Chapter 90: The Lie Grows
Emily had never been a good liar. It was a trait that Derek had often admonished her for.
"Seriously, Emily, you have the worst poker face that I have ever seen. This is corporate, lying is in the fine print. With your subpar skills of deception, it is a miracle that you even made it past the doors of Haven Group," He would often say, but Emily did not mind it, she had other skills afterall.
But now Emily really minded the fact that she was so awful at telling lies. Her mom had come in from work later than usual, which did not immediately set off any alarm bells in Emily, especially when she had seen the grocery bags that her mom was carrying.
What had set off alarm bells however was the fact that, despite yawning through dinner, the moment that Emily had said she was going to bed, her mom had miraculously not been tired.
"Let’s watch some TV first, there is a new show I have been hearing about and I do not want to watch it alone," She’d said, way too casually, and Emily had known that something was up.
But she was not one to refuse her mom anything if she could afford it, and so she had caved. Which was why she was currently on the couch, next to her mom, staring at the TV screen without really seeing anything. In addition to wanting to watch TV, her mom had also pulled out the ice cream that she had bought earlier and they each had a bowl in front of them.
Something was definitely up. Fighting off sleep, suddenly wanting to watch a show she had never mentioned to Emily, insisting that they have ice cream...all signs pointed to her mom wanting talk.
What the talk was about, Emily had no idea, and it was eating away at her.
Could she have found out that Emily was now jobless, and had been for a few weeks? Was she secretly fuming and wanting Emily to fess up to everything so that she could strangle her? What if it was worse? What if she knew that Emily could not really enjoy a good night’s rest? But how could she know, out if everything Emily had been very careful with that. It was a secret that she kept to make sure that her mother worried less afterall.