section being missing. In each unit, the supporting idea had been artfully lifted out to leave a product that seemed whole but shallow as presented. Even the report’s synopsis reflected the vacancies. Although members of the Admin Unit’s staff had been responsible for physically putting all presented material together for display, Claire somehow suspected that they were not at fault, as there were employees from other units who had offered to help, and whose assistance had not been refused. All that had been needed was the wrong person or set of persons to get involved, and this was the result. Hopefully, she thought, the head of that division would come to see the professional breach that such outside involvement could cause. For the time being, she would have to concentrate on fixing the damage.

At the event to present the submissions, surprise had been displayed at her declaration that what they were seeing had not been the report that had been sent, but at that point in time, her words seemed to be futile. People had begun to review the re-designs and were already commenting on the marked difference between hers and the others.

There had been a considerable amount of sniggering among some colleagues, particularly those from her unit. Others, such as Lana, had looked at her sympathetically with a You’re out of your league look in their eyes.

Ryan had tried to be supportive, and Claire was grateful. As soon as she could, however, she had slipped away from the gathering, needing to finish preparations for a family member who was visiting for the weekend.

Yes, she most definitely had been set up.

As soon as Ryan had realized what was happening during the presentations, he found Claire quickly and stayed close to show his support. Whenever he tried to discuss it, however, she would answer using responses that didn’t invite further comment. She hadn’t been rude, but somehow would make sure that the discussion was steered away from her project. Ryan regarded this as being due to the tension of what was happening and just continued to be there as much as he could. Still, he wondered at the adroit way she had of being able to hold a conversation without giving away too much.

Finally, the afternoon’s event was over. Ryan turned away briefly to collect some literature, and when he looked back, Claire was gone. Instinctively, he went to the nearest window and looked down into the parking lot to eventually see her entering her vehicle. He suddenly realized how little he knew about her private life. He didn’t have a contact number for her outside of the office and didn’t know where she lived. As he pondered on these things and on checking the online directory later, he wondered as well if she had some kind of support system in her family and personal life to help her through this.

A personal life. With another sudden realization, Ryan found himself hoping that she didn’t have too much of one.

Chapter 2

On Monday morning, after everyone had nestled in for the day and had begun work, word was sent around about a meeting in the main conference room. The summons had come from Andrew Beltner, who had now marked a visit of two working days in a row, counting his attendance on the previous Friday to view the presentations. As soon as everyone was assembled, he began.

"I’ll cut to the chase. For some time now, word has been coming to me of instances of questionable judgement and inequities in treatment in some areas of this firm. I am of the opinion that this type of activity has led to the core of mediocrity that has been translated to our gradual fall in standards, especially in the last year. Going through the normal channels of investigation yielded little, as some individuals covered for each other or sought to pretend that these practices were not taking place, especially when it pertained to certain people who they favored. I therefore decided that in addition to the company’s recent audit, I would employ my own means of finding out what has really been going on in my company.

It is common knowledge that the former CEO’s contract expired within the past month, and has not been renewed, leaving a vacancy at that post. What is not so generally known is that his second-in-command has now chosen to leave quietly but abruptly, resulting in an even larger void in general leadership. I have decided to use their departures, more specifically the departure of the CEO, to institute a major change at the helm that will facilitate getting us back on track. The selected individual is a member of my family who has been quietly observing the internal workings of the organization over the past few months, and who has agreed to take on the challenge of leadership, at least temporarily. In light of that person’s findings, adjustments will be made accordingly until balance is restored. I now call on that individual to come forward.

Claire left the audience, moved to the front of the room, and took her place by Andrew Beltner’s side. Many jaws dropped. The nondescript look that Lana had observed some four months earlier was nowhere to be seen. Standing before them was a woman of influence and determination. It was as if a different person was there.

Ryan was stunned.

After Claire had taken her place at the front of the room, he sat thoughtfully looking at her along with everyone else. It was as if she had undergone a transformation, according to his perception. Just then, their eyes met, and for a few seconds there was a charged connection between them.

After Claire’s identity and new role had been revealed, she generally scanned the room for a few seconds. Finally, her eyes searched out Ryan’s, as she knew that his would already be locked on hers, along with everyone else’s. For a brief moment there was an energy that passed between them, which startled her slightly. She