Page 57 of The Kidnapped

“If you sent it, I don’t see it. Did you forget to copy me on it, like you did last time?”

“Maybe it went to your spam folder,” she said, making things up as she went along.

“It’s not in my spam, Raleigh. You were supposed to send it to the client and copy me on it, like always. I don’t have it, and my client doesn’t have it, either. They’re upset. And you don’t have to deal with them when they’re upset. I do.”

“Let me just resend it over to you right now,” she said.

“Forward me the original email you sent yesterday,” he replied.

“It’ll be faster if I–”

“Raleigh, you didn’t send it, did you?” Mr.Roman asked, letting out an exasperated sigh. “Forward me the original email if you did.”

“I’m sorry. I thought I did,” she said, knowing she’d been caught.

“What has been going on with you? I’ve never had these kinds of problems. Then, recently, it’s like you’re not on top of things at all. A simple email from me used to be enough. Now, I have to email you and follow up with a phone call when you don’t deliver.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I–”

“Raleigh, I can’t. I don’t have the time. Send the email to me and the client right now, please. Then, send me the invoice, and I’ll get your final payment over to you by end of day.”

“Final?” she checked.

“It’s just easier if I do this for myself until I can find someone else.”

“Mr. Roman, I–”

“I can’t, Raleigh. I’m sorry. I need someone reliable. My business is growing. I might as well just do this stuff myself until I can find someone who can be in the office and dedicate forty hours a week to me and not their other clients.”

“I’ll send you the invoice,” she replied, defeated.

“Thanks. I’d recommend maybe slimming down your number of clients or just making sure that you can take care of the ones you have. I’m not going to bad-mouth you or anything, but I can’t keep paying you when I’m doing a lot of the work.”

“I understand. I really am sorry,” Raleigh said.

“Send the email with the info?” he asked.

“I’ll do it right now,” she replied.

It was the least she could do. She’d screwed up several things for him over the past few weeks, and he had every right to fire her. It just wasn’t good news, and she needed more clients, not fewer. She had enough to get by now, but nothing saved, and that made her worry about the future. God, she’d worked so hard to start saving young in order to have money later, but now, it was all gone because someone had decided to take her daughter away from her, and she was spending everything she’d saved up trying to find her. The copy place down the street had donated the first batch of fliers, but she’d gone back day after day, printing more to hang around her town and every town in three surrounding counties. And she’d do it all again, too. She’d spend every dime she had if it meant having Eden back.

While Raleigh would still be able to make her mortgage payment, and she had enough for food and other bills, she’d really wanted that recommendation from Mr.Roman to put on her website. At least, he wasn’t going to bad-mouth her. That was about the only good thing. In the meantime, she was friends with a network of VAs who sometimes shared clients and work. It wasn’t something they told their clients, but she could always let them know she had the bandwidth to take on projects. She’d make less per hour by doing this, but it could still work until she picked up a client to replace Mr.Roman and maybe a few others.

Raleigh looked down at her phone when it dinged at her, expecting a text from Mr.Roman asking why he didn’t have the email yet, but instead, she saw Hollis’s name and opened the app. She quickly typed her response and then made sure the email was sent this time before she wrapped up by getting Mr.Roman the invoice for the few hours of work she’d done for him this week and closed her computer. Then, she went to change.

???

“Over here,” Hollis said, waving.

Raleigh smiled. She’d been doing that a lot lately, and she hadn’t smiled and laughed this much even since before that day. Hollis seemed to bring it out in her. What was more interesting to her about it was that she hadn’t felt guilty about it, even though, from the first moment she’d lost her daughter, the guilt had sunk into her, deep down inside. Everything Raleigh did made her feel awful. When she’d pour herself a glass of water, she worried Eden was thirsty. When she’d sit down for dinner, once she could actually keep something down, she felt guilty because her little girl might be hungry and unable to eat. As Raleigh walked toward Hollis, though, she didn’t feel guilty about joining her for a drink, and that worried her.

“Thanks for the invite,” she said, sitting down across from Hollis in the booth.

“Thanks for coming.”

“It’s early for you. We usually don’t get together until after your mom is asleep.”

“She told me I was hovering and that I needed to get out of the house,” Hollis replied, laughing. “She’s probably right: I’ve been a little all over her lately.”

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