RAELYNN POV
Employees hadn't stopped buzzing about the drama that went down in the office. They connected the dots and realized that Maksim fired Amoura and Derick. They had never seen the big boss lose his cool like that. Apparently, Maksim became so irritable that employees were walking on eggshells around him.
Raelynn was blamed for it all. Acquaintances that used to greet her now glared whenever they got a chance. Others fearfully avoided her.
The spotlight made Raelynn so paranoid that she avoided crowds. She ate lunch at her desk every day, scurried past people in corridors, and kept a folder in front of her practically at all times.
Shanna was the only one that remained loyal. To protect her from rumors and attention, Raelynn tried to avoid her.
"Hey, C-Train."
She was waiting for her therapy when the guy she met at the train station sat beside her.
She smiled at him. "Hey, baby scrambler."
"Baby what?"
"You know, knocking into unsuspecting pregnant women and making their babies scrambled eggs."
He laughed, and their chat took off from there. Raelynn felt uneasy, because it felt like she was cheating on Maksim.
Daniel loved to tease her, but she was careful of not flirting back. She was in no position to be chasing after a guy when she was knocked up by another. There was no harm in making a friend, as long as Maksim didn't find out. Daniel had nice teeth, and she would hate it if Maksim punched them out.
She went home after her session. Her ankles were rebelling again, so it took her half an hour to get out of the bathtub. When Tiffany came home from work, she found her sprawled on the couch in her bra and panties while listening to music.
Raelynn took her headphones off to catch Tiffany say, "You look ridiculous."
Raelynn looked down at her bump, which had headphones draped over it. "Well, they wanted to hear Russian music, and I wanted to listen to club music and pretend I'm dancing and still have ankles."
"You still have ankles, Rae."
"No, I don't. I have swollkles."
"What?"
"Swollen ankles."
Tiffany rolled her eyes. "Lets hope the kids get their intelligence from their father's side. How are they?"
"Fine. They've been kicking so much I think they're performing Russian folk dance in there." She adjusted the headphones when they began to slide off her belly.
"Scoot over."
Raelynn gave her an are-you-serious look. There was no way she could move, unless she rolled like a barrel across the cushions.
"Sheesh. Fine." Tiffany tossed her purse aside and sat on the carpet. Then, she began ranting about her office crush. Raelynn listened to avoid talking about her own workplace. She didn't want to make Tiffany worry.
She fell asleep at some point, but Tiffany woke her up to help move her to bed. She was grumpy. This was one of the many occasions she wished Maksim was around to carry her.
The next day was just as miserable as the previous one. It was pay-day though, so she looked forward to that. The college fund was now at a one-hundred and fifteen dollars, and she couldn't be prouder.
"Raelynn."
She turned away from her notes and stared at a marketing supervisor.
Shit. What did she do now?
"Hi."
"Shanna mentioned you prepared a presentation about project differentiation and demographics. Since Derick is no longer with us, I've been looking for someone to do the introduction of the DC presentation. Do you mind if I take a look at your work and see if you're a good fit?"
"Me?" she squeaked.
"Yes. We will fly you out to DC with the team. We're having a practice run next week. Do you think you can have your stuff prepared and memorized by then?"
"Yes. Of course!"
"Good. Send me your work."
Raelynn sent the email immediately. Her sudden surge of excitement upset her belly. She clapped a hand over her mouth and ran to the bathroom.
A few stalls away, a woman said, "maybe you should stop gobbling down so much, pig." The door closed as they left, so she couldn't find out who it was.
Her vomit came more violently, and tears prickled her eyes. She wasn't crying, but her eyes got teary with frustration. It wasn't fair that she was being treated as public enemy number one.
She rose to shaky knees and rinsed her mouth and face. After pulling some mints from her purse, she composed herself and walked out of the bathroom.
She bumped into someone, and the purse fell. When she heard the clattering of pills, she dropped to her knees to snatch the pink bottle of prenatal vitamins.
"Are you alright?" a man asked.
"Fine. Thanks." She zipped her purse and nearly cried when she couldn't get up by herself.
Seeing her struggle, the man offered her a heavily ringed hand. She accepted it. Embarrassingly, he had to support most of her weight.
"Thank... you."
The man was an older Maksim. He was handsome beside the grey hair, and his eyes were hard from the years of violence they must have witnessed.
The man looked away from her to face Maksim. The urge to throw up surged back.
Did he see the prenatal pills?
"Let's go." Maksim left, still ignorant.
Raelynn exhaled and returned to work. Half an hour later, she got an email that assigned her the introduction role. She dropped everything she was doing and got started. She wanted to do this right. The practice run was in a few days, so she had little time to master the introduction.
She practiced with Tiffany, and even Daniel, who made silly train-related comments like "you're going to blow them away," and her personal favorite, "calm down. You look like a train wreck."
She only saw him once that week, but they exchanged numbers and he sent her encouraging messages here and there.
"You and the boys got this," Tiffany said.
"I got this," Raelynn corrected. "The boys are bums who feed off my energy and food."
She checked her outfit for the tenth time. She wore an oversized jacket, her typical subtly tucked shirt, and two scarves.
"Alright. Let's rock-and-roll!"
And show those assholes what they're dealing with.
The second she entered the building, she was hit in the face with a hellish heat. Repairmen were walking around the lobby as they worked on the heating problem. Most employees didn't seem too bothered. They took off a layer of clothing and went about their day.
Raelynn didn't have that comfort. Her clothes had to stay on, so she fanned herself with a hand and stopped by the cafe to grab a water bottle.
She was burning so hot that her brain was cooking, and her presentation fell apart. Although this was just a practice run, she still didn't want to mess up. She practiced too many times and did too much research. Embarrassing herself in front of people that already thought low of her wasn't an option.
The team met in a large meeting room, and a few executives joined. She didn't dare to check if Maksim was among them, because seeing him would make her burn hotter.
"Let's go through this, everyone. I'll have you out of here in an hour. Raelynn, are you ready?"
She nodded, her throat too dry to produce any words. She walked to the podium and hid behind it. As she logged into the computer, she felt a little shift in her belly.
Not now, guys. Please, not now.
Their kicking would distract her from the presentation. Although she was hiding behind a podium, she would be paranoid that someone would notice the movements under her scarves.
She cleared her throat. While the presentation loaded, she made the error of scanning the crowd. Maksim was certainly in it.
He glared at her, unaware that his sons were waving at him with their little feet.
"Welcome, everyone. I'm Raelynn, and I'm going to dive into the trends... um..." She shook her head. A bead of sweat trailed down her neck, the haziness in her head spread to her eyes, and the words she memorized seemed to be in a different language.
"Raelynn?"
"Yes... I just..." she inhaled and exhaled.
Focus. You've got this. You worked too hard only to fail at this, too.
"...the trends in certain groups that statistically stray from our product differentiation, which is..."
People were staring and judging, the boys were kicking up a storm, and it was so hot in there.
Her overwhelmed body gave up. She dropped. When the world tilted, her last coherent thought was reaching for her belly to protect it.