Chapter 1
“You stupid bitch! You ruined my life!”
“Mrs. Sands, wait!” Zoe cried, holding her hands in front of her face as she desperately tried to back up in her small cubicle only to bang into the cheap, off-white plastic wall, leaving her with nowhere else to go and a seriously pissed off woman holding the extra-large iced coffee that Zoe had bought ten minutes earlier, coming her way.
“Please, don’t-”
Her words were cut off by a stunned gasp as twenty-four freezing ounces of her much-needed caffeine fix hit her in the face, neck, and chest, instantly drenching her.
“You’ll pay for what you did!” Mrs. Sands screamed, pulling her hand back to slap Zoe.
Thankfully someone, probably Mr. Sands, had already called security and the two large, burly guys that she passed every morning in the downstairs lobby grabbed Mrs. Sands and yanked her back before she could make good on the murderous glare that she was sending Zoe’s way.
“Bitch!” Mrs. Sands screamed, trying to lunge for Zoe as the guards dragged her away. The woman continued to kick and screech promises of revenge as she was carried off the tenth floor.
With a shaky hand, Zoe reached out and grabbed her wobbly office chair. She carefully sat down, making sure to keep most of her weight off the front left wheel. When the chair didn’t collapse and deposit her ass on the floor, again, she counted herself lucky.
“I told you to keep your mouth shut,” John, the office asshole, said in a bored tone as he walked past Zoe’s cubicle.
Yeah, he really had and she was kicking herself for not listening to him when she had the chance. With a groan, Zoe dropped her face into her hands and wondered if anyone would notice if she left work a little early today. Of course, they would, she thought miserably. The penny-pinching managers watched their employees like hawks, never missing a thing, ready to swoop in and attack at the slightest blunder.
She’d lost count of how many times she’d been written up for “excessive office supply waste” for not reusing paper clips, leaving her computer running for two minutes while she ran to the bathroom, throwing away paper instead of finding a new use for it, and her absolute favorite, using more than one staple on a packet. If she tried to leave even one minute early, they’d know and for the next week, they’d double her workload to get back the time they believed she owed them.
After three long years, Zoe was too tired to argue or care. At this point, she was resigned to coming in at eight-thirty on the dot, putting in eight and a half hours, working through her unpaid lunch break, as was required, and then going home to the new hell that she was beginning to hate.
Two months ago, when her landlord unceremoniously evicted her so that his eighteen-year-old daughter and her thirty-two-year-old boyfriend could have her apartment, she’d been desperate to find a decent apartment that she could afford on her meager salary.
When she found a beautiful two-level townhouse located in a decent neighborhood for two hundred dollars less than her old apartment, she’d snatched it up quickly, hoping that it was a sign that maybe things were going to start looking up for her. She really should have known better since nothing in life ever seemed to go her way.
Her first clue should have been the fact that the tenant renting the other unit in the townhouse was her new landlord’s nephew. Over the years, she’d dealt with that situation enough times that she should have realized from the start that it was going to be a problem. Landlord’s relatives were ruder, louder, and had a huge sense of entitlement that made them believe that it was okay to make the rest of the tenants’ lives a living hell. She’d learned early on not to complain to the landlord when his kid had all-night parties, shouting matches until three in the morning, or when their grandkids detonated water balloons in her mailbox. The result just wasn’t worth it.
So, when her new neighbor did things like park his pickup truck halfway in her parking spot, leaving her with no choice but to park on the street and risk a parking ticket, she shut her mouth and sucked it up. She knew enough to know that complaining wouldn’t help. Whenever he did something to piss her off, like steal her paper, blast his television all night, or track mud into their small hallway and all over her cute puppy-themed welcome mat, she bit her lip and kept quiet, reminding herself that even with the jerk next-door the townhouse was still the best place she’d ever lived in.
“What are you still doing here?” a harsh voice demanded.
Zoe looked up, half-afraid that she’d find Mrs. Sands standing there, ready for round two. Instead, she found the woman’s husband, Mr. Sands, standing in her cubicle opening, glaring at her with disgust. That was a little unexpected, considering that she was the one who’d realized that five million dollars had been embezzled over the past six years and found the proof that linked Mrs. Sands to the theft. Then again, she could certainly understand why he was in such a pissy mood since his wife had just screwed him over.
“I asked why you’re still here, Miss O’Shea. Your employment was terminated an hour ago. I expected you to leave immediately,” he said coldly.
“W-What?” Zoe asked, jumping to her feet quickly, too quickly. Her chair fell back with a loud groan while two of the wheels popped off and rolled somewhere beneath her desk. “Why am I fired?”
It didn’t make any sense. Most bosses would appreciate finding out that someone had stolen from them, right? She hadn’t expected them to be happy, but grateful wouldn’t exactly hurt, especially right now.
With a drawn-out sigh, Mr. Sands gestured for one of the security guards who’d dragged Mrs. Sands away to step forward. Zoe automatically took a nervous step back.
“Please remove her before she destroys any more company property,” Mr. Sands ordered, sounding bored as he stepped away.
Destroyed company property? With a frown, Zoe looked down at the chair that had given her nothing but problems over the last three years and by this point, consisted mostly of duct tape. Before she could tell him that the chair had been given to her already broken, the large security guard had her by the arm and her worn, black purse in the other hand and was dragging her towards the elevator.
“Hey!” Zoe said, desperately trying to dig her feet into the cheap, paper-thin carpet in a vain attempt to stop him. “Why am I being fired?” she asked, reaching out to grab the wall of one of the cubicles only to have the security guard yank her away. Desperate, she grabbed another wall. Damn cheap plastic walls, she thought as her hand slipped off the cubicle wall.
“I don’t understand why you’re firing me. I’m not the one who stole!” Zoe cried as she was dragged into the elevator. She reached out and slapped her hands against the edge of the elevator door to stop the doors from closing as she waited for an answer.
Mr. Sands shrugged. “Because you should have found it sooner,” he said, leaving her absolutely stunned.
Her hands dropped away, allowing the elevator doors to close and her world to crumble.
What the hell was she going to do now?
