The Fire Within

Chapter 22 - After Effects

It was another hot afternoon in Seattle. Sarah had been busy running around the office since that morning, trying to catch up with the huge load of tasks she'd been assigned. The official merging of the companies was set to happen at the end of the week. The board members of both the companies had agreed to Robert's request on holding the event at Harper Inc.'s own party hall. Delighted, Robert had given Sarah the responsibility of taking care of all the preparations for the event.

It was almost two in the afternoon when Sarah put her phone down after a long, exhausting discussion with the event organiser. As she wondered what task to do next, her stomach growled loudly. She realised she was extremely hungry and decided to eat. She picked up her phone and trudged towards the cafeteria. When she reached the reception desk, she saw Cole bent over a few files on the desk.

"Looks like the files are giving you a hard time." She pointed out, approaching the desk.

Cole looked up at her. "Hello to you too, Sarah." He said sarcastically, sitting up straight to face her. "Yeah, I still have a lot of files to check. It'll take all day." He groaned.

Sarah nodded. "Been there, done that."

Cole stared at Sarah for a moment. Hesitantly, he began. "That night in the club. Where did you go?"

"What do you mean?"

"I came back to the bar but you were gone."

"Yeah, well. You took a long time to come back. And I wasn't feeling too well so I just went back home." Sarah averted her eyes. She couldn't lie to him with a straight face.

"I'm sorry. I met my friend on the way back and we spoke for a while. I didn't mean to upset you." Guilt was plastered on his face as he looked at her.

The familiar knot in her stomach returned with full force. Cole was too kind and too innocent. She felt like she was taking his feelings for granted. Every day, her guilt deepened and she couldn't help but feel extremely bad for always hurting him, even though it wasn't intentional. Here he was, genuinely feeling sad for coming back late when it was her who left him alone for her selfish reasons.

"No. I should be the one apologizing." She insisted. "I shouldn't have left without telling you."

"Nah. That's alright." He shrugged and smiled at her.

It was at that moment that she decided. She would never hurt Cole again. She wouldn't involve him in any of her matters; she'd done enough already. She would make amends for all the pain he's had to go through. And hopefully, one day she'd explain everything to him.

The new found resolution bubbled up a sudden overwhelming urge to make it up to him for that night in the club.

"Have you had your lunch yet?" She asked him.

"Nope. Not yet. I've got to get these files reviewed and send it to Adams Corp. ASAP."

"Can't you do that after lunch?"

"Nope. Got to send these right away."

"Okay. I'll wait for you."

"No, you should go on. It might take forever. Besides you have more work than me."

Sarah realised that he was right. She had a lot of work pending; she might even have to stay after hours. Maybe this wasn't the time. After all of this was over, she'd buy him lunch.

"Okay." She agreed reluctantly. "I'll see you around." She started walking away but stopped when she remembered something. "Cole, have you seen Jessica today?"

He thought for a moment. "I think I saw her today morning. She barely stopped to say hi."

"That's strange. I haven't seen her all day. That's unlike her."

"I guess Kevin's given her a shit load of work. Otherwise we would've seen her at least a dozen times by now."

"Yeah. That maybe it. Alright, I'll get going then."

She stopped at the elevator and pressed the button. A few seconds later, the elevator doors to her right opened. She was just about to get in when John Williams stepped out of the doors. Sarah held her breath as he turned his head towards her. Then, a look of recognition came over his face.

"Miss Brooks, isn't it?"

Sarah nodded nervously. Inside, she was on edge. Does he remember anything? If yes, how much does he remember?

"Can I have a word with you?" He asked her politely.

Sarah nodded wordlessly. Even though she couldn't detect any hint of hostility he'd shown before, she couldn't help the anxiety and dread building up inside her.

John cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable.

"So I uh - I know we were talking in the club the other night. At the bar. To be honest, I don't remember anything after that. Guess I was too drunk." He gave an awkward laugh. "I hope I didn't give you much trouble?"

Sarah stared at him. He was looking anywhere but her, clearly embarrassed. She let out a breath of relief. He didn't seem to remember anything after all. She'd got him drunk enough to forget everything that happened. She was relieved that her assumptions turned out to be right.

"Oh no trouble at all, Mr Williams. We had a very brief conversation at the bar. I left the club shortly after that." She brushed it off.

"Oh." Williams visibly relaxed. "Thank god. I usually don't drink that much. I don't know what had gotten into me that night." He laughed awkwardly again.

"I'll get going then, Mr Williams." She gave him a small smile and nodded before walking away.

Her mind was still elsewhere when she'd bought the food and sat down to eat. Thoughts about that night in the club with John flooded her mind again. She realised that her conversation with him that night got her nowhere near the truth, but instead left her with more unanswered questions. But she was now sure of one thing: Whatever she was into, it was dangerous. Way more than she'd imagined.

She still couldn't forget the terrified look on his face when she'd mentioned Teddy's name. Why was he scared? Or more precisely, who was he afraid of? He thought someone was testing him. Why would anyone want to test him? Nothing made sense to her anymore. But if John had been terrified even in his intoxicated state, then it had to be something big. That would also mean that it would be even more harder to dig to the truth.

Will she be able to last that long in the company? What if she gets caught? Or worse, what if she'd never be able to find the truth? Was it still there? Or buried forever?

Her thoughts suddenly moved to Kevin, like it often did in the past few weeks. There was something about him that frightened her. Why couldn't he leave her alone? He was always in her way, no matter how much she tried to avoid him. A shudder ran through her spine when she remembered his threatening words. Though she'd kept her head up, she'd felt intimidated when he'd stepped close to her. His warning words rang through her mind.

I'm watching you, Sarah.

What does that mean? Does he know something? Or worse, did he recognize me after all this time?

The thoughts terrified her. She put down her spoon and took a deep breath. She couldn't allow those thoughts to consume her mind. She couldn't. She'd made a promise. And she intended to keep it no matter what happened. She was going to find another way. She was going to find out the truth.

Suddenly, as if she'd been struck by lightning, she knew how.