My Handbag Drove Her Mad

Synopsis

My name is Katherine Ochoa. I was twenty-three years old and had just graduated from an average college. It was not an elite school, and it came with no prestige. After sending out dozens of resumes, I finally landed an internship offer at Averon Group. Averon Group specialized in smart home solutions, with a market value in the billions, and was one of the top players locally. To be honest, luck had played a big part in me getting in. But my brother had told me, "Don't tell anyone who I am. Earn your place here on your own merit, and if you can't cut it, come home." My brother was Ralph Ochoa, the CEO of Averon Group. I was his biological younger sister. Yet barely anyone in the entire company knew that. On the morning of my first day at work, I deliberately picked out a low-key outfit. I wore a white T-shirt, jeans, and canvas sneakers. The only thing that wasn't low-key was my handbag. It was a Hermes Birkin in elephant gray with gold hardware, a birthday gift my mom had given me the year before. My mother had said, "A girl out in the world needs to carry herself with well-deserved confidence." I thought about it, and ended up carrying it anyway. It wasn't to show off; it just felt comfortable to carry.