Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Lisa's P.O.V

It was already evening and I was still unable to find Sara, the department manager had already been round and saw Sara's empty seat, but I was able to make up an excuse and cover for her, saying that she had gone out of the office business.

I knew the excuse would last for at least two hours, but now I did not know what to say, Sara still has not turned up and the department manager was going to come back any miniature now, if he saw that Sara was still not here then she was going to be in big trouble and I did not know what to say or do to help her.

Sara and I always treated each other as colleagues when we were at work, but in actual fact, we were best friends. We had met each other when we were both first year students, neither of us were part of any of the groups there, but we were always together and did not need a third friend, that was until we met Mia in our second year.

Despite being best friends and being similar to each other, we all had very different behaviour and each of us would go to the extent to save each other. I noticed the manager was coming around again and I started to panic, trying to think of yet another excuse to cover for Sara.

I turned my attention to my computer, but kept my eye on his movements. He was getting closer and my heart was beating faster with every step he took, he was a bastard. He was in a higher position than all of us, but he was jealous that Sara had been made head of the project.

The project head had appointed it to her because of her abilities, but the manager blamed it on the fact that she was a pretty face. From that day on he was constantly bothering Sara, trying to find even the slightest problem so that he could get rid of her and she would lose her job.

I knew all too well what the situation was with Sara and her home life, especially the cruel behaviour of her step mother, but if she lost this job then it would make things a whole lot worse. Sara had been missing for a few hours and I had not seen her come out of the meeting room, but I also could not check it because Jacob would not let me in and he was guarding the door for some reason.

I had to come up with a plan to save Sara's job and I kept trying to think of an excuse, but nothing was coming to me. I had however decided that if the manager forcibly tried to create a scene then I would step in and defend Sara, but at the same time it could also cost me my job as well.

“Where is that girl? What office work has she got that it is taking this long to complete?” the manager shouted, startling everyone including me. We all knew that he was a very dangerous person in this office, he used to fire people and kick them out of the office just for fun. I sighed, took a deep breath, and got up from my seat, ready to face the manager.

“Sir, she has informed me that she is on her way,” I replied, forcing a fake smile on my face, so that I could hide the fear I felt lying to him, but he saw through it.

“Are you kidding me?” the manager asked, taking a step closer to me and making me feel uncomfortable with how close he was.

“No sir, I am telling you the truth. She….” I started to say, but the manager cut me off, putting his hand up to stop me from talking.

“Shut up! Do you think I am stupid? I know that you lie for each other.” the manager shouted, making me flinch and close my eyes in fear. I knew exactly what his next words were going to be and I knew that I was not going to like them.

“If I do not see her in the office in the next two minutes, then you can tell her not to bother coming back.” the manager said and left after his deadly announcement. I panicked when I heard him say this and I was about to stop him to explain, when I saw Sara running towards us.

Sara's high heels were smacking against the floor and she looked like she was trying to run away from a ghost. The manager stopped in his tracks when he saw her and the smug smirk he had soon disappeared at the sight of her, which made me smile. Sara stopped in front of him and was breathing heavy from running, but she looked terrified.

Sara’s P.O.V

“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?” the manager shouted at me, just as I arrived back in the office.

“I am sorry sir, I went to do some important work related to our project. I am sorry for being late.” I replied, bowing my head to the manager. He smirked and came closer to me, making me take two steps back. He was way too close to me for my liking.

“It seems more like you were having fun with someone. Were you fucking someone?” the manager asked, looking me up and down. I stepped further away from him and gave him a dirty and disgusted look.

“What the hell are you saying? How can you even ask me that?” I replied, angrily. I could see his eyes were full of lust and he disgusted me.

“Don't act all innocent. Everyone in this office knows what your part time job is and may I say that if you have free time then consider this as my last proposal. I am always ready for you to come to my home, my door is always open for you or if you prefer a hotel room I can do that. My offer still stands, I will fuck you and pay you after.” the manager announced out loud so that everyone could hear his insulting words. He gave me an evil smirk and looked me up and down, making my skin crawl, and walked away from me laughing.

I just stood there in complete and utter disgust, but there was nothing I could do to stop his words. Ever since I started this job he has been harassing me with not only his words but with the looks, he would give my body. He always offered me money for a one night stand and I always refused, he was the reason that I stopped doing overtime at night, because he would always be there and I never felt safe being alone with him.

I was afraid that he would try and do something to me, but because of my current circumstances I needed to work overtime, I needed the money because my dad had taken my savings. The manager had finally left from my sight, just as Lisa ran up to me and hugged me tightly, I hugged her back just as tightly, really needing one of her hugs at the moment.

I knew Lisa feared that I would lose my job, but at the moment I was just happy to finally be out of that meeting room. Daniel kissed me again, I pushed him back and quickly ran out of there, not looking back once. I knew that I had made a huge mistake and had broken one of his rules, by running away from him, but I was scared of him and my stupidity took over. I did what he hated the most, I ran away from him and I knew I would get punished for it. Lisa pulled away from me slightly and she looked so worried about me.

“Sara, where have you been? Do you know how worried I have been about you? Why are you wearing a different dress? You were wearing something completely different when I saw you this morning and now you are wearing this, why? What happened?” Lisa asked, bombarding me with questions, but they were questions I could not truthfully answer.

“Wait, come with me,” I said, taking her hand and pulling her over to her chair, making her sit down. I knew that if someone saw us just standing there talking and not working we would get scolded, but at least this way it looked as if we were working. Lisa looked around, probably looking to see if the manager was around, but thankfully he was not.

“Now tell me everything,” Lisa said, looking at me expectantly, but I did not know what to tell her. I could not tell her about Daniel, because I would surely be punished and lose my job and so I tried to come up with an excuse.

“I dropped something down my dress and had to change my clothes.” I lied and avoided looking at her, but I knew that Lisa was intelligent and she soon caught me out with my lie.

“Are you telling me the truth? It looks like you have been crying a lot. Have you been crying?” Lisa asked and I felt like crying again. I could not handle everything that had happened to me, it was too much and it was crushing me, I wanted to cry and tell her everything, but I did not know whether I should or not. Lisa held my hand and gently squeezed it, which was enough for me to confide in her.

“Lisa I want to tell you something,” I said, as my body shook in fear. Daniel's words were floating around my head and it made me scared, but I needed to tell someone and I knew that Lisa would try to help me.

“Okay, tell me,” Lisa replied, looking into my eyes, I think she could tell that I was scared, but she didn't push me.

“Daniel is not all that he seems to be. Do you know he…..” I started to say, but then Mia came running over to us and I stopped talking.

“GIRLS!” Mia shouted, running over to us, but she looked scared.

“What happened? Are you okay?” Lisa asked her, as we both rushed to Mia.

“Did you not see the notice board?” Mia asked, trying to catch her breath. Lisa and I both looked at each other and shook our heads.

“No, neither of us have. Why? What's wrong?” Lisa asked, but Mia looked panicked.

“I was coming back to the office when a friend from another department called me and told me to check the notice board. He said that daniel is firing employees left right and centre, but a list has been posted on the notice board of all the employees he is kicking out of the company.” Mia said, gasping for air. I felt my stomach turn and my fear start to rise, was my name on that list? Would Daniel fire me as punishment for running away from him?

“Mia, what about me? Is my name on that list? Am I one of them?” I asked and Mia looked at me, but she did not reply and stayed silent. I quickly ran to the notice board to see if my name was there, followed closely by Mia and Lisa.

I was trying to hold back my tears, knowing that if I lost this job I would be doomed and I had no idea what I would do then. I only just managed to get this job because of my situation and if I lost it I feared I would not be able to get another job with the same sort of salary.

I was running so fast that I nearly tripped over because of the high heels I was wearing, but I did not care. I just wanted to find out if I still had a job, but what I could not understand was, why was daniel doing this? Why was he suddenly expelling employees? I reached the place where the notice board was and saw everyone's faces, they were all scared and some were crying.

I saw one girl sobbing, she belonged to my department and as the most arrogant girl in the office. Many projects were won by her and because of how beautiful she is, she used to degrade everyone else, publicly humiliating them. I looked over at her and her cry proved that she was one of the employees that had been fired.

If a girl like her could get fired then what chance did a small employee like me stand? I can not lose this job, I can not let my future be ruined, I thought to myself, trying to make my way through the crowd and to the front of the notice board. It took a while but I finally reached the notice board and started looking for my name, praying to God that I was not on the list.

My eyes widened in surprise when I first saw it, as there were well over 100 employees that had been fired. I started running my finger down the list of names, trying to find mine, as Lisa and Mia stood next to me, trying to find theirs. I was finding it harder to see the list, as my eyes filled with tears and were making everything blurry, but I could not see my name anywhere. I double and triple checked the list, making sure that I was not on it, and thank god my name or my friends never appeared on the list. I moved back, taking a deep breath and closing my eyes, sighing in relief.

“It's strange!” Lisa said, making Mia look over at her, but I did not and just remained there listening to what they were saying.

“What is strange?” Mia asked.

“Have not you noticed that every single name on that list is someone who has bullied Sara?” Lisa said, making me open my eyes and look at her. I walked over and took another look at the list and sure enough, every single person that had ever been mean to me was on this list.

Most of the employees were the ones that had been calling me a whore and laughing at me when I was trapped in the meeting room with daniel. The proud crying girl was one of them and when I looked again at the notice board I saw another announcement, saying that Olivia had been demoted.

My eyes widened in shock as I carried on looking at the notice board, not knowing about any of this. Olivia was now at the same position in the company as what I was. Mia and Lisa both looked over at me and then back to the noticeboard.

"Do not worry, Sara, why would Daniel fire us? He has no reason to." Lisa said, putting her hand on my shoulders and trying to convince me, but I was still looking at the list and was still not feeling good. I suddenly felt a cold chill run down my back and it felt like someone was watching me, I turned around and saw that it was none other than Daniel himself.

I raised my head and looked towards his office, he was standing by the window, where he knew I could see him. As usual, he had one hand in his pocket and the other hand on the glass. Our eyes met and Daniel gave me a devilish smile, but upon seeing him smiling in such a way, I understood that something is definitely wrong. Daniel smiled at me and I watched as he brought his fingers up to his lips.

"Sshhhh….," He mouthed, telling me to keep my mouth shut. Seeing him doing this, I got so scared that I immediately looked away from him and grabbed my clothes tightly. I understood it all now. When I was going to tell Lisa the truth about Daniel, he was watching us and he knew that I was going to tell Lisa what Daniel had done to me.

He gave me an example with this list of just how much power he really had and was telling me to stay quiet. Lisa said that Daniel had no reason to expel them, but Lisa was unaware that both of them did not know that they both were going to lose their jobs because of me. Daniel did this intentionally because I pushed him away and ran away from him so he showed me a preview of what was to come. Daniel had done all this intentionally to prove to me that everything was under his control and he could strike at any time, causing my friends to lose their jobs because of me.

"What happened Sara? Why do you look so nervous? Did you not see that none of us are named in this list? Don't worry." Mia said, I held myself up and looked at them smiling. Both of them jumped on me and hugged me tightly, as I returned their hug with just as much strength.

"Sara, you were going to tell me something about Daniel, right? Tell me." Lisa asked and I tightly clutched my clothes, my eyes once again went to Daniel who was still watching me and giving me a dangerous expression.

"Nothing, I was just saying. It was not important." I replied, lying yet again and forcing a smile on my face, so that her friends would believe me. My friend's happiness was the most important thing to me and no matter what I was not ready to lose it.

“Let's go,” Lisa said and we all left, not once looking back at the noticeboard.

.

.

I was sitting at my desk, completing all the unfinished work that had accumulated while I was gone. There was a mountain of files to the right of me, which had to be completed today. my hands were moving like a machine on the computer, but my mind was focused elsewhere. I was hoping that I would be able to look for a new apartment today, but I never got a chance to.

This day had been terrible, what with my father telling me that I had two days to leave, then getting confronted by Olivia as soon I came to the office, and now daniel. My hands stopped typing as I thought back to him and everything he had done, I saw him in a different light today and he was frightening. He entered my life like a storm and had left nothing but destruction in his wake. I was only trying to save myself, but kept getting caught up in bigger problems. I could not tell anyone or seek help even if I wanted to. The noticeboard was a clear message that Daniel could do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted and there was nothing I could do about it because it would put the people I cared most about in danger.

"Sara!....Sara!…Sara!" Mia and Lisa screamed, shaking me out of my thoughts. I had not realised that they had been calling me, I was in so much of a daze.

"Where are you lost? Stop daydreaming and let's have coffee.” Mia said and I looked at my watch, it was past 6:00 pm. my eyes widened in surprise because I had no idea that I had been day dreaming for so long and had wasted time with needless things. I still had so much work to do and looked at Mia and Lisa as they both waited for me to get up from my seat.

"No, I can not, I have a lot of work to do. I do not feel like having coffee. You both go and enjoy." I replied and they both looked at each other and then at the file which I was still trying to complete, both of them saw that it seemed impossible to complete today.

"A lot of your work is incomplete. Do you want our help? We can help you." Lisa asked, while Mia nodded, I just smiled at them both.

"Thank you very much for asking, but do not worry, I will complete it in a few hours,” I replied, I could not take anyone's help even if I wanted to, because the manager used to keep an eye on me around the clock. He was waiting for me to make a wrong step, so that he could insult me. If I had taken the help of my friends, they both would have fallen with me and I did not want to give any such opportunity to the manager, he would only insult me even more, just to satisfy his ego. He was the kind of person who enjoyed watching others fall down.

"Ok, we are both going out for coffee. We will be back in a while. If you need our help, then definitely let us know.” Mia said and both of them left. my head felt like it was being torn apart from the pain and I very much wanted to have some coffee, but under the burden of work, I could not go with them. Keeping my hands on my head, I closed my eyes for a while, but I had to open them after 2 minutes and started on my work.

The whole time my mind was thinking about how to raise money, so that I could buy an apartment. I had no means to earn any more money. There were 15 more days before the end of the month and I had given my salary for the last month to Lucy, as she said that it was to stay in the house.

I had 15 days to get the next salary and within 2 days I had to find an apartment too. Thinking about all these things was making the pain in my head increase. Money, money, and money was the only thing on my mind and then suddenly I remembered something and immediately checked my bag. A big smile came on my face and I was snapping my bag.

"Where is that envelope? I remember very well that I kept it on that chain.” I murmured to myself and slowly my smile disappeared. I took everything out of my purse, put it on the table, and checked the corner of my purse, but I could not find the envelope anywhere.

I was given this envelope by my grandmother last month when I went to visit her house. my grandmother was sick and she was going to die in two days. My grandmother gave me a $1,000 check and with this money, I could easily find an apartment, but I was unable to find the cheque. I had completely forgotten about the check after putting it in my bag that day, but I was not getting the money when I was in dire need of it. I was getting nervous because it was my last chance of survival. My hands stopped as soon as I remembered something.

“Lucy!" I muttered her name and understood that Lucy must have taken that cheque from me. One day when I came out of the bathroom after taking a bath, the door of my room was half open and I felt as if someone had touched my purse, but I just shrugged it off and did not pay any attention. Lucy must have come that day to get the check from my purse. She knew that I put all my belongings inside the bag and took my phone only. I went towards the bathroom so that I could talk and made a call on the home telephone. Lucy picked up the phone after about 5 rings.

"Hello," Lucy said in a normal tone.

"Hello Lucy, It's Sara," I said to her in nervous panic as all my attention was towards my cheque.

"You think of me as someone who has no work? Why are you calling me constantly? I am busy!" Lucy said, as soon as she realised that it was me who had phoned her, her voice immediately changed and she became irritable. She was saying she was busy, but I could hear the laughter and talk of her friends. It means she called her friend’s home and had fun but she was lying to me.

"Lucy, I am sorry, I disturbed you in the midst of your work, but can you tell me are you the one who took the check out of my purse?” I asked her and after about 5 seconds I got an answer.

"Are you accusing me of theft? You are calling me a thief, are you not?” She angrily shouted at me and it felt as if she was doing so intentionally.

"No Lucy, I am not calling you a thief, but I know you have taken my cheque. I saw you in my room a few days ago. I just want you to return my cheque. I need that money.” I replied.

“I have spent that money on my shopping,” Lucy replied and as I heard her, I felt my legs were getting weak. It means now I have lost that cheque too.

“But how can you spend my money like this Lucy!” I shouted at her a little as I lost my last hope.

“How dare you to shout for that little money. You are a freeloader in my house. If I spend the little money of yours then I did nothing wrong. A bitch like you does not deserve that money. I knew my husband’s mother gave you that money. So it was not yours. It was my husband’s money. Just grab your luggage from my house and get the fuck out of my life!!!” Lucy shouted at me and hung up. As I heard the word freeloader, these words stabbed my heart.

She was calling me a freeloader, but this house was mine. my mother’s memories were there, my childhood was there and I was going to leave my own house to others. I sat on the floor and closed my eyes. I had no family support, no home, and no money, I had nothing. I had only bad luck and tears. my tears came out thinking about all of this and as I opened my eyes, I saw Daniel was standing in front of me.

He was looking at me and I wiped my tears away and got up from the floor. He was still looking at me and was some distance in front of me. I started to walk away, but as I passed Daniel, he grabbed my hand, making me stop, but I did not look at him.

“Who is the reason for your tears, Sara?” Daniel asked, but I did not feel like playing any more of his games.

“Why do you want to know?” I asked him and he looked at me.

“I will destroy that thing for you. I will kill them.” Daniel said, making me look at him in shock.

“I am the reason for my own tears… please kill me…” I said and as Daniel heard me, his grip on my hand loosened and I took my hand back and left. . .