Chapter 320 - Probably Because Of His Wife
Once the babies were down for their morning nap, Keeley helped Alice look through her job options. French literature specifically was only useful if you had an advanced degree and wanted to become a professor so she decided to search for French language jobs. Alice was fluent after all.
"Your best bet at this point would probably be getting a job as a tutor or a translator. The problem is going to be your resume since you've never had a job. Have you done any volunteer work you can put down?" Keeley asked.
Alice nodded and her brow furrowed as she thought about it. "I've organized or participated in a variety of charity drives over the years for different causes but that's about it."
It wasn't much, but it was something. They could work with that. Keeley had taken a free resume building seminar in college so she could weave gold out of straw.
Being a part of charity drives involved skills such as leadership, teamwork, and organization that looked good on resumes. And Alice did attend an Ivy League college, even though she graduated four years ago.
"Write down a list of everything you did for those events and I'll find a way to make it work from there," Keeley ordered. "I need a snack. Are you hungry?"
"A snack would be wonderful, thank you!"
She rummaged around in the fridge until she found some baby carrots and the good ranch dressing that Aaron had gotten her hooked on from a higher end grocery store. Sometimes being rich had its perks.
Keeley pulled out two tiny bowls and poured a bit of ranch into each of them so there wouldn't be a double dipping problem. Normally she only used one because Aaron didn't care. They were always swapping saliva anyway.
She set the bowls and carrots down on the kitchen table next to where Alice was diligently writing her list of duties. She looked up and smiled at Keeley gratefully.
"There. I think I have it," she said as she held the list out.
Keeley took it from her and examined it closely. There was definitely workable material here.
"Leave it to me; I'm going to put together a resume no employer can refuse!"
She crunched on the occasional carrot as she worked. The resume was just about finished when she heard cries come through the baby monitor. A heavy sigh escaped her. She was so close!
"I'll handle them while you finish up," Alice offered.
"…have you ever changed a diaper before? Because they'll probably need their diapers changed."
"No but it can't be too hard, can it?"
Keeley saved her work and closed the laptop so neither of the cats could walk across the keyboard and disrupt things. "It can be trickier than you would think. Let me show you how first then I'll get back to it."
They headed upstairs and she put on her brightest smile as she saw her children, beginning to baby talk them and tell them how much she loved them. Both Kaleb and Violet smiled and cooed in response.
She decided to use Kaleb as the example because he was a bit squirmier in general. Violet would be easier for a newbie to handle.
"Mostly you just need to make sure that the diaper isn't backwards and that it's high enough up that it doesn't sag," Keeley explained as she went. "Do you think you have it?"
"I think so," Alice said cautiously. "You might want to watch me just in case."
Her work was a bit sloppy but it did the job. Not bad for the first time ever changing a diaper. It took a while to really get it down.
They each took a twin and headed downstairs, setting them in their bouncers in the kitchen so they could be near the commotion. The babies seemed to prefer being involved in anything that was going on at all times.
Dinah walked by and gave Kaleb a cautious sniff, recoiling instantly as he reached out for her and running to hide under the couch. Poor thing.
Keeley finished the resume less than ten minutes later and told Alice she would want to print multiple copies of it so she could bring them to interviews with her but they could deal with that once it got closer. For now, they needed to focus on applications.
She directed Alice to a few popular online job boards and told her to shout if she needed any help. It was about the time of day where she usually read to her children for a while. They always seemed to enjoy listening to her even though they had no idea what she was saying.
===
Ryan Bradley was working on mixing together a new medication batch at PharmaGen when he overheard some of his coworkers gossiping.
"Did you hear the news about Aaron Hale?"
"Yeah, it was totally savage! He stole his father's company right out from under him! I have a friend who works at Hale Investments as a secretary and she says Alistair Hale hasn't even showed up at the office since it happened and that was weeks ago."
"He's probably ashamed. Didn't you hear about the other news?"
"True. I'd be pretty embarrassed if it was revealed to the whole world that I'd cheated on my wife too. It's almost like Aaron Hale and Graydon Meyer planned this together. They must really hate their father."
"I get why the illegitimate son would hate him, but why would Aaron?"
Ryan was pretty sure he had an idea. This had to be about Keeley. He had known the Hales wouldn't accept her! Did he take over the company just because his parents rejected his wife?
That wouldn't make sense though. No one could topple an empire in a day. That icy freak had to have been working on this for a long time.
He had been Keeley's ex-boyfriend before he was her husband…exactly how long ago had they broken up? Did Alistair Hale play a role in that? It would explain the animosity between father and son perfectly.
"Probably because of his wife," he contributed bitterly.
Both of his coworkers turned to stare at him like he was crazy.
"Wife? What wife? If Aaron Hale was married, people would know about it!" one of them exclaimed.
"I'm telling you, he is. He married one of my friends from college because he got her pregnant. They have twins now. I saw them at a park in Brooklyn not too long ago."
His other coworker eyed him distrustfully. "Prove it."
"I'm a little busy right now," Ryan said dryly, gesturing to the chemicals he was mixing. "Look up Keeley Hale on Facebook if you don't believe me."
They weren't supposed to have their phones out in the lab while chemicals were present but his coworker was determined. He checked around him to be sure their boss wasn't nearby before taking off his gloves and pulling up his Facebook app.
"Well what do you know?" he said with a low whistle.
A couple other people nearby who had been listening in on the conversation even if they hadn't been participating gathered around and peered over his shoulder. The profile picture on the account was of a blonde woman grinning in front of Niagara Falls as a tall dark haired man stood behind with his arms wrapped around her.
Nobody there knew what Aaron Hale looked like so they weren't convinced until they saw 'Married to Aaron Hale' in the 'about me' section. Her profile's cover photo was of two babies lying next to each other on a play mat so everything Ryan said checked out.
"Have you met him?!" one of his coworkers asked.
Ryan snorted. "Unfortunately. The guy is a human icicle but he's like a completely different person around her. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he took over the company early because his father didn't like her."
The lab dissolved into frenzied whispers as the gossip only got worse and Ryan rolled his eyes. Ugh. Who cared about Aaron Hale anyway? He hoped he never heard that name again. He didn't need a further reminder of what he had lost.