Through the cracks

Chapter Fourteen

Millie had always admired her dad's success. She also worked hard to advance in her career, but when she found herself not being able to move higher up in the large company she was working for, her mother suggested that she come and work for them temporarily until she could get something going from home and build up from there.

She was still young when she started working for them, but she was eager to learn and the experience she got from her previous workplace proved to be helpful in getting order back within their small company, compared to the one she had worked for. And soon Millie found herself not wanting to leave the firm anymore.

With Ava in charge of the finances and Millie in charge of controlling the operating expenses and income, the company soon grew into a larger, more lucrative version of itself. They had a lot to be proud of and, after struggling for a long time to get things to run more smoothly and with her husband starting working there as well, she could start to scale back a bit and spend more time with toddlers.

She was very close to her mother and her father, but they proved difficult to work with. Her mother was an empath and the employees walked all over her, always playing off her emotions until she would give in to their every excuse, while her dad was very aggressive and controlling, leaving the staff to fear him and dislike the work atmosphere he created. Millie found a way to balance them out. She was the assertive one and knew how to get them both to be a less extreme version of themselves. You could say she brought out the best in each of them and together, as a family, they worked together to obtain the success they had created over the years.

But now Millie found herself a target of her father's anger towards her mother and she could feel that John was slowly building up more and more resentment towards his father-in-law. Eventually, this bomb was going to explode, so she and John had started emailing each other back and forth to get out before that happened. They started planning a way out without finding themselves without an income, and they had to be subtle about it so emailing was the best way to plan without anyone expecting anything. They realized they could no longer stay at the firm, but wanted to slowly exit so that they had enough time and money to start their own company.

The hostile environment had had a physical effect on Millie as she constantly found herself crying, throwing up and getting dizzy from time to time. Her blood pressure was higher than ever.

After a week of these emails going back and forth between them, Lucas calls John into his office. When John exits the office, he slams the door so hard that the whole building shakes. As he walked away, he was loudly swearing non-stop, furiously. He ran out of the building and drove off. Millie had left earlier and was at home with the kids already. Ava watched as the car slid around the corner as he sped off in anger.

Ava had cameras showing the entire layout of the offices, and they could see what everyone was doing and what was going on around the premises. She could even see herself on the screen in front of her. They had in the past had some attempted robberies at the company, but thanks to their high security measures, none were ever successful. Lucas had the same visuals in his office, and she suddenly realized that the only place where there was no camera coverage was in his office.

She waits to see if Lucas will come out of his office, but he never did. She could, however, hear him on the phone with someone as he started talking louder and louder.

Ava did not want to intervene in the situation, she had to let Millie, John and Lucas sort each other out.

After what felt like hours and nobody calling her to tell her what was going on, Ava decides to phone Millie.

John answered the phone, and she could hear in the background that Millie was upset and crying.

"What happened?" She asked John.

"Lucas had the I.T. guy forward all our emails to him. Millie and I were discussing in the emails that we were planning on getting out of the company and starting our own small firm. We already have the experience, so we thought instead in getting caught up in your war, we would quietly leave and start our own business. But Lucas took that as a way to fire us both, claiming it to be a conflict of interest and that we were planning on stealing his clients and projects. He refused to pay us any notice or our leave days and said he would also block our pension policy payout from the insurance company. But I will not leave this here. I have already contacted the labor to assist us with his cruel and unreasonable behavior. It is against company policy that he can just terminate us without any notice. He reckons the emails are evidence enough that he is not wrong for acting in this manner."

Ava just listened, shocked that Lucas would treat Millie that way. His own daughter. She suddenly realized that he might have read the emails to her attorneys and could use them against her as well. Thankfully, she and her lawyer mostly talked in person.

"Isn't it against the law to read emails without disclosing your intentions to do so?" Ava asked John.

"Yes it is, and he will not get away with this. He does not know me very well yet," John replied.

How is Millie doing," Ava asked, concerned, knowing that she hadn't been feeling well lately and that all the stress was taking its toll on her emotionally and physically. She was also losing something that she cared about; her father and business were equally important to her, but she could no longer bear to be caught in the middle of her parents' fighting.

"She is taking this very hard. That arrogant bastard told me that we should not bother returning to work because he no longer required our services. Like we are some casuals that were just there to complete some little task for him, and now we are disposable, like we did not contribute to anything." John continued to vent. Then suddenly he paused...

"Millie! Millie! She passed out! I have to call an ambulance! Millie!" were the last words Ava heard before the phone went dead.

Ava tries to phone back, but the phone is busy, probably the emergency response on the line. Ava paces up and down in her office as she keeps trying to get a hold of John.

Lucas seeing on the camera that Ava was walking up and down and looking panicked, came out of the office to see what was going on. Finally, John picks up the phone again and tells her to which private hospital they are taking her.

Lucas looks worried as he asks Ava:

"What is wrong? Did something happen?"

"Millie is in the hospital. She fainted and has not come to yet!" She shouts as she grabs her bag and starts running towards the exit.

"Was she in an accident? What happened?" Lucas said with an expression of guilt on his face, knowing how he treated his daughter earlier that day.

"YOU HAPPENED!" Ava shouted at him!

"It's because of you she is in the hospital" She still shouts as she gets into the car.

Lucas did not know which hospital she has being taken to, and he was left behind, and would have to wait until someone informed him of his daughter's condition . He tried to find out from Iris if she had any information, but Iris did not answer his calls, and neither did Jayden.