Day 8 - Morning
Patricia knocked on Kalina's door at 8:30 AM instead of 7:30 AM.
Progress.
"Come in," Kalina's voice called, sounding surprised.
Patricia entered to find Kalina already awake—miracle of miracles—sitting at her desk in actual pajamas (not the bathtub) with her laptop open.
"Morning," Patricia said carefully. "I brought coffee."
Kalina eyed her suspiciously. "What do you want?"
"Nothing. Just... coffee." Patricia set the mug down. "I wanted to ask you something."
"If it's about the schedule—"
"It's not." Patricia pulled up a chair. "What do you actually need from me? Not what your father thinks you need. Not what I think you need. What do you need to do your job well?"
Kalina blinked. "Are you feeling okay? Did you hit your head?"
"I'm serious."
"So am I. You're being weird."
Patricia took a deep breath. "Look, we've been fighting for a week. And I realized... I've been trying to force you into this box of what a CEO should look like. But you're not in a box. You're—"
"A beautiful disaster?" Kalina offered.
"I was going to say 'unconventional,' but sure." Patricia smiled slightly. "So. What do you need?"
Kalina studied her for a long moment.
"Honestly?"
"Honestly."
"I need you to stop treating every minute like it has to be productive. I need space to think. To breathe. I do my best work when I'm not staring at spreadsheets for eight hours straight." She paused. "But I also need someone to keep track of the things I'll forget. The deadlines. The important emails buried under the spam. Someone who knows when to push me and when to back off."
Patricia nodded slowly. "I can do that."
"Really?"
"Really. But you have to meet me halfway. When I say something is genuinely urgent—not just 'would be nice to do today' but actually urgent—you have to trust me and show up."
Kalina considered this. "Deal. But I'm still not drinking green smoothies."
"Fair enough."
They shook hands.
And for the first time since Patricia arrived, it felt like they might actually make this work.
Day 10 - Finding Their Rhythm
"Okay, so today you have two actual must-dos," Patricia said over breakfast. "The LOMIKA fabric supplier negotiation at two—which you can't skip because they're threatening to walk—and signing off on the Fruit Shakers marketing campaign by end of day."
"That's it?" Kalina looked suspicious.
"That's it. The rest I can handle or it can wait."
"What about the investor report?"
"Not due until Friday. You have time."
"The Company Three board meeting?"
"Rescheduled to next week at your request."
Kalina stared at her. "Who are you and what did you do with Patty?"
"I'm trying something new. It's called 'working with you instead of against you.'"
"Huh." Kalina took a sip of her coffee. "I like it."
"Don't get used to it. Tomorrow you have four meetings."
"Ugh."
"But one of them is lunch with Mireille, so really it's three meetings and socializing."
Kalina's face brightened. "You scheduled friend time?"
"I scheduled necessary networking that happens to involve your best friend and business partner. Totally different."
"You're a genius, Patty."
"I know."
Week 2 - Momentum Building
Somewhere around day twelve, something shifted.
Kalina started showing up to meetings on time. Not all of them, but the important ones.
She stopped deleting emails indiscriminately and actually started reading the priority flags Patricia added.
She even wore business casual for a video conference without being threatened.
And Patricia stopped trying to schedule every minute of Kalina's day, instead building in "thinking time" and "creative breaks" that Kalina actually used productively.
They developed a system.
Morning coffee together to review the day's priorities. Kalina picked which meetings she'd attend personally versus which ones Patricia could handle on her behalf.
Afternoons were flexible—sometimes work, sometimes rest, depending on how Kalina felt (concussion recovery was still real).
And every evening at 6 PM, they had a "hard stop" where work ended and Kalina got her personal time back.
It wasn't perfect.
Kalina still occasionally locked herself in the bathroom when overwhelmed.
Patricia still occasionally wanted to strangle her when she "forgot" about important calls.
But it worked.
Week 3 - The Merger Madness
By week three, Kalina was operating at near-full capacity.
The Regal Empire and Fruit Shakers merger had kicked into high gear, which meant frequent meetings with Lyra and Atticus.
The LOMIKA collaboration with a major European fashion house required daily check-ins.
Her other three companies all seemed to have decided that now was the perfect time to have crises that needed her attention.
And on top of all that, her father had started asking her to contribute to family business decisions.
Kalina was exhausted.
But also... thriving?
"I don't understand," she said one evening as Patricia helped her organize notes from that day's merger meeting. "How am I getting more done now than when I was pretending to be lazy?"
"Because you're not wasting energy pretending anymore," Patricia said simply. "You're just... being yourself. Lazy moments and brilliant moments all mixed together."
"That was annoyingly profound."
"I know. I'm gifted that way."
Kalina threw a pen at her.
Patricia caught it without looking up from her tablet.
"Show off," Kalina muttered, but she was smiling.
Week 3, Day 5 - The Realization
The merger meeting had run long—again.
Kalina sat at the conference table in the Levesque Manor's business wing, surrounded by papers, her laptop, and the remnants of the dinner that had been brought in when they'd realized they'd be working past 8 PM.
Lyra sat across from her, reviewing contracts with the intense focus she brought to everything.
Atticus sat beside Lyra, making notes on his tablet, his expression unreadable.
Logan was on the video call, contributing remotely since he was out of town.
Kalina had been so focused on the numbers that she almost missed it.
The way Lyra asked Atticus a question without looking at him.
The way Atticus answered in a flat, professional tone—nothing like the warmth he usually had.
The way they sat just slightly too far apart.
The way Lyra's "let me check with Atticus" sounded more like a business courtesy than a marriage partnership.
Kalina's pen stopped moving.
Oh.
Oh no.
She looked up, really looked at her sister and brother-in-law for the first time in weeks.
The distance between them wasn't just physical.
It was everything.
"—so if we adjust the timeline here," Lyra was saying, completely oblivious, "we can accelerate the integration process and—Kalina? Are you listening?"
"What?" Kalina blinked. "Yeah. Timeline. Integration. Got it."
But she didn't hear anything else for the rest of the meeting.
Because all she could see was the slow-motion collapse of her sister's marriage.
And Lyra had no idea.
Week 3, Day 7 - Evening
The informal gathering had been Mireille's idea.
"We never just hang out anymore!" she'd complained. "It's all work, work, work. Let's just have dinner. Like normal people."
So they'd gathered at Kalina's place—her quarters in the Levesque Manor had enough space for entertaining, and it meant Kalina didn't have to leave the house (which she appreciated, being still technically on medical restriction).
Kalina, Logan, Mireille, and Ophelia.
Just the four of them.
Except then Ophelia had mentioned it to Maxi, and Maxi had shown up with expensive wine.
And then Lyra and Atticus had "stopped by" after finishing a late meeting in the other wing of the manor.
So now it was seven people crowded into Kalina's living room, and the dynamics were... interesting.
Ophelia and Maxi kept gravitating toward each other, sharing private smiles and inside jokes from their increasing number of dates.
Mireille was entertaining everyone with a story about a disastrous pitch meeting.
Logan was arguing good-naturedly with Maxi about some sports thing Kalina didn't care about.
And Lyra and Atticus sat on opposite ends of the couch, participating in the conversation but somehow existing in completely separate bubbles.
Kalina watched them carefully.
Lyra laughed at one of Mireille's jokes, bright and engaged.
Atticus smiled at something Logan said, warm and genuine.
But they didn't look at each other.
Didn't touch.
Didn't interact beyond the bare minimum politeness.
It was like watching two people perform being married without actually being married.
The conversation shifted to the merger—inevitable, since half the people in the room were involved.
"I still think we should accelerate the branding integration," Lyra said, pulling out her phone to reference notes. "Atticus, didn't you have thoughts on that?"
"I did," Atticus said, his tone professionally neutral. "I sent them in the memo this morning."
"I haven't had a chance to read it yet—"
"I know. You've been busy."
There was something in the way he said "busy" that made Kalina's chest tighten.
Not angry. Just... resigned.
Like he was used to being an afterthought.
The conversation moved on, but Kalina couldn't stop staring.
How did I not see this sooner?
All those meetings. All those late nights working together. And she'd been so focused on the business side that she'd completely missed the personal disaster unfolding right in front of her.
It wasn't about her. It wasn't about anything she'd done.
It was about Lyra's obsession with proving herself.
With being the perfect CEO. The perfect daughter. The perfect everything.
And somewhere along the way, she'd forgotten to be a wife.
Oh, Lyra, Kalina thought sadly. What are you doing?
Later - After Everyone Left
Logan was the last to leave, and as he headed for the door, he paused.
"You saw it too, didn't you?" he asked quietly.
Kalina looked up. "Saw what?"
"Lyra and Atticus. They're..." He trailed off, searching for words.
"Falling apart," Kalina finished.
Logan nodded. "I wasn't sure if it was just me. But tonight, the way they barely interacted—"
"I know." Kalina sighed. "And Lyra has no idea. She's so focused on the business, on proving herself to Father, that she can't see what's happening to her marriage."
"Should we say something?"
"And have her defensive walls go up immediately? She'd never listen." Kalina rubbed her temples. "She has to figure this out on her own."
"Before it's too late?"
"Yeah. Before it's too late."