Eddie shook his head. “Yeah, but we may not have the money to back up legal. I think Peterson knows what kind of slump the company is in.”

Antonia sat for a moment to take in Eddie’s theory. Wild Hare employees had doubted Richard’s judgement when he signed his own nephew, Greg Dobbs, for a sci-fi thriller set on Mars. Editing the novel had been a struggle that left her anxious and exhausted. Each time she’d emailed Greg with new edits, Antonia had girded her loins for a fresh wave of disappointing work.

“Come on, Toni, think about the last batch of titles we released,” Eddie continued. “They had a shit reception and now they’re idling at the bottom of Amazon.”

Eddie was right: reception was still shit. Plus, the cost to market Starman had been excessive, surpassing the normal budget for a boutique operation like Wild Hare Publishing. Greg Dobbs hadn’t even had an author’s blog or a social media following when they first signed him. He’d also insisted the book be called Starman despite Antonia’s repeated warnings that the title sounded too much like a David Bowie interstellar romp.

She had the sneaking suspicion Richard was keeping her out of the loop when it came to these important decisions. Several months ago, he gushed over Antonia’s “untapped potential” for leadership and promised to mentor her. But that was after she slaved over his nephew’s project and before he decided to keep Peterson’s Hallowed Ground series for himself. Antonia sat back in her chair and stared at her own incomplete manuscript, all two chapters shining bright on her desktop. Since her projects had decreased noticeably, she had been able to turn her attention back to those two chapters. But instead of pushing the plot forward, Antonia obsessed over piecemeal edits here and there. She’d change her protagonist’s name six times before forcing herself to move on to something equally trivial.

“What else have you heard?” she asked wearily.

“Brenda told me that she’s fielding a lot of skittish phone calls from the board. They’ve had about four conference calls in the last month,” Eddie said. “She claims he’s fending off accusations regarding the company’s budgets.”

Antonia was nervous. Brenda, Richard’s secretary, was like Eddie. She kept her head down, worked hard, and didn’t participate in idle gossip. If she was concerned about Richard’s behavior, they should all be concerned. If Richard was grooming her for a leadership role, Antonia should have been privy to those conference calls. She wondered how she had managed not to keep her ear to the ground like Eddie. What else had she missed, while planning her wedding, these past months? “Do you think they’re looking for a way to fire him?” Antonia asked in a hushed voice.

Eddie shrugged. “That, or maybe they shut down operations.”

Layoffs.

Antonia still had a wedding to plan and pay for. The list of expenses slithered around her like a python, threatening to strangle her. Catering, the DJ, a reception at Shedd Aquarium, the rings, her dress... Most of the things on her list were not her idea, but Derek’s mother’s. While Antonia did insist on having the wedding at Shedd Aquarium, it now seemed like an expensive petty swipe at Mrs. Rogers. Vivian was aghast when Antonia suggested her favorite childhood location for the wedding reception. Derek insisted he didn’t care, so long as the place was large enough to host all of his business associates and former frat buddies. She remembered how embarrassing it was to tell Vivian Rogers, “I love the ocean. It’s a vast area of exploration we’ve forgotten.” Jesus... She also recalled her fiancé’s silence when she said it.