Page 103 of Hidden Ties

“April asked me to take over for her,” she explained in a calmer voice, trying to change the sound of her voice while inwardly still screaming at herself to run.

“Actually, that is why Mr. Luciano sent me in here. He only wants her to clean his house. Will she be back next week?”

Gripping the hose of the vacuum tightly, she held it close to her chest, still not turning back around to face him. “April won’t be coming back. She’s getting married,” she said in a strangled voice.

“I’ll inform Mr. Luciano. He left your tip on the entryway table. He doesn’t require you to finish cleaning. You can go.”

“Okay.”

She listened for any sounds in the room, was frantic to leave, but didn’t want to turn around in case Mr. Bryant was still there. When she didn’t hear anything for several minutes, she turned her head slowly around to see he had left.

Dropping the vacuum hose as if it was a hot poker, she took off running out of the kitchen, nearly skidding on the hardwood floors as she barreled into the old-fashioned coat rack to remove her coat. She jerked it on and tied the belt at her waist before reaching for the doorknob. She was almost out the door when she saw the money sitting on the wooden table.

A piece of her soul died when she went back to snatch the money into her hand then rushed back to the door. She didn’t breathe until she was locked inside her car and speeding away, holding back the burning tears of humiliation.

Did he recognize me?she asked herself hysterically. He would have only needed to look at her for a split-second when she first turned around, before she turned her back to him again. The wig was a different color than her hair. He might not have recognized her.

“I’m not going to cry.” She repeated the mantra over and over out loud. She had learned to say those words to keep herself calm instead of crying. Tears didn’t solve problems; her parents had drilled that into Glory’s and her head from the time they were old enough to understand what they were saying.

Life had been hard for her parents. They had raised them in the ideology that you had to roll with the punches life dealt you. Had they not been taught that, Sage thought they would have crumbled when they returned to Glory and Denny’s house, faced with another aftereffect of the fire.

How many punches was she supposed to take? How much longer could she paint a pretty picture for Glory that everything was going to work out? Could something work out for her for once without it backfiring?

She wished for just one person to talk through all her burdens with. Glory used to be her go-to person, but she had to stay positive with her. Their parents were both deceased. Their father had been a plumber before he died of a heart attack her junior year of high school. Their mother had passed away two days after she started college.

Glory had had Denny to help with the unexpected losses, while all she had was her schoolwork. April had become her confidante at work, but they had never hung out afterward. She didn’t have her anymore. She had never had an outgoing personality, so without the steady presence of her parents, she had sunk deeper into a solitude, which had become a prison she didn’t know how to escape from.

Sometimes, she felt as if she were a robot going through the motions of living. The only true happiness she had in life anymore were Glory, Colby, and Tinsley. And she wouldn’t have them if Glory didn’t need her help. They might have grown up together, but they were as different as day and night. Glory was vivacious, the belle of the party, while she was a wallflower, content to live in her own little world of solitude. The fire had drawn them closer together, giving them the bond they had lacked in their childhood.

When she arrived back at the cleaning company, she made a beeline to the locker room to change out of the clothes she waswearing and bagged the small black skirt to be laundered. She had never felt such relief at wearing her normal clothes again.

She was sliding the thin coat back into the garment bag when she remembered the money. Taking the bills out of the pocket, she had to sit down in one of the chairs at the amount she counted.

The money in her hand had cost her every scrap of her pride. When April had told her how much she received in tips from Matthias Luciano, she expected to receive a quarter of what April had been given. Yet, he had tipped her the same amount, plus an extra two hundred fifty dollars. All the hundred-dollar bills were in sequential order, except the extra two hundred fifty dollars. They were almost the same amount she had been duped into paying for lunch the other day, meaning there was no doubt Kent Bryant had recognized her.

It was too late to get her pride back, but the money meant she was back on her feet. She could breathe again. She could buy groceries, pay the rent, buy the girls what they needed. She would have enough time to regain her strength to take the next punch coming her way …

Fighters could sense when the fights weren’t over. Right now … this second … or however long it lasted … this was just a timeout.

ELEVEN

Dread filled her with every step she took as she walked into the office. Today, she was going to find out if she would be hired permanently or be sent back to the temp agency. So far, none of the temporary workers had been hired, and she didn’t have high hopes she was going to be the first.

She had tossed and turned in bed last night about coming in today after the humiliation of Kent Bryant seeing her mostly naked. There were two reasons which had given her enough courage to walk through the front doors. One, she couldn’t be totally sure he had recognized her. The extra money could’ve been a coincidence. At least that’s what she told herself. The other reason … well, three others, were Glory, Colby, and Tinsley. They were worth any sacrifice to her pride. She had proven that when she cleaned Matthias Luciano’s house.

There was no one to blame but herself for putting herself in that humiliating position. She had told April she would think about it but had given in just a few hours later when April twisted her ankle and begged her to go to Matthias’ house that afternoon. She would have had to call and tell Ivo she wouldn’t be able to work that afternoon, and he would have given it to someone else. Faced with being short for the rent and not sure ifLivvy would pay the money she was owed back, she had caved, telling April she would cover for her. The experience was awful, but she had recouped her rent money.

If she could clean a stranger’s house with a thong up her ass, she could walk into an office fully clothed with her head held up high.

After placing her purse into the bottom drawer of her desk, she logged onto the computer, then slid the cursor to a work folder that had been set up for her. A message at the top of the file drew her attention. An appointment had been scheduled for one p.m. with Human Resources. Her fingertips quivered on the computer keys before checking that she had seen the message.

As she started on the tasks in the work folder, she had to force herself to concentrate on the list needed to be finished before the meeting rather than give in to the fear she wasn’t going to be hired permanently.

She kept a watchful eye on the time and finished with an hour to spare. She was about to leave, when she saw a new email in her inbox. It was Livvy’s evaluation of her. She must have meant to add it to an email sent to Bree but accidently sent it to her instead. Or callously, Livvy had wanted to make sure she knew what she thought of her work.

She opened her desk drawers and methodically removed the few personal items she kept there, placing mints, a novel she would read during her breaks, and her favorite pen in her purse. She wanted to make sure she wouldn’t have to return to her desk for the items and give Livvy the pleasure of watching. Logging off the computer, she then made her way to Livvy’s office, holding on to her nerves as she knocked on the closed door.

“Come in.”

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