Page 1 of Take the Blame (Seaside Mergers #3)

Chapter One

ALTA

This was, with unwavering certainty, the first time I’d ever attempted to strangle something.

Yep. Me, Alta Fernandez, certified goody-two-shoes was full-blown, white knuckle, vein popping, death grip strangling…

a plant. And look, I know—wrapping my hands around a plant isn’t quite the same thing as wrapping them around someone’s wrist or neck, God forbid.

But plants were living things too, and if I wasn’t so mad right now I would feel totally bad for strangling this one six ways from Sunday.

Especially as I pictured a person , instead of the plant in question.

Hear me out. There was a perfectly good explanation as to why I was assaulting greenery.

That reason?

Well, today sucked.

Today more than sucked, today ble w…. up in my face. Completely.

It had started with so much promise, too. A vision for what my future could look like. And yet, I ended it with that same feeling that had been eating away at me for decades—For my whole life.

Weak .

It was no secret that I was the sheltered one of my family.

The sweet baby girl that everyone coddled.

The meek little lamb everyone protected.

They babied me and I wasn’t even the baby of the family!

To be fair, Ceci (my younger, mildly aggressive sister) had never really been born a baby.

She was born a demon straight out the womb, kicking and screaming and even punching from what everyone tells us.

With a younger sister like that, there was never any reason for my family to transfer the kid gloves onto her.

Which meant they stayed set on me. Indefinitely .

It was frustrating being the one everyone loved to dote on. Sure, it was sometimes nice to never be expected to do hard things or to never be told bad news if it was avoidable. But it was also alienating to be set aside for the assumption that I was weaker than everyone else.

An assumption my entire family had about me.

The polar opposite of what they thought of my older sister, Melissa.

With her, they were almost just as hard and demanding as they were with our oldest brother, Ox.

And in turn, they respected her just as much.

If the two of us were the only two able-bodied people in a burning room, they would choose Melissa to do all the work even though I was the one with the fire extinguisher.

That’s just the way things were. Sometimes I thought it was because they just liked her more.

Sometimes I thought it was because she was just smarter than me.

But I knew it was simply because she was better than I was.

Better at business, better at asserting herself, better at everything, and I could only follow behind.

I was always trying to be like her. And I was always in her shadow because of it.

That shadow and that false image was exactly what I was trying to break free from today—and simultaneously for years.

Today was supposed to be the day. The big day where all my hard work, planning and foresight accumulated into one satisfying win that finally, finally put me on my family’s scoreboard. Today was supposed to be my day.

And yet, today turned out like any other. Like every other day of me being looked over and set aside.

Should I set the scene?

Picture this: Eight months ago after voluntarily working for your family’s business as a glorified secretary for a year (even though you had multiple offers to work elsewhere after college) you decide enough was enough.

After studying business marketing in school with a focus in social media, you noticed a lack of attention on digital media strategies.

You tried to tell someone, anyone who would listen —but everyone told you not to worry yourself about such things.

To sit tight and keep getting the coffee and making the photocopies and being some invisible thing that no one actually needed.

Discouraging? Yes.

But discouraged? No, not yet at least.

Instead of getting down on yourself, you decide that seeing was believing. So you set out for some field work, hoping it might make them believe in you or see you as more than just a naive girl.

For nearly a year, you secretly offer your services to new, small, or struggling businesses in the area.

Growing their social platforms and rebranding their online presence all for the purpose of (sure, helping those in need) but also proving to your family that you are worth something.

That you can bring more value than being the friendly face greeting people at the office door.

If that seems realistic, that's because it is. This is exactly what I did, and exactly five hours ago, I got shut down mercilessly.

This morning I headed into work as I normally did. Excited for the day, optimistic for change and ready for anything .

I rode the pristinely clean elevators with my arms full, holding conveniently enlarged data charts from each of my projects that showed past, current, and future progress.

Alone, I’d helped launch a downtown coffee shop off the ground with my marketing plan, rehabilitated a negative law firm’s presence to a…

manageable one, and grown a small cupcake business’s reach from friends and family to tons of adoring fans.

Not to mention what I’d done to help handfuls of other businesses who just didn't have time to keep up with their own digital footprint.

Many of my clients had been hesitant to accept help, wary of anyone who was offering it without expectations of a return, but I was able to win them over.

I’d done well, and I was ready to show off my work

Stepping off the elevator, I had electricity in my gait, excited to show Ox all I’d accomplished.

He’d be a hard sell. Even though he was my big brother he was still as strict as ever when it came to the business.

I wasn’t sure what he’d do with the information I was presenting, but Ox was a good boss as much as he was a good brother.

He’d find something suitable for me, I was sure of it.

And who knew, maybe I’d get to move to the social media department and start my own campaign. Maybe I’d get tasked on a certain division of product and get to specialize in my preferred area. Maybe I’d get to lead my own…

I shook myself out of that last thought before I let my head get too big for my station. I was only going into his office to present my baseline, not to make any big waves. I would have to be happy with whatever he came up with from there .

And I would be. Or, I would’ve been if I ever got that far, but on the way up to the top floor I was intercepted by Grace.

Grace Ulburn was the very serious, very annoying Lead Operations Manager for Fernandez Inc, my family’s company.

She handled efficiencies here. Basically, she was every manager’s manager.

She made sure every division was operating at a frequency fit for my brother’s standards.

Her entire job was to know everyone else’s job inside and out.

Meaning, her main day-to-day consisted of popping around corners and making sure you knew your place.

She was dry, to the point, and mean. She was a miniature Ox, and that’s probably why he’d hired her since lately he was spending less time at the business after getting married.

Nowadays, he went home when it was still light outside and took lunch breaks to meet my sister-in-law Clem in the city instead of working every hour he could.

So while Grace was scary, with her dark stares and power suits, she was needed. At least to help my brother out.

She also had impeccable timing.

Exiting the elevator, I thought I’d be able to walk right into Ox’s office.

I normally let myself into his big steel door with no qualms. His assistant, Ursula had been with the company a long time and knew Ox never said no to family.

No one came up to the top floor anyway. Mátti, my other brother and the second son in our family, might’ve if he’d ever considered the Vice President position he was promised.

And sometimes Melissa snuck up here to work in peace and quiet, but otherwise, Ox enjoyed his solitude.

This time, as I neared Ursula’s desk outside Ox’s closed office door, I was stopped by her holding out both hands in a stop motion. Weird .

“Look at you, honey. You look all ready for the science fair,” Ursula said in the polite voice she always kept.

Ursula Weathers was a short dark woman in her mid-fifties with a gray bun that was always tucked at her nape and a soft cardigan that was always buttoned to the hollow of her throat.

She was sweet as can be, but she also meant business and was willing to do almost anything for her boss.

Ox said she was one of the best assistants he’d ever had and she was valued highly around here.

She also seemed to think of me as the equivalent of a middle schooler heading to her favorite teacher’s classroom, apparently.

“Hey, Urse,” I said. I set my load down beside her desk and rose to my full height to adjust my clothes. I was nervous. Which was ridiculous, because I was just going in to talk to my brother. But this had to be perfect. And it would be. I was ready. “Ox is in there, right?”

I started my way toward the door before she even answered. I knew he was in there and I was determined to get this done. But those hands were thrown out in front of her again in a frantic wave. “Hold on, hun!”

“What?” I halted. “He’s in a meeting?”

“Not quite. But Mrs. Fernandez is in there,” she said.

“Amá?”

Urse opened her mouth to speak, but it wasn’t her voice that snapped across the room.

“Ms. Fernandez! Is it not well past the time of your weekly development meeting downstairs? ” the voice, belonging to none other than Grace herself, asked.

Darn!