Forgiveness and Punishment

21

"Melissa, Mr. McGavity, please come in," TJ says answering the door later that day. Coloring as he realizes that he called her by name without permission. "Forgive me, Miss Heath, I shouldn't have called you by name like that."

Melissa smiles gently at her brother. "It's alright, you can both call me Melissa." She and Timothy take the seats that they are offered by the brothers.

"Please, dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes, I hope that won't be too long?" TJ asks nervously. He truly wants answers and doesn't want to irritate those that can give them to him.

This time it's Timothy that smiles in reassurance. "That will be fine. No need to be to uptight, TJ, is it?" At TJ's nod, Timothy continues. "We have time, we will let you know if we need to leave."

Melissa can see that although Timothy isn't doing anything that TJ is becoming more than a little aroused. She doesn't think that Timothy will be going without tonight. She keeps her smirk to herself.

"Your sister told me that after some trouble at home she left for school." Melissa starts off. She doesn't want to go into detail.

Tad snorts in derision. "That's a nice way to put it. My mother and other sister stole Pimpernel's jewels she was left by her grandmother. Pimpernel had them arrested on grand theft charges. Although, she dropped those charges in order to get her jewels back before she left town. Mother decided to attack her inside the police station and so was promptly arrested once more."

"I see, thank you." Melissa sighs. So they don't hold it against her. That's good to know. She always thought that they did.

"She went to school and by settling down and studying hard, she managed to finish her four year degree in just two years. By her third year she finished her masters. She started her doctorate after getting a job with McGavity  Corporated. She finished that even while working full time. That's when we became friends, about three years ago.

"She was nice, very nice. She never said a cross word to any one or had anything bad to say about anyone even if they were promoted over her. She would do her work then do as much as she could to help others with their work load.

"She would be invited to go out with us at times, but if we were going to a club or bar she would turn us down. It was only after we found out that she had super sensitive hearing that we started changing our plans so she could come. We would go to lounges instead. Evenso, she could only tolerate the noise level for short periods of time. She would usually leave after half an hour to at most an hour.

"She was always at work and often went in on weekends to help people catch up on work. They would come in to work on Monday expecting to be over run with work and instead find just one days worth waiting for them." 

Timothy speaks up. "The day I met your sister, I went in and saw the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. But she was also very sickly looking. I was concerned that she would get the whole secretary pool ill so I was going to send her home.

"I didn't know about her hearing issue so I was beyond upset when she didn't pay attention to me. When I saw that she had ear plugs in, I thought she was listening to music. I was furious. Music wasn't allowed, it was too distracting.

"When I found out it wasn't ear buds, but ear plugs, I felt the fool and instead of sending her home, talked to her manager.

"It was then that I found out that she was in the wrong location. She should have been with the executives on the upper floors, not with the secretaries. The more I've heard and learned about her the more angry I was that she wasn't given the proper job, just because of that birthmark.