I followed Emma into the empty hallway and down to the elevator. I saw a person at the other end of the corridor, and I could only barely resist the urge to jump behind Emma’s back to hide. Fortunately, I didn’t need to, because whoever it was, either didn’t hear us coming, or just didn’t bother to turn around.

Emma had wanted to come with me, but I had insisted on her going back to work. I didn’t want her to get in trouble because of me too.

Only reluctantly she let me step inside the elevator and before the doors closed completely she yelled: “Call me if you need anything! I will see you at lunch in a few hours!”

The doors closed and Emma’s face disappeared behind the grey, metal plates.

It seemed like my heartrate was increasing steadily with every level the elevator went up and the doors opened again way too quickly for my liking.

I didn’t know what I had expected.

Maybe a crowd of people standing in front of the elevator, laughing at me, and mocking me, but the floors were empty. Of course.

Everyone was at work and most people probably didn’t even expect me to show up today. I couldn’t blame them, because everything inside me was screaming at me to turn around and make my way out of here as fast as possible but I forced myself to keep going.

Step by step and breath by breath.

It only took me a few moments until I passed the first office. I didn’t dare to look inside and instead I lowered my gaze to the floor while tightening my grip around my handbag.

I had kept the magazine, but it was now buried deep inside my handbag, together with my phone that probably had about a hundred missed calls and messages from Celia on it.

I wondered what Damien was doing right now.

Was he in his office? Or at home? Or maybe on a plane already since the early morning hours, completely unaware of the published articles?

But he would have told me if he were leaving the city, right?

I was eager and at the same scared to check my phone. Had he sent me messages too? Or maybe Clary? But I had to wait until I reached my office to check my phone. I couldn’t risk having another mental breakdown in the middle of the hallway.

I fastened my steps but still it took what felt like an eternity until I finally reached my office, that felt like a safe house at the moment, even though the walls were made out of glass and everyone who cared enough, could look inside.

I had only seen a few people but none of them had dared to speak to me. They had just frozen and stared at me like I had been some sort of alien.

When I reached my office, I was half disappointed to see that it was empty. A small part of me had hoped Damien was in there, waiting for me. I could have used his warm embrace now more than ever, especially because some parts of me were still frozen in fear and numb from the cold.

I pressed my lips together and closed the office door behind me as fast as I could.

A half an hour had passed already, and I only had ten minutes left until I needed to leave my office to go to the briefing that had been delayed by 20 minutes today.

With every minute passing, the number of people increased that, seemingly unobtrusive, passed by my office.

This was what animals in the zoo had to feel like.

Just that people in the zoo were usually looking at the animals with admiration, excitement, or even fear, but all I got was looks of disgust, jealousy, boastfulness, or just sheer and utter curiosity.

Because they knew who I was. And could only be hours until another silly article would be published, revealing that I was an employee at the company.

I had changed my mind and decided to keep off my phone.

All that was keeping me sane right now, was work. It kept my mind busy. Having to deal with whatever people were writing about me and Damien, would be too much right now, so I kept my head down, currently ignoring a small group of women, whispering outside my office as if they thought I wouldn’t notice them, just because I was forcing myself to keep staring at the bright screen of my laptop.

But they just kept talking, until something inside me snapped. With so much sway that I almost knocked over my chair, I got up and grabbed my handbag. I would be early for the briefing, but I just couldn’t take this anymore.

I pressed the door handle and the door swung open and almost hit one of the young women, that all looked like interns. She spun around with a squeak and when she saw me, her eyes widened for a second. It took most of the strength that I had left but I stared at her, piercingly, until she took a step back.

“I- We just need to go to the printer-I”, I didn’t let her finish and walked past the women, not looking back.

“The printer isn’t in this hallway. Try your luck down this corridor to the left.”, I said and hoped my voice wasn’t shaking.

I didn’t know whether any of them responded because I was already rushing towards the elevator. But then I changed my mind again and instead headed towards the girl’s bathroom, I still head a few minutes left until I needed to go to the briefing and wasn’t planning on arriving early. I didn’t want to give anyone the chance to ask questions.

I splashed some cold water into my face to calm my nerves. The makeup was long gone from the tears already and I had already removed the remaining mascara earlier in the bathroom downstairs.

I took a deep breath before finally deciding to take a look at my phone.

36 missed calls and 53 new messages.

Most of them were from Celia, some from Clary and a few from Derek. But the only person that I really wanted to talk to, hadn’t tried to call, nor sent me a message.

I sighed and put my phone back into my handbag. Reading and replying to them now was useless, I didn’t have much time left anyways.

I waited inside the girl’s bathroom for another few minutes, trying to mentally prepare myself for my very own walk-of-shame. There were always at least 20 people attending the briefings, also some from different compartments, and if there were still any people in this building who didn’t know that I was unusually close with our boss, they would soon know it too.

News spread like wildfires here.

I tried to stall for as long as possible but two minutes before the meeting started, I forced myself to leave the safety of the bathroom, opened the door, and tried desperately to keep a straight face.

I needed to look professional, as if all of this didn’t face me at all.

When I reached the meeting room, everyone else was already in their seats at the long table and our head of department was standing up front, reading through his papers while a service member, a young, nervous looking woman, was dispensing water and coffee.

At first nobody noticed me in my plain clothes, but then, the first person saw me, standing awkwardly in the doorway, pressing my laptop against my chest.

The woman bumped her elbow into her neighbors ribs and then pointed at me with a small gesture of her chin. People slowly stopped talking and by now everyone was staring at me, while I was seriously considering just turning around and running away.

That was, until our head of department cleared his throat and pointed to the only empty seat left at the table.

“Miss Jacobs, why don’t you take a seat, so the briefing can start. We are already late and there is a lot on the agenda today.”, he said with his usual, calm voice.

It surprised me that he didn’t seem bothered my presence at all. Hadn’t he heard the news yet?

If so, he was probably the only one, but that was fine with me. I only ever saw Mr Anderson during the briefings, but Emma was right, he seemed to be very reasonable. Still I didn’t want to risk angering him, so I moved through the room.

Quietly I sat down on my seat and put my laptop on the empty space in front of me. With a small smile the woman with the coffee and water, offered me some, but I didn’t trust my stomach yet and throwing up in front of all these people wouldn’t exactly help my situation, so I shook my head and thanked her with a quiet voice.

After she left the room again, the briefing began but I was probably the only one who was actually paying attention to the slides in the front. Everyone else was staring at me or secretly showing around online articles they had found about me.

But the longer the briefing went on, the more I got the feeling that they didn’t even try to do it secretly. They openly exchanged magazines and links to websites as if I weren’t sitting right next to them.

I tried my best to ignore them but when the meeting was over I still felt more relieved than ever. Fast I picked up my stuff and I was the first to leave the room again.

At least that was until Mr Anderson called out my name.

“Miss Jacobs, do you have a moment?”, he asked and even though I wanted to scream NO, my mouth somehow formed a yes and I slowly started walking back into the room, while a few staff members passed me.

One of them whispered just loud enough for me to hear it: “I bet she will get kicked out… She didn’t even last 3 weeks, did she?”

I balled my hands into tight fists, and I was crunching with my teeth so hard that I was afraid they could hear it. Nervously I stepped closer and he waited until everyone had left the room before he began to speak.