The next two days Michelle was faced with open hostility from Hart family. The twins had resorted to playing pranks on her like toddlers- sugar exchanged for salt, extra spice in her dishes and one time they put a thumbtack in her seat at the dining table and since she no longer had meals with them they were always conveniently not around for her to confront them. Lucy's hostility was more of a mocking one, she'd always answer phone calls with her friends loudly anytime she saw Michelle was near, talking about how amazing and perfect and awesome the trip was going to be.
She ignored all their antics of course; she finished u her packing and had the cameras ready for installing. Now you might be wondering how Michelle planned to install cameras in the house, wouldn't a member of the staff say something to the family when they returned? Well you did not have to worry about it because as some sort of power play, Lionel had dismissed all the staff, telling them to go enjoy themselves for as long as he and his family would be away on the trip. Thanks to this convenient thing, she could install the cameras at the best possible positions.
Thursday came around and the Hart family barring Michelle, trooped into the car on their way to the airport. Before getting into the car, Lionel stood at the door watching the house intensely looking for some sign that Michelle was watching them, when he saw that she wasn't he huffed angrily, got in the car and drove off.
When Michelle heard the sound of their car disappear into the distance, she jumped off the bed, gathered all the cameras and made her rounds. She placed the cameras in the rooms of everyone- Lionel's, Abigail's, the twins' and of course Lucy's. She placed some in the living room, dining room and the garage. Satisfied with her work she checked that everything was working, the quality and everything else that Caleb had advised her to confirm, satisfied that they were all working she fixed herself a meal. Looking around at the home she grew up in one last time, she decided she would leave that very night instead and sent a text to the chauffeur.
8pm Michelle had packed everything of importance to her out of the house into the car that was sent. A separate car waited to drive her to her grandfather's place. She stood at the entrance of the house taking it in one last time.
"I'll be back." She whispered to it. Then she got in the car and they drove away, off to place where she knew she would not be treated like an outcast and there would be no prying eyes.
The trip to the main Hart residence took roughly two hours and she was exhausted when she arrived. A maid informed her that her grandfather was not in at the moment, something she was grateful for as she did not have the energy for pleasantries, then escorted to the room that was prepared for her. She collapsed unto the bed immediately with the plan of calling in sick the next day; she did not want to go to work.
For the first time since her rebirth, Michelle Hart slept without having to keep her guard up, because she knew she was in a safe place.
Morning came. Michelle was awakened by a soft knock at her door.
"Come in.," she said her voice muffled from her head buried in the pillow.
The door opened and in walked an elderly maid- from her age and her posture it was clear she had been working here for a long time. "Good morning Young miss." The maid said, the smile on her face wide and welcoming. Michelle looked up; the voice was a familiar one.
"Maria!" She exclaimed pleasantly surprised. She got up from the bed embracing her, "it is so good to see you. How long has it been?"
"Far too long Young Miss." Maria replied, "It is good to have you back here, your presence always brightens up this place."
"Oh, Maria, you always say the sweetest things."
"Only because they are true. I know your grandfather was overflowing with joy that you were moving in."
"It was long overdue. Truthfully, I don't know why I stayed there as long as I did."
"It is difficult for one to let family go, despite how much they may hurt us. But you have taken the first step by moving out of there." Maria responded patting her head fondly.
Maria was like a mother to her. In her teen years when Lionel did not want her around the house, he always sent her to her grandfather's place under the excuse of 'going to greet grandpa for a bit'. During those periods, Maria treated her with the sort of love she always wanted from her parents. As such, Maria was a very dear person to her.
"I trust you slept well?"
"I slept like a log Maria. I haven't slept that well in a long time."
"Good, it is because your body and your soul knows it is home now and it can rest."
Michelle agreed with her logic but only to a certain extent, she was home but it was not time for her to rest. No resting was something that was going wait for a while.
"Now get ready quickly, your grandfather is hoping he can have breakfast with you before he leaves."
Her ears perked up at that, "He is? I'll be quick." Dressing up to join her grandfather for breakfast, she felt like a child again. She really loved her grandfather, the one person who never once made her feel small. As she made her way down the stairs, she promised herself again that no matter what happened to her, she was not going to let anyone or anything ruin her family.
Breakfast was splendid, yes, they had it at 10am but the two Harts seated at the table did not care. They sat in comfortable silence and they broke it periodically to ask normal routine questions. Thirty minutes later, Gerald Hart stood up from his chair reluctantly.
"It does pain me to leave you like this, my dear Elle." He said apologetically, "but I have to go to the office now."
"I understand grandpa."
He walked up to her and gave her a peck on her forehead, patting her shoulder then he strode out of the house off to work.
Michelle finished breakfast and despite her best efforts to help with the dishes, she was shooed away by Maria.
"Don't be ridiculous, go. Rest."
"Alright. I'm going." She responded laughing.
She went back up to her room, picked up her phone and saw that she had texts from Meg and Caleb.
From Meg:
You didn't come in today? I hope you're ok. Text me back when you can.
It felt good having people who cared about her in her life not just the ones who acted like they cared about her. She quickly sent a respond:
Yeah, sorry. I forgot to let you know, I had some things to attend to so I couldn't come in. If Freddy tries to say anything tell him to take it up with my grandfather. Thank you so much for checking in.
The text from Caleb however was less worried and more formal.
Meg said you didn't come in. Anything wrong?
She chuckled at how weird his text sounded; it would seem he was not very eloquent via text.
I'm ok, Caleb. Thanks.
Seeing that she had responded to all the necessary texts, Michelle laid around in bed going through the file from the Junk server. From it she saw that the financial files weren't the only thing Freddy and Penn had tried to delete. They'd also deleted records of materials they'd sold to other companies for exorbitant prices. The more she read, the more she was surprised at how fearless they were.
However looking at these records she was also coming to realize how flawed the chain of command had become. Grandfather was getting too old to handle everything himself so he delegated things and the people he delegated to also delegated to others and the chain of command became so stretched that people like Penn and Freddy could get away with embezzlement. The whole thing annoyed her greatly. She still was not strong enough to help lift the burden off her grandfather's shoulders.
She decided to take her mind off things that was when her phone received a notification. It seemed Lucy had tagged her in a picture of the Hart family away on vacation. The picture the perfect family with their perfect smiles. Her previous self would have been bothered greatly by it but now she simply did not care. She gave the post a like knowing it would get on Lucy's nerves. Then she laid back in bed and soon after dozed off.
Gerald Hart arrived at work his thought still on his granddaughter back home. The actions of Lionel were extremely disappointing; however, it was clear that he himself wasn't free of blame. After all who gives their late first born's daughter to their second son and ask him to raise her as his. It was just at that time Lionel and his wife were desperate for a child, both of the girl's parents were dead, and he had no clue how to take care of a baby. He should have collected her back from him the moment he started to notice the favoritism but he thought it would pass. It didn't. He arrived at the office to see the General Manager of the financial department waiting for him at the reception.
"What do you need?" he asked brusquely pushing past him into his office and the man followed closely behind him.
"Good morning sir, I'm not sure if you remember me but you assigned your granddaughter to my floor."
"I remember. Did something happen?"
"Yes sir, you see she did not report to work today and she did not leave a reason as to why."
Gerald chuckled to himself, the man before him was lying through his teeth. He personally had Hank send the finance floor, in Michelle's name, that she would not be coming in today due to personal reasons. Intrigued to see what the man wanted to do, he decided to play along.
"She didn't? That is unlike her."
"Sir, if you think that's unlike her you'd be mistaken. She is the rudest person I have ever had to work with and she completely disregards my authority."
"Am I to understand that you came to my office just to complain about my granddaughter?" he said already annoyed by the man's presence.
"N-no sir, I just wanted to tell you how she was doing at work."
"Hmm, by lying and dragging her name through the mud?" He asked.
Speechless Freddy remained silent.
"Also she did send a notice, I know because I sent it for her. I don't like liars." Gerald said staring him down, "You have been warned. Now leave."
"Yes sir, right away sir." Sputtering he scurried away out of Gerald's office face red with a mix of embarrassment and anger. He thought try ruining her reputation in her grandfather's mind. That plan was most definitely a bust.
Pressing a call button, Gerald called Hank into his office.
"Who was that, Hank?"
"That was the General Manager of the financial department, T.J Frederick."
"I don't like him. He insulted Michelle in my presence and that is unacceptable."
"Do you want him fired sir?'
"No, we don't have reasonable grounds. He looks like someone who would file a lawsuit in the hopes of gaining something. Keep an eye on him instead. Find me everything you can about him while you're at it."
"I'll get right on it sir." Hank replied and left his boss alone to his duties.