Three months after the wedding, determined to prove myself and change the family's opinion, I quit my job and told Felicity I wanted to join Henson Group.
She hesitated. "You want to work at the company? My dad probably won't go for it."
I insisted.
"I want to try. I'm just sitting around doing nothing. Let me contribute."
She looked at me for a long moment, then nodded.
Otis refused, just as she'd predicted.
When Felicity brought it up, I stood off to the side, hands at my sides, back straight. He glanced at me once. I still remember that look.
It wasn't anger. It wasn't opposition.
It was pure indifference. The way you'd look at something that simply didn't matter.
Still, he agreed in the end. "Fine. If he wants to come, let him come. Admin needs someone to handle the grunt work."
Felicity opened her mouth to say something, but I caught her arm and stopped her.
I spent four months doing grunt work in the admin department.
Photocopying. Running errands. Hauling water cooler jugs. Organizing archives. Every menial task there was.
I didn't complain. I wasn't in a position to.
Every day I was the first one in and the last one out.
My coworkers were polite, but it was the kind of politeness that kept its distance. Everyone knew I was the Henson family's live-in son-in-law. Nobody dared get too close, and nobody dared act too friendly.
Six months in, the company was putting together its midyear review. The admin department had a market analysis report due, and nobody wanted to touch it.
I volunteered.
I pulled three consecutive all-nighters and finished the report. The data was thorough, the analysis was sharp, and I'd even included several actionable growth strategies.
My manager read it and submitted it up the chain without a second thought.
Otis said nothing.
The next day, I was transferred to the marketing department.
Marketing was a thankless gig. Henson Group was a traditional manufacturing company, and the marketing department had always lived in the shadow of sales. Nobody there had any real say in anything.
Once I got settled, I started working the front lines.
I took the digital playbook I knew and brought it to Henson Group, launching a few pilot programs for online sales channels.
The results spoke for themselves.
By the end of the first quarter, online revenue was up forty percent.
Otis didn't say a word of praise.