You Looked Down on Me Once Now You Look Up (Patricia and Oliver) novel Chapter 654

Patricia moved in on Tina, closing the distance between them with slow, deliberate steps. “You’re pretty sharp, Ms. Klotz. Tell me, what do you think I’ll do next?”

“Patricia, do you really think you can push me around? I’m done. I quit.”

Patricia just shrugged, completely unfazed. “Suit yourself. The law doesn’t care about feelings. As long as you’re still breathing, you’ll answer for what you’ve done.”

Like quitting would solve anything. Like you could just walk away and leave it all behind.

Patricia’s smile was icy, her beauty almost cruel. Every word that left her lips was laced with venom. “Tina, I didn’t claw my way to this position for nothing.”

“You had the guts to go after my parents. You should’ve realized—karma always comes back around.”

She wasn’t going to let this go. Someone was going to pay, just like she’d sworn all those years ago, kneeling at her parents’ funeral. She could still remember turning to her grandma, heartbroken, asking why her parents—such good people—had to die. Tina had stood right there beside her and said, cold as anything:

“That’s just fate.”

Now, Patricia was returning those words, just as cold, just as sharp.

“Ms. Klotz, this is fate.”

Tina had been an adult, telling a barely-teenage girl that her parents’ deaths were destiny. If she could say something like that after what she’d done, what else was she capable of?

Patricia wasn’t letting either of them walk away.

.............

“Amelia.”

The door to Amelia’s office opened, and Colby strode in, all business in a tailored suit, confidence practically radiating off her.

You could tell right away—this was someone who’d been forged in the fires of big-league power plays.

Amelia had known it the day she hired her. Colby wasn’t ordinary.

“Colby.” Amelia stood up, pulling out her chair and facing her directly.

Colby didn’t waste a second, stepping in and quietly closing the door behind her, cutting off the outside world.

“Standard package—years of service plus two months, but you’ll have to sign a non-compete.”

That meant two years at home, out of work. By the time Amelia could look for something new, everything would have changed. Forty-three wasn’t the same as forty-five in the job market.

She’d worked her way up from a small town, made it to Riverdale, built a family, a career. The house she lived in now had a mortgage bigger than what a lot of people earned in a year.

If she lost her job out of the blue…

How was she supposed to keep it all together? How would she pay for her kid’s school?

“Colby, please, can you talk to Mr. Martin for me? I’ll take the regular package, I don’t need the extra. Just—please—no non-compete. I’ve got parents to take care of, a kid to raise. I can’t afford to be out of work for that long.”

For a moment, Colby actually looked a little sympathetic.

Amelia’s pleading hit a nerve she hadn’t expected.

Colby hesitated, then nodded. “I’ll try my best.”