Chapter 117 Salary
JAMES’ POV
It was yet another day at the office, and I stayed hidden in my office. I didn't want the staff looking at me.
It had barely been a month since the patients who took my drugs relapsed. And it was going to be time to pay the staff their salaries. I wasn't sure I would have it anytime soon.
“God,” I moaned, running my hands over my face.
Even the simple thing that I asked Melissa to do, she couldn't get done. And now, I was still in the same position as I had been all this time.
I didn't want to take a loan. The amount of money that I needed wasn't even something that I was comfortable borrowing.
But how else was I going to get it? I spent weeks fooling myself in front of Anna. And that didn't go anywhere. I was patiently waiting for the termination mail from Greenlife Med. It wasn't going to be long until they disassociated themselves from me. It wasn't stated in my contract that they were going to take the fall for anything that I did. It was a shame that I didn't ask for that to be added to the contract.
It was a shame that I wasn't there to watch things when Anna was working on her formula. I would have known what to do by then.
I managed to hire security to keep people from throwing rocks and fruits at my staff. But that was all I could do. This wasn't something that was just going to get off the news.
A knock came at the door, making me sit up. “Come in,” I said, and the door was slowly pushed open. It was one of the paid interns.
She had a file in her arm, as she walked towards me in her pencil skirt. How didn't I notice how sexy she was in the beginning? I ran a hand through my face. This wasn't the time to start thinking about things like that.
“Do you need anything, Dolores?” I asked, and she flinched.
“Dorathy, sir,” she muttered. Her name didn't even matter to me. She was going to be gone in a few months.
Only if my company was still alive by then.
“What do you want?” I asked, exhausted.
“The rest of the staff couldn't come to ask you, so I decided to take it upon myself to meet you.”
“And it won't hurt you to go straight to the point. You know that, right? I don't have all day.”
She looked around the table, as if she was looking for the work that I had going on. There was nothing. Yet, she didn't point that out.
“We just wanted to ask if we were going to get paid. We understand how hard things have been in the company. We just wanted to make sure that our salary was secure.”
I narrowed my eyes at her, holding myself back from slamming my hands against the table. Why did all the women around me have to be so utterly foolish? It was becoming too much for me to even take in.
“Let me ask you, Dolores,” I said, purposely calling her the wrong name. “What work have you done so far? Since you've been coming to the office. Can you tell me what work you've been doing? Except coming to take pretty pictures in the elevator, and having free coffee!” I slammed my hand against the table, and she flinched.
Fuck, I was losing my mind.
“It's not our fault that the company hasn't been getting orders,” she said tipping her chin. I hated to see that confidence in her. I wanted to break it into bits.
“You know what?” I asked her. “You're right. It's my fault for hiring incompetent fools who couldn't detect that there was something wrong with the drugs when it was being produced.”
“Do you need coffee?” She asked, and that only heightened my anger.
“Just get out. Get out!” I screamed, eyeing her as she scrambled out of the office.
What work were they doing, that they expected a salary?
I took in a deep breath, as I tried to stop myself from losing my cool all over again. Everything was going to be fine. Things were going to be fine. I just didn't know how yet.
My phone rang and I quickly swiped right when I saw that it was my best friend calling.
“What's up, Jimmy?” I asked, trying to sound as less concerned as I wanted to feel.
“How're things holding up?” He asked, and I froze for just a second. He was in France. He couldn't have heard everything that was happening here.
“Everything is going fine,” I said, plastering a fake smile on my face even if he couldn't see it.
“Even with the scandal your company is going through?” He asked, and I ran my hands through my hair.
“How did you know about that?”
I could feel him smirk on the other end. “Have you forgotten how proud you were that your drugs were being ordered from other countries? The other countries have gotten the information not to buy your drugs. They all prefer Celibrex now.”
There it was. That name again. The name that didn't even give my company a chance to recover.
“What do you want?” I asked after a few moments of silence.
“I'm back in the states,” Jimmy said. “I was thinking that maybe both of us could meet up for drinks or something. If you aren't too busy.”
Too busy?
I wanted to laugh at that phrase. I couldn't remember the last time I was busy taking orders. All I did now was look for places to borrow money from, without having to give a collateral. Which was an incredibly stupid search, but I had to give it a try.
As expected, all efforts led to nothing. I ran my hand through my face. I didn't even know if I had the courage to face Jimmy after all this time. Years ago, I was the one bragging in his face. And now, I was more than sure that he was coming to do the same thing. To put his ass in my face and remind me that he warned me not to play with Anna, even if that was all it was from the beginning.
But I needed free drinks. “Fine,” I finally said. “Send