Chapter 42: Worthy

After the whole debacle with Mark outside, her day only got worse.

Olivia came storming into her office, banging the door open so hard it nearly fell off its hinges. She then banged the door closed again.

Olivia marched over to her sister’s desk, crossing her arms in front of her.

“I am trying very hard to remain calm,” Olivia answered, her teeth gritted together. “And please bear in mind that I wholly believe this is not your doing, but I just need to be sure before I take my next steps.”

Abigail listened to her sister intently, and nodded.

“Did you really tell father that you’re not marrying Lyall?” Olivia asked her sister.

“I did,” Abigail affirmed. “I’m not marrying him, Olivia.”

Olivia nodded, “Dad told me the same thing, so that checks out. Next,” Olivia drew a deep breath. “Did you call the head secretary to change any schedule around today at lunch time?”

Abigail bit her bottom lip. She had. She’d been scheduled for a meeting with Louis from accounting, but she’d promised Mark a lunch already. So she’d asked to change it around. Now, of course, that lunch was off the table.

“I did,” Abigail answered her sister, but she really hoped she didn’t press her for the reason. She didn’t want to lie to her sister, but she also wasn’t ready to tell anyone about Mark just yet. Whether anything was still remaining between them or not.

Olivia pursed her lips. “One more question.”

Abigail waved her hand for her sister to continue.

“Did you arrange a private lunch with Lyall? While simultaneously changing my schedule around so that I would be meeting with a board director on the other side of town for the next three hours? And cancelling my appointment with Dolores that I had scheduled for over a month already?” Olivia asked, her voice plain. “Because it was done from your phone number, on your desk over here, and a confirmation email was sent from your private business email account round about half an hour ago.”

Abigail felt her jaw fall open, “What?”

“Call your secretary,” Olivia told her sister, pointing to her personal phone. “I just wanted to be sure by asking you.”

Abigail picked up her phone and dialed her secretary’s line. She picked up immediately. Abigail put it on speakerphone.

“What changes were made to my and my sister’s schedule from this number?” Abigail asked.

“Your lunch appointment with Mr. Lyall was made, Ma’am,” the voice answered. “And your sister was scheduled to take the Board Director meeting in Broad Road.”

“Who did that?” Abigail asked.

“Miss Charlotte called in from your line, Ma’am,” the voice answered. “She said you asked her to call, and that you were going to send an email confirming everything in a minute.”

“Thank you,” Abigail told the woman. “Change everything back, please.”

The woman promised to do so, and Abigail hung up.

Olivia fumed silently, and Abigail genuinely thought her sister was going to explode.

Charlotte must have come into her office when she’d stepped out with Mark. But that had just been a few minutes. Charlotte had to have been watching her, looking for when she could get a chance to make a move.

“We need to tell father,” Abigail said to Olivia, pacing up and down her office. “This isn’t just poisoning, anymore. This is interfering in the company now. And for what? Just to have me have lunch with Lyall? Why is she so desperate for me and Lyall to work out, anyway?!”

Olivia thought over it for a moment, the nodded, “You’re right. You have that recording as blackmail and that hasn’t stopped her. We need to speak to him.”

“I’ll call him,” Abigail said, reaching for her phone.

She saw a message from Mark flashing across her screen, and two missed calls. She ignored it. If he just wanted someone to scream at, he could find almost literally anyone else. She wasn’t his soundboard.

Before Abigail could dial her father’s number, Adam himself barged into her room.

“Why did you cancel your meeting with Dolores, only to have it re-scheduled?! Do you know how long they’ve been waiting for us to see to them?” Adam bellowed at Olivia. “Do you know that little stunt just cost the company ten million dollars?! Thankfully, I was able to recover ten times that from Abigail’s information so the monetary loss isn’t terrible, but we have now ruined, possibly beyond repair, a valuable business partner!”

Both Abigail and Olivia waited for their father to finish ranting before interjecting. There was no point in speaking to him in this state. Once he was done fuming, Olivia drew a deep breath.

“There’s something we need to tell you,” Olivia told her father.

And they began, speaking in turns, telling Adam the story from their points of view. They told him about the poisoning attempt, about the second in command to the CFO, and then they told him about the schedule change today.

They told him to call the secretary to confirm if he needed.

Adam sat quietly, listening to the details his daughters gave him, never once interrupting so much as to ask a question.

Eventually, they were done, and there was a silence between them all for a long period, before Adam finally spoke.

“I will deal with this,” Adam said, standing up out of his chair. “With all of it. Thank you, both for bringing all of these things to my attention. Do not involve yourselves further, or there will be too many questions. I will sort everything out.”

______________________________________

Adam had kept true to his word, and in about an hour, had summoned Abigail, Olivia, and Charlotte to his office.

Adam had had his office cleaned since the last time Abigail had been in there, and the place looked almost transformed.

There was only one folder on Adam’s desk this time, though there was three chairs set in front of his desk.

Olivia and Charlotte were already there, waiting.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why you’re all here,” Adam began. “And I’m sure the two of you,” Adam glanced to Olivia and Abigail, “Both have work that you have to get back to, so I won’t keep you long.”

“Excuse me,” Charlotte intervened. “I too, have work that I need to get back to.”

“No,” Adam turned to her, his voice hard. “No, you do not. Because effective immediately, you are fired from this company.”

Abigail and Olivia stared at their father in shock.

“And you will find in this file, a complete compilation of why you have been fired,” Adam all but tossed the file to Charlotte.

Charlotte grabbed the file, and flipped through it, “This is nonsense!” She declared. “Complete fabrication! Why would I poison my own daughter? Why would I change their schedules around, it clearly says it was from Abigai’s line!”

“Keep going,” Adam said, calmly, dangerously. “And I will sue you for divorce immediately.”

Charlotte closed her mouth.

“You know this is true,” Adam said. “I have listed all the witness to every part of your behavior in the back. All of those people were either bribed or threatened by you, most of them both. You will go home, immediately, and you won’t return to work. Or I will have you arrested.”

Abigail and Olivia lingered as Charlotte huffed, and picked herself up.

“You girls may both go,” Adam dismissed them, and without a sound, they left.

_________________________________________


Abigail had stopped checking her phone. For three days. Three days had passed since her incident with Mark, and she had resolutely not looked at any messages from him, and hadn’t answered his calls, either.

There was really no reason to, she had told herself. He had behaved in a terrible way to her, and he hadn’t seen himself as the one at fault. And Abigail refused to just give in and brush everything under the carpet. So she refused to take his calls.

She understood that. It didn’t stop her yearning, though.

So she had decided that, being a Saturday, and being that she had never so far encountered Mark on a Saturday and at the veranda, thought that it was a good place to go.

She had been there for only ten minutes, when she was proven wrong.

“Abigail!” Abigail closed her book as soon as she heard the familiar voice. She had no desire to speak to him right now.

She started to pack up her things and head into the house, when Mark arrived at the veranda.

“Abigail, please wait,” Mark called on her, as he caught up to her. “Please, just listen.”

Abigail turned around, facing him, impassive.

“I was wrong,” Mark began. “Not only was I wrong, I was rude, and disrespectful, and just plain stupid. And there is nothing I can say that would earn your forgiveness, because I know I don’t deserve it, so all I can do is beg for it.”

Abigail felt her heart soften as Mark spoke, her heart going out to him more and more.

With a small smile, she took a step closer to him, cupping her hand against his face.

“I forgive you,” she murmured.