Page 72 of Wolf's Redemption

Chapter 25 Cathy

We were about to close the perfumery. Sales had been terrible, as they had been all month. Only a couple of perfumes and some moisturizers had been sold. This situation made me think of giving up because I was no longer generating enough profit, and I was keeping the company going thanks to the Paris branch. Still, if I kept using the profits to support the others, I would end up bankrupt.

"Mrs. North, come here quickly," Janna walked into my office without knocking, causing my heart to skip a beat. "You need to see this."

Janna was elated and pulled me by the hand, almost dragging me to the outside of the store.

"What's wrong?" I asked almost with a shout, not understanding what was going on.

"Look." She pointed her finger across the street.

The street was blocked by patrol cars, and there were armed policemen walking in formation toward John Smith's store.

"Ladies, please go back inside," one of the policemen in a hoodie approached us with his gun pointed at the ground.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"This is an official matter. Please go back inside the store, and stay away from the glass.” Shocked, I went back inside along with Janna.

My heart had not calmed down. In fact, I started to feel worse. Since I had started taking the pills to cleanse my blood, all my senses had heightened, but so had the ailments the doctor had mentioned.

"You look very pale," Janna commented and helped me sit up. "Let me get you a glass of water."

"No need," I replied, but she brought me a glass of water anyway.

"Drink," she watched me until I drank the last drop. "I've noticed you don't drink enough water."

In the store were the two of us, since due to low sales, there was no need for the girls to stay so late, but no matter what, Janna and Amanda took turns staying with me interspersed throughout the day.

"Hand me my cell phone," I asked, taking slow breaths to calm down. "I need to let Eric know to go straight home with Elliot."

She went into my office to get my cell phone, and I got up, leaning against the counters so I could see what was going on outside.

The cops had broken the glass door and forced their way into the store, but I couldn't tell until I got up because of the loud blaring of police car sirens and the store alarm. They brought out several people in handcuffs, among them, the rickety watchman, some salesmen, and a couple of people I had never seen before, that from the pale of their skin and thinness of their bodies, it looked like they had not been out in the sunlight for weeks, if not months.

"I've never seen those people before," Janna said.

"Me neither," I replied, grabbing my cell phone. "They already got everyone out, but I didn't see John Smith among them."

"Neither did I," she affirmed.

The cops locked down the place and surrounded it with tape. As the officers collected evidence, I saw a man dressed in black without a police uniform looking straight at my store and talking on the phone. I was startled at first until I recognized him.

"Andrew!" I shouted, making Janna jump.

"Who's Andrew?" she asked.

"Please close the store for me. I need to leave," I asked my employee, grabbing my phone out of her hands and walking straight toward Andrew.

"Cathy..."

"Don't say a word," I interrupted him.

The officers looked at us, but he waved them off, and they continued to carry boxes full of papers up to the squad cars.

"Let's go somewhere more private. We don't have to discuss this here," Andrew suggested noticing my anger.

"I don't want to talk to you. I just want to know one thing." I kept my composure so as not to cause a scene. "This is Eric's doing, isn't it?"