Fired

Garnet sat quietly the entire ride back to the office and she kept staring contemplatively out of the window while Bill constantly glanced at her in concern.

He had been surprised to see her looking sober when she got out of the courthouse, it was a sharp contrast from what he had expected because how was she more subdued coming out than when she first went in and he had been afraid that the lawyer had been unable to secure the divorce for her but she told him that she had signed the papers.

That left him in a state of confusion, had that not been what she wanted in the first place? What had happened in there to make her be this way? When he tried to probe she told him that she was simply tired and wanted to go back to her office which disappointed him.

He had hoped that he could convince her to go to a celebratory lunch after signing the papers and then he would slowly begin the process of courting her and making her become his woman. But she was obviously not in the mood to celebrate so he let it be.

When they got to her office building she did not even wait for him to open the door for her as she quickly dropped a chaste kiss on his cheek and left the car and hurried back into her office building. Having no other choice Bill drove away deciding to go and visit her at home later in the evening, hopefully she would be feeling better later.

When Garnet stepped out of the elevator the air in the office was different and she realized that the staff were throwing covert glances in her direction but she shrugged and went towards her office, they were probably still gossiping about her promotion.

She was the first woman to be promoted to senior partner in the company and she was the youngest too, a lot of people would be envious and she recognized the fact that it would take a little while for the furor to die down.

As she neared her office her assistant jumped out of his seat.

“Ms Woods, Mr Avery has requested that you come to his office immediately.” He said, looking down at his feet and refusing to look up at Garnet.

She went past her door to the CEO’s office wondering why her assistant was acting strangely and what the CEO wanted to speak to her about, maybe he wanted to discuss her benefits. She brightened up at the thought.

“You can go right in Ms Woods.” Everly the CEO’s round faced jolly secretary told her and she answered with a smile and pushed back the heavy glass door.

“Garnet, I see that you are back from lunch.” The CEO said with a smile which Garnet noticed did not really reach his eyes.

“Yes sir. What did you want to discuss with me?” She asked and when he gestured at the chair opposite him she pulled it out and sat down, her heart beating fast as she sensed that something was wrong but what could it possibly be.

“I have some unfortunate news Garnet.” He said without preamble and rested steely eyes on her.

Garnet let out a breath as she tried to put her finger on what could have gone wrong and how bad it could be. Why was Mr Avery taking so long to speak? She wanted to yell at him to spit it out already.

“The contract you brought us has been withdrawn pending some review by Skye’s board and due to that they have to rescind their offer. We don’t have the contract and I am sorry to say that i might have to suspend you until we see the outcome of their review.” He said.

“Suspend me?” Garnet whispered unbelievingly.

She went pale and felt like her life had suddenly been tipped on its side, how could everything just go horribly wrong in just a few hours? It felt like she had been struck by bad luck?

“I am going to need you to go to your office and pack up your possessions and go home, if anything changes you will be the first to know.” He finished.

Garnet stood up woodenly and made her way out of the office while the CEO looked at her back sympathetically.

Garnet was one of his best workers and he had been glad to see her get that promotion but now he had to strip her of it. The powers above him demanded it and it was either place her head on the chopping board or his and even though he liked her very much he liked the yearly vacations to exotic locations he took with his wife even better.

Garnet’s body seemed to have a mind of its own because her mind had gone miles away and she just functioned automatically. She got to her office and somehow was able to pack up all of her stuff and walk past all the eyes that were watching her. She got into the taxi that her assistant had gotten her and went home.

When she tiredly walked through the foyer of the house she did not notice anyone in the living room until her mother tearfully called her name and she snapped out of her trance and turned to see everyone in her family sitting in the living room with a strange man in a suit.

“What is happening? Who is this?” She queried.

The man stood up and turned to her. “I am Edward Stone and I am here to discuss the removal of the Woods family from this premises.” He said and Garnet’s gaze swung from his face to her mother’s then her father’s.

“What is this man talking about? Why is he asking us to leave our house?” Garnet asked weakly and her mother began to wail loudly while her father hung his head in shame.

“Mr Theo Woods took out multiple mortgages on this house and he has been defaulting on payments and now my client has decided to foreclose on the property so you will need to vacate the premises immediately.” Edward said and handed her the documents.

Garnet looked at her family then at the papers she had been handed and her heart sank further. This was the worst time for something like this to happen, how did her life that had so much promise fall apart so quickly?

“You.. you can do something can’t you?” Beth said with a trembling voice as she got off the seat and approached Garnet.

“Maybe we can get a loan, you are a senior partner at one of the most prestigious real estate firms. This should not be too hard.” Beth said anxiously then brightened up and turned around while Garnet shook her head but Beth did not notice.

“We don’t need to move out, Garnet can pay for it.” She said with relief.

“No, I can’t pay for it.” Garnet interrupted and Beth whipped around to stare at her.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I cannot pay for the house because i just got fired from work.” Garnet said and Theo and Tristan stood up from their seats and clustered around her and that was when they noticed the box with her belongings at her feet.

“Don’t you mean you got promoted?” Tristan asked stupidly.

“Yes, I got promoted and then I got fired. Apparently Skye is rethinking signing the contract so Avery had to let me go, he calls it a suspension but I doubt he is going to call me back.” She said sadly.

“Does that mean that we are going to have to move out and live on the streets? What will our friends say?” Beth shrieked as she imagined being homeless and being the laughingstock of everyone.

She had thought that the hard times were over at last and she would at last be able to go back to living the high society life she was used to living thanks to her daughter’s new job but to now hear that her hopes were being dashed broke her heart.

“I guess we have no choice.” Garnet said with disappointment in her voice.

“Not unless we can come to an agreement.” A voice said and everyone whirled around to look at the person who he leaned against the doorway and studied them indulgently.