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“No, Katrina,” I said, motioning to Hank, the security guard outside of my office. “I think it’s time to go now.”
“Wait,” Katrina said, a sly grin on her face. “What about other things I know. Things that you don’t want other people to know.”
My eyebrow rose and I sat back in my chair, holding my hand out to signal to Hank to wait. It was only Katrina and me in the room at that moment, though Hank could clearly see through the glass walls.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Julia,” she said. “And how you have been seeing her since you hired her.”
“Oh?”
“And how she threatened to tell the world about your affair and you paid her off to leave.”
“I did, did I?”
Suddenly, the smug look on her face faltered.
“Yes,” she said, trying to rally. “That’s what I heard, anyway. I’m sure the investors would like to have that information.”
“You mean investors like these people?” I asked, showing her the log-in page again. “Here’s the thing, Katrina. These people already know. They know because I wasn’t exactly keeping it a secret between Julia and me. But Julia isn’t here anymore—not because we were dating and I paid her to go away. She’s not here because I didn’t trust her because information kept leaking out to the press. Information that I didn’t have another source for a leak for.
“Until I realized that one other person had access to that kind of information. One other person who had an axe to grind, didn’t they?”
“What are you talking about?” she asked weakly, pulling at the front of her shirt to rebutton one of the top buttons again. Ever since Julia had gone, I had noticed she was dressing more provocatively. Now I understood why.
She didn’t just want Julia gone. She wanted to replace her.
“Katrina, we both know. And that’s why I am firing you. You are hereby terminated, and I wish you all the best of luck on your future endeavors. But please, and I mean this, don’t fuck around with your boss’s personal life next time. And don’t leak classified information either. Both of them will just lead you right back here.”
I signaled to Hank again and he came into the room quietly. Katrina, for her part, didn’t wail or gnash her teeth or cause a scene. She simply got up, stuck her nose in the air primly, and walked ahead of Hank as he escorted her out of the building.
I only wished Julia had been able to see it.
ChapterTwenty-Nine
Julia
Ineeded to know. It had been eating at me the three days I spent at Caroline’s place, going over everything that had happened. I needed to know. Was it true that Dad had deeper ties than I thought he did with one of the mobs? Did they burn the place down? Mom never said, claiming it was a kitchen fire, but it didn’t make sense. Dad was meticulous about keeping the stoves clean and in perfect working order.
But she never would elaborate, and instead shushed us when we asked. The insurance company would sniff out any doubt in us and would refuse to pay if we did. We all had to be on the same page. Because it was true. And because Mom’s life, my sister’s, and the bar itself depended on it.
So, I hadn’t asked, accepting the terrible accident as the truth. But I heard the rumors. I heard the talk from people in the bar since I had been back. The newspaper article was only a small piece of the puzzle, an echo of things I had already heard. Things I already worried were true.
In the last several days, I had only seen my mother once, when I went over to get more clothes. We didn’t speak, and she never made eye contact with me. I had gathered up what I needed and made my way back to Caroline’s without so much as a hello or goodbye. This time was going to be different. It had to be.
The bar was closed until four on Fridays. It gave everyone a chance to rest up before a heavy weekend, and opening at four instead of six like on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday meant that we were open early for those that skipped out on that last hour or so of work. Mondays we opened at ten in the morning, in case people got a case of the Mondays that was so bad they needed to avoid work altogether.
It being a Friday meant Mom would be home until three or so, and I knew I couldn’t just skip out of another weekend of work. They needed me in there, and though no one had said anything about it, I planned on showing up to work. Besides, I needed the money.
I also needed to replace some of the snacks I had burned through at Caroline’s if nothing else. The poor woman couldn’t keep chips or ice cream in the house when I was around. It was the only place I ever ate junk food, and I was starting to notice by how tight my pants were getting. No amount of running in the mornings was taking off the calorie count of an entire pint of ice cream.
First though, I needed to talk to Mom.
I headed over at two, knowing she would still be home, and found her standing over the sink, eating a sandwich. She had the habit of eating over the sink when she ate lunch, I guess a remnant from years of corralling my sister and me while also bouncing back and forth to the bar, not having enough time to sit and eat.
As soon as she saw me, she knew I wasn’t there to slip by and get clothes. There was none of the quick looking away or busying herself with something else that she had done before. She slowly set the plate down, opened her water bottle, and leaned her back against the sink.
I shut the door quietly behind me and took a deep breath. This was going to suck.
