Wrong Place, Right Time - Elle Casey Page 0,84

if I’m stupid. And I really, really don’t like how he let me hang out in the wind, high and dry, after promising me a promotion less than a month ago. He must think I was born yesterday.

“Remember the promotion you promised me? Remember how you asked me to work all those extra hours, and told me I was going to get paid for it in the end with my promotion? How you told me I was management material?”

He gives me a pitying smile. “Jenny, this is all water under the bridge now. It’s over. You just need to let it go.”

“Don’t you dare look at me with that cocky expression on your face and act like you feel sorry for me. The only one you should be feeling sorry for right now is you, because you underestimated me. You took advantage of me like you take advantage of all of your employees, and you thought you were going to keep getting away with it. Maybe you have for a really long time, but that’s done. I’m not going to put up with it. Everybody knows that I was the one selected to be fired because I have children and because I am a single mother. There is no other reason. I have a better work record than anyone else on this floor.”

“Who told you that?”

I can’t keep my volume from rising. I didn’t want to think he was going to try to paint me as a slacker and a person who deserved to lose her job, but I suspect that’s what’s about to happen, and it makes me livid just to imagine it. “Nobody had to tell me that! Everyone knows it. It’s obvious. And this may be an at-will employment situation, and I may not have a contract with you for my job, but that does not mean that you can fire me just because I have children. There are some laws that you have to follow in this state. And you know what? Maybe what you did skirts the edge of legal, but it also skirts the edge of illegal. It’s definitely not right, I know that. This is not how you treat people.”

I take a deep breath and let it out before continuing. “Let me tell you how this is going to work.” I sit down in the chair opposite his desk and motion for him to do the same. In this moment, as I see the flicker of surprise in his eye, I come to realize that I can take care of myself. Last night’s fiasco proved that. Frank the Snake can try to take advantage of me, but I will eat him alive. I am the King Snake in this room, not him.

He stands there for a few seconds, being obstinate, but when he realizes it makes him look like an angry child he sits down and rests his hands on the arms of his chair. “Go ahead. Say what you have to say, but it’s not going to change anything.”

“Here’s what’s going to happen, Frank. You’re going to take the check that you have in that envelope there, and you’re going to tear it up into little pieces. Then you’re going to call accounting, and you’re going to tell them to cut me a new check for double the amount that you had on that first check.” I manage a small smile. “I think that’s fair. Six months would be even more fair, seeing as how you gave that waste-of-space Nick nine months’ worth when he left—even though he wasn’t nearly as good as I am, and even though he didn’t work nearly as many hours for you as I did. But we know the glass ceiling is fully intact here, and I don’t have the energy to fight that battle, so I’m just going to go ahead and let you get rid of me and my big mouth for the bargain price of four months’ severance.”

He looks like he’s about to speak, but I shush him with a raised finger. “Now . . . if you want to stick to your two-month offer, go ahead. That’s your right, of course. But then you’ll force my hand and we’ll just see what happens next.”

He shrugs. “I’m not hearing anything from you that tells me I should do anything with this check other than hand it to you and say good luck with your future.” He laughs. “But you know what? Don’t even think