Chapter 2

I fought down the cramping in my stomach and changed into my clean work clothes.

Today was the day the project I was in charge of would get signed.

No matter what, I had to get through today.

But the moment I stepped into the company lobby, the atmosphere was strange to the extreme.

The interns, who usually called me "bro" at every turn, were clustered in twos and threes, pointing and whispering about me.

"Supervisor Fox, there's a local courier delivery for you."

The young woman at the front desk was holding a cardboard box, and she slid it toward me from a distance.

I frowned and opened it, and a bloody, mangled dead rat dropped onto the floor.

A sheet of printed paper drifted out of the box, stamped with big blood-red letters.

Eat something good, you little beast.

The horrific sight of Blackie from fifteen years ago seemed to rise up before my eyes.

My legs gave out, and I threw up everything in my stomach until it was empty.

Phone flashes were aimed at me, and the whispering never stopped.

"Supervisor Fox always seems so cold and aloof. I never thought he was this kind of person."

"What an ungrateful son. His dad's cooking smelled so good and he still won't eat it."

The more they talked, the more my mind filled with the image of Blackie lying there in a bloody heap.

"Director Fox, why don't you pack up and head home for now?"

The HR rep handed me a suspension notice, deeply awkward about it. "The front desk took over a hundred abusive calls today, and someone even mailed a funeral wreath to the office."

"The boss's idea is that you go home and rest for a few days, and the deputy director will handle the signing..."

I stood there frozen, unable to get out a single word.

I had worked on this project for a full six months. Even when I drank until I threw up blood, I never once complained.

Countless nights I stayed late until three in the morning, sometimes straight through till dawn.

The next day I'd splash some water on my face and get back to work, still full of energy.

But now the position I'd spent five years climbing to had gone up in smoke because of one video of my dad's.

I walked out of the company holding the cardboard box, and a heavy rain came pouring down.

My girlfriend Eudora's car happened to be parked at the curb, and she waved to me.

Just as I opened the door and sat in the passenger seat—

There were two bottles of top-shelf whiskey and a neck massager on the back seat.

Before I could even ask, Eudora's scolding came rattling down on me.

"Will, you went way too far this time. I watched the video. It wasn't easy for your dad to come all that way."

"Do you have any idea what people online are calling you? Even my work group chat is passing your video around, and my friends are asking me if I ended up with some ungrateful monster. It's humiliating for me too."

"I already bought a gift for your dad. In a bit I'll go back with you, and as long as you apologize to him, this whole thing will be over."

I stared at her in disbelief. "But you know perfectly well I can't eat meat. Last year I accidentally ate one bite of a vegetable dish that had some meat grease on it, and I ended up straight in the ER."

She cut me off impatiently. "Didn't the doctor say it was a psychological thing? To put it plainly, you're just being precious about it."

"No parent is ever in the wrong. Even if that meat really were poisoned, you should choke it down and pretend, just to keep your dad happy."