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Kate couldn’t hear a reply, but she knew that Claire had hers. A heartbreaking cry erupted out of her mouth, carrying down the street and echoing off the houses. Her baby’s throat screamed out as her knees gave way, her body softly falling to the wood floor.
It was all very dramatic, Kate knew. But that’s what life was like with teenagers. She grabbed her daughter and helped her up, closing the front door behind them.
The weekend passed Kate by painfully slowly. Claire had barely gotten out of bed, refusing to eat and drink as she sobbed her way to dehydration.
Kate kept an eye on her social media, and her phone usage, but nothing was being posted. No melodramatic posts, no calling out her mother, or her lover. Just radio silence. Kate was glad for that, at least.
The last thing Claire needed was fallout from idiotic posting on social media. She was trying to mend a broken heart.
Kate hadn’t bothered calling Vince’s wife. She had enough to deal with. Not only did she have a melancholy teen but she also had to get ready to go back to work. The war at home had been won with casualties; she didn’t want the same to happen at the office. She’d had enough drama for a lifetime.
Preparing for work while her daughter sobbed upstairs was tough, but somehow Kate pulled through. She read through all the emails and got through everything she’d missed.
After a couple of phone calls to good friends in her department, finding out what people had been saying about her behind her back, Kate was caught up completely.
There was nothing that could surprise her on her return. She’d even prepared for the worst—for getting to work and being called into her boss’s office and being fired immediately.
Kate went to bed early on Sunday night and found herself wide awake at six in the morning on Monday. She got ready slowly, choosing her clothes carefully, and got back into the routine with ease.
Before she knew it, she was standing outside the building of her corporate office, with her bag slung over her shoulder, with her project files and laptop tucked away inside.
She took a deep, steadying breath as she looked up at the building. Everyone who wanted her fired was inside, as well as everyone who had her back. It was going to feel awful when she stepped in there, feeling everyone’s eyes on her, but she knew it would be like a band-aid: rip it off quick and it’ll hurt way less.
That’s exactly what she did. Kate held her head up high and straightened her back before storming into the office like the boss that she was. She wore her fears like armor, reminding herself that even if her worst fears were realized, they still wouldn’t be able to hurt her. She could find another job somewhere else, a place where they’d appreciate her worth.
As soon as she walked through the lobby, the receptionist’s eyes snapped to hers. She stood up from behind the desk, putting the phone against her shoulder, muffling the microphone, as she tried to wave down Kate.
“Kate!” she called. “Kate! You need to wait!”
There was no plausible reason that Kate could see. She worked here. She was one of the most senior members of the company. Why the hell should she wait for anyone?
Instead of doing as she was told, she ignored the receptionist and strolled right past her, heading for the elevators. Nothing in the world could have stopped her. She was going to give this presentation and she was going to own it.
Kate walked through the office, between the desks, with her head held high. She could feel everyone moving around to stare at her but instead of making her feel insecure, it just made her more confident.
They weren’t staring at her maliciously, or because she needed to be stared at, but because she was walking through the office without giving a single fuck to what anyone else thought. Who wouldn’t marvel at that?
At the end of the room, she could see her favorite group of men piling into the conference room, about to start their Monday meeting. Kate hurried her pace to catch them before they closed the door, but she wasn’t quick enough. They closed her out, probably trying to keep her out of their way for a while longer.
Kate wasn’t going to accept that, though. She swung the door open and stepped inside. All of the chatter instantly stopped. A couple of men rose from the desks and pointed their fingers at the door, shouting at her to get out.
“Oh, do shut up,” Kate sighed, rolling her eyes as she slipped her bag off her shoulder. “I have as much of a right to be here as any of you.”
When she set her bag on the table, she saw her boss sitting to the left of her, his translucent hair looking terribly thin. She looked down at Walter Harpe and put one of her hands on her hips.
“How about we try this again?” Kate asked. “I’ll give my presentation, you’ll all listen, and we can move on.”
“You need to leave!” One of the men screamed from the back.
Kate turned to look at him, her eyes dead and cold. She stared at him until he paled and sat back down in his seat, thoroughly afraid for his life.
“Kate,” Walter moaned. “We don’t have time to listen to you.”
“And yet you have time to listen to every other person in this room,” Kate snapped. “How very sexist of you.”
She looked around at every pair of eyes in the room, feeling the confidence ooze out of her whole body. There was no stopping her, not now. She was on a roll and she wasn’t going to let these withered old men get in her way.
“No,” Kate sighed, letting herself smile widely. “You were all incredibly rude to me last time I was in this office. You’re all going to apologize and listen to my presentation like you should have the first time around instead of sending me off on a forced absence.”
Most of the men stared down at the table, their cheeks blushing pink as they were called out for their nonsense. Walter Harpe gritted his teeth together but said nothing. Instead, he leaned back in his chair.
Kate would have seen that as a sign of permission before but now she knew that she didn’t need his permission. She was in this position for a reason—she was good at what she did—and she deserved their professional respect.
It only took her a second to open up her laptop and plug it into the projector. When her papers were beside the laptop on the desk in front of her, she straightened her suit jacket and looked around the room slowly, making sure to make eye contact with every man there, staring them down to show dominance.
“Thank you,” she smiled. “Now, let’s begin.”
