Chapter 262: Even If It Kills Me
Jen helped Brooke to a seat next to her, while Avery helped with her crutches. Sitting in-between them she waited for the supervisor to come in and give a welcome address and then assign each of them to their departments.
"Hey, I think it’s cool that this company is so accommodating. Out of all the places I applied to, this was the only place with the most flexible work hours." Avery pointed out, breaking the silence.
Jen nodded, "I checked the vacation status, and I was stunned with how many paid days off the staff get."
Avery cracked a grin, "It must pay having a young hot CEO running the management, right, Brooke?" she nudged Brooke’s side with her elbow.
A patch of pink painted Brooke’s cheeks, "I-I agree, this company is very accommodating." her tone dropped, "Where else would someone like me get accepted?" she reflected on the past applications she had sent in, only to never even get any feedback from the companies.
Sitting in the waiting room, it felt surreal to Brooke that Halton. Inc responded to her application.
Jen tossed a hopeful look to Avery to try and help lighten the mood, but their chit chat was cut short by the sudden arrival of the supervisor holding a black clipboard to his chest.
On arrival, Jen and Avery got up to greet him, but the supervisor’s gaze zoned in on the woman still sitting down. He traced his eyes to the crutches laid down and raised a suspicious brow. He swiftly peeked into the clipboard and then at Brooke, she repeated the process, alternating her glances three times.
Brooke hurriedly tried to reach for her crutches; Jen noticed and quickly helped her up.
However, just as Brooke got on her foot, the supervisor barked furiously at her. "Is this some sort of prank?" he demanded, looking at Brooke.
Brooke hung her head on her shoulders, "D-Did I do something wrong-"
The supervisor widened his eyes, genuinely shocked by her question. "Did you do something-" his pitch went high.
He ran his fingers through his hair in disbelief, he sent a harsh glare her way when he asked, "Why the hell would you lie in your application?!"
Brooke’s chest tightened, lie in her application? What was he talking about? She shakily replied, "I... don’t understand what you mean...I never lied-"
"Cut the bullshit act!" He yelled tapping the clipboard, "I have your application here and it says nothing about any disability!" he yelled.
Brooke gasped, she raised her head to meet his harsh glare. "Sir I filled it in-" she tried to defend but the supervisor only got angrier.
"Look, I have seen people pull some desperate stunts to land a job here, but this is plain fraud!" he continued to yell, the door to the waiting room still wide open, attracting the attention of the passing staff.
Brooke’s eyes watered as more people arrived, their heads peeking out the door, getting first class seats to watch her get humiliated.
She tried to speak but the words, the right words would not leave her mouth.
Thankfully, Avery stood in front of her arms stretched out defensively, she lowered her head, "I apologize for the misunderstanding sir, but right now Brooke isn’t in the right frame of mind to even say a word. She’s clearly having a panic attack-’’
"Who the hell are you? Did you two come together?! Should I check your application as well for fabrication?" he threatened.
Jen discreetly pinched Avery and dismissively shook her head in discouragement. But her friend shook off her warning and stood her ground.
A trait in Avery that Jen feared would one day land her in unavoidable trouble.
"Sir, she said she did not lie in her application, what would she gain by doing that? I think there must be some mistake." she suggested.
Brooke nodded, but her hopes were shattered when the supervisor threw his clipboard at Brooke’s crutches, Jen crouched down and picked it up. She read through it quickly and showed it to Avery, who then showed it to Brooke.
As Brooke read through the application, the supervisor hissed, "I should have known something was wrong with you when you sent that retrieval email asking to resend your application."
Brooke bit her lip, she never sent any email...
Just then she briefly recalled earlier this morning, particularly Cassie’s strange reaction to her landing the internship.
Her heart sunk as her thoughts caught up to the situation...
-PRESENT-
Staring at Avery’s unconscious body, Jen couldn’t help but recall their first day at Halton. Inc as interns.
She reached for her hand and brought it to her crying face, "I always knew your sense of justice would land you in trouble, I just never thought that you’d be in this state because of me."
Her shoulders jerked, "If I could help it, I would take your place in a heartbeat, I’m sorry..." her voice broke, "If I wasn’t such a coward..." her tears fell faster than her words managed to escape her quivering lips.
She sniffled, "But don’t worry, it’ll all be over very soon. I’ll set us free from that man." she wiped her tears away.
"Even if..." she tightened her fists, her eyes narrowed into a bloodshot glare.
"Even if it kills me."
Jen adjusted the hood on her grey sweater and slapped some shades on before stepping out of the hospital room. However, just as she came out, a hand grabbed her wrist and yanked her into the next room!
Panicked, she tried to call for help, punching and kicking in resistance. A hand covered her mouth, while another yanked her shades off, giving her a good view of the person standing in front of her.
Jen sighed, "Oh, it’s just you."
But her partner did not seem the least bit pleased to see her. "I thought I told you not to come here, Ethan must be searching everywhere for you. It’s too dangerous to be here." he scolded.
"I’m sorry but I needed to see her, it might be the last time I ever do." she broke down, her emotions catching up to her.
But Axel gripped her by the shoulders and gazed softly into her eyes, "I promised you we would take this bastard down, and I meant it."
Author’s Note: The next drop will be a massive one, because it’ll be the conclusion to this arc, and it will be dropping this month. I want to start August with the second arc, which is the most heated in the story.
Before then I might drop another Chapter or two, in a few hours guys.
Once again, so sorry for ghosting