Roses Revenge novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Sunday All-Hands

Elliot made three phone calls before I had found my shoes.

The first was to the bank's fraud line, and the second to the lawyer whose name I had in my pocket.

The third was to the woman from payroll.

"She says Colton has called an all-hands," he told me, pulling on his shirt.

"Today, at ten. On a Sunday. He wants everyone in the office."

"To stream it?"

"To stream it."

I zipped the green dress up the back by myself, and found a new button missing from his shirt.

"Look at that," I said. "I owe you a shirt."

"I have others." He looked at my face. "Rose, you don't have to go."

"I walked out of that floor in front of forty people."

I picked up my bag.

"I'd like to walk back in."

Aunt Bea met us in the kitchen with a pot of coffee, two mugs, and no expression at all.

"Sleep well?" she asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Earplugs," she said, and poured.

At ten, I stood in the lobby of the Brewer Labs building.

Elliot stood on my left, and a woman in a dark blazer stood on my right.

The woman was the lawyer. She had barely spoken since we met, except to say "Good."

The glass doors of the meeting room were open.

Colton stood at the head of the long table in a fresh shirt.

A phone sat on a tripod in front of him, and his bandage was clean and white.

Thirty or so people stood along the walls.

The woman from payroll saw me first.

She did not smile. She did not look away.

"Thank you all for coming on short notice," Colton was saying, in his best voice.

"I want to be transparent with this team."

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