Chapter 131

Aria’s POV

After the meeting, I stumbled back to my office in something of a blur. I couldn’t believe what had happened, or what this meant for me and for the drivers.

How could this happen? How could everything go so wrong, so quickly?

What in the world was I supposed to do now?

Sitting behind my desk, I lifted the phone and attempted to call Liam. I was immediately sent to voicemail. For a moment, I thought of leaving a message, but I had no hope he would actually hear it. Demoralized, I hung up.

As my demotion letter didn’t clarify what my new workload would look like, I continued on as I had before, even going down to the track to be with the drivers while they practiced.

I thought, surely, someone at some point would tell me what I was or wasn’t supposed to do now. I didn’t even know what my job title was anymore.

When no one stopped me from performing my regular job, I grew confident that perhaps the demotion was in title only. It could have been symbolic – a way to tell me I needed to try harder without actually causing harm to me or the team.

Even with that confidence, however, I stayed up late that night, hoping to speak with Liam. He stumbled in around midnight and following the lit lamp, walked into the living room where I’d been sitting.

“I need to talk to you,” I told him.

“Okay,” he said. Dead on his feet, he lumbered into the living room and sat down on the couch. “I don’t trust myself to go upstairs and change. I’m so tired I might pass out again taking off my shoes.” His eyelids heavy, he glanced at me. “Thank you for helping me.”

I had a suspicious feeling that I was going to have to help him again tonight. But first…

“Something’s been happening at work, Liam, and I need to ask you about…” My voice trialed as I watched his eyelids close, seemingly without his meaning to. Between one blink and the next, he was asleep.

Sitting back in my seat, I sighed. Was this just how things were going to be now? It seemed too unfair, too cruel, to me, Liam, and the children.

Joanna would likely applaud Liam’s work ethic. From what she’d said at the meeting, I guessed she would prefer employees give up all family and personal time to spend dedicated to the work instead.

While I enjoyed my work and wanted to win races for the team, I could acknowledge that the act of winning races wasn’t the most essential of employments. We weren’t saving lives here. No one was going to live or die because I took one day off to be there for my kids.

It seemed like it was okay to take some time to keep our mental health in check, and to support our families.

Yet Joanna had acted like I’d committed some kind of grave error.

Regardless, as nothing had come of my demotion, I decided to just let Liam rest. Though inwardly, I prayed that sometime soon, we would have more time to spend together. I missed actually talking to him.

The next morning, I went into work determined to have a better day than the day before. While I didn’t agree with Joanna’s assessment of me, her words did start a fire under my skin, making me want to work even harder just to prove to her how wrong she is about the whole thing.

Yet when I made it to my office, I was surprised to find that the room was in disarray. My file cabinets had been emptied, their contents piled into boxes near the door. My few personal belongings were stacked in another box, set on top of the others.

A stranger sat behind my desk.

“Can I help you?” the man asked. He seemed as perplexed by my barging into this office as I was with him sitting behind my desk.

“This is my office,” I said. “I’m Aria…”

“Oh,” the man said. Understanding crossed his face, but so too did annoyance. “Surely you were told you were being demoted. You didn’t think you’d keep your office, did you?”

“I didn’t know what to think,” I admitted. “No one really gave me any information.”

“Well, this room is mine now,” the man said matter-of-factly.

“These are my things?” I asked, gesturing to the boxes.

“They aren’t mine,” he said.

“Well, where am I supposed to go?”

“That seems like something you want to take up with HR,” the man said. “It is hardly my concern.”

His cool indifference irritated me, but I forced myself to maintain my calm composure. After all, who knew what he had been told about me? If Joanna was the one to relay the message, no doubt she painted me as a good-for-nothing who didn’t fully commit to the company and its policies.

The records would wait, but I did grab the box of my personal effects as I left my former-office and stepped out into the hallway. Not knowing where else to go, I headed toward HR though when I spoke with the assistant at reception, she seemed as baffled as I was about the move.

“Joanna moved you? There’s nothing in the system.” The assistant lifted the phone on her desk. “One moment while I confirm.”

Standing there in front of her desk in the middle of the HR office, I was beginning to feel like I had been fired. But that would be ridiculous, especially after they had such a difficult time replacing me. What would they hope to gain by firing me now?

A little voice in my mind whispered, You’d be out of the way for Joanna to swoop in and steal Liam.

Shaking my head, I pushed away the silly thoughts. Even though the rumors of Joanna’s ruthlessness have proved true, that didn’t mean the other gossip had any merit.

After all, I knew Joanna wasn’t engaged to Liam. But she was engaged to someone, with that rock on her finger. Who?

“Yes, this is HR. We have Aria here. She’s concerned about her office… Ah. Okay. Thank you.” The assistant hung up the phone. With a bright smile, she told me, “Good news. Joanna herself is heading down to see us. I’m sure she’ll be able to clear this whole thing up for you.”

Or make everything worse.

But that wasn’t this assistant’s fault so I kept my mouth shut.

Before long, as if she had nothing better to do, Joanna waltzed into the HR offices. “Aria, there you are. How interesting for you to bring this up now. I would have thought you might have asked yesterday, after your demotion.”

“I didn’t know I was losing my office,” I said.

“Why wouldn’t you? Assistant trainers don’t need a full office.”

“Sorry to waste your time with this, Joanna,” the assistant said.

“It’s not your fault. It’s Aria’s.” Joanna turned back toward the door. “Come on, Aria. I will personally show you your new work space.”

I was worried how she kept calling it a ‘work space’ and not an ‘office.’ Was I to be consigned to one of the meeting room tables like the new recruits?

To my surprise, Joanna didn’t lead me to the meeting rooms. Instead, she led me to the stairs. We descended down a stairwell into the basement.

“I don’t remember there being offices down here,” I mentioned. As far as I know, all the rooms down here were mechanical or technical. I thought the cleaning supplies might have been stored down here somewhere.

“Don’t worry. You’ll find the arrangement quiet comfortable, I’m sure. Ah. Here we are.” Joanna reached for the knob of a door labeled ‘boiler room.’

Pushing open the door, what I saw was in fact, a massive boiler.

“Over there, in the corner,” Joanna said, pointing to a tiny desk wedged into the corner of two cinderblock walls. “That will be where you work from now on.”