I struggled to keep pace with him. I kept my face neutral as I responded, “I told you before, I like my privacy.”
He waved his hand around in a way I knew meant he found my answer ridiculous. He changed the subject regardless, “How was your meeting today?”
“I don’t foresee us pursuing any further communication with that fashion company,” I explained.
“Hm.” He continued on through my house, like he was touring it with me following him around. Finally, he stopped in the kitchen glancing around like he was looking for something. His eyes finally landed on me. “When are you getting married?”
I am not often caught off guard, yet at that question I stopped breathing. He kept looking at me and I coughed trying to get air back into my lungs. “Excuse me?”
“You are almost thirty-one,” he said as if that explained it.
“I know you got married when you were eighteen, but that’s because you met Sobo in high school.” I reminded him, keeping my deep voice steady despite my heart pounding in my chest.
“And I have respected your decision this long.” He said like he was being the reasonable one. “But you are going to become CEO.”
“Not for a while though.”
“No.” He said firmly. “You will become CEO at the end of this year.”
It was July so I’d be CEO in less than six months. “But Jiji—”
“I will not hear it Taylor. I am old.” He said it plainly, no hesitation in his voice. “You were always going to be my successor.” He put a hand on my shoulder, I flinched from the touch, I hadn’t expected it. “You are ready to take over. We will begin the transition now and by New Year’s you will be in charge.”
“Thank you.” I said looking down at the floor. I didn’t think I would hear this news for years yet. Even though I knew it was coming eventually, it didn’t feel real. Nevertheless, it was great news.
“I want my company to stay in good hands.”
“I promise.”
“But what about when you retire?”
“That’s so far in the future.” I looked back up at his serious expression, kept the emotion out of my words, but I had an inkling where this conversation was going.
“I want the company to stay in the family, for the Hirano name to live on.” I knew it . He continued, “I want you to have a son to take over after you.”
The memory of Ms. Maxwell saying, older, outdated company, flashed through my head. “You can’t be serious.” Even as I was saying it, I saw he was on his face.
“If you can’t entrust your business to your sons, why should I entrust mine with you?”
So that was his plan. He wasn’t going to give me the company unless I got married and produced heirs like it was medieval times. I knew he tended to be more traditional, but this? This was too much, even for him. I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell him how terrible that was to hold that over me. Especially with everything that happened to me.
“I’ll think about it.” I said. My jaw stayed stiff as I spoke.
“Good.” He smiled, which for him was a small uptick of the left corner of his mouth. He patted my shoulder once before letting go. I held back my flinch that time. “I’ll see you at the office tomorrow.”
I escorted him to the door without saying anything else. He bowed slightly before leaving, I almost forgot to bow in return.
I returned to the kitchen but stayed standing in the middle instead of getting back to work like my brain kept telling me to. I was breathing too heavily. I couldn’t move. What do we do first? My therapist joked that she sounded like a cartoon mouse: she did and at first it made it hard to concentrate but now I was used to her keeping me calm. “We breathe.” I said out loud, and it echoed against the cabinets. What do you feel? The firmness of the tiled floor under my feet, the air conditioning gently blowing against me. What do you hear? My house was an older one in the Glencoe suburb of Chicago, so I could hear it settling around me in the July heat. The refrigerator hummed nearby, and the fans of my laptop whirred for being left on. What do you see? I didn’t realize I had closed my eyes until I opened them to look around at the kitchen, exactly how I left it, although freshly cleaned from last night’s dinner by the housekeeper who I made sure to miss.
Now that I could breathe and move, I sat back down at my counter. I had to come up with a plan that kept me on my grandfather’s good side. There were plenty of available daughters of other CEOs who would jump on the chance of networking through marriage. If I didn’t come up with a plan my grandfather would certainly start matchmaking me with them, if he hadn’t started already. I considered perhaps just letting him, it obviously wasn’t up to me if I married or not. Why care who it was to on top of that? But, no, it wouldn’t work out. He would still expect heirs and I couldn’t stay married for long.
My thoughts jumped to hiring someone to be my wife until the company was mine early next year. My grandfather wouldn’t be suspicious of the lack of children until after he could no longer have any say. I would need to hire someone I could trust. I sighed and rubbed my eyes. I suddenly felt exhausted. That would be the hardest part. I didn’t have many close friends, especially none that I trusted. Really, Mrs. Tupp, my therapist was the only person I would trust, but I didn’t think Mr. Tupp would have approved. I also really didn’t want to hear what she was going to say to me about this plan. She’d probably say
