Page 23 of The Homewrecker's Fate

“That’s it!” The owner, Mr. Porter growled as he walked away, headed for Phillip, our Human Resources Director who was just down the hall talking to Cliff. Inwardly, I sighed. Outwardly, I yanked my arm back out of Rich’s grasp.

“Thank you,” I whispered to him.

“You don’t have to thank me, Avi. This is all my fault.”

“I know that,” I snapped at him.

“Looks like Karma keeps paying it forward. The big boss went directly to HR, there’s a company-wide meeting this morning, and look – trouble in broken home paradise for the cheater and his whore!”

“Mary Keaton!” The quiet woman from the elevator hissed. “You are overstepping and frankly, it’s an ugly look on you – worse than anything you’re accusing anyone else of in this office. Not only have you escalated to violence in the workplace, but this continuing harassment of coworkers, especially over something that is not your business, is not okay.” With that, the woman – whose name I didn’t know – walked off toward our largest meeting room.

I ignored the bitch and my ex and took off for my office, so I could get a jump on packing up my things. I would have to hope for the best because if I wasn’t fired for causing a disturbance in the office again, then it wouldn’t matter because I wasn’t about to stay somewhere everyone thought it was okay to get physical with me, especially knowing I’m pregnant, let alone all the verbal abuse I’d been taking.

I glanced around my office and sighed as I realized I’d probably need several boxes to pack up all my belongings. It was amazing how much personal crap had accumulated since I’d started working there two years ago. Still, I could at least fit a few of the more important things into my handbag, just in case they didn’t give me time to clear my own things out. Who knew what would get pilfered if I waited and they had someone else pack up my belongings. Once again, I found myself cursing the day they ever asked Rich to come here and help work on that stupid account.

Before I could even get a better inventory done of all the things I needed to pack, my boss, Mr. Higgins, entered my office – without knocking – and stared at me as I put the letter opener my father had given me into my purse.

“Do you think you might need a weapon at the meeting?” He asked, amusement clear in his tone.

“Just making sure I have the things that mean the most with me.” He eyed me curiously and cocked his head to the side in question. When I said nothing else, he cleared his throat.

“I came to ask that you get to the meeting a little earlier than everyone else.”

I nodded, closed and locked my drawer, and headed in his direction. He moved so that I could walk out of the room first and then followed me to the largest conference room we had. It was the only one that would fit everyone, and even then, it would be mostly standing room as it wasn’t equipped to seat so many. When we got there, Mr. Porter and Phillip were already seated. Rich stood at the back of the room grabbing a coffee and bottle of water as I was guided to take the seat next to Mr. Higgins.

Maybe they had an ounce of heart and decided to fire me before everyone else showed up. Just as I thought that, the entire rest of the human resources team walked in and took a seat. Well, I guess that almost made it official.

One of them hadn’t sat down and instead came over to me and put her hand on my shoulder.

“I am a qualified emergency medical tech, with over two-years of experience working part time on an ambulance. I wanted to check in with you to see if you were okay. I heard you were assaulted on the way into the office today and took a spill.”

“I never hit the ground.” Despite her kindness in checking on me, my hackles went up. It was crazy that I questioned everyone’s motives these days. Here was a kind young woman asking if I needed looking after, and all I could think was that she might be doing it so I wouldn’t sue the company if anything happened.

“Be that as it may, sometimes just jolting wrong or forced movement can be enough to cause problems. If you experience any feelings of dizziness, bleeding, cramping, or other problems, please let me know. You can just raise your hand and I will come to you without you needing to say a word, okay?”

“Okay,” I muttered as my hand instinctively went to cradle my belly. She had me concerned about losing more than just my job now. I might hate my baby’s father, but I didn’t want to lose my daughter, especially not because some hateful woman blamed me for something that wasn’t my fault. She hated me for Rich’s situation like she was his wife. Meanwhile, his wife – the woman he actually cheated on – had basically become my closest friend and confidant. My world had become an increasingly strange place.

“That was why we wanted you in before everyone else,” Mr. Higgins explained as Rich came over and set a bottle of water in front of me. I glared at his gesture. If it wasn’t for him and his lying, none of this would be happening right now. I wasn’t stupid. This spur-of-the-moment meeting had been called on account of our affair and the blowback it was having in the office now that Rich had transferred to our branch.

I didn’t bother saying anything or touching the water Rich had given me. My eyes tracked him as he moved around the table and took the seat opposite mine. Great. Just what I needed. It would give everyone more fodder for the pitchfork brigade to talk about around the water cooler.

Once everyone finally made it into the room, the chatter immediately quieted as Mr. Porter stood up, yanked down his suit jacket to make himself look more presentable, as if the temporary crease or two from sitting for ten minutes had diminished his authority somehow.

“We have some staffing issues to talk about, new work guidelines, and a rather unorthodox announcement,” he admitted as his eyes met with Rich’s. My ex frowned and gave him a curt nod before standing as well. He also did the suit jacket tug that made me inwardly roll my eyes. So much pomp and circumstance for me to sit through just to get fired. Because – yeah – I just knew that I was the staffing issue.

“I asked to be able to address our entire branch at once, so there was no mistaking what needed to be said. I’ve heard that people are saying some pretty awful things about Aviva behind her back, and as I witnessed myself this morning, they’re doing it to her face as well.”

There were various snickers and chuckles throughout the room, as if it was a laughing matter. I wondered what they would think if they were to spend a day, week, or months in my shoes living with the fallout of someone else’s lies as if they had been my own burden to bear.

“When I came here, in a part-time capacity to work on a special account, it was never my intention to step outside of my marriage with anyone. My marriage wasn’t in the greatest of places at the time, but it was something we thought would resolve over time. It was implausible to me that I would ever cheat on my wife. Then I was paired to work with Aviva Acker.” Whispered conversations rose in volume with that last bit. It was enough that our boss stood and told everyone to be quiet and listen.

“If you can’t remain quiet for this, then you’re fired.” The look on his face brokered no arguments. He meant exactly what he said.

Rich cleared his throat and allowed his guilty eyes to glance around as he made contact with everyone in the room who would give him that respect. I was not one of them. Fuck him.

“Not only did I cheat on my wife, and did it very stupidly, openly, and publicly by carrying on with someone we all work with here, but I also lied to Aviva the whole time. She never knew that I was married. She certainly didn’t know that I had children, or that my wife was pregnant with a baby that might not even be mine.”

I stood up and pointed a finger at him then. “Don’t you dare stand there and make it sound like another woman you lied to is a whore. She is not the reason you cheated. Her pregnancy came after she found out you were stepping out on her.”

---