Over the next couple of days, Shelley continued to send Jared expensive, designer gifts. Luckily for him, she sent the gifts to his doorstep so he could outrightly reject them without any pressure. He gave the set of perfumes she sent to the door man, the bottle of wine to his driver and the box of chocolates? He tossed them in the trash.Shelley was watching. Not directly, but she had minions planted in the most unsuspecting places. Day after day they came back with reports, Feedback about what Jared had been up to, what his schedule was like, what he was up to. The fact that he was so easily tossing her gestures out made Shelley burn with rage. What fanned the flames of her anger was the fact that Jared had stopped acknowledging her texts. In fact, he didn't even acknowledge them.Eventually, Jared himself had also had enough. He wasn't stupid, he knew that Shelley must be monitoring his movements for her to know when and where to drop her flimsy gifts. One night, after receiving ye

Sammy Jo strode confidently into the executive director’s office at SkyRun Inc., expecting smiles, handshakes, and the warm acknowledgment of a job well-earned. Today was the day he would finally claim his place among the corporate elite. Every careful move, every networking event, every favor called in over the years had led him here. He had envisioned this moment a thousand times—handing in the signed papers, the director praising his ambition, and the staff congratulating him.Instead, the room felt unnervingly quiet. The director’s eyes lifted from her screen, calm, measured, but with no trace of the admiration he had assumed awaited him.“Mr. Joackins,” she said evenly. “Please, have a seat.”Sammy Jo stopped mid-step, taken aback. Seat?he thought, brow furrowing. This is not how it was supposed to start.He forced a smile and walked toward the chair, his carefully maintained composure threatening to crack. “I… I’m here to finalize my offer,” he said, his voice a shade tighter t

Professor Bernard knew that he had to find a way to reinstate Sammy Jo as a Skyrim Inc intern before his mother chopped his head off. He had hidden his emotions from them but his heart had dropped when Sammy Jo had delivered the news to him. If Sammy Jo’s selection was in jeopardy, his assured appointment could be in jeopardy as well.He made his way through the doors of Skyrun Inc and stepped onto the elevator. None of the employees made too much conversation with him and he told himself that it was because they could tell he was not on their level. When he stepped onto the sixth floor, a guard stopped him.“Professor Bernard?” He asked. “Yes, now, will you unhand me this instant?” He snapped, trying to shrug the guard off, “how dare you?”The guard sighed, “I was warned that you would try to come to this floor and make a scene. So, I was asked to escort you to your destination.”The Professor’s vision grew blurry as he tried to make sense of what he had just been told. There had to

Jared could feel his head threatening to explode with rage. It was one thing for the psycho girls of Los Angeles University to harass and bully him but when they attacked his friends? He looked over to see Becky shaking feverishly in the corner. The disheartening sight only intensified his rage.Jared observed the writing on the note. It was twisted, curly and could belong to any of the maniacal suckers who were competing for his attention. As he continued to analyse the handwriting, his phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He was going to decline the call when he noticed the distinctive caller ID.“Hi, hi Jared!” It was a slippery, irritating voice that he knew all too well.“Monica. Are you really this insane? I mean I know maniacal obsession runs in the family but—”“What?!” Monica snapped, defensively, “what the fuck, are you going on about?!”“The pigeon, Monica. The dead pigeon you placed in Becky's bag. What are you, an attention deprived high schooler?”Monica sighed, exasper

The night air was thick, almost oppressive, as Jared made his way toward the Los Angeles University garden. Shadows stretched across the manicured paths, and the faint scent of blooming jasmine mingled with the crispness of the evening air. He had made his mind up on the way there: he would confront whoever had sent the threatening text. Whoever dared to cross him by targeting his friends would answer directly to him. His anger had been simmering ever since he discovered what had been done to Brad’s car and Becky’s bag, and now it boiled like molten lava in his chest.Brad and Becky had been dragged into his personal vendetta against the petty tyrants of LAU, and the thought of them being hurt simply because they were close to him was infuriating.He clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. He had already decided, almost mechanically, that Brad’s car would be replaced—without a word to him. Brad had suffered enough anxiety over the vandalism, and Jared was not about to let hi