As I climbed into bed, I said a little prayer that maybe things would improve this coming week—at least a little. With my new phone, hopefully I wouldn’t be hearing from Anonymous again. And maybe Cousin Robert the lawyer could help me straighten out my credit and get Madison to back off. And the results of my toxicity tests should come back too. I knew they’d be clean, so hopefully DCS would see that any “concerns” about my pregnancy were bullshit and dismiss the whole case.
I closed my eyes and went to sleep with hope.
I was responding to a flurry of work emails in my cubicle Monday morning when a text came in from Ellie:Robert is willing to help as a favor to Mom, no charge. He can come to town the weekend after next.
Yes!I thought gratefully. This was great news, though waiting two weeks wasn’t ideal. But it would have to do, especially since his help was free.
Sam appeared behind me in my cubicle. “Hey, Savannah.”
I didn’t like the tone of his voice. I turned around slowly. “Hi, Sam … what’s going on?”
He grimaced, then sighed. “We didn’t get the Pedro Torres account.”
My stomach dropped. “Oh no … oh God … how’s Meredith?”
“Not great.”
“Who did they choose instead?”
“DigiMark. On a positive note, they said we were a close second.”
“Did they say why they chose them over us?”And did they say anything about my lateness affecting their decision?
“No. They didn’t go into detail.”
Crap. Meredith will definitely blame me. Am I about to get fired?I closed my eyes for a second as my panic started to rise.
Sam shoved his hands in his pockets. “Look—my advice is, lay low. Avoid Meredith, if possible. And do a damn good job on the Sampson account.”
I nodded glumly.
Despite my efforts, running into Meredith was inevitable. As I passed her in the hallway later that day, her ice-cold glare sent a chill through my bones that I couldn’t shake for the rest of the day.
As I dragged my weary body through the door of the apartment that evening, I rubbed my belly anxiously.Please, God, please don’t let me lose my job. I’m inrealtrouble if that happens.
I plopped down on my couch and stared blankly at the ceiling, taking deep breaths to try and calm my anxiety. The sound of my intercom buzzing startled me out of my reverie. I shuffled over to the door and pressed the button. “Hello?”
“Savannah, it’s Max.” He sounded tense. “I need to talk to you.”
Great. More drama.I buzzed him in.
A moment later, he pushed past me into the living room. “Savannah, what the hell is going on?” He stood with his hands on his hips, staring at me expectantly.
“What do you mean?”
“Why the hell is DCS calling me with—” He made air quotes with his fingers. “—‘concerns about my baby’s health and safety’?”
My face melted into a bitter frown. “Why don’t you ask Madison?” I asked flippantly.
“What does she have to do with anything?”
“A DCS investigator showed up Saturday morning. Apparently, someone sent them a bunch of pictures of me at the High Note that made it look like I was drunk. Guess who was at the club that night? Madison. She went on and on about how I wasputting the baby in danger even though all my friends can confirm I was drinking virgin drinks.”
“That doesn’t mean Madison contacted DCS,” he argued.
“Listen to me, Max—I’ve been trying to tell you, she’s been doing crap like this for months now, trying to make me look like I’m too irresponsible to be a good mother. Oh, and while we’re on the subject, she installed a spy app on my phone so she could track my location and delete my texts. That explains why you missed my text about the ultrasound. Then she sent me a fake text from my boss that made me late to a very important potential client meeting, so, basically, I’ll be amazed if I still have a job by the end of the week.”
Max huffed out his breath. “I’m sorry, Savannah, but this is a huge leap. You’re assuming that every bad thing that happens to you is Madison trying to sabotage you. You’re making her out to be this villain, but do you realize she cares about this baby too?”
