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Stella grabbed her laptop out of her hand and looked at the email. “Then Aaron must have forgotten I’d told him.”
Or Stella was lying to her right now, which was most likely the option.
“Sounds like a misunderstanding to me,” Lilian said. “Maybe you should find your email you sent him and remind him.”
“No,” Stella said. “You never do that to your boss. Prove them wrong.”
She knew it was a dig at her, but she wasn’t going to say she was sorry.
“If it’s to show you did your job, then you should stand up for yourself.”
“So that is what you’re doing right now?” Stella asked. “Standing up for yourself? Remember, I hired you and I can fire you.”
She knew she paled, but there wasn’t much she could do about it.
If she wanted to put up a big enough stink, she could go to Aaron and hope they’d listen to her.
She just hoped it didn’t come to that.
“I know that,” she said. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“No,” Stella said. “But if either Aaron or Nate come to talk to you again, I want to know right away. If I’m in the building, you tell them you want me in the meeting. If they say no for some reason, you call or text me immediately after to fill me in on exactly everything said.”
“What if you’re off?” she asked. “You don’t like anyone bothering you when you’re off.”
“I don’t care. That is important enough to bother me,” Stella snapped. “Now leave and shut the door on the way out.”
She hated being talked to like a child. It reminded her of how her mother was.
The screaming and yelling. Demeaning her and her brothers and Quinn.
As bad as foster care was at times, at least she was fed and didn’t always get yelled at like that. It depended on the house she was in.
The Websters saved her. She knew that. They gave her a life she’d never seen before.
They took her in with other foster kids and treated them with respect. They gave her rules and boundaries but let them make decisions on their own.
It’d been months since she’d texted Tess and found she missed her.
She’d been so busy living her life and figured that Ronnie and Tess just moved on with theirs and other kids that she didn’t bother to keep in touch.
Most times it was a text for a birthday or holiday. She didn’t even text her at Thanksgiving and realized she never got one in return.
At the end of the day, she’d gone home and texted Tess and waited for a reply. When she got one quickly, she decided to call.
“Lily,” Tess said. “I’m so happy to hear from you. I’ve been worried.”
It made her realize that Tess tended to let Lily take the steps she wanted in life. One of those things that made them such good foster parents.
They had a voice there and decisions to make on their own. They tried to get the kids in their home ready for life.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve been busy and it just occurred to me I didn’t hear from you on Thanksgiving. Even if I don’t reach out first, you do. Is everything okay?”
“It is,” Tess said. “One of the kids we’ve got in the house took ill. We spent a few days in the hospital with Tyler while we were still caring for the other two. You could say it wasn’t one of my favorite holidays.”
“I’m sorry. I hope Tyler is okay?”
“He is now. Thank you for asking. How have you been? I hope you went home for the holiday.”
