The Mascarade (1)

Alice Hezron sat in her office, going through some work logs from the day before. On days like this, she got to work earlier than usual. Some of her colleagues teased her that she was a workaholic, something she didn’t mind as long as she got paid.

Her phone rang, and she was tempted to ignore it but couldn’t. Business etiquette demanded that she answers all calls.

“Hello,” she said into the phone.

“Hello,” her secretary Amie said. ‘I would like to remind you of the board meeting that should start in ten minutes,’

Alice had been so consumed in her work that she had not realized it was almost time to present the report of her new project. She loved and dreaded such presentations despite being a veteran in the real estates field.

“Thank you so much, Amie. It had slipped my mind,” she said into the phone and disconnected. She searched through her computer for the report she was to present and