48 Friday Hell

I sent the message, expecting a response but didn't receive one by the time I finally went to bed. When I woke up the next morning, I still had no message from Jackson.

What was wrong with him? I called his phone which just rang and went to voicemail. I figured out the time difference and figure he's busy in another meeting. I got ready for work, preparing my outfit for today's board meeting. We would find out today whether Sybil was intentionally trying to get me and my team fired due to her attempt at sabotage.

If she's as smart as she thinks she is, she'll have caught the fact that it was all written up correctly. If she was as smug and convinced of her own abilities to pull the wool over my eyes, then today would be interesting to say the least. I was hoping for the latter but maybe I would be too arrogant in thinking she wouldn't realize that. If she had intentionally changed it and I was the one to bring it to her, she most likely caught on.

It didn't matter either way, I would be bringing up the issue at the very end of the meeting. I went to work and spent the majority of the day making sure that everything our department had been given lately was correct. I had every one of my team reading and double checking all contracts that we had been having to go over since last week, double checking for any discrepancies. Only once they were checked were they allowed to proceed with taking care of them any farther. By the time that the meeting with the board came to, I was ready, with Scott and Alice entering into the room with me. 

"Afternoon Ms. Xenos." Eric murmured as he took his normal seat next to me. 

"Mr. Dornell." I replied politely. "Everything has been managed as we discussed prior. I have everything I need to proceed." I smile at him warmly and he just nodded and tapped the file under my hand.

I slid it over to him and he picked it up to glance over the information and I watched as his mouth set in a thin line as his eyes widened in surprise. He closed the folder and slid it back to me. "Good job. Ms. Xenos."

Sybil Gray walked in a moment later, a smug smile on her face as she took her seat. She didn't act like anything was wrong but flashed a smile and nod at those that were seated at the table, including myself. The meeting soon started and things went as normal, as the meeting came to an end, Sybil cleared her throat and stood.

"I thought I would take a moment of everyone's time to announce that I will be giving in my two weeks notice. I wanted to say thank you to all of you and how much I will miss being here with all of you." 

All of us sat there stunned and confused that she was publicly submitting her two week notice. One of the other board members asked the question that we were all thinking.

"Why? Where are you going then?" 

Sybil gave a grin like the cat who caught the canary. "Well, I was made an offer I couldn't refuse over at Morgan Corporation."

What did she just say? My mouth drops open but I quickly close it shut.

"An offer you couldn't refuse?" I repeat, standing up. "Or are you running from the fact that your computer changed legal documents that would have cost the company eighty million dollars?" 

Gasps rings out from the people around me and I see Sybil's mouth grow into a thin angry line. I open up my file and start sharing the copies of the evidence that I had gathered. Sybil takes this moment to try and defend herself.

"I don't know what you're talking about. You're just spouting jealous nonsense." Sybil grits out.

"Jealous nonsense? Now, why don't you look at these and tell me who's spouting nonsense?" I hold a copy out for her to take that she rips from my hand and tears it up. 

I shake my head and board members start asking me questions.

"What exactly is going on with this contract? Why is this all time stamped? What's this diagram of, that's highlighted?" 

I held up my hands and explained. "On Monday, Ms. Gray here, handed me the contract you see in your hands with her corrections on them from her negotiations. She stated that my department told her that they couldn't take care of it that they had too much to do. When I asked my team member about it he showed me the memo that stated that someone could just not him." I pause letting everyone see that I had printed out the copy of the memo.

"So I had one of my team members make the corrections so that we could get the contract to her since she implied urgency on it. That it was needed by the end of the day. My team member did so, using the database file at the top of the contract which is common practice because that is supposed to be the most recent copy. However, when I went over the contract, I noticed something off about the contract. The contract had been ever so carefully changed to move the obligations of payment from our business partner to us, in the amount of eighty million."

"What?! Ms. Gray is this true?!"

"Parts of it is true but I didn't change anything on the contract to do that! Nor would I ever! Why would I?!"

One of the other board members speaks up,"Well it doesn't look good, especially since you're leaving us for another company."

"Yes, Ms.Gray, that's very convenient don't you think?" I add, crossing my arms.

"I did not do anything wrong. I printed out the latest copy Friday night before having dinner with them and gave you the papers Monday morning after I was informed by Lydia, that the member from your department was unable to do the work." She motions to one of her aides sitting beside her who looks like she's swallowed something vile and was about to throw up.

"Are you really going to use an aide as a scape goat when you and I both know you've been waiting to find a way to get back at me over the restaurant incident." I seethe in rage at her.

At this Sybil scoffs, "You think way to highly of yourself, Ms. Xenos. Maybe you'll get the picture now, but I don't need to resort to the petty sabotaging of this company to get under your skin. "

I'm ready to jump over the table and slam her head into the wall when Eric stands up and grabs my arm.

"Ms. Gray, we had IT come in and do a check on who made the fraudulent contract and saved it Friday evening after business hours. It came from your computer." Eric narrows his eyes at her, daring her to continue with her supposed innocence.

"I'm sorry, everyone but I need to say something." Lydia stands up and tears are rolling down her face. "I made the contract that way because I wanted to prove a fellow employee wrong. They said they could catch any error in a contract and it was meant for them. I didn't realize that Ms. Gray had used it for her dinner meeting. I didn't think that this would have happened and I'm deeply sorry for all the misunderstandings. I'll go pack up my desk."

"What?!" I feel like I was sucker punched in the gut.

"See! I told you I wouldn't do such a thing!" Sybil stamps her foot down in my direction.

"Everything pointed to you." I say confused. Did she really not do this?

"Somebody get IT and security in here please. I want to see video footage of who was at Sybils desk when that file was saved." One of the board members grips their head, annoyed at this shit show.

We wait for Security and IT to show up and they quickly pull up the footage together. We all watch it on the large screen as Sybil gathers her stuff and Lydia is using her computer. She prints things out and hands her the papers. When Sybil is gone you see her typing away before the time strikes for her to hit the saved button.

"The contract had to have been saved to your computer prior to being printed though." I state, still not completely convinced.

"You have a confession and video evidence and it's still not good enough? Now who here has a chip on their shoulder?!" Sybil snorts at me.

I go to say something back, but Eric grips my arm and shakes his head. My jaw drops in disbelief but I close it quickly as the head stands up.

"Thank you Ms. Xenos for finding this incident before it became a bigger one. I understand that you made your assumptions based off the trail of evidence you found. I will have someone else look into it further but for now, everyone is dismissed. Except for Ms. Gray. I would like a word with you."

I pick up my folders and make my way out of the meeting room and head straight for my office. I set my things down and growl in frustration. Grabbing my purse, I leave for the day. I'm so pissed, I don't even bother getting an Uher and begin to walk home.

I'm not paying attention to anything when suddenly my name is called out. I stop and look around to see Ethan holding onto a car door waving at me a little ways ahead.

"Hey, why are you walking? Want to share my Uher?" He stops when he sees my face, "Mel? What's wrong?"

I open my mouth then close it again quickly and shake my head. He pats my back and ushers me into the Uher. "Come on, let's talk."

Once in the car, Ethan asks, "Where are you heading?"

"Home." I tell him.

"Which is where?" Ethan asks.

"Mansion park."

Ethan nods to the Uher driver and the driver heads in the direction of my home. The driver asks where and I direct him to my home. When he pulls up in front of my townhome, I quickly thank him and get out, with Ethan behind me. I hear him thank the driver and follow as I unlock my home.

I walk in and take off my shoes and chuck them up my stairs, cursing the fucking situation.

I can't stop the angry tears that start falling and turn to see Ethan standing there awkwardly with his arms open in offering. I fall into them and sob. Ethan stands there just holding me and rocking slightly, trying to soothe me.

Once I've cried for a few minutes, I finally start calming down. I step back and excuse myself to the bathroom and blow my nose and grab a cool cloth to press on my face.

I step out of the bathroom and walk out to find Ethan sitting in my living room, his shoes off by the front door.

"You want to tell me what that was about?" Ethan inquires gently. "You normally don't cry like that unless something has really bothered you."

I sigh and sit, "This coworker of mine has been trying to get me under her thumb for months now. I refused to the point that I told her unless it has to do with business she doesn't need to speak with me. Even Jackson has stepped in and told her to leave me alone. Anyways, you remember how I told you something happened at work on Monday?"

Ethan nods staying quiet so I'll continue. "Well that same coworker had given me a contract that had a lot of things that had been changed that could have cost the company a lot of money. It was done in a way though that unless you looked for something a miss you wouldn't catch it. I brought it forward to my boss, who suggested I find out from who's computer it was sent from and we'd bring it up at our next board meeting." I pause and take a breath.

"Then she goes and gives her two week notice at the meeting and informs us that she's going to start working at Jackson's company, of all places!" I flare up again and have to take more calming breaths.

"I then pulled out all the evidence against her, telling the board the real reason she was leaving. Well, she used one of her aides as a damn scape goat! The aide stood up and took full responsibility for the whole thing, claiming it to be a test for another employee and that it got blown out of proportion! What's worse is it was all proven on camera, that her aide had indeed used her computer but it only shows she printed the paper out and saved it! Not that she wrote it!"

Ethan sighs, "So now it made you look like you had a vendetta instead of her."

"Yes! All I wanted to do was prove my departments innocence and instead it made it out like I used this to my advantage to personally attack her because she's going to work for Jackson's company!" I try to calm my rage but it's only leaking out in the form of more tears that stream down my face.

"Well you can't blame Jackson for his company hiring her, unless... Does he work in HR?" Ethan asks, curious.

I give a scoffing laugh, "No he doesn't. He owns the company. I can't believe he'd let them hire Sybil syphilis gonorrhea Gray! He acts like she's the damn plague the second he sights her!"

"Wait.. wait a second. Sybil Gray? That's who's causing your life hell?" Ethan asks even more confused.

I wipe my eyes and grind out, "Yes, you know the trollop?" I turn my gaze back to him.

"That's my ex I was engaged to. The one I found out slept with a whole bunch of men." Ethan says pensively.

I take a seat next to Ethan again. "I'm sorry she's a real cunt. I'm glad you didn't marry her."

"Me too " Ethan mumbles before raising his eyes up to meet mine. "She's going to work for Jackson's company that he owns? What's Jackson's last name?"

"Morgan. He owns Morgan Corporation." My blood boils again in thought. "He also hasn't returned my phone calls or text messages in the past few days. Who knows why."

Ethan makes an odd sound and I glance back up to him.

"What?"

Ethan pulls his phone out, "I'm guessing you haven't seen some international news the past few days either." He pulls something up and hands it to me.

-Council Woman found dead, Businessman is detained for questioning-

The article goes on about how Tuesday evening a council woman was found dead and the last know person to see her alive was a businessman from the states who was being detained since Wednesday for questioning. That evidence was found in her car that led the investigators to him. In the article is a picture of a man being pushed into the police station.

It's Jackson.