Page 101 of Isolated
I tried to breathe deeply, to suck in some oxygen in hopes of settling my nerves. “I ran out of the house in a hurry this morning. I didn’t grab a good breakfast,” I lied.
“Oh, I see. I thought you were concerned about how great this campaign was.”
It was a massive effort to swallow past the boulder in my throat. “It isn’t bad.”
He let out a laugh. “I imagine you would think so, considering we found this campaign on our servers.”
I clutched my stomach. My heart was hammering so loud, I was convinced they could hear it.
“We always had high hopes for you, Iris. I thought you were the absolute best we had. But I never expected abetrayal like this. I never imagined you would go behind my back and sabotage this company’s success.”
Shaking my head slowly in utter disbelief at what I was hearing, I stammered, “I… I didn’t?—”
“You didn’t what? Are you denying that this is your work?”
I pressed my lips together, continuing to shake my head. This didn’t make any sense. How did they get a hold of what I’d been working on? I was careful. Since I knew that I wasn’t supposed to be working on a campaign for Horizon Solutions, I never saved any of the work to the company server. I kept it strictly on my laptop.
“Stalling to come up with a story or an explanation, Iris?” Bryan chimed in for the first time since I’d entered Robert’s office.
My eyes cut to his. “This is… This is…”
“I’m sorry, Iris.” Robert’s voice urged me to look in his direction again. He looked truly disappointed. “But after this level of betrayal, I’m afraid we cannot continue to allow you to work here.”
The room was spinning. “But I swear, I didn’t do this?—”
“You shouldn’t be upset about this,” he clipped. “I’m sure Horizon Solutions will be thrilled to have you on board. Now, if you’ll return to your office to gather your things, I’ll call security to escort you out.”
“Robert, I?—”
“There’s nothing left to say, Iris. Please leave before you embarrass yourself further.”
My chin trembled. The sweat beaded on my upper lip and my neck. It pooled at the base of my spine. I backed away slowly, stepped out of the room, and willed myself tokeep it together until I got out of the building. As quickly as I could, barely able to breathe, I gathered my belongings, tossed them into my bag, and looked up to find security waiting for me.
I didn’t think things could get any worse than they already were, but on the way to the exit, I saw my friends. Steph and Kasey had their eyes on me, and I wanted to say I saw a hint of surprise and shock on their faces, but it was probably wishful thinking.
They stood there, watching me until I was at the door, and neither one of them approached to see if I was okay.
My friendship with them was no longer splintered. It had fully fractured, and there was no hope of repairing it.
I made it to my car and burst into tears.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Iris
My sister was right.
I should have made friends outside of work.
Because the ones I had there didn’t care one iota about anything that happened to me.
And now that I was in the midst of a crisis, there was only one place I could go. I had only one person who could get me through this.
Of course, even if I had a bevy of friends here in Steel Ridge with me, it was unlikely I would have gone to any of them when I had him.
As the tears streamed down my face, as my heart continued to hammer in my chest, all I wanted was Landen. I couldn’t get to him fast enough.
Maybe I should have called him to come to me, but I didn’t want to stay there. I didn’t want to linger at a place I’d grown to love and was released from. I didn’t want toallow anyone to walk outside and see me in tears. People that I’d grown to respect and admire had accused me of the worst kind of betrayal in the work environment.
