Page 33 of Broken Omega

“Lana’s off today. She had a family thing, so she took a long weekend. I’m temping in her place. Is there something I can do to help you?”

“You could put me through to Geraldine Sawyer,” I tell her.

“That’s the head of the school.”

“That’s right.”

“Who can I ask is calling?”

Could it really be this easy?Lana warned me multiple times that Geraldine would never speak to me, that she’d never in a million years pick up a call from someone who wasn’t on her list.

That’s when I have a lightbulb moment.

I clear my throat. “It’s Colby Summers. I need to speak to her urgently.”

There are probably better names I could have used, but considering I could only remember one of the more notorious Alphas from the academy’s approved list off the top of my head, I go with it.

It doesn’t really matter. All I need is a few minutes of her time.

“Hold, please,” Paula says, before she cuts me off.

I curse under my breath and pull myself together quickly.

This isn’t a failure. She was doing what I’d asked. I was mere seconds away from actually being put through to the woman who runs Goldcrest.I can’t quit now. I’m so damn close.

I redial and try again, telling Paula she cut me off when she tried to put me through a second ago.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! This phone system is a real pain. Hold on. Oh good. Geraldine’s come out of her office.”

Fuck. This is it. This is really it.

I listen to Paula explain to her boss that she can’t figure out how to put me through.

Geraldine sighs before she explains how to do it, as if she’s talking to a small child.

The next thing I know, I’m on hold.

Great. More waiting.

I’m seriously starting to think people are given allocated amounts of patience to last their whole lifetime, and the massive amount I was gifted at first has now completely run out.

I count the seconds down in my head while I pace around my tiny living room, wondering idly if spending half of my fortune on a house might make me a better candidate for entry to the academy’s socials.

Somehow, I doubt it.

I’ve shown I’m on an upward trajectory by now. I don’t think my problem’s got anything to do with how much money I’m making. If it’s not that, I can’t see any other real reason for the academy to refuse me.

It shouldn’t matter that my parents are working class. I knew from the start that would make this harder, but it shouldn’t be a dealbreaker. Some of the parents of the Alphas they’ve let in started out that way, too.

My mother being a Beta shouldn’t matter, either. It hasn’t hurt other Alphas, as far as I can tell from the list of current approved Alphas that Lana was able to procure for me a while back.

I don’t know what’s left.

I’ve done everything I could to make myself what they need me to be.

All that hard work wasn’t for nothing.

I won’t let it be.

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