"So I just have to get my dad to sign this document and then get it back to you?" I asked the lawyer as he handed me three pages held together by a blue paper clip.
"Yes." He replied. He did not look happy about this.
"Thanks." I told him. "Can I get your card? I'll phone you once my dad signs it."
"Sure." He said pulling out his wallet from his back pocket.
I looked back at Finn. He fixed his shades and then returned his hands behind his back.
The lawyer handed me his card.
"Thanks... Steven." I said reading his name on the little card. "I'll call you soon. Please stay close to your cell."
Steven nodded slowly. "Why do you want to drop the charges against him, miss Genesis? Do you know what he did?"
I looked at him, then looked towards the door and then at him again not sure how I'd explain myself. "Steven, let's just say that some things are more important than others."
"I don't get it."
"I don't think you ever will." I told him. "See you soon."
I left the courtroom with the documents in my hand. When we got to the car I opened the back seat before Finn could do it. I entered and he shut the door. I started going through the documents.
"Where to ma'am?" Finn asked looking at me from the rear-view.
"To the office."
He nodded and started the car. I finished reading the document but couldn't get my eyes off the last section:
I... hereby grant the release and dropping of all the charges that my company... have charged against... on... .
Signature...
How was I going to get my father to fill out this form? Would he agree? I didn't think so. Steven even told me so. But there was no other way, unless I forged his signature. No. I can't do such a thing. Steven would surely find out because he is our company lawyer. He probably knows my father's signature very well.
"Can you hand me a pen in the glove compartment?" I asked Finn.
After much scratching, with his eyes darting to the compartment once every while and then back at the road, he finally recovered the pen. He handed it over to me.
Pen against paper, my hand began to tremble. I wrote. I filled in the form with my father's name and stopped by signature. I had to get my dad to sign this document. I had to. I had to think of some way. Nothing was coming. Surely my dad would never sign the form without reading it first. Unless I got him drunk. But how the hell would I do that? And on a Thursday?
This was frustrating! I put the documents down on the seat next to me and held my head in my hands with my curls falling over my shoulders. I tried to think hard but was disturbed by my phone ringing.
I dug in my pocket for it. It was Nathan. 5 missed calls. Oh my... How could I... What was I going to tell him now?
I picked up. "Hello?"
"Genesis where are?" He was asking. "I called you like 6 times but you wouldn't pick up."
"5 times." I found myself correcting him and then grimaced.
"Does it matter? Fact is, I called you many times but you didn't pick up. Your phone was ringing but you were not picking up."
"I... I'm sorry." I bit my bottom lip.
"Just... Where are you anyway? Penny told me you went to make some copies so I went back to my office. When I came back after 20 minutes she told me you went to the bathroom. I decided to wait for you in your office but you are still not back. Where are you?"
"Uh..." I looked around. "I'm downstairs, just went to get another coffee."
The car in front of us honked twice.
"Are you driving?" He asked me.
"Uh... Yeah, I didn't feel like Rob's everyday coffee."
"Oh..." Nathan sounded a little not convinced. "Sure, come back soon."
"I will, babe." I said.
He hung up.
"Please drive faster, Finn." I told him.
"There is a speed limit here ma'am. Can't go any faster than this." He said.
"Ugh..." I groaned leaning back against my seat.
***
When we arrived at the company I took the lift past our floor. I went up to the last floor where my dad's office was. Finn stayed in the car.
Holding the documents tightly against my chest I left the elevator and began walking towards my dad's office. When I got to his door, I touched the handle but paused. The plate on his door read: Manager R. Roseburg
I was about to turn the handle when I heard Trisha's voice behind me.
"Excuse me. You can't go in there, Mr. Roseburg is having a meeting right now."
I turned around and saw her standing in front of her desk with a hotdog in her hand.
"Oh!" Her face turned into a beam. "It's you Genesis. Sorry."
I tried to return her smile but failed miserably. "Can I go in?"
"No." She shook her head. "Your father is in a very important meeting right now. But he'll be done in about 45 minutes to an hour."
"I can't wait that long." I told her. "You see, the thing is, I need him to sign this document for me."
"Sure thing." She smiled going to sit behind her desk. "Just give it to me, I'll read it and then when he's done I'll ask him to sign it and then get it over to you."
"Uh no... It's confidential."
"I'm his secretary so it's totally cool." She assured me taking a bite of her hotdog.
"Nah... I'll hang on to it." I gave her a tight smile. "I'll just wait over there."
She frowned for a second and then wiped it away with a professional smile. "Okay."
I went to take a seat next to the vending machine. I couldn't stop staring down at the empty space my father's signature would soon be scribbled on.
Mike Anderson... Yoké... I still didn't understand this. It didn't make any sense. But it didn't matter right now. I'll find out everything once I get him out of there.
An idea suddenly popped in my head. I smiled and got up from my seat. Trisha smiled back at me as I approached her. When I passed her desk her smile turned downwards.
"Where are you going?" She asked me.
I opened my father's door and stood at the door post. The people in the room looked my way blankly. There were two Chinese men seated next to each other by my dad's desk. My dad, seated behind his desk frowned at me.
"Genesis?"
I waved the documents and gave him my sweetest smile. "I'm sorry to disturb. But I kind of..."
My dad got up and tried a smile. "Sorry about this."
He came towards me.
"What are you doing here?" He looked behind me. He was whispering. "Where's Trisha? Didn't she tell you I'm in a meeting?"
"Yeah she did, dad but..."
"These are very important clients."
"I know dad..." I said. "The thing is, I can't do my work, I need your signature."
"What do you mean?" Raphael asked me.
"You added the article department to my job description. The board don't know that. Apparently they need your signature on this that states that I have full authority to have the last word." My phone began ringing. "I'm sorry."
I quickly hung up.
"Ugh..." Raphael groaned looking back at his clients and then back at me quickly. "Give it to Trisha, I'll sign it once I'm done."
"The thing is, I'm getting behind with my work. I can't do anything without your signature on this."
He looked behind me impatiently for Trisha. She had the telephone to her ear but looking over at us nervously.
"You know what..." He tapped his pockets. "Where do I sign?"
I held out my pen to him. "Right here, dad."
I pointed to the empty space and tried to cover as much of the statement that I could with the rest of my hand.
He put the pen down on the paper. Ink already making a mark on the paper, he stopped and looked up at me. My heart began beating so fast that I thought my dad realized it too.
Do you know that moment when you are conscious of doing something wrong but just to see if someone else picked it up you ask them what? This was that moment."Did you read the whole document?" Father asked me.I gave him my sweetest smile, feeling my heart rate settling again, "Yes, sir."He signed his neat curly signature on the empty space and placed the pen on the paper."Thank you." I told him as he turned back to his waiting clients."Sorry about that, it's just some work was stopped because it needed my signature." I heard him say as I turned to leave.I stood by the door and watched them turn back to my dad and nod."You see, that's the best thing about signing with Roseburg Advertisements. We never let anything get in the way of our productivity."I felt guilt well up inside me so I shut his door quietly. I felt really bad
I spent the rest of the day sitting in front of my laptop and looking up Duran State Penitentiary. The articles I read about the prison sent chills down my spine. The prison is run by gang leaders and almost everyday an inmate gets killed or injured. Being the most overcrowded prison in our country, cells meant for only 22 men are often occupied by 50 men and some of them sleep on the floor and share 1 commodity. How is Yoké supposed to stay in such a place? One article I read said that new inmates are the most at risk of getting harmed by older inmates unless they join a gang.Yoké must be feeling really scared right now. He doesn't know about gangs, and a prison environment he'd probably never even imagined before. What is he thinking of me right now? Does he think I've forgotten about him? I need to see him. I need to go see him and just assure him that I'm trying all that I can to get him out of that hell hole. He needs to know that I'll stop at nothing to m
After taking several sips of his coffee dad leaned back on the couch."You know, it feels good to sit like this with you." He said."I've been getting that a lot lately, from Nathan." I smiled."Well, I just wish Alice could have been here too. But she's a whole nother person.""She just prefers something different. Something more... fun, I guess.""She takes after Leticia." He said sipping his coffee. "You take after me.""But a year ago I was like her too." I said holding the warm cup close to my body. "You didn't like it.""Yeah... but your choice of teaching wasn't as humiliating as hers. You are more sensible.""Well, I am older." I shrugged."Yeah..." Raphael sighed. "That's why I want you to work and get enough experience. Because you'll be the heiress of our companies. This is the headquar
The piercing sound of my alarm clock jerked me awake. Trying to fall asleep was like starting a war in my head; with thoughts of Yoké fighting off every bit of sleep, with questions I didn’t know the answers to. Is he okay? Was he able to sleep? Or is he struggling like me, maybe spending the whole night wondering when I’d show up to take him away from that awful place… But as usual, sleep always conquers.Although I set my alarm clock for two hours earlier than I usually wake up, I was full of energy and wide awake as soon as I heard it ring. I turned on the radio, wishing that I could turn the volume much higher than it already could go. I felt so excited! I would be seeing Yoké today!I jumped into the shower, spending more time than I would on a regular day. I made sure to take a lot more time doing my make up and hair too.I’ve watched hundreds of romantic movies of when the girl and the guy
I took the lift straight up to the last floor. It took me a long while to get to the 40th floor because the lift stopped at almost all the floors. The workers kept coming in and out. I didn’t care one bit that I was not returning their fake smiles. Even the long drive back to the office wasn’t long enough to calm me down. I was so disappointed that it made me upset.When I got to the 40th floor I was the only one left in the lift. The whole 40th floor was my dad’s and his alone: his huge office, waiting area, secretary’s desk closest to his office and also his two body guards. One of the body guards was standing by the lift and the other standing outside his office door. I don’t even know why he brings his body guards in here, there is a security guard on each floor. I remember having to beg my father to not have two big guys follow me around. After weeks of begging him, he finally allowed me to only have one body guard and he be my
I woke up around 7 on that Sunday morning. I made sure my phone was on so that I didn't miss any calls from Steven. After an hour of lying in bed and checking my phone a thousand times, I finally decided to do a breathing exercise just to try and relax. I felt like I was about to get a panic attack. While doing the exercises, I felt better but as soon as I finished, I found myself anticipating the result of the case again. What if? What if we lose? What will I do if we lose?Although it was still early, I decided to go and take a shower just to keep my mind distracted on something else other than Yoké. When I was about to step into the shower I heard a knock on the front door. I heard Rosalie open the door. I hope that it isn't my father. When I came to the door, she was standing there with a bouquet of roses in her hand. Pink roses."Good morning ma'am." She greeted, holding the flowers towards me.I frowned moving the flowers to one side, looking for a note. There was. The flowers we
“I took in account that this is the accused’s first felony and hereby decide that he can be let out on bail. But if the accused is to commit another felony within 5 years, his punishment will be tight.” She banged her gavel. “This case is closed.”I almost screamed with excitement. I even hugged Finn! He didn’t hug me back, obviously. I didn’t care. I jumped out of my seat and struggled out of the bench. I ran towards Steven and hugged him too.“Oh my God!” I said placing my hands on my head, my mouth in an ‘o’. I still couldn’t believe this.“We did it.” Steven was smiling at me. He didn’t look excited, just wore a professional smile.“Oh my God…” I said. It had still not completely registered. It all just felt like a dream and I was afraid I would wake up anytime and have to face the odd rea
Yoké was asking me for his child. It then occurred to me that he didn’t know anything, not what happened. I had to tell him everything. It is his right to know and here he is demanding an answer.I instinctively looked around as I realized that we were in public. The officers with nothing better to do at the gate were already watching us. Dad had warned me about the public, about protecting our company and not giving people reason to doubt our assurity. What worse reason than to be here in front of a prison with an ex-convict demanding for the child that was taken away from him? A child he now wanted to meet.“Yoké, we can’t talk here.” I told him. “Let’s go to my apartment.”“I don’t want to go anywhere with you, I want to know where my child is.” His voice firm and his face still with that frown.“I know, but right now we are in publ