4: 4
I frowned and stepped out to see what was happening downstairs.
My mother was sprawled flat on her back on the marble floor by the reception desk, wearing that most eye-searing puffy Lolita dress of hers, rolling around and wailing.
"My daughter won't take care of her poor baby anymore! Won't buy her baby anything, and now she wants to throw her baby in jail! Boo-hoo-hoo…"
Yara stood off to the side, dabbing at fake tears.
"How can my sister do this to us? My mom's old, she's not right in the head, can't you just treat her like a child and let a few things go? And my sister actually wants to press charges. Is she trying to drive us to our deaths?"
She wept and choked out every word, and a fair number of coworkers who had no idea what was going on started to point and whisper.
I walked over slowly. But I didn't panic and drag them away like they expected.
Instead, I calmly called over the building's security guard.
"Turn on your body camera."
The guard blinked, but he did it right away, switching on the camera clipped to his chest.
"And make two calls for me." I looked at my mother's face, makeup smeared from all the crying.
"One to the nearest police station. Tell them someone here is disrupting normal business operations. The other to the closest psychiatric hospital. Tell them there's an elderly woman here, apparently mentally unwell, making a scene in public."
My mother's wailing cut off in an instant.
Yara's face changed just as fast. "Evelyn! You wouldn't dare! She's your own mother!"
"Precisely because she's my mother, I have all the more reason to think about her health."
I looked at her without expression. "Her behavior right now is severely abnormal. As her child, I suspect she's suffering from a mental illness. Sending her to a professional facility for evaluation and treatment is my duty and my responsibility."
Just then, a familiar figure appeared in the lobby.
It was Phineas.
He took in the chaos and froze for a second too.
Yara lit up like she'd seen her savior and rushed straight over, grabbing his arm. "Phineas, you're just in time! Look, my sister's gone way too far. She's trying to drive my mom to her death!"
Phineas looked at me, then at my mother throwing her fit on the floor, and his brow furrowed.
But he seized the chance to perform in front of an audience fast enough.
He cleared his throat and stepped up to me. "Evelyn, isn't there some kind of misunderstanding here? Dragging the police into this is bad for everyone. If word gets out, there's no telling whether you'll even keep this job. Don't you think?"
I looked at him and found it almost funny.
An intern, and he actually had the nerve to threaten me with losing my job.
Seeing Phineas willing to stick his neck out for her, Yara suddenly found her nerve.
She hung on his arm and looked at me with her chin in the air. "Evelyn, let me tell you something. Phineas isn't just anybody. The higher-ups here think highly of him! One word from him to your boss and you won't be able to stay here at all!"
My mother climbed up off the floor too and brushed the dust off her skirt.
"Exactly! Our Phineas is going to make something of himself! Not like some people, no ambition and rotten to the core, hurting her own mother!"
The two of them flanked him, one on each side, and gushed nonstop about how capable he was, how much of a man he was.
Phineas puffed out his chest and looked at me like he'd already won.
"Evelyn, for Yara's sake, I'll give you one more chance."
"Right now, this instant, you bow and apologize to your mom and Yara in front of everyone, and you promise to drop the charges immediately and let it go. Otherwise, all I have to do is say a word to Manager Lambert in our department…"
Before he could finish, a middle-aged man in a suit came hurrying out of the elevator, his face tense.
It was their department's Manager Lambert.
He took one look at the ugly scene in the lobby and his expression went dark.
"What's going on here? What's all this shouting about?"
Phineas immediately stepped forward to tattle. "Manager Lambert, this employee of ours, Evelyn Abbott, she abuses her parents, her character is despicable. I recommend we immediately—"
Before he could finish, Manager Lambert had already brushed past all of them and crossed the floor in a few quick strides to stand in front of me.
Under everyone's stunned gaze, Manager Lambert bowed to me respectfully.
"Ms. Abbott, what are you doing here?"
