“I’ll be back for a visit soon,” I promise—words uttered willingly that would’ve had to be wrenched from my vocal cords two weeks ago. “Love you, Grams.”
“Love you too, Gigi.” As soon as she’s said the words, she pulls back and turns away. She’s way too proud to be seen crying. “Lu! Deedee! Let’s roll!”
I watch the three of them head for their bingo game, not bothering to wipe the tears on my cheeks until the three of them have disappeared around the corner.
With a big, shaky inhale, I turn to head home. Cat is supposed to drive me to the ferry in half an hour, so I step on the gas on the drive. The cart is so loud and shaky that it’s not until I pull into the driveway and park that I notice I received a text.
Eugene
No luck on the boundary. Mr. Wallace is anxious to hear back on it. I think he’d move forward with an offer if we could get him the information.
I clench my eyes shut. How in the world am I going to get him the information he needs? I’ve never had to deal with this sort of situation before, and I’ll be in a metal case in the sky in three hours.
Two or three more days here would make a world of difference.I could try my best to get Grams to see a doctor, and I could dig into the boundary thing. Once I’m in LA, I’ll have no choice but to leave it to Eugene.
I navigate to my contacts and pull up Meredith’s, then stare at her name for a full thirty seconds before tapping the call button. I need to tell her about that weird email anyway.
It rings enough times that I’m expecting voicemail any second when Meredith finally picks up.
“Gemma,” she says, voice full of surprise.
“Hi, Meredith. How are you?”
“Oh, you know. Hanging in there.”
I cock a brow. That’s a very un-Meredith answer. She’s not the type to bare her soul, though, and we don’t have the sort of relationship where I feel like I can ask a follow-up question. “So, I realize it’s Sunday, and I hate to do this onanyday of the week, but I have a few loose ends I feel the need to tie up before coming back home. I know I’ve already delayed once, but I was wondering if you guys would be okay if I come back on Wednesday instead of tomorrow?”
The silence on the other end is deafening. And so long.
“Meredith?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
And yet still not saying anything.“You know what? Never mind. I think I can manage things from th?—”
“Gemma.”
I go quiet, bracing for her to tell me she’s fed up with my sudden inordinate use of vacation time.
She blows out a breath. “I was going to talk to you about this first thing tomorrow morning when you got to the office, but…” Another big breath. “Things aren’t good here.”
My chest tightens. “Wh-what do you mean?”
“This isn’t public knowledge yet, so please keep it to yourself, okay?”
“Okay…”
“Our CEO has been engaging in seriously unethical behavior—pay-for-play type stuff, plus embezzlement and a laundry list of other things. I’ve been running around trying to do damage control for the past week and a half, but it’s not enough. More just keeps coming out. The story will be all over the news within a couple of days. I don’t see a way Insight survives it. So…take all the time you need, because I don’t think any of us will have jobs in a week anyway.”
Even amidst the nausea roiling in my stomach, my mind flits to the email I got from my client yesterday. “Harper & Flint emailed me yesterday telling me what a pleasure it’s been to work with me. Did they already know?”
“They were one of the clients who first tipped off the journalist heading up the story.”
The line goes quiet as I try to process it all. Insight is going under. I’m losing my job. Everything I’ve worked toward for years is going up in smoke because of something I have no control over.
“I’m so sorry, Gemma,” Meredith says.
“Me too.” But I’m not the only one suffering here. Meredith has worked at Insight even longer than I have. “Is there anything I can do?”
