My Turn

I've always been the butt of everyone's jokes, pranks, and putdowns. Mainly because I was a smart nerd, not into sports. I went to college, did very well, and got a great job with a national corporation. Years later, my employers bought out the local mill in my hometown. HR knew I came from there and decided I would be perfect to manage the mill. Returning to my hometown as the big cheese, you could say. Everyone in the town relied on the mill in some way or another. My corporate reputation preceded me since leaving college; I'd become the corporate hatchet man sent to cut staff and improve the balance sheet of parts of the corporation. Of course, none of the locals knew it was me till I arrived. I'd fallen off their radar, as they say, and once they saw it was me. Well, fear became their first reaction, thinking I would settle old scores. But I had no thought of doing that; I would do what was required, nothing more. My first requirement was a personal assistant, as the previous one was the wife of the former owner. I chose the girl with whom I'd been most friendly before college. She hadn't ever been mean towards me and had also been the butt of similar treatment as me. But she hadn't gone to college, as she was needed to care for her ill mother. Her mother had passed away a couple of years before my return, and she worked in the offices at the mill. I believed she could handle the job, and I at first looked over the mill to start improvements. Nobody was fired, mainly because the corporation had promised not to fire for 3 years unless it was unavoidable. Bad behavior and poor performance, which everyone knew about. But I did reduce staff slowly through people leaving on their own, if they weren't critical to the mill's operations. But it was seen by the nervous employees who had annoyed me growing up as I was going to get square. My job required me to socialize with clients and the corporate management. My PA was my partner at all such events; she didn't date or party and was always available. We got closer and became lovers, then married two years after I'd returned; she stayed my PA. Now, 7 years after my return, I have two children and another on the way. My personal staff has increased to include a personal secretary, my own mother. She became available when the federal government cut back staff locally; it also works well with child-minding. Both mine and my wife's fathers are deceased, and my mother lives with us. I haven't taken any revenge on my annoyers, as they had suffered enough over the years wondering when I would act against them.