"Relax, the situation over there is actually pretty stable. The airport has security guards and a lounge. Your in-laws can rest there for a bit, and they'll be home in a few days."
"By then, they'll have a great story to brag about!"
I was speechless.
What my in-laws needed most right now was time.
They had just called me, so terrified they could barely string a sentence together.
But they didn't need to tell me anything.
I'd already looked up the situation online myself.
Missiles were streaking across the sky.
All flights had been grounded. The entire airport was in chaos. People were looting and attacking others in the mayhem.
My in-laws didn't speak the language.
And they were dressed expensively.
In that airport, they might as well have had targets painted on their backs. Worse still, they both had high blood pressure and needed their medication on schedule. But they couldn't even find their luggage. They were splitting each pill in half to make them last. If I waited a few more days, I wouldn't be chartering a flight to bring my in-laws home. I'd be chartering one to bring back their bodies.
The thought sent ice through my veins.
I grabbed Christine by the arm, hauled her out of the desk chair, and picked up the office phone to call my sister-in-law, Mavis Delgado, who worked as the company's finance director.
After all, it was her parents who were trapped. She'd be just as desperate.
As long as she could push the funds through on an emergency basis, we could still charter a flight to bring them home.
Mavis arrived quickly.
"Wanda, what are you doing at the office?"
I didn't have time for pleasantries.
"Mavis, I need you to get two hundred thousand dollars together. Now."
"Your parents are stranded at Ravelia Airport. The situation is extremely dangerous. I've already contacted a friend over there, and he's found us a plane and a security team."
"The moment the money hits the account, he can send people to the airport to get your parents and fly them somewhere safe before bringing them home—"
Before I could finish, Mavis cut me off.
"Absolutely not!"
"Two hundred thousand dollars, and you toss the number out like it's pocket change?"
"You've been away from this company so long, you clearly have no idea how hard it is to make money."
"And what do you mean, I should find a way to get you two hundred thousand? Are you asking me to embezzle company funds? Do you have any idea that's a crime? That I could go to prison for it?"
"You want me to go to prison just to save two old—two elderly people? How dare you even suggest that!"
I never expected Mavis to refuse me.
She knew perfectly well that even though the company was in Hubert's name, I was one of its co-founders. Getting the business to where it was today had taken years of my blood and sweat.
And I hadn't stepped away because I wanted to play trophy wife. I'd left because after I had my son, they were the ones who convinced me to stay home.
Yet now, just like that, Mavis had erased every bit of it.
No wonder she'd treated me with so little respect these past two years, while growing closer and closer to Christine until they were practically best friends.
I couldn't hold back any longer.
"Mavis, have you lost your mind?"
"The charter flight is to rescue your parents, not to buy me a shopping spree!"
"And when did I ever ask you to embezzle anything? You have savings of your own. Using them to save your own mother and father—how is that even a question?"
I thought those words would snap her out of it.
But instead, she laughed.
"Drop the act."
"Christine already told me everything. The people stuck at Ravelia Airport are your parents, not mine."
"I talked to my mom and dad just a few hours ago. They're perfectly fine, enjoying their vacation abroad. They said they won't be back until next month."
