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Henry’s undergrad classes in the nearby community college were the one thing he looked forward to. They gave him a life outside of home. The classes gave him hope that he could have a career, just like everyone else around him. I wanted that for him.
“Easy-peasy,” I said with a laugh just as I noticed the air in the room stiffening. Someone important was about to walk in. I turned my attention back to the phone. “Now, I need to hang up,” I said quietly. “I’ll pick you up in the evening, after your classes, Henry. And remember?—”
“All right, all right. I’ll take my medicines,” he said in a much happier voice before hanging up.
I stared at the picture of Henry on my phone before pocketing it. Shit. I needed to make sure I could keep my job. Any job that would help me be the responsible, repentant elder sibling, determined to make amends for abandoning her brother that one night.
To my right, I heard two women resume speaking.
“He’s at the door. The one and only Mr. Tassater.”
The other woman sighed and muttered under her breath, “God, if I’m going to be fired, I’d take it from a guy like him.”
I looked quizzically at the two women just as someone tapped me on my left shoulder. A young woman with auburn hair and a beautiful blue sweater that I would totally kill to borrow was standing next to me. She was breathing a bit fast, and going by the looks of it, she was pregnant.
“I’m Amelia Miller,” she said in a whisper. “Executive assistant to Mr. Tassater,” she added.
“Oh! The assistant? Hey, would you know if it’s a mass layoff today?” I whispered back as the people around us turned to us at the mention of the L-word. “Or are we keeping our jobs?”
“This is hardly the place to be discussing that,” she said with a small frown at me. “Now, if you would please follow me.”
I picked up my box, and we slipped out of the conference room quietly. There was no man at the door, but I briefly saw a trace of a navy-blue suit head into the restrooms down the hallway.
I followed Amelia, who was walking slowly in the opposite direction in a well-lit, high-ceilinged hallway.
She glanced down at the brown cardboard box in my hands and simply said, “I’ve reserved meeting room 5A for you.”
“Just me?” I clarified as we walked, and Amelia nodded.
My heart sank.
It is as bad as I feared.
They were definitely firing me. Couldn’t they have waited until the end of the day at least? This was turning out to be a horrible morning. I turned to see the room she was pointing to and found it was occupied by a forty-something woman with short black hair and red-rimmed spectacles, looking stern.
This did not bode well for me.
My mouth went dry as I considered the possibilities. Were they really firing me in the midst of a conference meeting? Was this so that the others wouldn’t know?
My fingers twitched, and I wished I didn’t have to hear the words I knew were coming. Henry was going to be so disappointed.
Before I walked in, I heard a noise down the hallway behind us. For a fleeting second, I saw someone walk out of another room, and it was as though I’d seen a ghost. My heart caught in my mouth, and I froze, just as Amelia stood in front of me, blocking my view.
“This way, please, Ms. Nichols,” she said firmly.
4
CHLOE
Unable to ignore Amelia, I walked into the room. My mouth went dry as I went in alone, Amelia disappearing back the way we had come.
A large, rectangular table occupied the room, and the woman sitting at it looked up.
Seeing me, she smiled, if only stiffly, and shook my hand. “I’m Edith Simons, the head of HR at Tassater Inc. Please take a seat,” she said, pointing at the chair across from her.
I took a deep breath as I set my box to my left and sat down. An image of Henry flashed across my mind as she began to speak.
“Now, this isn’t going to be an easy conversation to have, Ms. Nichols,” Edith began, looking deeply apologetic.