Chapter 19
One Month Later
Jolie was typing on her computer furiously. She’d been working on the final edits for an article for the past five hours, and still couldn’t get it right. There was something off about it that she couldn’t quite put a finger on.
She lifted up the receiver on her desk and dialed the writer’s extension.
“Peggy, get in here,” she said into the phone. When she’d placed the receiver down, she realized that she had sounded more stern than usual and she decided to modulate her voice as she spoke to Peggy. There was no point in pissing off more employees. If Margaret decided to send her on another forced vacation, Jolie felt like that would be the death of her.
“Yes, Ms. Park,” Peggy walked into her office, looking pale faced and dim-eyed. Jolie calling her into her office, while editing an article; was not a good sign. Jolie was aware of the reputation she had in the office. Her young age had nothing to do with it, and everything to do with her perfectionism and strict work ethics.
“Peggy, this isn’t working,” Jolie said and sat back dejectedly in her chair.
Peggy was a 28 year old writer, older than Jolie herself, but more nervous now than she had probably been in her entire professional career.
“All right, I’ll change whatever you want,” Peggy said, clasping her hands together in front of her.
Jolie steepled her hands on the desk and narrowed her eyes, reminding herself that she needed to be ‘nice’.
“I don’t know what needs to be changed,” she said and Peggy nodded her head furiously.
“I’ll write it again, then,” she said and Jolie breathed in deeply.
“I just know that Margaret is going to send it back immediately when she reads this, and it’s my job to make sure that every article that passes her desk for approval is up to a certain standard,” Jolie said, trying to make herself sound kind, but Peggy wasn’t appreciating the effort. She looked like she was going to burst a vein any minute now.
It was beginning to make Jolie sick. She was trying hard to be nice, to make herself more approachable to the writers and other employees on this floor who she was responsible for. But none of it was working…she couldn’t help but wonder if she was a monster to work with.
“I’ll write it again,” Peggy said, keeping her head down.
“I don’t want you to write it again, Peggy, I want us to discuss what we can do differently with this article. We need to fix the problem,” Jolie said and felt her gut churn. She was really beginning to feel sick and she grabbed the edge of her desk.
Peggy was startled by the motion and she looked up at Jolie with a jerk.
“Are you all right, Ms. Park?” she asked and Jolie nodded her head.
She could feel the thin film of sweat that had formed on her forehead. Her face was turning red.
“You don’t look well, Ms. Park,” Peggy said and Jolie stood up from the chair, just as her body shuddered feverishly.
She covered her mouth with a hand and shook her head, as she ran past Peggy and down the corridor towards the toilets. She banged the door open with her body and hurled herself into one of the stalls.
She had just about managed to kneel down in front of the toilet, when a squelching sound escaped her lips and she got sick. Jolie clung to the toilet, thankful for having tied her hair tightly in a bun that morning and also thankful that there was nobody else in the toilets then.
“Ms. Park?” Peggy’s voice interrupted her, as she sat down on the floor, panting to control the feeling of relief she was going through now. She didn’t feel sick anymore. It had only lasted a few minutes and now it was gone.
“I’m fine, Peggy. Please start writing the article again,” she said as she fanned her damp face with her hand.
“Okay,” Peggy said and Jolie waited for the sound of her leaving the toilets, before she got out of the stall.
In the mirror outside, Jolie stared at her face. She didn’t look tired or sick, like she had expected herself to look. It had to be food poisoning or indigestion or a fever? Instead, her cheeks glowed and her eyes looked bright. She splashed water furiously on her face and didn’t care about ruining her makeup. Every time she stared back at the mirror again, she looked like she was a new person.
Her hand went instinctively to her belly as she looked at herself some more. Jolie gulped as the inevitable thought passed through her mind and her heart began sinking again.
Brandon hadn’t used protection that night. He had emptied himself deep inside her. Jolie instinctively pressed her legs together at the thought. She could be pregnant. She could be carrying Brandon’s child, her stepfather’s child!
Jolie whipped around, tucking in red hair behind ears and charged out of the toilets. Margaret was walking down the corridor, in her usual marching way. She stopped when she saw Jolie and arched her eyebrows at her.
“Your face is glowing, Jo! You look like you’ve been sleeping well,” Margaret said and went on her way, without waiting for a response.
Jolie gulped and licked her lips, standing stationary in the corridor now and thinking. She needed to get to a doctor, she needed to get tests done before she could allow her mind to wander. But she knew the truth already, she could feel it now even though she couldn’t feel it a few minutes ago.
She was pregnant.