Clark
I stood from my desk and dropped the picture of Cecily and her nephew into the trash. As I was getting ready to leave, there was a tap at the door.
“Come in,” I called out.
I figured it was Cecily coming to me and begging for her job back as my secretary. Honestly, the Tyrant’s so-called daughter seemed to do a better job. Of course, I made her do a little extra because if she wanted to be in this space, it called for an overachiever.
When the door opened, it wasn’t Cecily but someone I had been waiting for. They came in and placed a nice-sized envelope on my desk.
“Is it all here?” I asked.
“Yes.”
With my eyes never wavering, I reached out and slid the envelope toward myself before picking it up. I opened it to see the fresh green bills neatly rubber banded.
“It’s nice doing business with you,” I muttered as I went into my drawer to hand them something they had been eagerly waiting for. With no words exchanged, they took what they needed and left. My cheeks lifted into a grin. If I hadn’t believed it before, now I knew there was a God.
I slid the envelope full of money into my briefcase as I was now headed out. However, to my surprise, the door opened to a member of the board of staff.
“Robert? To what do I owe the visit?” I asked.
His face was unsettled as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small envelope. “Clark, the way this is being done is unorthodox, but I wanted to be the one who delivered the message,” he said as he handed me the envelope.
I set my briefcase down and snatched the letter from his hand. “What the hell is this?”
I opened the letter, and my eyes scanned over it. Regretfully, a unanimous decision; termination was all I saw. My head shot up.
“Robert, you’re firing me?”
He cleared his throat as he stepped back.
“It wasn’t just my decision. It seems that Cecily has gained the students’ votes.
Clark, they fought for her. Black Excellence Day was a success, and she’s gained great influence over the students.
You haven’t done that. Not to mention, we’ve received complaints about you regarding mistreatment in this office, which will not be tolerated.
We are supposed to be pillars for our students of color, not their enemies.
The decision has been made. Please clear the office of your things before leaving,” he finished and walked out.
I crumbled the paper in my hands as I stood there fueled with fire.
This position had been mine all these years, and I leave for merely a few months, and they give it to Cecily?
I knew the complaints came from the Tyrant’s orphan.
The orphan who couldn’t decide which side of the tracks to be on.
Right at the moment I thought God was making way for me, he knew the right time to take it away.
I’d done many things to get where I was, but to have what I took pride in pulled from under me did nothing but start to turn my cold heart into ice.
It had to be the Tyrant who put her up to it.
This couldn’t be the beginning of the end.
For each day he walked around thinking he held power in these cities, I despised him more.
The love he had so desperately craved from my family or me would never come into fruition because, in my eyes, he was so much like the one person I hated with all my soul, and that was my mother.
As I started packing my things, the door to my office opened.
For a second, I thought it was Robert, coming back to say it had all been a mistake, but to my surprise, it wasn’t.
I stared at this person curiously as they approached my desk.
Without words, they slid something onto my desk.
I quickly glanced down to see what it was, then looked up.
A grin for a grin. Just when I thought I would be defeated, a savior came right on time.
“My time isn’t free,” I said.
With every move that I’d made thus far, this was going to be the nail to the Tyrant’s coffin.