James brought Irene a chair as well, and after she sat down, she said with an even tone, "There's no cause to worry, everyone, and you can be candid too. I'm not here to take a job, and I actually don't know a thing about managing this company, so I'm just here to learn. There would probably be plenty of things which I'd need everyone's instructions and guidance for."
It was just the right tone of voice to indicate the purpose of the meeting.
"You're giving us too much credit, ma'am."
Everyone was already aware of that since James had already told them, and no one was about to provoke her when she was their boss's wife.
In fact, they were perfectly respectful since she was not throwing her weight around, and she spoke with such earnestness that there was nothing much to nitpick.
Smiling, Irene continued, "Isaac has told me that you're all the backbone of the company, and that I'll definitely learn something from everyone here. But I resigned to take care of my family, so I'll only come to learn when I'm idling. For one, I can kill time with this, and he always seems so busy—I wouldn't even know if he's really busy or faking it."
One of the executives raised his hand then and explained, "Actually, ma'am, there's already plenty to do here, while Mr. Jefferson also had to attend video conferences to oversee Remy abroad. He had to travel this time because of a company acquisition going awry. It's a branch company issue and there are people in charge, but Mr. Jefferson is still needed for executive decisions."
Irene's hand grasped her knees beneath the table.
She never did learn about the nature of Isaac's work, and she only knew that he was very busy.
Her heart was stricken with guilt just then—she really should have resigned earlier to take care of home, so that he would not have to worry too much.
Be that as it may, she refrained from letting any of her insecurity show at all. She joked, "No one here is covering for him, right?"
"Don't worry, ma'am," another executive quickly said. "Mr. Jefferson is always too busy to have time for anything else."
Irene pointed at them and smiled just then. "Are you sure about that? I think I wouldn't be aware if he's having an affair, but what about you?"
"Uh…"
"Ma'am…"
"It's alright, calm down. I'm just joking." Irene kept smiling.
The joke was to ease the tension, while insinuating that she did not just come to learn—she was here to prevent Isaac from having an affair!
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