Page 87 of Total Obsession

When I finally felt like enough time had passed, I took the short ride down and made my way over to the front desk quickly.

"Hi," I said, trying not to look out at the street to see if my tactic had worked. "My key doesn't seem to work anymore."

"I'm so sorry," the young girl behind the counter all but snickered at me. "But, your key has been deactivated."

"Um, can you tell me why?"

"Your landlord called and said that your lease was being terminated."

"My landlord?" I replied.

"Um, someone by the name of Sarah was the contact person. On behalf of the network, who is the official owner."

"Sarah? Sarah Mosen?" I asked, giving the full name of my agent.

"That's right."

"One second," I said, making my way into the back of the lobby. I tucked myself into the corner, as far out of sight as possible, and dialed Sarah.

"I really shouldn't be taking calls from you, Zoey," she hissed into the phone.

"I wouldn't be calling, except I'm locked out of my own home!" I exclaimed. "And the girl behind the counter said that you had something to do with that."

"Your contract's been terminated, Zoey," Sarah said as if she were explaining something so obvious. "Your apartment was part of the contract. Paid for by the studio. What did you think was going to happen?"

"Um, I thought I would be given notice and an opportunity to collect my belongings before I was thrown out of my own home without notice."

"Your belongings will be collected within the month and sent to whatever forwarding address you designate. Please just email it to me."

"Sarah!" I almost yelled.

"I guess if you don't understand the apartment aspect of your contract you won't understand the money, either," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"You're being terminated for cause, Zoey," Sarah said. "Which means all of the back rent for the apartment has been seized. You pre-authorized the withdrawal from your account in the contract."

"What do you mean?" I asked slowly.

"I mean that you were being provided with free lodging as a condition of your employment. However, since you were terminated for cause, the money that you would have paid in rent was charged to your account."

"And how much was that?" I asked in disbelief.

Sarah didn't answer me.

"Sarah?" I repeated. "How much was it?"

"Good luck, Zoey," was all she said before hanging up the phone again.

I quickly pulled open my banking app and looked at my account balance in horror. Sure enough, a withdrawal of nearly all of my assets was sitting as the most recent transaction.

Whereas I once had upwards of one hundred thousand dollars in cash sitting in the account, I now had less than fifty dollars to my name.

I slid down to the floor. I wanted to cry, but the tears just wouldn't come. In a way, I felt completely numb.

When the girl from the front desk finally came over to where I was a few minutes later, I hadn't even heard her approach.

"I'm sorry, miss," she said in an all-too-chipper voice. "But, as you're not a resident here anymore, I need to ask you to leave."