Deeper Healing

41| Jigsaw Puzzle

Leilani Edwards

"Miss Edwards, apart from the fact that you are one of the most ambitious, goal-oriented and principled employees this company has ever had, I hate doing this to you because I liked you for the way you just carry and present yourself to the world."

I looked at my boss softly, trying to maintain a calm composure as I allowed her words to sink in while I processed them.

Her statement said a lot to me and triggered multiple implications in my mind of what exactly she meant and where this not-so-pleasant conversation would lead.

Firstly, she said she hated doing this to me, and in our situation, the only thing to hate she'd do to me was fire me, something I'd been dreading since I walked into her office roughly ten minutes ago.

The fact that she used a past tense about liking me alerted my senses too to what our relationship meant now and the position where it stood.

My boss had always been a leader I looked up to, a woman embodying the success and control I dreamt of achieving for myself one day in a patriarchal society.

She'd always been open about her fondness of my professionalism and charisma and in the few events we'd been in a close setup, we'd gotten comfortable enough to be casual with each other.

I respected her and always tried my best to stay on her good side. From the look of things, I'd ruined that with something I knew confidently I wasn't responsible for and it hurt my pride.

Despite feeling strongly misjudged and misunderstood, I maintained a professional atmosphere, the small polite smile on my face contradicting the turmoil contained within me.

"I appreciate your kind words, Ma'am, and they mean a lot to me coming from you," I responded, placing the coffee mug I'd barely taken a sip of back onto the table.

I could see her analyse my every move, reading my body language through her reading glasses without saying much. She'd always been a woman of a few words but an excellent judge of character from my interactions with her and fellow employee chatters.

Just this once, I prayed she would judge me through her sceptical eyes and see the truth the investigations were failing to prove right through me. I prayed she would see this wasn't as simple and incidental as it seemed, but rather a ploy to falsely accuse and bring me down.

I had no idea why she'd called me to her office to have the meeting just between the two of us without the other board members like all my colleagues had gone through.

Maybe it was because they weren't getting fired and I was or she had her own ulterior motives she'd eventually reveal.

"My involvement in this theft case has been disappointing, I admit and—"

"You didn't do it, I know," she interjected calmly but confidently, the firmness in her voice piquing my interest. "You wouldn't at a point when you were a step away from a major career breakthrough."

"Certainly, Ma'am," I affirmed sincerely. "I would never betray the company's trust."

I held myself back before appreciating her confidence in my innocence. What if she'd just implied it and I misunderstood what she meant? I couldn't get ahead of myself like that.

"However, your innocence has been the most difficult to prove despite how many strings I pull and your records and trail being transparent, Leilani."

I'd heard that from a couple of my private sources inside the office. Despite being questioned multiple times by detectives and submitting statements, I was still under scrutiny and nothing I said seemed to disassociate me from the missing funds.