Chapter 32

The sound of my work alarm startled me. My heart was pounding. I quickly switched it off, not wanting to wake Logan. I grabbed my clothes and headed for the bathroom. As I passed Logan’s room the door was open, and the bed was empty. He was already up and gone. I hovered in his doorway thinking about him for a moment before shaking it off.

After getting ready I grabbed some food quickly and headed into the city. I arrived for my meeting a little earlier than expected and signed into reception. I was greeted by a few colleagues as they passed through during their morning coffee runs. It wasn’t long though before I was invited into a meeting room. My boss was there along with an HR representative. Walking into the room felt like I was walking into the principal's office at school. Although I knew being here was a good start, the atmosphere felt eerily negative somehow.

After some discussion, a lot of going back and forth, they agreed that I had done enough work with them to complete my placement and were going to let me return on a part-time basis until the trial, upon which time they would suspend my contract until I felt fit to return full time. The end goal was always to complete my study placement and hope for a full-time role and move further into a career path with this company. Although I understood them suspending the contract for a review, it still felt somehow final, and almost like there may not be a way back in the door after all of this.

I came out of the meeting feeling a mixture of emotions and questioning whether I was reading too much into some of the conversations. Overall though I tried to feel positive about the outcome, they were letting me finish my placement which was the main thing I needed to accomplish. They offered me to settle back into the office that morning and sit with colleagues to try and get back up to speed with where everyone was at.

Spending time back in the office, although draining, did wonders for me to feel more normal again. There were a lot of questions but nothing I couldn’t handle. As suspected the rumor mill had been in overdrive. I had texted with a few colleagues I was closer to but no one had been given the full details. The main thing I had told people was that I had been broken into and attacked. The news seemed to shake the factory.

Of course, like with anywhere there were people who disbelieved or believed there was more to the story than was being told. I couldn’t bear to tell anyone it was all because of a case of mistaken identity. It felt like that somehow diminished what I was going through, even though I knew it did not. What stirred the situation more was the news interviews from Gideon, they certainly didn’t help the rumor mill at work. For now, I decided to concentrate on what I needed to do to get up to speed and finish my course as quickly as possible.

Once I had finished that morning, it was quickly time for my meeting with Evelyn. I grabbed a cab and arrived on time for my meeting. Evelyn took me into the executive suite where Jack was already waiting with a lot of paperwork in front of him. I was feeling drained from the morning at work and knew this was going to be a long afternoon looking at the paperwork piled up, sighing inwardly I took a seat at the table.

“Leah,” Jack smiled at me.

“Mr. Carter.” I smiled in return.

“Leah, we have some news. There has been a change within the case.”

My heart dropped; my palms became sweaty expecting bad news. My mouth suddenly became dry, I grabbed the glass of water, already set out for me taking a long sip followed by a deep breath to steady myself.