Chapter Five
Opal did not sleep at Dwayne's condo that night. In fact, she barely remained there more than a minute after his comment about her not needing a job any more. The moment she'd gotten home, and punched a pillow a few times while yelling obscenities, she did the only thing that she could think to do in a situation like that: Opal called Vanessa, her mother.
"You know, that's the kind of thing that was expected when I was your age," her mother said.
"Yeah Mom, but you know …"
"Yes, I do. Things are different now. But Dwayne's a fairly traditional sort of guy. He probably just wants to take care of you and raise a family. And I am absolutely in agreement with having some grandchildren as soon as possible.
"Well, with the sexual appetite your future son in law has, you might want to get ready for some more waiting."
"Oh, honey, that's probably more than I need to know about my future son in law. You just make up, okay? He's a good guy and he's got plenty of money to go with that. You can't ruin a great relationship because you're getting bored in the bedroom. You'll find a way to liven things up."
"It takes two people to do that though … Oh, sorry Mom, I have someone on the other line."
"Maybe that's your boss calling to say it was all a big mistake."
"I wish I could have your optimism. I'll talk to you soon, okay? Love you, bye." Opal hung up that call and answered the incoming message.
"Hello?" she said.
"Hey, it's Judith. How have you been?"
"Oh, you know, crappy." Once Alfred was done talking to her that day, casually laying out her future on the table before her, and proceeding to stomp all over it, he'd gotten an important call from an overseas client. Opal had been told to pack her things, while the security guard watched over her to make sure she didn't take anything. That had been humiliating, but the slowly building shame had gotten to a point where it had become overshadowed by a hulking rage. She was doing her best to stifle it, enjoying talking to people who didn't think she was a criminal, or a crazy fiancée.
"My Mom was hoping this was Alfred, telling me that it's all fine and I can come back to work. So positive after everything." Opal found her back up bottle of wine at the back of a cupboard, and started to pour herself a large glass.
"Well, that would fix everything. And your mom's a damn tough lady. You or me would have fallen apart dealing with so many medical problems. Be nice to her."
"I am. I don't know if I'd even want to go back to work now anyway, not after the way I was dropped like a sack of dirt."
"I get what you mean, but you wouldn't be able to work without me," said Judith.
"No, but it looks like I don't have any choice either way." They were both silent for a while, an uncomfortable silence that wasn't usual among the two women. "What's wrong?"
Judith sighed. "It's just, I found some printed pages when I was emptying the shredder."
"I don't know why they have interns at that place, if they've got my head illustrator doing busy work."
"Well, it was full, I needed to shred some client documents for this damn chicken job. Anyway, these pages, partial pieces of documents anyway: they look like they're from printouts of our accounts."
"Oh—my-God. Did you call the FBI? I wonder if Mulder and Skully still do house calls."
"Come on, Opal. If you weren't so jaded, you'd realize no one else should have access to those pages. They sure as hell shouldn't be putting them on hard copy and just shredding them in the printing room." Judith sounded serious, not just in a polite and cautious way like she often was when discussing business.
"I haven't seen Alfred in that room in all the years I've been working at there. Maybe one of interns, or even the cleaner?"
"Did what?" asked Judith. She obviously wanted to lead Opal to a conclusion, but it just wasn't reasonable. "No one should have access to them; that's why there's so much security around it all. If I found this, it means there must be more evidence out there somewhere. This wasn't just some system error. Someone inside the agency did this, someone with access to a lot of information."
Opal spat out the word, "Owen."
"Just because you don't like the guy, it doesn't mean he's a thief. You know how much money he's got, and you said it wasn't even that much that went missing."
"It was only a few thousand. So what? He's a dirt bag, probably did it just to get me fired."
"… You know what? That would make a lot more sense. But why?"
"If I knew, I'd be down at that bastard's house, punching him right in the face."
"Hold up there. Maybe we should try to get some evidence before you go around boxing people."
"It wouldn't even surprise me if him and Alfred cooked this up, just to get me out of the way, so they can take control and outsource all the work to cheaper freelancers. This is bullshit!"
"Calm down!" said Judith sternly. "You've been drinking, haven't you?"
"Just one glass," she said, but Opal had almost finished the bottle while they'd been talking. "Look, Judith, promise me you're not going to snoop into this anymore, okay? I've already been fired, but I don't want you getting in trouble trying to help me. Promise?"
"It's going to be hard to just sit here if there might be a way to prove your innocence. Okay, I promise."
"Good. Hey, I'd better call my mom back and see if she's got any more doctor appointments this week. Thanks for the support, you're such a good girl."
"Don't patronize me, Opal. You're not exactly a bad girl yourself." They laughed at themselves and said goodnight.