The Funtom Company

6: The |News| Company

Vincent put the newspaper down and took a long sip of his coffee. It was time to face the music. Today would be hell. Everyone would send him looks, whispering to each other about him until he finally reached his office. Yes, his son was trying to be the leader of a gang. Who doesn't have a family problem like that once and a while? Yes, he was the leader of that gang until he cleaned up his act. The gang was dead. It was finished. He had nothing to do with it anymore. No, he wasn't secretly using Ciel to keep control of the gang. He was just trying to be a father, trying to run the company he created. 

"This is too much," Vincent sighed as he exited the elevator. This place was a battlefield. He should've remained a small business. He shouldn't have tried to form something so grand. Damnit, Vincent, why do you always get yourself into this mess? The news might as well be your wife since they love to hate you so much. 

"Have you looked at the news, Mr. Phantomhive?" Adrian tried to make small talk. Vincent appreciated it but today was not the best. He'd just managed to get to the top floor and he wasn't in the mood for another question related to his family. Something in him snapped, just a bit. 

"Are you asking me about the rumors of an affair? My son running an illegal gang? My other son at the top of his class but people think he is secretly selling drugs on the side? Maybe the one where I'm in cahoots with a foreign country because I'm plotting world domination?" Vincent counted each of the things on his fingers as he said them.

"Actually, Mr. Phantomhive, I was talking about the latest discovery in finding the cure for cancer..." Adrian looked apologetic and a bit nervous. "The scientist that goes by the name 'Othello' seems rather close in his research. I'm not one for social media...but it was going around a lot today." 

"Oh," Vincent felt like an idiot. Adrian was the only person that didn't talk to him about his personal life and here Vincent was making a fool of himself. "I didn't hear about that one. I'm sorry, there is a lot on my mind. I should've expected you wouldn't try to get some sort of family secrets out of me. You don't seem very interested in office space gossip. Othello? Is that his real name or... ?"

"It's not like that, Mr. Phantomhive," Adrian averted his gaze. "I am interested but I don't like to force my curiosity on people. I'm sorry to not meet your expectations of me." Adrian corrected. "I think it's a name he chose for himself. Not sure why... I suppose it's better than Iago or Desdemona. Poor Desdemona, she had such a tragic fate."

"You're a very interesting fellow, Uny. It's refreshing, to say the least," Vincent smiled. "If you take out all of the abhorrent things about Iago, he would be my favorite. Have you ever thought about The Lion King's similarities to Hamlet? Because, if you ask me, Scar is much more like Iago than Claudius. Think about that for a moment. It's true," Vincent said as he opened the door to his workspace. He sat at his desk and pondered, once again, the miseries related to this job. Maybe he should throw it all away and stay at home with his wife and kids. He deserved a break. It was time for a vacation.  

Hour by hour passed. Would he ever get better at any of this? He'd been doing it for years but it seemed like with each passing day he only got worse. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. His phone rang. He let it ring for a bit. He wanted the person on the other end to completely build up that phone-anxiety, prepare their mental rehearsal of the message they would leave, and then he would answer it right when they'd figured out what they would say. Vincent was just in that type of mood. 

"Hello?" Vincent spoke into the cursed piece of plastic. 

"Vincent, I need to tell you something," Rachel's voice was soft, too soft. Was there an accident? Had a relative died? Were the kids safe? She sounded off.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Vincent asked. He had enough on his plate. He didn't need to worry about the safety of his family. His heart rate increased with each second that he was kept waiting. Maybe he shouldn't have forced a bit of phone-anxiety on this caller. It only backfired. 

"I'm leaving you," Rachel said. The words made contact with Vincent's eardrums but his brain didn't register them. 

"You're what?" 

"I'm leaving you," Rachel repeated. "I won't file for divorce. There is enough of you in the news already. We can stay married, but only on paper. Vincent, I can't keep living like this. I've been in a relationship with someone else for a while now. About a month. It's safe to say things between us aren't going to get any better. I still love you. I still love the kids. But it's time to stop pretending like we are walking through life together when we aren't. It's over, Vincent. We can stop the charade." 

"Rachel, please," Vincent pleaded. "Don't do this, please? We can fix things. We can. We've done it before..." 

"I'm sorry," Rachel hung up. Vincent sat there holding the phone in his hand, waiting for Rachel to say something about this being a prank. To tell him she was lying. This couldn't be real. Where did he go wrong? They'd started out fine. They'd lived a life loving each other for so long. Where? Where did he mess up? Was there ever going to be a reset button? 

Vincent put down the phone. He tried his best to get through work. He tried to focus on something else. It was a nice distraction. He managed to get a lot more done this way. He wasn't going home tonight. He should tell the twins. He should tell someone. But, he didn't. He smiled, as usual, when Adrian told him he was leaving for the day. 

He went into that spare bedroom. He took off his suit jacket. He took off his vest. He threw his shoes at the wall. He plopped down on the bed and tried to sleep. He'd finished so much work. He'd done so many things. None of them would be enough for Rachel Dalles. Nothing was ever enough for Rachel Dalles.