Budgets and Unexpected Lectures

As soon as Thea left the meeting, she made her way toward her car. She still needed to visit the outreach center since it had been a while since her last visit.

The workers there must be worried about the budget cut as it is…

“Thea…” She heard someone call her and she turned around to find James standing there.

“May I have a moment?” He asked with a serious expression on his face which made Thea wonder what was going on.

“Of course,” she said as she followed him to a side sitting room near her grandfather’s office.

“Is everything okay?” She asked as she sat down before him.

“I wanted to talk to you about something in private,” he said, looking more hesitant than ever.

“What is it?” She asked, feeling nervous.

“It’s about the outreach program funds…” He said, looking at her with worry, “You know how your grandfather cut the funds for it… There is much more to this than what he told you.”

Thea remained silent as she kept listening to James.

“You know how the funding for the outreach program was something your mother arranged from her one safe deposit from her family,” James explained and Thea nodded.

This project was her mother’s life. She funded it with the inheritance money from her own family claiming that she didn’t need the money and it was better used to support other people to achieve their dreams and make a future for themselves.

“Yeah, she just left it for grandfather to take care of and raise. Now he is using it to get me to do whatever he wants…” Thea said feeling so frustrated upon remembering this fact that she wanted to strangle her grandfather.

“I wouldn’t say that your grandfather wouldn’t do this,”

“That’s because he would…” Thea interrupted and James laughed,

“You’re right. That man is more sneaky than we think… But, this time, I can assure you that it’s not what’s going on…” He said with a sad smile,

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“You remember how your mother had an older brother…” He said and Thea nodded.

“I thought they weren’t in contact anymore because he disapproved of my father. He wanted mom to marry one of his business partners.” Thea answered and James nodded.

“They weren’t in contact anymore but your uncle never gave up on trying to take advantage of her.” James explained, “After he learned about your mom passing away in that accident, he did something quite unexpected and also despicable,”

“What did my uncle do?” Thea asked her heart skipping a beat.

“He had been having financial problems for a while, so he used his father, your grandfather’s will to falsify a statement that he has some right to your mother’s money,” He explained, “Your grandfather received the notification last month and the money was taken right away leaving the program without funding,”

“Are you saying that the program has been running low on funding for a whole month without me knowing?!” She asked, feeling betrayed and incompetent at the same time.

“Your grandfather was funding it this whole time, but, there was only so much he could do without prior notice. I think he wanted to let you down gently and he also wanted to use it to make you do the research he had wanted you to do for such a long time, but he didn’t choose the best way to deal with things…” He told her with a sympathetic smile making Thea wonder if she should feel bad about her grandfather funding the project from his pocket or feel angry at him for trying to use the situation to his advantage.

“Did I ever tell you that grandfather is a twisted man…” She commented and James gave her an awkward laugh.

She sighed feeling more at a loss than she was before.

“Now I know that there is no way to get grandpa to reconsider. I need to look for another way…” She said.

“You’re still doing this?” James asked her.

“Of course! I’m not giving up on mother’s legacy,” She answered and James watched her for a while before saying.

“How about your father’s legacy?” He asked with a deep frown on his face.

“I’m sure grandfather has that covered,” She answered curtly before standing up not bothering to pause or look back at James.

She didn’t want to see the see the disappointed look in his eyes too.

“But you still decided to go back to doing research,” James said.

“I’m a professor, it’s part of my job description,” She said, “Can you please send me the details about the money transfer thing? I want to look it over before deciding what to do in the future,” She added,

“Of course! I will send you the paperwork and you can contact your mother’s lawyer for more details.” He answered.

“Alright, Thank you for telling me, James,” She said looking back at him to find him looking at her with a fond smile.

“You’re a good woman, Thea. And a wonderful daughter,” He said with a smile.

“I wonder about that, James,” she said with a soft smile and he gave her a worried look.

That’s when she opted to leave the oppressing room. She didn’t need that look from James, she already knew how pathetic she was without seeing it.

As she left the room, she got a text on her phone.

“Hi, Thea! I hope you’re still on campus. I was wondering if you could cover Professor Wilson’s Lecture. He just had an emergency and I don’t think he will make it.”

Thea read the text one more time from their department’s secretary before she sighed.

Just the fact that their secretary was texting her and not calling was something that made her wonder if Robert is involved.

Checking her schedule, she realized that she had the afternoon mostly off and decided that she could owe both the secretary and Professor Wilson one.

She made her way toward her office to get her material ready. It would be interesting to teach an impromptu class as it is, but Professor Wilson’s courses were well outlined, and she already had an idea about what she was going to teach his students.

Before long, she was ready, and she made her way to the lecture hall. That’s when she heard her phone ping again.

“I forgot to let you know. Someone from Chim&Bio will be auditing this lecture today.” The secretary’s text said and Thea wondered whether she should laugh or just feel plain annoyed.

This was definitely one of Robert’s ploys to catch her off guard. Having an auditor at a lecture that wasn’t his, to begin with, would not be a good first impression of their new partner.

Under normal cases…

But what Robert didn’t realize is that Professor Wilson and her had very similar teaching material and she worked with him often to know his lectures by heart by now. She was going to be completely fine…

Or at least that was what she thought. Until she stood there in the hall in front of the person who would be auditing her lecture, wondering how her day could just go from bad to worse once again.

How could HE be here?!