Chapter 35

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Jennie

The farthest stop on the subway was downtown LA which was fine with me because that's precisely where I was going. I remained seething with fury all the way through my ride on the subway. People were taking one look at my face and scrambling as far away as they could get. When the muffled voice finally announced my stop, I stormed off of the platform, taking the stairs two at a time until I reached the surface level. Another seven minute walk and I was standing in front of Lisa's office building.

I strode through the lobby, straight past the receptionist calling after me, and to the elevator. I wasn't sure where exactly I was going but I didn't have the patience to ask someone. Until I pressed the wrong button on the elevator and ended up on a floor full of cubicles. I was just about to turn around and head back to the lobby when I caught sight of Nate.

"Mrs. Manoban." he greeted me with a smile, striding over to me with a stack of papers in his hand. His smile faltered the moment he saw my face.

"Where's her office!?" I snapped, jaw clenched in rage.

"Whoa, is everything okay there, Jennie?"

"Where, Nate?"

"Fourteenth floor."

I jerked my head in a nodding motion and whirled around to return to the elevator. Nate made a move to follow, likely to ask more questions or try to calm me down, but thought better of it and walked away in the opposite direction instead. I waited for the elevator and then hopped on and rode it up to the fourteenth floor. When the doors opened, I stepped into another, much smaller lobby. This one was carpeted and had several seats for waiting and one desk with a receptionist seated behind it.

"Can I help you, ma'am?" She squeaked when I stomped into the room. I looked over at her once before scanning the rest of my surroundings. There was a large glass room on my right, the door to which was in the corner. I assumed that was it and stormed towards it. "Wait, you can't go in there! Ms. Manoban is on a call..." I pushed the door open anyway.

"... send you the projections for the expansion." Lisa finished, looking up at me, with her brows furrowed in confusion. She opened her lips and mouthed silently to me - 'What are you doing here'?

I just crossed my arms and clenched my jaw even harder. She blinked at me once and then turned back to her call.

"Umm, I'm going to have to call you back." she said. "Something's come up."

Someone made a noise of disapproval from the other end of the line but he hang up anyway.

"I'm so sorry, Ms. Manoban." her mousey secretary was squeaking from behind me in the doorway. "She ran right past me. I couldn't..."

"It's okay, Trudy. This is my wife, Jennie."

Trudy's eyes went wide as she gazed at me.

"That'll be all, Trudy." Lisa said and the receptionist bowed her head and left, closing the door behind her so that we were alone. Lisa walked around to the front of her desk and leaned back on it casually, crossing her arms at her midsection and looking me over.

"I can tell, from your radiating anger, that you probably didn't come all this way to have lunch with me." she said. I narrowed my eyes in a glare to show her that I was in no joking mood.

"I went to visit my mother." I told her. She nodded at once, immediate understanding dawning on her.

"Ah, I see."

"You see? That's all you can say, is you see?"

"What do you want me to say, Jennie? If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. But you've already decided that you're pissed at me, so I'm not sure there's much I can do to alleviate that."

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