Page 87 of Protecting Love

The following Monday, Paris hit the button on her phone when it buzzed. “Yes, Molly.”

“Debra Holding is on the line for you.”

She frowned. Her contract was done with MHT Services. She was still getting emails now and again from Debra and answered what she could but knew at some point she was going to have to cut this off.

“Thanks.” She picked the phone up. “Hi, Debra.”

“I’m sorry to bother you, Paris. I know I shouldn’t call and keep emailing. I asked Henry to extend the contract with you for a few more hours and he all but snapped my head off. Michael was even shocked over it, but they agreed that your work is done and I should handle this on my own.”

She held her sigh in. “Your contract is done, that’s correct. I don’t want to be hard, but this is a business and I have no problem with follow up emails, but at some point, I will have to bill for them.”

“No,” Debra said. “I’ll make this my last call.”

The urgency in Debra’s voice wasn’t lost on her. “What’s going on?”

“I’m home today. I had to call in sick. The stress is getting to me. I never expected it to be this bad when we hired you. I knew things had to change to keep the business afloat, but it’s just pure rebellion from people. Morale is horrible. Those who are remaining aren’t really doing their job. The ones let go weren’t that bad of employees.”

“Can I ask, who decided on the people let go? It seemed to me it was a complete division.”

Debra let out a laugh. Not funny. Not even forced.

More like she was out of options, and these were the only signs coming from her voice.

“That division was doing fine. Better than the rest. I don’t get it. And all the owners decided together. Todd felt that was the easiest one to get the software working on because it was running so well. Rick actually did a good job with his team.”

“So why was he let go? Why not put him somewhere else where he could organize or get other departments in good shape?”

“I asked that too,” Debra said.

“What did they say?”

“I was shot down. I was told it’s not my decision. I really think it has more to do with the fact that Michael didn’t care for Rick.”

Interesting. “Why is that?”

“Rick has a bit of a temper. He didn’t have a problem speaking up when he didn’t agree with something. He asked a lot of questions, wanted things explained better. The funny part was, most times Rick wasn’t wrong, but the owners didn’t care for that so much.”

“I’ve been witness to his temper.”

“You have?” Debra asked. “I hadn’t been aware you ever talked to him.”

Well, that question was answered.

“Rick showed up here a few weeks ago after he was let go. He wasn’t happy and got a little unruly, but he left.”

“I wonder if anyone knows here.”

She leaned back in her chair and quickly decided to not say much more.

It would be best to downplay it all.

“It’s over with,” she said. “Sounds as if he had a reason for it from what you’re saying.”

“He’s not the only one,” Debra grumbled. “I’m struggling if I should stay or not. I don’t like being blamed for this.”

“It’s part of the job. You should know that HR always gets the blame somehow.”

“I know that. I just, I don’t know. I didn’t sign up for this. There is way too much shady stuff going on and I’m trying to decide if I should leave. Do you think I should? You looked everything over. Did you notice anything?”