Hot Target

Chapter 20 - Decisions

Anne, one of the pharmacy assistants looked as if she was going to faint when she showed him the surveillance monitor near the cashier area. L.J. can almost smell her fear but she remained behind him as he checked the recorded footage - the date and time of Agatha's last day in Buen Farmacia. Then recalling some details, he glanced and glowered at Anne's white face.

L.J. had no idea if she was intimidated by him wearing his PDEA green and blue uniform; or to the issue of him being the grandson of the CEO. But scanning at the other staffs' faces, he understood that they were hiding something.

"There was this big customer who had a complaint with Miss Montessa two days ago," he stated. "I want to know the date and the approximate hour of her assisting this man. Agatha had mentioned to me, this customer didn't have a prescription."

He straightened from the stool he was sitting as he looked up at the surveillance cameras above them. They were almost in every corner of the store, like white big eyeballs peering at them. One of the round cameras, stared directly at the prescription counter. "The footage in the CCTV can tell me if it had been true. But what really bothered me was the fact that Miss Montessa and this customer of hers had already worked it out. The man even apologized."

L.J. stood up and towered at the employees around him. Anne in front of him, Greta and another pharmacy assistant by the prescription counter. Gerald, the security guard stood by the store entrance but his eyes seemed to dart at him from time to time, worried as well.

"If anyone of you knew something about Miss Agatha's sudden resignation, you might as well spill it out. Otherwise, I can still find out the truth and believe me, I can be worse than the CEO."

He wanted to ask nicely. Being an employee himself at the PDEA, he can relate to them being questioned by an annoyed boss. But he wasn't really annoyed, just desperate into finding out what really happened. L.J. sensed that there had been injustice in Agatha's part.

Anne and the other pharmacy assistant had stared at the resident pharmacist who gulped, meeting L.J.'s brown penetrating eyes.

"It... it was the CEO," Greta said, her voice almost choking with fright. "I'm sorry... she didn't want her here."

It was like the bullet going into his side of the abdomen again, painful, poison going in but only at that moment, it shot through his chest. L.J. almost shouted at the pharmacist for mentioning Rebecca's name. He didn't want to believe. He'd managed to listen to the whole story as Anne and the other pharmacy assistant gazed at him, regretfully. The guilty security guard busied himself, assisting customers at the non-Rx stalls.

"So, you were all into this together?" he commented, controlling the rise of his voice. Anger had crept into him as he was confused by Rebecca's ill scheme against Agatha. "And Miss Montessa chose to go, voluntarily just to save your jobs?"

He knew the CEO can be merciless concerning business but not with people. Rebecca wasn't anything like Lionel Cervantes, her deceased husband, L.J.'s grandfather who loathed and rejected him and his mother like they had contagious disease. He thought he'll deal with his grandmother later as he began to measure the pain that he'd caused Agatha. He should find her soon.

L.J. took his leave out of the store, his mind set for Agatha's apartment at Balic-Balic. On his way for the main door of the Galleria Mall, Greta had spoken behind him, tugged him by the elbow.

She was close to tears and in full remorse, she told him, "Sir, Jaycee. If you talk to Miss Agatha, please tell her that we are really sorry and we never intended her any harm."

"The CEO wasn't a good excuse for having someone suffer." L.J.'s tone was flat. "You have your own free will to do the right thing. I should fire all of you. But I had to respect Agatha's kindness, sparing all of you because of her concern for your jobs. I'll have to let you off... just don't cross my line ever again!"

L.J.'s messed up day didn't improved. Looking forward to fixing everything with Agatha, he found out from her landlady that his angel had gone home to the province... never to return.

---

AGATHA HAD LET out a sigh as she woke up and listened to her parent's conversation at the other room. They told her they were doing fine. They needed no help in paying for the bills and that she can take a break for a while if she wanted to. But hearing her mother's troubled voice about his father's health and a problem in the farm, she gathered she should find work soon.

Her going home all of the sudden had surprised her family. Agatha had considered her father's heart condition. Instead of telling them what really happened, she'd told them about her becoming weary with her job in Manila that she'd decided to quit. Angie and Taleon had been understanding and they had seemed gladder when she revealed about her break-up with Kent.

"Did you sleep well?" She'd almost jumped with Christine entering her room without knocking. "You seemed restless last night."

It was a Saturday morning, still dark, around six in the morning but her fourteen-year-old sister was already dressed for a part-time job in a grocery. Their parents will be off for the farm soon and she'll be alone again to decide where to resume her career. Will she go back to Manila or stay in the province?

"Bad dreams," she told Christine, rolling her eyes, saying it was nothing. "The life in the city can be awful."

"I'll remember not to seek a job there." Bidding her good bye, her sister left.

Agatha had reached for her phone, recalling acquaintances that can give her referral for work. Her finger accidentally tapped her messages on the phone and her eyes fell to one message: 'I'm sorry.'

She blinked and felt the bitterness in her throat. It was another message from L.J. before she'd decided to leave for home. She thought she'd erased all of his messages. Biting her lip in contempt, she pressed 'delete'.

Agatha just wanted to forget about the agent. He tried to contact her and she'd almost answered one of his calls. But what was there to talk about? For him to say sorry in her face? Or, simply to make her of a fool again?

Clearly, L.J. was another 'Kent' except for his evil grandmother that made him a lot worse. In the end, she'd turned off her cellphone and resolved into going home to rid him from her mind.

Still she'd been dreaming of L.J. and everything about him. With Ivanna's cultured voice echoing along with Rebecca's demanding tone, ordering her to get out; she would hear L.J.'s laughter and his mean words about her. It was like a never ending nightmare.

It shouldn't be like that... Without a second thought, Agatha tapped Eliza's number. She'd made up her mind into joining the PDEA academy. Her nightmares should end.

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