ELA Project

Tonight was the night. Taylor was about to ask the biggest, most important, and most terrifying question of his entire life. Considering how poorly he had kept up his typical cool manor, the stressed formality he awkwardly wore throughout the evening, and the romantic location he had chosen for a typical Friday night date, it wasn’t that surprising seeing what had intended to be a surprise clearly not being one, as anyone could discern Rachel’s growing excitement throughout the evening. The moment he was preparing had come, and he wasn’t going to make her wait any longer. “Rachel, I’m not that great at expressing my feelings through words, but I want you to know the next few I say are coming from the deepest passions of my heart. Rachel, I love you more than everything, and nothing would make me happier than to spend eternity with you. Will you marry me?” Taylor would remember the beauty of this moment forever as Rachel’s smile swelled, tears began trickling down her face, and her arms warmly embraced him. They held each other tightly for a long time, illuminated by an alluring autumn sunset. That night Taylor committed himself, he would do everything from that moment on, he would do everything to care for, protect, and love Rachel for the rest of his life. Taylor Richardson and Rachel Thomsen had been dating for the past year, and while they both had wanted their relationship to become more serious for some time, Taylor kept delaying. Rachel had always been comfortable throughout her life, and Taylor’s largest concern marrying her was whether or not he’d be able to give her the lifestyle she’d had grown accustomed to. Taylor, having only shortly finished his education at the start of their relationship, worked himself to death to secure a lucrative career as a financial analyst. He now felt ready to commit to this relationship, and felt great that he no longer needed help to succeed financially. Shortly after their engagement began, Taylor had the opportunity to meet met Rachel’s family, the Thomsen’s. There’s a difference between being well off (like how Rachel described her upbringing), and the absolutely dripping in wealth status her family had really raised her in. This hurt, Taylor could never give Rachel this. Taylor was stunned twice that evening, first when he saw their incredible home with its marble pillars and perfectly manicured hedges; and the second time when Mr. Thomsen, after discovering Taylor’s career skills, offered him a job in his company dwarfing his current salary. Taylor was hopeful hoped working with for his father-in-law would make a positive and secure work environment, and Rachel was thrilled it would allow her to be near her family. He felt wrong accepting such a good opportunity with no work on his part, but was grateful nonetheless. He didn’t really have a choice. Mr. Thomsen, was the head of a major investment company, 10s of millions of dollars went through his workers hands on the daily. This was certainly a real step up compared to Taylor’s current prior company in his young career, and at times was a stressful job knowing how much was at stake; but Taylor learned quickly, and as his knowledge grew, so did his status in the company. It was obvious Mr. Thomsen liked him. Taylor was naturally gifted in this department, but didn’t think he deserved appreciate the level of recognition he received from his father-in-law. It was embarrassing, because Taylor sometimes noticed Mr. Thomsen treating other employees with less respect, knowing he would be treated similarly if he hadn’t married his daughter. Taylor actually feared Mr. Thomsen. Mr Thomsen constantly replaced staff members with new ones, and he was never afraid to take large leaps and get new helping hands. Taylor was very careful at work, he worried about doing anything to displease displeasing Thomsen, knowing his competitive salary, and positive relationship with his wife and her family might depend on it. This went on rather uneventfully for the first year, until one day Mr. Thomsen approached Taylor’s desk with a request. Mr. Thomsen asked Taylor to discover a stock that would grow in value, but shortly after would crash, offhandedly commenting he wanted to invest a client’s assets into it. Taylor tried gently asking asked him why he wanted to hurt someone’s finances, afterwhich Mr. Thomsen stared for a moment, then responded in a disturbingly casual voice: “I’ve asked for your help Taylor. Do not let your family down” after which he promptly left Taylor’s office. This scared Taylor, he had seen it too many times before: Mr. Thomsen asks an employee a question, they don’t respond the way he wanted, and a new more cooperative replacement claims their position. Taylor had too much at stake here, he needed to keep this job, he would do anything to provide for his pregnant wife. He had been too careless, why had he let himself be been so casual around his boss? No, even if it was wrong, Taylor would do what he was told; he may never wouldn’t get the opportunity to work in such a good company again. Discovering a falling market wasn’t immoral, he wasn’t the one causing the wrongdoing wrongdoer, but Taylor felt horrible knowing his abilities were being taken advantage of for evil. For now, Taylor would comply and stay silent. Things didn’t stop there though, because for the past year, Mr. Thomsen had been working hard to build a good relationship with Taylor, the only reason he hired Taylor in the first place was because after seeing a he met this young capable man willing to do anything to please his daughter, he knew he could take advantage of him. Now that he had securely gotten him on a tight leash of commitment, he knew he could push further. Every request was worse than the last, and whether Taylor was asked to encourage stocks he knew the company was about to hostile takeover, to alter historical data to better the reputation of the company, or things obviously not in the proper bounds of his job, he felt he was diving deeper into an inescapable situation. He needed to leave. Was it worth his integrity to work for Mr. Thomsen and his corrupt company? Would Rachel believe her father had secretly been forcing asking her husband to do immoral things despite them appearing to have a good relationship for over a year? What about John, his newborn son? Taylor didn’t know what to do, but he knew he couldn’t keep hiding this from Rachel forever. One night, Taylor hired a babysitter for John, and took Rachel out for dinner. He explained the whole situation from the beginning, with his concerns about wanting to provide for her, his discomforts at the office with her father, and the wrong things he was asked to do. This was hard for Taylor, opening up about his these feelings felt like a big risk. After saying everything he wanted, he waited for her response. “Taylor, we are a team. I wish you had told me earlier what you just said, because we could’ve worked this out a long time ago. and you wouldn’t have had to endure so much. I love you Taylor, and I want you to be happy too. I’m sad you chose to put up with my father because you thought it would keep make me happy, because I’m also willing to sacrifice for your happiness. I want to help you Taylor, we can do anything as long as we work together.” Taylor didn’t know what was going to happen next regarding his employment, but now that he had expressed his feelings, and finally learned how wrong they were, he didn’t need to be scared anymore.