Surrogate Mother (Completed)

Chapter 17: Who's Dead?

Afra

Phones were ringing off the hook, papers were piling up with deadlines approaching, and so many demands from her business was stressing her out. It had been a week since Afra had heard anything from Sarah. She just couldn't understand. Sarah was one of her best secretaries since she opened her business and it was nothing like her to not show up to work without a notice. Afra had asked every employee on her floor if they had seen or heard from Sarah and they all said no.

If was frustrating her so badly that all she could do was slouch herself over her messy desk while she rubbed the temples of her head with both index fingers. "I need a temp, badly." she whined as she searched for her work phone in the work junk that laid before her. Two minutes had passed and there was no sight of her phone. Afra gave up and proceeded to get up from behind her desk. She swiftly walked to her office door, swinging it open. The only thing Afra could think of was the next person in charge of her business.

"Clark! Clark!" Afra yelled as she was walking near Clark's  office door way. Clark was the operations manager of the business. He was in charge of making sure everything and everyone in the building was working swell without chaos. And in situations like this, he was in definite need of saving the day.

Clark hopped out of his office lounge chair, preparing for whatever that Afra needed, "Yes, Mrs. Coventry?" he asked.

"I need your help, now! Sarah has been missing for a week and no one knows where to find her. Without her, I cannot complete the designs for this upcoming project. If I don't have this done, my career will be over and this business will get shut down! Why of all weeks Sarah had to go mis--"

Clark noticed the stress and worry in Afra's eyes and quite frankly, that was not the first time he had seen her this way. He interrupted Afra before she could drown herself in more stress than it she already had, "Mrs. Coventry, don't worry. I have everything under control. Send all of the drafts to me via email and I'll have them looked over by Friday." he said calmly while caressing Afra's shoulder to ease her mind.

"Thank you!" Afra cried in joy. "Thank you so much! How can I ever repay you?"

Clark giggled a little, being glad to help, "You don't have to. It's my job isn't it?"

"Yes, but you just cease to amaze me." Afra smiled. "You are my life saver!"

"And you Mrs. Conventry are my mu--"

*SCREAMS*

Before Clark could finish his inspiring message, screams came from down the hall where all the employees worked at their cubicles. Afra poked her head out of the office doorway. She could hear chatter , whimpering, and gasps from direction the screams came from. With curiosity, Afra proceeded down the hall to see what the commotion was all about. As she slowly walked closer to the noise, she halted when she heard the chaos coming from the break room in front of her. When she walked into the break room, a woman was in one of lounge chairs crying her eyes out while four other employees were trying their best to comfort her.

"What is all the commotion about?" Afra asked feeling disturbed.

Once everyone heard Afra's voice, the just looked at her with eyes of grief after being taken aback after what they just learned. The woman in the chair that was crying blew her nose obnoxiously as she looked up at Afra, "You didn't hear the news?"

"What news?" Afra started to grow upset because she was always the first person in the entire office  to know anything before everyone else knew.

"It's Sarah. She's......dead. They found her in the living room of her apartment with a bullet in the head." The woman continued to cry.

Afra stood there like a bump on a log with her mouth wide open. She tried to process what she just heard.

"Who's dead?" She thought. She just couldn't take it. This week was not her week at all.