CHAPTER 4

~Joanne~

The moment I stepped into the house and picked up my phone, I was hit with a notification: 32 missed calls.

Twenty-seven from Stella, three from Sam, and two from an unknown number.

“Holy sh*t.”

Stella must’ve really tried to break my phone in half. Messages were also flooding in and they were mostly from Stella.

> Where on earth are you, fat-ass? Please return my calls 😭😭😭😭😭

I could already picture her expression as she typed that — worry laced with that signature Stella flair.

Indeed, I had a sizable ass but turning it into a nickname was crazy.

A message from Sam slid in next:

> Where are you, Anne? Are you okay? Please call me back, my love.

I rolled my eyes

Sometimes I genuinely wondered how he managed to juggle his endless cheating with a possessive, borderline-insane girlfriend. He was a cranky pervert and I'd rather scrub gas station toilets than have anything to do with him so without hesitation, I blocked his number.

I didn’t have the mental energy to go through all the messages flooding in so I skipped them and went straight to calling Stella.

She picked up on the first ring.

“JOANNE CALLEN, WHERE THE F*CK ARE YOU?”

Her voice exploded through the speaker like a grenade. I didn’t even get the chance to say hello.

Without taking a break, she went full steam ahead bombarding me with questions.

“Are you okay? Is Nate okay? Why didn’t you come to work today? Why weren't you picking your calls?”

I felt my ear ringing bells immediately after she stopped talking. There's a possibility I might need to get an ear check up after this.

I let out a long, tired sigh before answering.

“Nate had another attack,” I said quietly. My voice gave me away—the exhaustion, the helplessness, the weight of it all.“The doctor said that we might be considering a transplant,” I added.

There was a pause. A beat of silence so heavy I could feel it pressing into my chest.

“Anne, everything will be fine,” She said softly, finally breaking the silence.

“I hope so,” I murmured,my voice barely making it out

She took a deep steadying breath before saying:

“I’m coming over now. Don’t argue just tell me where you are,”

I hesitated. As much as I would have loved her company, but I wasn’t sure I could handle company tonight. I was too drained. I just wanted to be alone.

“It's already so late… and I really want to be alone,” I admitted.

Silence dawned on us again

“I get it, baby, but please take good care of yourself,”she said gently

“Yh I would, Thank you” I assured her.

“Have a good night's rest Princess,” she said with a warm voice.

“You too,” I replied before ending the call.

The silence returned again. I was alone.

I sat there, staring at the black screen of my phone, heart still heavy. Then, remembering how the day had spiraled, I figured I should probably send an email to the company, explaining why I hadn’t shown up at work.

With a sigh, I reached for my laptop and opened my work email.

The moment the inbox loaded, my heart dropped. I was welcomed with a Salary Suspension message.

No request for explanation. Just a sterile notification that one month’s pay was being withheld for my “unreported absence and failure to submit the assigned audit.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Fuck!”

It was just a one day absence and my whole month's salary was suspended.

“Who the hell runs a company like that?” I muttered, slamming the laptop shut harder than necessary.The thud echoed through the room, bouncing off the walls like a cruel reminder of how little power I had.

My head started spinning just thinking about how I'd pay Nate's hospital bills.I had already stretched every cent, every card, every ounce of credit I could find and the transplant talks didn't seem hypothetical anymore.

The knot in my stomach tightened.

I let out an exasperated sigh as I ran my hands through my hair.

‘I think I'm about to go crazy’

I looked around the small apartment. Everything suddenly felt colder without Nate around. The window was wide open and cold air poured in steadily, but I still felt like I was suffocating—like the air wasn’t enough. The room felt too tight, like it was closing in on me.

Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I had to think. I had to fix this. Crying wouldn’t pay for prescriptions or surgical consults.

I pressed my palms to my face, inhaled deeply, and forced myself to sit up straight. I didn’t have the luxury of falling apart—not when Nate was counting on me.

************

Before 8am I was already standing in front of the Blackwell headquarters, clutching my tote bag tighter than necessary. The building towered above every other structure in sight—an unapologetic symbol of power and wealth. Everything about it screamed elegance and magnificence, making the surrounding buildings seem small and inferior. The towering black glass panelled building reflected the city's financial district buzzing with life.

A few early risers moved along the sidewalks—employees with coffee in hand, interns adjusting their ties or smoothing their skirts as they made their way towards the building.It wasn’t crowded yet, but brief greetings could be heard from here and there.

I took a slow, steady breath and adjusted my blazer,trying to summon courage for the day ahead. My palms were clammy despite the morning chill, and my mind spun with the weight of everything I was dragging into the day—Nate's health condition, piled up bills, salary suspension.

One month of hard work hanging in limbo.

Taking another deep steadying, I stepped forward with my heels clicking on the marble pavement as I made my way into the building.

I waited for the lift as I glanced at my phone screen the 15th time in the morning. Still no reversal mail, my one month salary that I f*cking worked my ass off for can't be withheld like that.

The elevator dinged. Time to put my game face on