Lara

Chapter 18

The pungent smell of the city wafts from the street and permeates the hazy Portland skies as I step out the doors of Peters Enterprises. Peters Enterprises as in Brett Peters. Even the building has his name on it. At one point in time this would have irked me, but no longer.

Because now I'm free.

I let out a "Whoop!" in celebration, and raise my arms in the air in exultation, scaring a passing pedestrian who sides steps around me, balancing his carrier of coffees.

"Sorry!" I call after him.

I dial Jade while waiting for my uber. "Jade!" I exclaim when she picks up, only to hear heavy breathing on the other end.

Oh god....why is she...Wait. I look at the date on my phone. I've been catching up on Oregon time still.

"Aww sorry sis it's Wednesday. How I always manage to call you during yoga, I don't know."

"Hold on one sec," she answers.

I hear her moving, her breathing slowly returning to normal.

"Ok, now I can talk. I've been waiting for your call. So!? How'd it go with the lawyers? I've been dying to know!"

"It went great! It was like in the movies when the bad guys are finally caught in their money-laundering scheme and the good guys walk into the sunset."

"Isn't it ride into the sunset?" She answers, a smile in her voice.

"Semantics! Anyways, the lawyers took them out to dry-"

"Hung them out to dry." She corrects.

"Oh my god Jade, I'm going to hang up and call Mom instead!"

She laughs. "Sorry, go on! What was the outcome?"

"Well, they more than willingly settled with the deal that was offered. It sounds like Brett screwed himself over, and them, consequently. He acted alone according to what the lawyers told me before we went in for the mediation."

"Really? That's ballsy. The Board didn't know you were let go? How did he think he could get away with that?"

"He tried to cover it up by saying I quit. And not only did he act alone, but he fired me so he could hire his fiancé. And yes, you heard me right, Becky is now his fiancé. But there's more. He was hoping that getting rid of me, the pressure would be off of him for how poorly business has been."

"But he's the CEO, how did he figure?"

"Apparently he's been fudging the numbers for a while, and his little accomplice Becky would have helped the plot continue. I on the other hand was already starting to see discrepancies, and when I asked him about them... well that's when all this happened."

"Wow Lar, this was more screwed up than I realized!"

"Yeah, same. So, to avoid more shit than they're already dealing with, they settled without question, so..." I pause for effect.

"So? Lar you're killing me!"

"Your sister is a rich bitch!"

"Oh my god, like how rich are we talking?!"

"Ok, so maybe not rich, but enough cushion for me to figure out what I want to do next and still pay rent and take a nice vacation?"

Jade squeals on the other end. "Lar I'm so happy for you! We need to celebrate!
Want to meet at-"

She stops short. O'Henry's is what she was going to say. I let out a sigh as I get into my uber.

"Jade, I can't go there right now."