VALERIA Listening to everything he said regarding the contract made my stomach churn. I wanted to get up and leave his office. I wanted to tell him that I had changed my mind, but it was too late. As he listed every clause, I balled up my fists, attempting to calm myself down. My heart raced. I believe he noticed my nervousness because he asked, "Do you want to take your words back?" I knew I wanted to say yes. I wanted to say, 'Yes, I'm sorry for wasting your time, but I can't do this.' But I refrained from doing so."No, no, I don't," I responded firmly while trembling inside. I dug my fingernails into my palm, trying to distract myself from my nerves, but it was ineffective. I silently prayed for all this to be over. The only thing keeping me going was the fact that my sister was going to be fine. She was going to be healthy. That was all I was looking forward to. So, all this was worth it.In due time, the meals I ordered were brought to the office, and he had finished with the c
VALERIA"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness," I kept chanting as we entered the car. I couldn't believe all that had just transpired. I knew that the news had spread out; everything was definitely plastered on the news. I hadn't mentally prepared for this. I didn't even think that everyone would know this way. What if my sister saw it on the news?"Shit!" I exclaimed."You are too loud," Adam stated. I turned to him. His head was leaned on the headrest, and his eyes were closed. His phone rang; he looked at it and dropped it. For three minutes, he had been getting numerous phone calls. He didn't seem anxious; he was very calm, and that irked me."How are you so at peace right now?" I asked."What do you want me to do, Valeria? Act anxious like you?" He asked, his eyes still closed."I'm not anxious." I lied. I was terrified. I turned off my phone because I was so anxious. I could feel my intestines twisting. I felt like throwing up. I was scared.He scoffed, "who are you fooling?""I'm no
VALERIATake deep breaths, V.I kept repeating those words as we walked into the reception because I knew what was in store for me. I knew there were going to be lots of judgmental stares, for one. I knew Nicole would be confused and at a loss for words. I knew lots of things were going to occur, and I was mentally preparing myself for that.Was it working? Hell to the no. "Are you ready?" he asked, pursing his lips. "Are you?" I asked."I'm ready if you are," he responded.I shrugged, "then let's do this." My insides were twisting.We walked towards the front desk, and a lot of my colleagues surrounded there, murmuring slowly. I bit my bottom lip hard out of fear. I turned to look at him; he looked at me and held my hand tightly then smiled, which calmed me for some odd reason. "Is this how you work?" he asked with a stern voice, which caused them to disperse immediately. Of course, they gave me those judgmental looks before leaving. He then turned to me, held my shoulders, and
ADAMI sank into the sofa and heaved a heavy sigh as I started rethinking a whole lot of things. I didn't want to do this; it wasn't supposed to play out this way. At first, I wanted to do it to punish my mother, but it felt horrible, and the moment I changed my mind, Valeria begged me not to. Normally, I wouldn't do something like this, so why did I choose to help her? I looked up at the ceiling and started counting the light bulbs. At that moment, my phone lit up. I had been receiving multiple calls from a lot of people. I checked it; it was my mother. She had been calling me since we left the hospital, and I sincerely had nothing to say to her. I watched it ring and went ahead to continue with my activity. My phone lit up again; it was a text from her. I read it from the notification bar. "I know you are at work; pick up your calls!" I groaned angrily and took in a deep breath before dialing her number because I knew the call was going to drain me. "Adam?" She began. "Explain you
VALERIAI looked at my phone sadly as I saw the debit alert for the third time this month. I plopped my head on the desk and groaned silently. Vanessa's cancer drugs were milking my bank account dry but what could I do? She had just me, there was no one else, but I felt I wasn't doing enough, I wasn't buying as many drugs as she needed which the doctors have warned me about but what else could I do? I could only get what I could within my means. I didn't know what to do; borrowing money was not even in my mind because how would I be able to pay it back? I let out a breath in frustration and opened my word puzzle book. Searching for words in any puzzle book always helps me. It is weird, yes, but whenever I was frustrated, angry, sad, or something related to any of these mentioned, solving puzzles did it for me. I searched for the word 'Discombobulated' in the letters arranged randomly. I squinted my eyes, hoping that it would expose the word quickly but that wasn't working. I put the
ADAM"Welcome back, son." My mother sang on the call. I laughed."Thank you, Mum," I said, forcing a smile. I leaned on the back seat as the driver brought the car to life. "I know you are happy to be back." She said. I could sense her smiling from the other side of the call.I wasn't happy to be back, I didn't want to return. I didn't miss anything here, but I had to return — for the hotel, and her. Now I had arrived, I was latently regretting it."Of course I am, I can't wait to see you, mum." I gritted my teeth."You can come over to my place now, you can tell me all about your girlfriend, and how your 5-year stay in Turkey was. I want to hear all about it. I want to hear how you met your girlfriend too, oh I can't wait!" She blabbed on and on.I slapped my hand on my face.Shit.I forgot that the lie I told her about having a girlfriend. "We broke up Mum." I fibbed. "No, no, don't tell me that. You told me that you were going to get married to her, you said she was the love of
VALERIAI was pacing, I couldn't stop. I was still in shock. I couldn't believe what happened. What a way to make a first impression, V.I screamed for the umpteenth time."It wasn't so bad," Nicole repeated for the 7th time. She was leaning on the toilet door to avoid anyone from coming in. "It was! It was!" I shouted. "I almost lost my job. If not for Mr. Ben, I would have lost my job. How would I have paid for Nessa's treatments?" I started breathing heavily, my heart was pounding in my chest. I leaned on the sink and looked at myself in the mirror. This was really messed up. Nicole walked towards me and rubbed my shoulders which really seemed to help in that situation. "Relax, babe. You didn't lose your job; you are fine." "Yeah, for now. What if he fires me tomorrow?" She laughed, "He isn't going to do that. Mr. Ben explained, remember? You said that yourself.""Still," I whined. "I'm so scared."She turned me to face her, "Don't be, you're fine," She paused. "Thank you for
VALERIAThe road back to the hotel was a long one. I was seated at the back seat of a luxurious bus, which was sort of hidden so crying more was very much easy. 50,000 dollars to 70,000 dollars? Where was I going to get that kind of money? Hell, I didn't even have up to 2,000 dollars in my name. If I decide to save right now, Nessa would be long gone. What am I going to do? Get a new job? Where? How? How can I juggle a 9 to 5 with other jobs?Are there online jobs now? What can I do?What can I possibly do to obtain quick cash?I bit my bottom lip so hard to push back a new round of tears; I bit it so hard that I could taste blood.What the hell was I going to do??I stood in front of the building and thought to myself about how life decided to make me feel extra shitty today when I saw a car drive past me slowly. I studied the black captivating Mercedes Benz closely, the glasses were tinted so I couldn't see anything but it felt like a pair of eyes were watching me. As soon as th