The receptionist politely shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t know,”
Even if she knew who it was, she wouldn’t dare to share information regarding a VIP.
I knew better than to ask, but I was desperate.
There wasn’t anything else for me here right now, and I couldn’t ask any more questions, so I thanked the woman and left the hotel.
I grabbed my heart pills from my bag, but the bottle was empty. Sigh. Now I had to make a trip to the hospital. Joy. My favorite thing.
The attending doctor asked about my physical condition, as usual. When he asked about my sleeping habits and I told him, he frowned.
“Ms. Palmer, I’d like to admit you. I’m worried about the state of your heart, and I’d like to run some tests and see if we can’t find a new treatment option for you.”
I refused. Staying in the hospital was just waiting for death, and I wasn’t going to waste the last moments of my life in some cold, sterile room. Besides, what else were they going to do for me? It wasn’t like they were going to magically find some cure for my heart failure.
Thankfully, the doctor didn’t try to persuade me further.
So far, this was one of the few benefits to NOT having a wolf-the doctors didn’t prioritize humans, so if I declined treatment, they didn’t push.
He just reminded me to rest as much as my body felt like it needed, and to not overdo it.
After leaving the hospital with my medicine refill, I went to the police station to have them close out the case and cease any investigating they might be doing.
Typically, they might push back, worried that someone’s abuser was forcing them to get the police to stop. But, again with the human benefits. I was low priority; they would be glad to rid themselves of the potential workload.
Plus, I’d willingly accepted the invitation last night. That… changed things.
I didn’t have any idea who he was apart from “not Griffon”
and “not Roman”, and given how secretive and locked down he was, I doubted anyone would be able to even trace anything to him.
The next morning, my leave from work was over.
It was difficult to believe that the time had gone by so fast, and so much had happened.
I still needed to go into the Midwest Packs Corporation offices to wrap things up, but I was struggling to get out of bed. I was so exhausted, and all I wanted to do was lie there and sleep more.
After breakfast and taking my medicine, I felt a little better, but my face still looked pale.
I slathered on heavy makeup to cover my sickly condition, grabbed my purse, and left for work.
As soon as I entered the office, Brielle and Margaret came over and asked, “Taya, did you quit?”
“Yup, I have.”
Brielle’s face showed her confusion. “But why? What happened for you to resign so quickly?”
Margaret also looked puzzled. “What are you going to do after this? No one else pays as well as MPC.”
I forced a smile.”
The salary and benefits are great here, but I have other plans.”
Margaret narrowed her eyes. “Did the Knight pack poach you to work directly for their contracts team?”.
“Oh my god!” Brielle’s big eyes got even bigger.
“That’s the one place that pays more than here. That’s HUGE to be able to work for them.
They never hire non-shifters.”
Brielle’s cute look amused me. “No, I was talking about my personal plans unrelated to work.”
Margaret’s jealousy turned into information gathering-most likely so she was full of gossip to spread to everyone. ”
So, are you not planning to work anymore?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not going to be working anymore.”
Margaret was fishing for more, but I wasn’t giving her what she wanted. And she wasn’t a fan of that. When she didn’t get the response from people that she wanted, she had a tendency to turn catty.
“It seems like someone’s managed to marry above their station, apparently,” she sneered. “Or…do you have a wealthy benefactor maybe?”
And that was precisely what I would have expected to come from Margaret.
But now, I didn’t have to try to appease her, and it was about time I stood up for myself.
“My plans and who they do or don’t involve aren’t any of your business.”
I couldn’t stand Margaret. Her constant gossip was a source of problems for me.
Especially since some of that gossip included telling people around the office that I had older men supporting me. Let’s just say it didn’t exactly endear me to any of my colleagues.
I had worked at MPC for so many years, and I couldn’t count how many wealthy sponsors I’d been rumored to have thanks to Margaret talking behind my back and making things up.
In the past, I’d restrained from saying anything to her. I needed the job, and if someone pissed Margaret off, they didn’t last for very long after that.
My patience for her bullshit was gone.
Margaret was stunned for a moment. She didn’t expect Taya, who had always been well behaved and weak, to dare to refute her.
A human daring to talk back to her? How dare she.
She was so angry that she wanted to slap her, but Brielle stopped her.
“Margaret, Taya is leaving. Just let her wrap up her work to hand over to you.”
“She can ask someone else to do it.
I don’t have any obligation to take on her job!”
Margaret glared fiercely at Taya, twisted her slender waist, and sat at her office desk.
The sound of moving the chair was loud, and it wasn’t near enough to vent her anger.
She picked up a file and slammed it hard on the desk.
The banging sound startled Brielle. She covered her mouth and whispered to me.
“Lila told you to hand over your work to Margaret, and she agreed to take over because you have some key clients. But now…”
“I’m going to find Lila and see what she wants to do. Honestly, it’s not really my problem since I’ve quit,” I said indifferently.
I picked up the access card for the top floor and walked towards the elevator.
Lila was the person in charge of Elder Thorin’s office and was the personal assistant to the CEO.
She usually worked on the top floor and would only come down occasionally when she had something to do.
I swiped the card and watched as the floor numbers ticked by, the elevator on its way.
With a “ding,” the doors opened. Two people stood side by side.
When I saw them, I couldn’t move.