Chapter 2 Two
The sound of canned laughter from the sitcom playing on the TV did little to brighten Antonia’s mood. She sat curled up on the couch, hugging a throw pillow like it might absorb the disappointment weighing her down. The taste of failure still clung bitterly to her tongue, no matter how many cups of her sister’s too-sweet coffee she had consumed to chase it away.
Yesterday had been a disaster.
A cosmic-level, mud-splattering, tail-light-shattering disaster.
She groaned into the pillow. “Why me?”
“You want an itemized list, or just the highlights?” Helen’s voice drifted from the kitchen, laced with sarcasm and warmth.
Antonia peeked over the pillow to see her older sister stirring a pot of stew on the stove, her apron already smeared with tomato paste. Helen looked annoyingly put-together—hair tied in a neat bun, skin glowing like she hadn’t a care in the world. Married life clearly agreed with her.
Antonia, on the other hand, was the definition of rock bottom: unemployed, heartbroken, and still replaying the horrified look on Kennedy Walton’s face when he recognized her in the interview room.
“I bombed it, Helen. You didn’t see how he looked at me. Like I was public enemy number one. Honestly, who throws a stone at a CEO’s car? What was I thinking?”
Helen smirked, ladling the stew into a bowl. “You weren’t thinking. You were reacting. Which is classic you.”
Antonia buried her face in the pillow again, groaning louder this time. “I should change my name, move to another city. Maybe another country. ‘Antonia Adams, notorious tail-light vandal,’ is not how I planned to make an impression.”
“You’re being dramatic.” Helen crossed the living room with the bowl of stew and set it in front of her sister. “Eat. You’ll feel better. Or at least you’ll have something to cry into that isn’t my throw pillow.”
Anthonia chuckled weakly, picking up a spoon. “Easy for you to say. You’re married to the love of your life, you're settled, stable. I’m thirty, jobless, and living with you and your husband, like an overgrown teenager.”
Helen sat beside her, giving her a look that was equal parts teasing and protective. “Oh please. You’re not a burden. Besides, you’re starting over. Everyone deserves a reset after what you went through with… what’s his name again? Oh right—Mr. Waste-of-Six-Years.”
“Don’t remind me.” Antonia winced, stabbing her spoon into the stew like it was her ex’s face. “I wasted my twenties on him. And for what? To get cheated on with a woman who can’t even spell ‘commitment’?!”
Helen laughed. “Okay, that was actually good. You’re getting your spark back.”
Before Antonia could reply, her phone buzzed against the coffee table. She grabbed it absentmindedly, expecting another promotional text or a guilt-tripping message from her mother.
But when she answered, a familiar voice greeted her.
“Hello, Miss Adams? This is Denise, the receptionist at Walton & Co. Am I speaking with Antonia Adams?”
Antonia’s heart lurched. She sat up straight. “Y-yes, this is she.”
Helen instantly perked up beside her, eyes narrowing in curiosity.
“I’m calling regarding the interview you attended yesterday,” Denise continued, her tone calm and professional. “Mr. Walton’s office has reviewed your application, and I’m pleased to inform you that you’ve been selected for the position.”
Antonia blinked. Once. Twice. Her brain short-circuited.
“I… I’ve been what?”
“You’ve been offered the job,” Denise repeated patiently, as though speaking to someone hard of hearing. “We’d like you to resume first thing Monday morning at eight a.m.”
For a beat, silence stretched between them. Antonia sat frozen, staring blankly at her sister.
Then she screamed.
It was the kind of scream that rattled the windows, startled the neighbor’s dog into barking, and made Helen nearly drop her spoon.
“You got the job?” Helen squealed, grabbing her shoulders. “You got the job!”
“Yes! Yes, I got the job!” Anthonia bounced up and down on the couch, her voice climbing into shrieks of disbelief. “Oh my God, Helen, I got the job! I thought I’d ruined everything, but they still chose me!”
Tears stung her eyes, hot and overwhelming. For the first time in weeks, they weren’t from heartbreak or humiliation—they were from joy.
“Congratulations, Miss Adams,” Denise said through the phone, her tone warm now. “We’ll send you a confirmation email with the details. Welcome to Walton & Co.”
“Thank you, thank you so much,” Antonia stammered, before the call ended.
She dropped the phone onto the couch, clutching Helen’s hands like a lifeline. Both sisters squealed again, hugging tightly.
The commotion drew in Helen’s husband, Ernest, who leaned against the doorway with an amused expression. “Do I want to know why you two are almost screaming the roof down?”
“She got the job!” Helen exclaimed, beaming proudly at her sister.
Ernest raised his brows. “The same job where you thought you embarrassed yourself beyond repair?”
Antonia laughed through her tears, her chest heaving. “Yes! That one! Apparently, humiliating myself is part of my charm.”
Helen ruffled her hair affectionately. “Charm, insanity—same difference.”
Antonia fell back onto the couch, still trembling from the shock. She had walked into that interview convinced she’d ruined her chances forever. And yet… she was in. She had a fresh start.
Her heart swelled with relief, but underneath it was a faint ripple of unease. Because if Kennedy Walton had approved this… it meant she would see him again.
Face-to-face. Every day.
The man whose car she’d vandalized.
The man whose stare had nearly stripped her bare in that conference room.
And Antonia wasn’t sure if she should be celebrating—or bracing for the storm.