3: 3
My legs buckled and I dropped straight to my knees.
The doctor sent another photo of my mother, her face flushed purple, her breathing about to stop at any moment.
"We've already put her on full ventilation, but if we don't receive the deposit within half an hour, we'll have no choice but to abandon the surgery."
The world went black in front of me, and the phone slid limply from my hand.
I scrambled forward and grabbed the leg of Mr. Fox's slacks, crushing what was left of my dignity, my voice raw.
"Mr. Fox, please, have mercy. Just transfer me the fifty thousand in wages first, my mom can't hold on much longer. If it saves her life, I'll do anything you want!"
He glanced down at me, a smile curving across that cold face, his voice softening.
"I'm not without a heart. For your ten years of service to this company, I'll lend you fifty thousand out of my own pocket to save your mother."
Light flared in my eyes. I lurched forward, bowing my head to the floor over and over in thanks.
"Thank you, Mr. Fox, I'll pay you back as fast as I can! I'll remember this kindness for the rest of my life!"
Beside him, Gail froze, her face all confusion, and rushed to cut in.
"Mr. Fox, she just tore up the whole finance department and shoved past me! And you're paying out of your own pocket to help her?"
But Mr. Fox raised a hand to stop her, his gaze settling back on me, the corner of his mouth lifting.
"I can lend you the money. But I have one condition."
My head snapped up, unease rising in my chest.
He pulled out a lifetime contract and tossed it in front of me.
"Sign this lifetime labor contract, voluntarily give up your benefits and retirement, three hundred a month in fixed pay, term of service thirty years!"
"It's all written out clearly on there. Read it."
I froze.
Three hundred a month, thirty years, no benefits.
For fifty thousand, he wanted to buy out the next thirty years of my life. Worse than working off the books.
Beside him, Gail let out a snicker, deliberately raising her voice to mock me.
"Joyce, this is a lifeline Mr. Fox is throwing you. Hurry up and sign it, take the money, save your mom. Better than standing here watching her go!"
"Tsk, tsk. Three hundred. That's not even loose change compared to my salary."
Raw humiliation and fury flooded my head. I clenched my fists and screamed, my eyes red.
"You... you're using my situation to force a slave contract on me! You think I won't call the police and have you all hauled off right now?!"
"Call the police?" The warmth drained from Mr. Fox's face, leaving only something cold and grim. He glanced at the phone in my hand.
"You call the police now, and between the response, getting them to the scene, and finishing the statement, that's at least three hours round trip! And the hospital's only given your mother about ten more minutes, right? By the time the police are done, your mother will be long gone!"
4: 4
He toed at the contract on the floor. “So either you play stubborn and call the cops, or you sign and take the money to save her. Your choice.”
I stared at the countdown on my phone screen, my head full of my mother's failing face in the ICU, my lips trembling so hard I could barely stand.
Call the police, and my mother would never last that long. Sign the contract, and my whole life was over.
Both roads were dead ends.
I flung the labor contract away, stumbled to the computer, frantically pulled up the resignation form and slapped it onto the desk.
“Then I quit! I'm quitting right now! The fifty thousand severance, I'll only take half.”
“Just transfer the money right now to save my mom. She can't afford to lose another second!”
My voice was hoarse, close to sobbing.
“You can quit, of course.” Mr. Fox let out a scoffing laugh and pointed at my work computer again.
“But per your non-compete agreement, before you leave you have to manually delete every client file and project archive on that machine. Eighty gigabytes total, sixty pages of categories. Every last one gone, nothing left behind! To keep you from leaking trade secrets.”
I looked at the wall of folders packed across the screen.
Just clicking through them once would take two hours, never mind wiping them clean.
But the hospital had left my mother only ten minutes.
“I'll come back tomorrow and delete all of it! Just send the severance to the hospital first, please? My mom really can't wait!”
I screamed it, breaking apart, my voice all desperation.
“No way! Who's going to guarantee you don't sell off our secrets tonight?”
Mr. Fox just folded his arms and watched me, deliberately raising his wrist to check his watch. “Eight minutes left. Take your time deleting. Wouldn't want to hold you up from saving anyone.”
Gail sneered from the side.
“Joyce, you've built up quite a lot of projects for the company these ten years. Hard work deleting all that. Better hurry.”
Looking at the gloating on both their faces, my vision went black, and all the despair I'd been holding in tore straight past reason.
I snatched up the computer and slammed it down against the floor.
A deafening crash, the case burst open, and shards flew out and struck Gail's face.
She touched the cut bleeding open on her cheek and shrieked in terror.
Mr. Fox backed up step after step, staring at me in disbelief. “Have you lost your mind? Joyce.”
I said nothing, bent down, picked up the broken graphics card and snapped it in two, then lifted my eyes and stared him down, my voice gone numb.
“Mr. Fox, all the electronic data is destroyed. There's no leak risk anymore.”
“Now, can you transfer my severance?”
My phone rang out sharply. The whole lobby went dead silent in an instant, every eye on me.
I stiffly pressed answer. The doctor's exhausted voice came through, carrying across the entire lobby.
“Miss Harding, I'm sorry. Two minutes ago your mother's heart stopped. We did everything we could, but it was too late. Right before she went, she kept saying your name over and over, saying you'd surely come to save her...”
