by Dinah McLeod
"I'm sorry," I apologized meekly. It seemed like the best thing to say, given the situation, and it didn't hurt that I meant every word.
"I appreciate that, but one more outburst out of you and you will be going over my knee. I won't be asking next time, either."
I winced. I knew him well enough to take him at his word. "Yes, Sir."
The sternness in his voice had mollified somewhat, but was still underneath his words. "Have a good day."
I expected him to ask when he'd see me next, but he didn't. I gave him another quick, tight smile and fled while I could still sit properly. I found my shoes by the door—why hadn't I thought to look there before?—and slid them on quickly before making a run for it. It wasn't until I was already backing out of the driveway that I realized two things: one, I'd forgotten my coffee and more importantly, Brandon hadn't kissed me goodbye. For a brief instant, I considered running back in, but quickly decided against it. It was just too dangerous for me to be around him right now, considering the heavy load of guilt I was carrying. Just being near him made me want to unload it, knowing that he would take care of it, and I couldn't afford to do that. Not yet, anyway.
The sooner I got my job back, the better. Then everything could go back to normal and I wouldn't have to keep lying.
When I got to my apartment, I was just walking in when I felt my phone buzz. I snatched it out of my purse and saw that I had two new messages: one was from Mark, received at 6:43 and one from Jack sent only a minute earlier. My pulse picked up speed at the sight of Mark's name flashing on my phone. I decided to wait until I was safely inside before I considered opening it. After I'd let myself in and secured the chain on the door, I laid the phone down on the breakfast nook and went to fix coffee. There was no way I was reading his message without caffeine in my system. As the water hissed through my coffeemaker, I kept glancing surreptitiously at my cell phone as though I expected it to explode any moment.
Maybe that's the answer: put a bomb in his office, I thought with a grim little smile.
It wasn't until I was having my first sip of coffee, feeling the heat and caffeine spread throughout my body, that I felt brave enough to open the message. I walked over to the breakfast nook and took another long sip before gingerly picking up the phone. I clicked on Mark's message first and inhaled sharply as I read:
Good morning, Karen. I was wanting to touch base with you to remind you of our conversation yesterday, in the event that you have a short memory. If you come back to this office, I WILL call the press and give them the spellbinding story of a former CEO out of control. I've already been working on it. Thought you should know.
I swallowed hard as I opened the attachment, skimming the headline. How far can one woman fall? Rags to riches and back again.
My heart was pounding a hard tattoo in my chest when I dropped the phone, barely blinking when I heard it crash to the floor. This was just what I'd been afraid of. He'd cornered me so effectively, blasting me with my biggest fear: that after all this, after how far I'd come, I was nothing special. I'd lost my company—if I couldn't get that back, where did that leave me? Unemployed, and the way things were going, soon to be single. I cringed at the thought. I had to come clean. I had to tell him right away. I had to make things right before…I couldn't think about it, having to live without him was too awful to contemplate.
I bent down to pick up the phone, determined to call Brandon and ask him to meet me here, before I lost my nerve. Thankfully, the phone still seemed in working order—now that I wasn't getting a paycheck, I should probably be more careful with it. I was about to click on the dial pad when I saw the unread message from my former assistant, Jack. I debated for a second before clicking on the message. It couldn't be any worse than Mark's, could it?
Ms. Donahue I'd like to meet with you today to discuss some things that will interest you. Please meet me at seven at Bronson Park.
My heart began to settle down and after I'd read and reread the message several times, I let a smile steal across my face. It looked like I was back in the game after all.
Chapter 4
Brandon
Something was up with Karen. I'd pretended not to notice and let her quarrelsome moods go on for long enough. I knew it had to be something to do with losing her job, but I had the sneaking suspicion that she wasn't being completely honest with me. It wasn't just the fact I knew she wasn't a quitter, it was the way she clammed up whenever I broached the subject. Both were suspicious enough, but put together, it was pretty good evidence that she was leaving me in the dark about something. But what? That was what I couldn't seem to figure out.
At the end of the day, I knew all I could do was trust her. Sure, I could try to browbeat her into giving me the truth, but what kind of man would that make me? Hopefully she'd wrap her head around this—whatever this was—soon and come back to me.
"All right, everyone, settle down," I called out over the din of talking students. Almost instantly, every mouth closed and I had twenty-six pairs of eyes on me. I'd had fellow teachers ask me how I managed to keep such strict order in my classroom. I'd laughed and shrugged it off—how did you explain that when you demanded authority, people gave it to you? "Your homework last night was to read chapters seven and nine and write a comparative analysis of the 1900s and how times have changed sociologically." I surveyed the room and made a mental note of who looked like they were planning on daydreaming through class and those who looked like they hadn't done the homework. "Anyone got any thoughts? Kevin?"
The boy looked shell-shocked and I had to hide a smile. "Uh…well, I thought the reading was kind of boring, actually."
There were snickers all around following his pronouncement and this time I let them see my smile. "Yeah, I thought the same thing when I was your age. But we can draw parallels from the past that can help us understand human nature. Anyone want to share?"
"Mr. F?"
I nodded at Sylvia, the shy blond in front who rarely spoke up.
"I thought it was interesting how women didn't have the right to vote and then they fought for it, sort of like how other groups are fighting for rights today."
"Very good, Sylvia. Anyone else?"
"Look what happened when woman got the right to vote," Kevin piped up, stage whispering. "The whole world went crazy. Maybe the parallel, or whatever, is that life was better when the men were in charge."
Oh, great. Just what I needed, some kid strutting around calling himself a man. I could already see the girls in the class sitting up straighter in their desks, sharpening their claws and preparing to do battle. "That's enough, Kevin."
"Come on, you've got to agree with me, Mr. F."
"Kevin—"
"So what do you think?" Another girl, Julia, spoke up. She was glaring daggers at Kevin, a look that I knew would be aimed at me the minute I misstepped.
"I think that it was a long time ago, and—"
"Oh, come on, Mr. F. That's crap!" Normally shy Sylvia shocked the room, myself included, by snapping. "You have to have an opinion."
"Yeah!" Kevin exclaimed, his cry echoed by many of the other male students.
If I didn't act fast, I would have a full-blown riot on my hands and class had barely started. "Okay, everyone, quiet." I said it firmly without any room for argument and one by one, the students fell silent, even if they looked unhappy about it—which most of them did. "You want to know what I think? Here it is: I think that women having rights is important. Every person, regardless of gender is entitled to certain rights. I do think that feminism, like many other things, has gotten out of hand in certain areas—" I held up my hands to stop any protests, "just like I'm sure some men took things too far when their wives didn't have the right to vote. Now, let's turn to chapter 9. Julia, I want you to start reading page 209 aloud. And Sylvia? Please see me after class."
The girl didn't look happy at the pronouncement and I could see that the members of my class were still riled for a fight, but when Julia began to
read everyone started to settle down and I breathed an inward sigh of relief. High school students could be so impassioned that things could get out of hand very quickly. It was hard enough for any teacher to maintain order all the time without adding human rights debates to the mix.
Just then, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was almost eleven. I wouldn't be able to check the message until lunchtime which was over an hour away. My fingers itched to grab it and take a peek, but I resisted. I had a firm no cellphone policy and it had to extend to even me, or I'd have two riots on my hands. One, though averted, was enough for me, thank you.
I hoped it was Karen. She'd been so distant lately and I just didn't know what to do. I'd tried gifts, sex and wine. I'd tried talking it out, but she didn't seem interested. The only thing left was a firm, hard spanking and my fingers itched anew at the thought—though in an entirely different manner. I'd feel terrible if it turned out not to be the right thing, but at the same time, she had me at a loss. Besides which, she'd deserved a spanking for the last few days at least. I was trying to be nice and understanding, but maybe what she really needed from me was to take charge like I usually did. Maybe some form of normalcy was just what she needed.
Get your head in the game, man, I scolded myself. Julia had stopped reading and every student was looking at me for their next assignment. "Okay, guys, let's discuss what we just heard. Anyone have an opinion?" I sure hoped so, because right now I wasn't even sure what had just been read. The sooner Karen got back to her normal self, the better for everyone involved.
***
Karen
The entire way to Bronson Park I wondered if I was making a mistake. Maybe Jack was only pretending to be on my side—that was why he wanted to meet out of the way, right? So no one would see us? My reputation was at stake, because I had no doubt that Mark had every intention of carrying through with his threat, as well as Jack's job. Was it possible that he'd been sent by Mark as a double agent? It was odd how their texts had come in mere moments of each other's. It could be a coincidence, though I didn't often believe in them.
Still, the thought of Jack being covert in any capacity made me smile. He'd been my assistant almost since I'd started the company and in truth, he was overqualified. I'm sure that when he graduated from Stanford he hadn't pictured becoming a glorified assistant—in the beginning, I'd called it the director of operations, but the only one who directed was me. As I drove, I couldn't help but remember all the mean things I'd said to him—the names I'd called him, the ways I'd strove to humiliate him. I'd even called him Jackie, devising a whole new way to mock him.
Of course this was a setup. What else could it be? He had absolutely no reason to want to help me. But at this point, I was almost there and I was too committed to turn around. It wasn't like I had that many options staring me in the face right now; it couldn't hurt to at least hear what he had to say.
Hopefully he didn't call me here just to curse me out, now that he can, I thought ruefully as I parked the car. He wasn't hard to find—no sooner than I'd stepped out of the car, I saw him walking toward me.
"I thought it was a good evening for a stroll. Care to join me?"
I eyed him speculatively. He seemed different somehow, from the whiny, bungling man I thought I'd known. Was it because now that I had no authority over him, no power to hurt him, he was more at ease around me? "Sure, I guess." I fell into step beside him and we began to walk down the sidewalk.
"I'm glad you came. I wasn't sure you would."
"I wasn't sure I was going to, either. Why did you ask me here, Jack?"
"I know what you must be thinking."
"Do you now?" I asked with interest.
"You're wondering if Mr. Patterson sent me. I…I know what he did to you. He told me, when you left. I know what he's threatening you with."
It shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. It did more than that—it set my teeth on edge. "I see."
"Don't worry, no one else knows. He just couldn't resist bragging to someone and I was there, that's all."
I supposed I should have been grateful that Jack was the one he'd chosen to confide in, seeing as how, at least for the moment, he didn't seem to have any intentions of outing me. Not that he wouldn't have every reason to. Hell, if I were him, I'd do it in a heartbeat. "Well, ah…thank you. I appreciate your discretion."
Jack merely nodded and kept walking.
I took in his unruly black curls, the square black rims and his freckled face. He had a pointy chin and a long, lean frame. He was familiar to me, yet as I looked at him, I thought I was seeing something new for the first time. "Can I just ask you why?"
"Why what?"
"Why you'd…do this. For me." I hated how tiny and insecure I sounded, but it couldn't be helped.
"Because I've worked for you for a long time," he replied, sounding surprised I'd asked. "You've been signing my paychecks for the last six years, Ms. Donahue. I believe strongly in loyalty."
"Mark is signing them now," I pointed out.
"Yes, but…he doesn't deserve to be there."
I stopped and turned toward him, putting my hand on his wrist so that he'd stop, too. "Jack, I really appreciate all this, I really do, but I don't deserve it. I've been horrible to you, a complete and total bitch. If you threw me to the wolves, no one would blame you. In fact, you'd probably get a standing ovation."
"Ms. Donahue, I'm not interested in throwing you to the wolves just because I have the opportunity. In addition to loyalty, I am a firm believer in karma."
I winced as his words hit home. "I suppose you think I'm getting what I deserve then. And you'd be right."
"That wasn't what I was trying to say—"
"No, it's okay," I assured him. "Really, I appreciate your candor."
"And…there's something else I thought you should know. When I said Mr. Patterson doesn't deserve to be there, it's not just because he went behind your back to the board. I said it because he did it based on a lie."
My mouth dropped open. Did he know something I didn't? How was this possible?
"Secretaries hear everything," he said with a grin as if he'd read my mind.
"And what did you hear?"
"Well, Mr. Patterson told the board that you had let the company down, that the merger had fallen through because of a loophole in the contract you'd failed to notice."
I nodded. I'd pretty much figured all this out for myself.
"What he neglected to mention was that he himself modified the original contract and forwarded it to the CEO of SunFilm."
"James Fern?" I asked weakly, feeling as though I was in a daze.
"Yes."
"But that's not possible. I had that contract under lock and key…" Of course it was possible. I wasn't the only one with keys to my office—my VP had one as well. What a stupid, stupid person I was turning out to be. "He broke into my office," I said dully.
"It certainly looks that way. I'm sorry, Ms. Donahue. I hate to be the one to tell you, but I thought you should know."
"No, thank you for telling me, Jack. You just might save the day."
He tilted his head and looked at me quizzically. In the past, it had irritated me, but now I found it kind of endearing. "Do you think there's something you can do?"
"I'm not sure yet exactly what I can do, but you better believe I'm going to do something." My mind was whirling with the possibilities. I was unbelievably pissed—first, at myself for my stupidity and secondly, with the lying, conniving scumbag that now ran my company.
"That sounds more like you, Ms. Donahue."
I returned his smile. "Jack, don't you think it's time you started calling me Karen?"
"Oh, no, I don't think I could do that, Ms. Donahue."
"That's okay. We'll work on it."
***
I was polished and dressed to the nines when I walked into the reception room at SunFilm the next morning. I didn't expect James Fern to take any o
f my calls, so if I had a chance of seeing him at all, it had to be in person. Even then, I wasn't expecting much, but as the saying went, where there was a will, I was going to steamroll over the obstacle until I got my way.
"May I help you?" The middle-aged, prematurely graying receptionist asked, looking at me blandly.
"I'm here to see Mr. Fern."
"Do you have an appointment?"
"No." I gave her my sweetest smile.
"Who may I tell him is waiting?"
I briefly thought about lying but decided against it at the last minute. "Karen Donahue."
"Karen…the Karen Donahue?" she echoed, looking more alert now.
I gave her a tight lipped smile as my only reply.
"Well, Mr. Fern is quite busy, I don't know that he has any free time today. Or tomorrow," she added pointedly.
"I understand. I was hoping you could just tell him I'm here."
She huffed at me and stood up, giving me a look that was both dubious and scathing before she turned and headed for her boss's office. There was no doubt what people at SunFilm thought of me.
I was surprised when she returned a few moments later and beckoned me to follow her with a crook of her finger. Clearly, she didn't approve of her boss agreeing to see me.
James Fern sat behind an impressive mahogany desk and beamed at me as I walked into the room as though we were old friends. "Ms. Donahue, how lovely to see you. Would you like a cup of coffee?"
"That would be wonderful, thank you."
"Linda, get us a pot of coffee and some of those muffins, would you?"
With another loud hmph Linda swept from the room with a flounce of her hair.
"Well, how are you?"
His friendly manner was making me a bit nervous. I'd prepared for his smug triumph, for him to insult me or ignore me, not for this. I hated not knowing how to act. "Ah, well, as I'm sure you've heard things at Dusty Records were shaken up quite a bit."
"Hmm." He put a finger to his chin and didn't comment.
