I exited the elevator and stood not moving, holding my box of belongings. The head of HR, Willow, was leaving Jonathan’s office and gave me a weak smile and a sympathetic nod.
“I have made it clear to Mr. Langley that this is his last chance with an assistant. We won’t be subjecting anyone else to his behavior if he can’t act appropriately with you. Let Emma know immediately if anything is off. I haven’t been able to get anything out of the other assistants who left.” Willow whispered to me before turning to leave. I nodded at her and headed into my office. I placed my box down.
Instead of unpacking my things and settling me in to my office, I decided to go check in with Jonathan. Maybe it was my own curiosity to see how Jonathan would respond or maybe it was just my desire to be close to him again. Whatever it was, I found myself walking to Jonathan’s office.
“Mr. Langley?” I called to him from the doo
Jonathan“Got everything prepared?” Jake asked as Jonathan stood next to him, looking in the mirror. Jonathan was adjusting his bow tie.“Don’t you think I should be asking you that? After all, it is your wedding day.” I looked back at my brother. The smile on Jake’s face told me everything I needed to know; he was more than ready to be married to Amalia.Jake smiled back at me. “Of course I am ready. I have been ready for months now. All of these details are what Amalia wanted. I was okay with whatever she wanted.” Jake paused, turning to look at me. “You know if mom was still alive, this wedding would have been huge. Everyone would have been invited.”I laughed at Jake’s comment about mom. He wasn’t wrong. I remember walking in on my mom talking with my sisters about their weddings. They were young but my mom loved talking to them about it. Mom was the ult
Three Weeks LaterThe last three weeks have been spent healing. I overdid it a bit when I first came home and was sore for a few days. I learned my lesson quickly and followed doctor’s orders for the next two weeks. Now, I was feeling great. My pain was minimal, and I had stopped taking pain medication over a week ago.The downtime over the last three weeks gave me a lot of time to think. Jonathan worked from home the first few days but needed to go back to the office due to some problems with that expansion project that required him to actually be at the project site. While I did miss him, I appreciated the time to go through things in my life.The first thing I did was reach out to Duke University to see what I could do to finish up my degree. I was literally one semester away from graduating. After talking with them, I was able to get set up to take my missing three classes online. I appreciated that I had the option to go online to finish u
TillyThe sound of beeping pulled me from a deep sleep. I had no idea what was going on or where I was. The last thing I remembered was the sharp stinging pain that I felt in my side that followed several loud gunshot blasts. The sounds around me were muffled, which was not a surprise consider both the blast and the gunshots that occurred so close to me. I tried to open my eyes but I was so tired and weak that I was not able to do so. The pain in my side reminded me that something did happen to me. The gun that had been jammed in my side led me to believe that I had been shot and the beeping sound meant that I was in a hospital room.I attempted to move my hand to my face, but something stopped my hand from moving.“Baby, just take it easy.” A voice whispered to me. I smiled when I realized that Jonathan was sitting with me, slowing stroking my hand. “I love seeing you smile. I was scared for a minute there.” His word
TillyI stumbled away from the blast, the ringing in my ears not stopping. In the chaos of the blast, I was able to run away from those around me. I didn’t know where I was going, but I kept running towards the back of the warehouse. There wasn’t much that could be used for cover, but at this point, I didn’t care. I just wanted to get as far away from Gregory and those other men as I possibly could.My heart was pounding and my ears were still ringing as I paused for a moment to try to catch my breath. I could barely hear anything around me. The blast was not so close that I was impacted by the flying debris from it, but I was close enough that my hearing had been impacted. As I looked back towards the area from which I had just fled, I was surprised by what I saw.The men who had been standing in front of me, waiting to “accept” me had taken up a position behind a short wall that ran perpendicular to the door. The door fro
JonathanI hadn’t slept at all last night. After Steve indicated that we were meeting with Vincent Lombardi at 9:00 this morning, I could not stop my brain long enough to go to sleep. Although Tilly hadn’t been gone long, I was significantly concerned for her safety. At one point, Gregory wanted to kill her, and that scared the shit out of me. Gregory was not well liked by most people. He had screwed a lot of people over the years. I couldn’t imagine that anyone would willingly work with him, unless there was a deeper motive. That deeper motive is what was most worrisome to me.The mafia was something I knew about only from the movies. I really enjoyed watching mafia movies. The Godfather, Goodfellas, Scarface, and Casino were some of my favorites, but I enjoyed any mafia movie. I also spent some time watching documentaries about the mob. However, none of that meant that I knew anything about what to expect when meeting some
I was annoyed. I didn’t want to sit here and listen to Gregory’s long-winded story. I wanted to know the truth and I wanted it now.I stood up, causing the asshole I had bitten to stand up. I rolled my eyes at him and turned my attention back to Gregory.“Look, I already know that you aren’t my father.” His eyes widened slightly at my statement. His response surprised me, and I wasn’t sure if I had revealed my knowledge of that tidbit of information too quickly. I held my breath, waiting for him to respond.He took a beer from the fridge and then turned back towards me as he opened it. “Well, one less thing I have to tell you, I guess.” He shrugged and walked back towards me. It seemed like it was way too early to be drinking beer, but I doubted that he cared.“Why did you and mom say you were my father when you weren’t? Why have my birth certificate changed?” I aske