S, F, and T

 

Their clients called them Soft, but the official company name registered with the federal government of Elle was Silverio, Farouk, and Twain.

Yes, the same Twain name as Hallie’s, Truly had traced. The original Twain, Hallie’s aunt, had created the company with her two business partners during the third wave of migration to Elle. A time when the ruling class of founding immigrants had already staked their claims in the country’s nascent economic system during the first wave, and had no inclination to welcome any newcomers into their ranks, which were headquartered in Lincoln-Cheyney. 

In this intolerant environment, Twain, Farouk, and Silverio made a way out of no way, forging deals among their fellow commoners, hiring the brightest, not best connected consultants, and turning their lemons into a lemonade factory, staying under the radar yet highly profitable in Rose of Sharon.

Hallie knew that Truly and her plebeian beginnings would align those of the company’s members. What Hallie wondered was whether Truly feared falling back to those beginnings. And whether that unconfirmed fear was enough to keep the new recruit in line.