"Hello, police? I've got a guy here who was arrested for soliciting at a karaoke bar. His company fired him, but he refuses to leave and he's threatening me. Could you send someone over right away?"
The moment those words left his mouth, most of the women at the surrounding desks started pointing and whispering, their faces twisted with disgust.
I could hear every word of their snide remarks.
"I can't believe Laurence hasn't even been married three years and he's already pulling this kind of thing. What a scumbag."
"Right? I heard his wife is gorgeous, and he still goes out and cheats. Absolutely pathetic."
"If I were his wife, I'd file for divorce on the spot."
Faced with the flood of gossip, I just shrugged and let it roll off me. There was nothing I could do. Public opinion was a wildfire, and I wasn't some silver-tongued lawyer who could argue down a mob. Besides, I hadn't done anything wrong. I had nothing to be afraid of.
Maurice hung up the phone and turned to me with a cold snort. "Just wait till the cops get here. You'll regret it."
"Make up whatever stories you want about me," I said evenly. "I don't care."
Before long, two officers arrived. One of them was Toby Lawrence, the same officer who'd handled my detention.
Toby looked at me, confusion written all over his face. "Didn't you just get out of holding? You paid the car owner's damages and everything. What kind of trouble did you get into now?"
I picked up the disciplinary citation from the desk and handed it to him. He took it, read it through, and his brow furrowed deeper with every line.
Maurice jumped in from the side, fanning the flames. "Officer, you see it, right? This guy got busted soliciting at a karaoke bar."
Toby shook his head. "No, he didn't."
Two words. That was all it took to freeze Maurice in his tracks.
"Officer, are you saying this document is fake?"
"It's right there in black and white. It says he was caught red-handed!"
Toby's expression was dead serious. "The document is real, but the incident never happened. That day, Laurence Chavez got into a dispute with the owner of a Maybach and was detained for seven days. I handled the case personally. There's no way he could have been at a karaoke bar. Something doesn't add up."
"And the bigger issue is that someone accessed official department files and sent them to your company. That's a serious violation."
The words hit Maurice like a brick wall. He couldn't get a single syllable out.
Toby fixed him with a hard stare. "I have a feeling you're not exactly uninvolved in this."
I jumped in immediately. "That's right. It has to be connected to Manager Lambert. He was the first one to receive this citation. If there are questions, he's the one to ask."
"No, I just signed for a courier delivery, that's all—" Maurice scrambled to explain.
But before he could finish, Toby pulled out a pair of handcuffs and clamped them on his wrists. His tone left zero room for argument. "You're coming to the station for questioning. If everything checks out, I'll let you go."
I watched Toby lead Maurice away, but instead of relief, a knot of unease tightened in my gut.
Meanwhile, the women at their desks were already backpedaling as fast as their mouths could move.
"See, I told you! Laurence always seemed like a stand-up guy. No way he'd do something like that."
"Exactly, exactly. It was obviously Manager Lambert making things up. He almost ruined an innocent man's reputation."
I turned and looked at those fair-weather coworkers. I didn't bother hiding my contempt. "You all flip faster than a coin in a hurricane."
Every one of them turned away, suddenly unable to meet my eyes.
I wasn't in the mood to work anymore. I walked back to my desk, grabbed my bag, and left the office early.
I needed to get home and check on my wife. That knot of unease came from my previous life. In my last life, this was exactly when she'd taken our child and disappeared. I hadn't done anything wrong this time around, but was history about to repeat itself? I suspected that even after my rebirth, she would still misunderstand me.
