"Jaqui has an office?" I asked, frowning slightly. When I had left, Jaqui worked on a table in a hallway. She'd been an assistant just like me. I was glad to hear she'd moved up in the organization. "Where?"
"Oh, that's right." Gus rolled his broad shoulders. He was large, but most of it was muscle, not fat. "She's the head of the records department now. She's in Beth's old office. Second floor."
"She claimed the good office?" I asked. "She must be important."
Gus grinned at me. "She's your new boss."
"Oh." I nodded. Jaqui was a year younger than me, but now she was my boss. I didn't begrudge her the position, but it only added to how far this job was taking me from my goals. "Well, then I have the best boss in the building."
"Only because you don't work security."
I grinned at him. "Obviously."
I headed upstairs and to my new boss's office. It still smelled the same here. Musty, but clean. The old building had weathered enough wars and time that it had an old, but peaceful scent. It felt like nothing had changed, even though I most certainly had.
I went to the far corner office. The door was open, spilling afternoon sunshine into the hallway. Jaqui sat at a small black desk, typing away at her computer and looking busy.
She was small with dark hair and beautiful dark eyes. She had the longest eyelashes I had ever seen on a person. Her beautiful dark olive skin glowed in the sunlight.
"Hey, I hear you get to tell me what to do now," I said, stepping into her office.
Jaqui looked up at me and grinned. "I was wondering when you were going to get here," she said, rising gracefully from her desk and coming to greet me. She gave me a warm hug.
"I took my time coming from the Senate offices," I admitted.
"You should have taken longer," Jaqui replied. I thought of how I could have stayed with Henry and gotten coffee. It was strange, but thinking of him made me smile. I wondered if he was going to remember to bring me lunch tomorrow. I hoped he would, but I doubted it.
"I didn't want to be inconvenient for you. My stepmother, sure. But not you."
"If I had my way, you would still be at the Senate offices." She shook her head and motioned to a chair in front of her desk. "That's where you belong. I can't believe you're back."
I sat down on the chair and set my bag by my feet. "I was told you have some paperwork for me?"
Jaqui nodded as she returned to her own seat. "I do. For some strange reason, my boss informed me that you will be inputting all the new information on our trade deals into the computer. It's something that we usually have an intern do, but you've been chosen. Who did you piss off?"
"My stepmother," I informed her as Jaqui handed me a stack of paper. It was heavier than I remembered.
"Ah. That makes sense. I forgot about her. I'm sorry that she put you here." A small smile filled her face. "But, I'm not sorry that you're back. We all missed you."
"I missed you guys," I said, smoothing the paperwork and making it straight. "What exactly am I going to be doing? You said something about trade documents."
"We have a bunch of new trade negotiations going on with Paradisa, and thus all the paperwork that goes with it. Their monarchs are going to arrive next month for the official trade treaty signing, but all the preliminary work is going on now. We're backlogged with all of it. Paradisa has a lot of natural resources for being a small island country. You're going to be scanning it all in."
Great. I was going to scan documents all day. I was leaving work that I enjoyed and cared about to scan boring paperwork. It was salt on the wound.
"So my old job, then?" I replied, looking at the work forms in my hands. I could feel my future slipping away from me.
Jaqui nodded. "Yup."
I sighed as Jaqui handed me a pen and then I started to fill out the paperwork.
Due to the complexities of government work, it took me hours to fill out all the paperwork despite having worked for this office before. I ate a lunch out of the vending machines, knowing that if I left, I might not come back. The forms were typical government bureaucracy at its best. The sun already crept ominously toward the horizon as I left the office and headed to the rich area of town.
It was time to see my stepmother about today.
It took a metro train and a bus to get to her house, but I made it there just as the sun crested the horizon. Long dark shadows filled the streets. It would be a long ride home into the city, but I knew my stepmother wasn't going to have this conversation over the phone.
My stepmother lived in a nice neighborhood with good schools and beautiful churches. The homes regularly went for well over six million, due to the proximity to downtown DC. It was a very affluent and politically important area.
My father had never lived here. This was the house she bought with his money after he died. I knew that she did well as an information broker, especially in a information hungry area like Washington, but I didn't think she did well enough to afford living here. Apparently, selling secrets was a lucrative business.
I walked along the comfortable sidewalks under green leafy trees and watched as kids on bicycles peddled past. It looked suburban and comfortable, but I knew that it was too close to politics and power not to have a dark underbelly.
Besides, my stepmother and stepsister lived here, so obviously it was a dark place.
Warm yellow light spilled out the windows of their house as I walked up the driveway. The garage door was open and I could only see one car inside, which was strange. The Jaguar was missing. I wondered if my stepmother had let her daughter borrow it, but that seemed strange as well.
Audrey Verna didn't like anyone touching her things.
I took a deep breath. I'd come all this way and I wasn't going to back down now. I knew my stepmother was going to bully me. She would spin the conversation so that losing my job was somehow my fault and it was only through her good graces that I had a new job at all.
I knew it wasn't true, but the woman was a masterful liar and manipulator.
I marched up the stairs to the front door and rang the doorbell. Anger clenched in my fists and tried to escape through nervous taps of my feet.
I waited for what felt like an eternity before hearing footsteps. I wondered if Audrey's housekeeper was sick. She was usually very quick to get the door, unless Audrey wanted them to wait. I sighed, figuring out the game. Audrey wanted me to wait to put me at a disadvantage.
"I wondered when you would get here," my stepmother said, opening the door herself. "I expected you hours ago."
"I hope I kept you waiting," I replied, walking inside. "Where's Anastasia?"
"She's upstairs celebrating her new job," Audrey replied. "My daughter is so very pleased to be working in the Senate."
I bet she is, I thought coldly. I'd done all the hard work to get there. I frowned, wondering where the Jaguar was then. It didn't matter, though. I wasn't here to check up on my stepsister or my stepmother's cars.
"What happened to your pants, dear?" Audrey asked, lifting her nose in the air like I smelled. I looked down and saw the grass stains from where I fell earlier. The thought of Henry made me heat up in my center.
"I fell," I said, not wanting to tell Audrey any more than that. I didn't want to share anything with her that she could use against me.
Audrey scoffed and went to close the door behind me. The stains were just one more failure in her eyes. I thought I was used to her being displeased with me, but it still stung when I failed.
I looked around, taking stock of the house. Big windows were dark against the oncoming night. The house felt emptier than usual. She was rearranging the furniture as the baby grand piano was missing, as well as one of the expensive paintings. I knew it was expensive because she took every opportunity to tell me it was.
I turned and faced my stepmother as she closed the door on the spring night behind me. For a moment, I felt like a caged animal. I was now trapped in my stepmother's domain. She simply stood there, statuesque and perfect.
Audrey Verna was beautiful. She had beautiful porcelain skin and she kept her long dark hair pulled back into a severe bun at the nape of her neck. Silver threaded the dark locks, but instead of making her look old, it made her look powerful. She wore a black silk jumpsuit that accentuated her lean lines and delicate build. Everything about her was sharp. Her acid green eyes were piercing, her nose was knife-like, her jaw pointed, and her clavicles looked ready to cut the unwary.
"Go ahead and ask, dear," Audrey said, shifting her weight. "Ask me why I pulled the strings and got you a fabulous new job."
I nearly snorted. Fabulous was the last word I would use to describe scanning documents all day. I was supposed to be working in the Senate.