Sit, Stay, Roll Over ✓

(21) Black or Gold

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"DAY!" SOMEONE SUDDENLY SHOUTED, instantly making me flinch. I looked up from my desk and saw Jane staring at me with her arms crossed, obviously annoyed that I'd been spacing out since I got here.

     "Good god, you're as mentally absent as Rebecca over there who accidentally printed the same page thirty times instead of printing the entire issue," Jane says before massaging her temple in frustration. "Are you with us or are you not? Because if you're not feeling well, I'll need you to head back home. I don't want your negative energy to affect everyone else in the office."

     "N-No, sorry, I was just a little out of it. What did you need?" I ask, and Jane sighs and hands me a folder, looking completely frustrated. I understand why she's on edge. Ever since the incident with Rebecca wasting thirty pages of glossy paper earlier, we've been constantly scolded by our chief. We're going to meet the chairman today for the big launch, we can't be making mistakes now. I seriously have to keep it together.

     "Ms. Valentina wants you to review this before our meeting later. Think you can handle that?" Jane asks, and I checked the content of the folder and nodded my head to agree to it.

     "I'll give it to you later," I say, and Jane doesn't say anything anymore and heads out of my office. As soon as she closed the door, I buried my face in my desk and silently screamed in frustration. After eavesdropping on Mr. Jonathan and Hunter earlier, I ran as fast as I could like I just committed a crime.

     I just heard things that have left my mind in a complete knot. Jonathan Philips, who is apparently one of the directors of the very secretive Companion's Association, just said things that did not make any sense in my head.

     What did he mean by plan? What did he mean by Hunter handling me while he handled the association? How did he know I mentioned the word Damien and even found out about the rain incident? Did they install hidden cameras around my apartment? Should I just call the fucking police right now!?

     I'm losing my goddamn mind! And then there was something about Hunter getting killed. Like literal dead...gone...bye-bye, that kind of killed. That scared the shit out of me.

     When I received that card and got Hunter, I knew that something was up. I knew that there are things that I can't know and things that I have to avoid. But then I start finding out that Hunter and I met before, and then my uncle is somehow involved, and this whole situation just became worse. There was no way I could stay quiet now.

      And then there's this information that Jonathan said before I ran off...

     "He loved him more than you could ever imagine, and Hael...he was willing to shut the association down just for his sake. Remember that."

     Are you telling me my uncle, my sweet and gentle uncle Hael McCartney, could possibly have worked for that association too? Is that what they're saying right now? Was he a companion like Hunter, is that why they know each other?

     And what was that about being suspended for a week? What did that mean? Are they going to take him away? Is Hunter going to be locked up?

     "What is even going on!" I shouted before slamming my hands on my desk. As I did so, I accidentally knocked off a magazine that had my wallet placed on top of it, making me curse. I got up from my seat and picked it up, but just when I was about to grab my wallet from the floor, I suddenly noticed something.

     Inside my wallet was a black and gold card that I received from Jonathan himself, a card from the Companion's Association. I furrowed my brows in confusion because I felt like I'd seen something like this before, but as my hand was inches away from grabbing my wallet, a tear suddenly dropped from my eyes, and a memory rushed in front of me like a train.