“You can’t just saddle me with her,” I told them in the hallway.
Garrett rounded on me. “This is your fault.”
“I didn’t send her any messages,” I insisted. “You need to get rid of her.”
“Fine. I’ll find some other assignment for her,” my brother told me.
“No. Fire her,” I said flatly.
“I’m not just going to fire her. You heard Meg; there will be a lawsuit.”
“This is my company too,” I snapped. “You wouldn’t have anything to sell if I didn’t develop new drugs. I want her out.”
Kaitlyn met me down the hall as I went to the break room to try and calm down and will Sadie to disappear.
“Is everything alright? I saw the police here.”
“It’s that girl, Sadie, from the restaurant.”
“She works here now?”
“There’s something up with her. She claims she met me on a dating app, but obviously that never happened.”
“She’s clearly lying,” Kaitlyn said. “She’s up to something. Maybe I can look into it? We could discuss it more on a redo of our date. You free this week?”
Right. The date that I didn’t really want to do again. This was going to be a problem.
“Maybe another time. I have family stuff,” I said.
“Of course,” she said brightly.
Sadie was standing in the office, fidgeting with her purse, when I returned.
“You’re not staying here,” I told her flatly. “I don’t know what happened, but something’s going on. This is some sort of ruse or trick.”
“It’s not a trick,” Sadie said stubbornly.
“I don’t want to hear it. My brother is looking for another department for you to move to. Until that time, just sit there and don’t distract me. I am a very busy man.”
6
Sadie
Ihad never been so humiliated in my life. Actually, scratch that—there was the time my dress flew off in middle school. I had been wearing a wraparound skirt, and it got caught in the bus door. Then there had been that time in college I ate a king cake at a Mardi Gras party and accidentally swallowed the plastic baby Jesus and had to have surgery. Oh, and last night when I had been arrested in front of the whole town.
Maybe today wasn’t the most humiliated I’d ever been, but it was definitely a top-ten moment. Now I had to sit on the couch and do nothing while Parker typed on his computer. I wanted to screech at him and demand that he listen to reason. But I also could not afford to be fired—Iliterallycould not afford it. When my father ran off with my grandmother’s money, including my college fund, he also managed to open credit cards in my and Granny’s names and take out tens of thousands of dollars in loans. I had creditors harassing me constantly, wanting the money that my father, of course, had never repaid.
I should have filed a police report, but I had been raised to believe family comes first. I didn’t want to have my father arrested. I still believed that it wasn’t his fault. His girlfriend, Moonbeam, had corrupted him. Now they were off somewhere in a doomsday cult in the desert.
I just needed a job. Then I could start paying back the debt. Maybe the debt collectors would give a discount if I paid a lump sum. What did it matter if my credit score was wrecked? It wasn’t as if I had the money to afford a car, an apartment lease, or (ha!) a house, right?
Just keep your job.
“I’m going to the restroom,” I announced, standing up and adjusting my skirt.
Parker looked up, eyes dark, but didn’t say a word.
Okay, so apparently I now have good evidence that being a billionaire doesn’t mean you’ll be happy. Apparently you can have a ton of money that would solve any and every problem and still be a miserable, unpleasant person. Good to know.
