Step Darkly Page 22

  “I—” She falls silent as she stares at me with tears welling up in her eyes but I won’t entertain her emotions now. She’s lost my sympathy for the time being.

  “Do I make myself clear, Ms. Connor?” I revert back to the title I used with her when we read her father’s will in my office to drive my point home and she only offers me a nod before I turn and leave her standing by herself in the room.

  48

  Emilia

  As the hotel staff begin to clear the dessert plates, I look down at my slice of cheesecake with one bite eaten out of it and drop my napkin over what is left. I don’t think I ate more than a handful of bites through the whole meal. I mostly just cut the food and moved it around my plate.

  Rosie kept leaning over to check on me until Joshua told her I was fine in an attempt to quiet her and it worked.

  Tawny held Joshua’s attention and they talked with each other through most of the meal. Every time they laughed together, she touched his arm and I wish I was anywhere but here. It shouldn’t bother me. But it did. He completely ignored me and did everything possible to not look in my direction. It felt like old times. It was old times. He never changed.

  As my plate is taken away, the opened envelope that sat under it stares back at me. I’m about to live my worst nightmare. Joshua is making me stand up in front of a room full of my dad’s friends and staff and honour the two boys who tormented me through high school. He doesn’t even want to know why I don’t want to do it.

  Maybe he already knows. My thought surprises me but as I focus on it, it starts to make sense.

  Maybe Joshua always knew. He signed off on their harassment issues, he probably got them jobs at dad’s company and he’s making me read out their names. Maybe this is how he pushes me out.

  I’m a prisoner in my own home. I’m being treated like a child. I have rules, hoops to jump through. He’s probably going to take everything away after I’ve done all of this. He just held my whole inheritance over my head like a carrot.

  And for what? Money. It’s always about money. Nothing else matters to any of them. He’s just like his gold-digging mother.

  Joshua catches my attention as he stands and walks to the front of the room as everyone claps. His feigned smile hides everything he is doing. As he opens his mouth to speak, I can’t bring myself to listen to his voice. Everything is a lie.

  “You okay?” I feel Rosie’s hand cover mine under the table.

  “I can’t do this, Ro.” I whisper.

  “You’ve got this. I know you do. Just read it like you’re reading a book report to the group. Keep your eyes on me. I’ll make funny faces for you like I used to in English class.”

  I meet her eyes and she smiles as she brushes a strand of hair off my face. I wish I had time to tell her everything that happened tonight, but I suddenly feel like it doesn’t matter anymore.

  Nothing matters anymore.

  Joshua wraps up his speech to thunderous applause and shouts from the drunk tables in the back and the host is back up at the mic saying her words. Taking some deep breaths, I try to center my thoughts as I hear my name through the speakers and I look up to see everyone smiling as they look at me. Everyone but Joshua.

  I stand slowly and grab the envelope and my clutch and make my way to the front of the room and as I reach the podium, I notice the lights are bright enough that I can’t see beyond the first few tables. I can see Rosie and that is all that matters. Her big smile is the only comfort I have here and I look back down and open the envelope to pull out my papers.

  “Thank you. I—” My voice echoes through the speakers and it sounds foreign to me.

  Everything around me freezes in time as I scan the paper and my eyes land on their two names. I really can’t do this. Joshua will take everything away from me anyway. I can’t be here anymore, but I have nothing.

  I guess some women just have no other options. Jessica’s words from when she was fitting my dress cross my mind and I look up quickly to see a darkened room waiting in silence for me to continue.

  Shuffling the paper to buy some time, I attempt to speak again, “I’m happy to b-be here t-tonight.”

  I hear a putrid laugh from one of the tables in the back. I know it is either Sean or Brent laughing at my stutter and I don’t want to speak again.

  Shifting my eyes back to Rosie, she is still trying to smile. She’s trying to set me at ease, but two seats to her right sits Joshua and the look on his face chills me to my bones.

  She said an auction was happening this weekend. What was the name of the place?

  As the name hits me, my fingers go to my clutch. Joshua never let me go out this week, so I still have one week worth of my allowance on me in cash.

  “I’m s-sorry. Forgive me.” My words whisper over my lips before I realize I’ve said them. I’m not apologizing to any of them. I’m apologizing to my dad. I’m not the daughter he deserved. I let him down, over and over again and I’m about to let him down one more time.

  I don’t belong here. I never cared about our money. I was happier those five years away without it. Everything I cared about is gone, so why am I standing here fighting for the things I don’t want?

  The answer to my question flips a switch and everything around me dissolves. I’ve chosen this for myself. The lawyer said it the first day I got here. I am within my own rights to forfeit. I can choose to walk away. I chose to place myself in this misery and I’m choosing to release myself from it.

  But it is always about money, and I’m going to need some to make a new start.

  Dropping the paper onto the podium, I pick up my clutch.

  “While I congratulate all of our recipients tonight, I can’t read this out. I’d like to call Joshua Darkly up to read out the winners.” I clap to prompt the audience to applaud along as I watch Joshua stand with a forged smile and all eyes switch back to him. Without wasting another minute, I turn and excuse myself, heading toward the back of the room where Joshua walked me earlier.

  I don’t have much time to get my things and leave and I’ll work out my plan while I’m moving. Grabbing the first server I see, I ask for staff directions to the front of the hotel and make my way down the narrow corridor and out the front exit.

  Hailing the first cab I see, I give him directions to the house and turn off my phone. With the photos and presentations, Joshua will be up there for at least half an hour. Then he has his closing remarks so I probably have no more than an hour until he is free to get back to his phone and start looking for me.

  I owe him nothing but I do owe Rosie something. I’ll message her just before I leave the phone at home. It’s a company phone anyway so I won’t need it. I’ve rebuilt before, and I will rebuild again.

  By the time the taxi pulls up to the house, I have my whole plan set in motion and I ask the driver to wait for me. Running up the stairs to my room in the dark, I go through my next steps. I’ll pack my essentials and some extra clothes. My old roommate sent me some of her more revealing outfits back with my stuff so I will take those with me. I’ll get to a hotel near the club and contact them to see if I can list myself at their auction. I just need enough to get a start. Spending a short time with someone is better than another eleven months in this hell.

  I chose to put myself here and I’m choosing to leave, I recite my mantra again.

  Packing the last of my things, I’m thankful Sylvia took the night off but sad I won’t be able to say goodbye.

  This is going to hurt more before it starts to get better, I tell myself as I grab the office phone to message Rosie. It’s been just over an hour so Joshua will probably realize any time now that I am no longer there.

  Dropping the phone on my bed, I grab the backpack I first arrived with that contains my old phone and I’m thankful I haven’t disconnected it yet as I run down the stairs, lock up and get back into the cab.

  “Do you know of a club called Ravenous?” I ask as two eyes size me up from the driver’s seat.

/>   “Yes.” He answers hesitantly and I open my clutch and finger through the bills I have left.

  “Take me to a hotel near there where I can stay for around a hundred a night.”

  49

  Joshua

  It’s been twelve hours since anyone has heard from or seen Emilia. After Rosalyn showed me her text at the hotel last night, I had Faye and Noah cover for me as I made my excuses to Tawny and rushed home to confront her, only to be met with a dark silence.

  Emilia had already been and gone, leaving most of her things behind including her work phone.

  My anger peaked when I checked the houses security footage of last night. I watched her get out of the taxi, then 20 minutes later, she got back in with a suitcase and a backpack and they drove off. Contacting the cab company was a dead end. I hung up on the kid after he recited his company’s policy on client privacy for the fifth time.

  I thought about sending a text out to contacts to see if anyone has heard from her, but the sad truth is, there is only Rosie and Sylvia and I had given Sylvia the evening off.

  “Any news?” Noah startles me out of my train of thought and I look up to see him half-dressed in a pair of my pajama pants.

  As soon as everything was settled at the dinner, he came right over to find me angry and raging at anything I could find. After I checked all of the places she could have gone, and it was a short list, I began to unravel. My anger over her extreme disobedience tangled with my worry over her well-being and I was lost.

  Noah began to put together a plan and we worked away at small parts with everything leading to dead ends.

  He fell asleep a few hours ago and I’ve been slowly sinking since then. Sending a text to Rosalyn to get her ass over to our place wasn’t the sanest plan I’ve had in awhile, but I feel I’m running out of time to sort through this hurdle.

  “Nothing yet. I went through her things for a bit.” I admit, sheepishly. It’s a shit thing to do. I understand she needs some privacy but she lost that privilege with me when she ran away and left her things behind. “She didn’t leave anything of importance behind. Just clothes. Her laptop and the backpack she always carries is gone.”

  As I speak, I realize Emilia has become a ghost. Even before she left, she could always just disappear. She’s become as transient as a leaf blowing in the wind, except for one thing. She needs money. Everyone needs money to survive and hers should be running out.

  She can’t go to Kyle, she has no family and she only has Rosalyn so sooner or later, she will need to get in touch with her friend. As my thoughts land on Rosalyn, a loud knock at the door surprises Noah and he looks at me, hopefully.

  I know what he hopes, but it’s not Emilia and I shake my head. Turning, he leaves me sitting on a couch in the front room and less than a minute later, Rosalyn joins me, followed by Noah now wearing a shirt.

  “Joshua.” Rosie looks like she’s barely slept and I can tell by looking at her, she hasn’t heard from her either.

  “I put some coffee on, can I get you both a cup?” Noah asks and we both nod silently before he leaves and we stare at each other before she breaks the silence.

  “And I quote ‘Get your ass over here when you wake up.’” Rosalyn crosses her arms in accusation.

  “I know.” I agree with her and she relaxes a bit. “I’m sorry.” I don’t offer my apologies lightly in my personal or professional life and she knows this.

  She accepts my words at the same time as Noah returns with three mugs and cream and sugar on a platter and he serves both of us as Rosalyn takes a seat on a chair near me, setting her cup down.

  “Look. I was up all night. I couldn’t figure out why she left so suddenly until you read the awards out.” Pausing to look between Noah and I, she glances at her purse, then back up to the both of us and Noah quietly takes a seat off to the side. “Joshua, you were going to make her read out their names? Why?”

  Her question resets me. I suddenly sense there is something I’ve forgotten, or something I don’t know and I answer honestly. “Because those are our award winners.”

  At my answer, Rosalyn sits upright in her seat and takes a long look at me. “Look, Joshua. My best friend is missing and I don’t have anyone else who can help me. I’m going out on a limb here and I promised Emilia I wouldn’t say anything, but I’m really getting worried for her now.”

  “Say anything about what?” My words are direct and her wide eyes tell me she knows I’m not messing around.

  “Before we get into that. I need to know, so I’m just going to say it. Did you know Sean and Brent used to torment Emilia in high school? Do you know what they called her?” I take a quick glance at Noah who is sitting off to the side and a little behind Rosalyn and he shrugs and shakes his head.

  I have no idea what Rosalyn is asking me right now. Emilia was a few grades behind me, I never cared enough to pay attention to her then. How would I know?

  Shaking my head I answer as well. “No. What did they call her?”

  Rosalyn shakes her head. This is an answer I won’t be getting from her. “Joshua, what matters is. They bullied her, relentlessly and you told her to stand up there and read out their names and say all of those amazing things about them which, quite frankly, aren’t accurate.”

  I have to hand it to her. Rosalyn is a loyal friend. She’s sitting in front of the owner of the company where she works and she isn’t wavering in her dedication.

  “Five years is a long time. Everyone has grown up. She couldn’t get beyond a little school bullying to read from a piece of paper?” I’m not going to forgive her outburst this easily. “People change.”

  “That’s the thing. They haven’t changed. They are still—um—harassing women.” Taking a deep breath, Rosalyn reaches into her purse and pulls out some papers. “And you’re signing off on it.”

  “WHAT?” My anger flares at her accusation and Rosie jolts in her place.

  “I have it here. Emilia found these in their files.” Reaching the papers out to me, I notice her hands are shaking as I grab them and scan the words on document along with my signature. This is my signature, but I never would have signed something like this unless it was a dismissal notice for this type of behavior. As I flip through the papers, Rosalyn continues, “She made me promise I wouldn’t say anything the other day when I caught Brent intimidating her in the file room.”

  “WHAT?” I can’t believe what I’m hearing and now Noah has jumped out of his seat and is moving over to me to take a look at the papers and I hand everything over to him.

  “I could tell he was trying to scare her. She was even stuttering, it was so bad.” Rosalyn wrings the straps of her purse with her hands as she speaks.

  “No. She stutters when she’s lying. I figured that out years ago.”

  “No she doesn’t. She started stuttering in high school after—” She pauses. I know there is more to this story but Rosalyn won’t betray her friend. “She stutters when she has high anxiety and she’s only ever stuttered when they’ve harassed her.”

  I sit back in my seat, staring at Rosalyn as my thoughts jump all over the place. She was stuttering on Monday when I called her out on lying about her school. But now I think about it, she was stuttering before I even spoke. Before that, she was in school, she had lunch and she was filing—in the room where Rosalyn said she saw Brent harassing her. After that, she requested to do work at her desk for the remainder of the week.

  “Was it last Monday that you caught Brent with her in the file room?” As I ask, Rosalyn thinks for a moment.

  “No, it was the week before.”

  When Adam walked in on a member of his admin having sex in the filing room, he had cameras installed in each room as a safety and security measure just like they are throughout the building except for, of course, the washrooms. Thankful for his foresight, I clear my throat to catch Noah’s attention and he looks up from the papers he’s holding.

  “I need you to go to the office. Have security pull up
footage of the file room Emilia was in on Monday. It’s the new one my team uses. If she wasn’t there, I need all cameras that picked her up since she got to work. She normally arrives around 12:10 and has lunch. She spoke to me a little before two in the afternoon.” As I speak, Noah nods and I notice Rosalyn watching me out of the corner of my eye. “I want full copies of Brent and Sean’s files as well. Include everything. Expenses, sales, HR files, everything with their names on it. And pick a date on any of those harassment forms I apparently signed and grab any footage of me signing papers on the date listed. I need to know how this happened.”

  “I’ll get everything I can find but Joshua… have some patience. This will take a while.” He turns to leave when I stand.

  “Forget it, I’m coming with you. We can find everything we need faster with two of us.” Noah looks surprised as I take a step to the door.

  “Okay, but clean yourself up first. You look like hot garbage. If there are any new guys in security, they’ll never believe you own the company and I don’t want to be an accessory to murder.” Noah leaves the room and I take a look back at Rosalyn who looks a little more relieved than she did when she first got here.

  My ire is flaring to life and it’s only heating up. I am ready to tear a lot of things apart, but for the first time in a long time, it isn’t directed at Emilia and it feels right. If Rosalyn is telling the truth, then there are people in our organization who are stealing from our company and worse and we need to stop it before we lose everything, and I lose Emilia, for good.

  “You really didn’t know, did you?” She asks, solemnly.

  “I have a feeling there is a lot you aren’t telling me still. But, no, I didn’t know. If you hear from Emilia, please tell her and let me know.”

  50

  Emilia