Disclaimer: I don't own anything Twilight related…

Chapter 10: The Truth Hurts

After a prep talk from Edward and a promise from me that I would his family's dinner that evening on time, I called Cindy who agreed to meet me first thing in the morning. I left for work about 30 minutes earlier then usual as I wanted to make sure that I avoided anyone in the office. I didn't even bother to drop my things off I just went directly to Cindy's office.

"Bella – how was the conference," Cindy asked when she met outside her office.

"Hectic," I replied and explained the email disaster.

Cindy shook her had in disgust. "I knew I should have reminded her – she acts that way whenever someone goes away. Especially her assistants," she said.

"That's not why I'm here," I said quietly and showed her the analysis, "I don't know how this was missed before but I think the reasons her numbers have been all over the place was due to proper rates not matching the award schedule."

Cindy looked over the schedule and visibly paled. "Oh good Christ we've been wondering all this time why she has so much carryover," she muttered. She grabbed her calculator and started to work on the figures.

That was one thing about accounting. The sides always had to match each other. It didn't work if the funds didn't cancel each other out.

"Well," I asked after Cindy was done, "Am I crazy or borderline incompetent?"

Cindy shook her head slowly. "No," she said finally, "Jessica always did her figures. She wouldn't let us look."

I felt sick and I'm sure Cindy was feeling worse. "What's the next step," I asked quietly, knowing it needed to be discussed with Jessica.

"We need to speak with Jessica when she comes in," she said quietly, dialing her phone, "Jessica, it's Cindy you need to stop by my office when you come in. Really – that's fine I can meet in you in yours."

Cindy quietly put down the phone, ignoring Jessica's protests. Then she looked at me. "Okay – after you," she signed.

I nodded and we went to the office suite. I ignored Lauren's surprised look when I entered with Cindy and placed my things down on my desk. Jessica came in a couple of minutes later. I had no doubt that Lauren had texted her.

"Jessica," Cindy said, "I need to speak with you right now."

"Ok, well just give me a moment and I'm sure I can clear up what ever is bothering you," Jessica said coquettishly.

"No – let's go in your office, Bella, you're coming too," Cindy informed her.

"I'm sure we don't need Bella," Jessica replied.

"Yes we do need Bella – she's the grants manager and found a major discrepancy," Cindy retorted.

"Fine – Lauren come too," Jessica said flouncing in.

Cindy just shook her head. We sat down and pulled out the spreadsheets I had prepared with Cindy's cross-reference. By the time we done, Jessica was very pale. "There has to be some mistake – Lauren – didn't you fix this during the last budget period," Jessica said quietly.

My eyes bulged – I had been under the impression that Jessica had done the accounting with my processor. She and Lauren had been working this together. Oh My God.

"They were right – we double checked them," Lauren said turning red. I guess it surprised her that someone from public university caught her mistakes.

"You're lucky Bella caught this and not some government auditor," Cindy said.

The way Jessica was pursing her lips I had to disagree. "We need to go through this right now," she seethed, grabbing the paperwork and slamming it down.

Two hours later both Jessica and Lauren had to concede. "We need to rework the budget," Cindy explained, "You're going to have to paid back the government or transfer salaries to another grant."

"I'll let you know my decision," Jessica said obviously dismissing Cindy.

"Okay – I'll look forward to your proposal," she said and got up to leave.

I wasn't sure if I should get up and leave because of the looks I was getting from Jessica. "Do you want me to leave," I asked quietly, wondering if she wanted a minute to herself.

She shook her head and said, "Lauren you can go."

Lauren got up and followed Cindy out. Cindy gave me one last look of sympathy before she closed the door.

Jessica looked at me as red as a tomato. "Bella, I thought we had an understanding," she said finally. Her tone made me wonder if this was what the snake sounded like to Eve before she bit into the apple.

"You were supposed to come me when issues arise," she continued tapping her thumb on her desk, "Not go to administration."

I blanched, given that I had not been the one to make the mistake and that I had tried to show her the information. Realizing that Jessica fully intended to shot the messenger, I tried to defend myself. Big mistake. "Jessica with all due respect I tried to contact you last night," I started to say.

She raised her hand to stop me. "You could have waited until this morning," she replied, "and I could have figured out a way to fix this."

My mouth gaped wondering what she met by that statement. Math was math you couldn't get creative unless you wanted to up behind bars. And the defense my boss made me do it went out with Enron. I wondered if she would have tried to do something like that if a result from her study came back and didn't support the data. I shuddered at the thought.

"You can't fix that," I protested, "We have fiduciary responsibility to report these problems to the NIH."

Once the words left my mouth I realized I was fucked. I just wished I could go back and reword what I had just said. Jessica didn't like honesty, especially when it was blunt. The look she was giving me made me realized that I was in trouble.

"I'm sorry what I mean to say was that I didn't mean to go over your head," I said, feeling the blood rush out of my head.

Jessica nodded stiffly. "Well now we need to fix this mess you created so what I want you to do is removed that secretary we talked about. You need figure out a way to keep that research assistant," she replied.

"Jessica – we already have 6 research assistants," I started to protest again.

"Your point? We need someone who can collect the data," Jessica replied, "And Lauren is too busy to do it."

"Okay," I replied, feeling defeated. I knew this was going to take the better part of the day to complete.

"You're not leaving until I look it over," she told me, "I need to know if the information is good enough so you better call your babysitter."

I nodded stiffly realizing I was in for a long day. And Jessica didn't disappoint me. Once I was back at my desk and immersed myself in the work. Lauren kept looking over myself to see what I doing periodically. I had feeling Jessica told her to keep an eye on my movements to make sure I wasn't contacting anyone in administration.

She offered to get me a sandwich during lunch. I had a feeling this was her way of apologizing but I declined. Rose and Angela took pity on me and grabbed me a hot dog from on the vendors outside.

I had to make dinner at Tony's by 6:30 and I knew I was going to be pushing it was. Edward really wanted me to make it on time. Garrett had gotten a promotion and Edward knew his parents were going to be fawning all over him. By 3:45 I had finished all the changes and made the necessary adjustments. I had even found a way to keep the research assistant even through the part time secretary was a thing of the past. To be on the safe side I had Cindy take a look at it. I had emailed it to her while Lauren had been on a bathroom break. Cindy assured me it looked fine.

I doubled checked everything one more time and forward it to Jessica. "Hello," I heard a bored voice on the phone.

"Jessica – it's done and waiting for your review," I told her feeling the adrenalin start to die down. If she reviewed it right away I could be out there and on the train by 6.

"I'll look at it in a minute," she replied. I heard Lauren's line ring. I guess Jessica wanted her security blanket before she reviewed.

Lauren picked up and the phone said, "Okay – be right there Jessica."

By 5:00 I realized that Jessica was just fucking with me. Not the type of fucking that made straight men giggle with glee. Not it was the kind of psychotic screw fest that Stephen King wrote about. She knew that I had to leave here at 5:00 to meet my babysitter normally. At 5:30 I started to panic. This was her way of showing who was in charge and I had no say in how this was going down.

By 5:45 I called. "What," she asked.

"Did you need me to clarify anything with you," I asked quietly.

"No – I'm still reviewing what you provided me. I'll call you shortly," Jessica replied, hanging up the phone.

Cursing, I grabbed my blackberry and sent Edward text saying I was going to be late.

Finally at 6:15, Jessica called me in. "Have this to Cindy on Monday," she replied distantly.

"Do you need anything clarification," I asked, "You were reviewing it for a while."

"No but I meant what I said Bella – you can only serve one master," Jessica told me, "If you ever pull a stunt like that again I will be to reconsider our relationship."

"But Jessica – you weren't listening to me last night," I protested.

"You should have waited until this morning," she answered and hung up the phone.

I stared the receiver and heard the ping on my Outlook signaling that I now had a new message. Cursing, I pulled up the email and realized she made a number of corrections to the paperwork I submitted to her. I was going to make sure that they matched before I set it to Cindy.

By 7:00 I had verified everything and grabbed a cab against my better judgment. I got to Tony's at 7:15 – fortunately traffic was on my side for a change. However the reception waiting for me was not. I ran in there and it was very obvious that Edward was not happy. His parents looked slightly annoyed that I was late and Garrett and Tanya just looked smug with their sons. Only Melody and Geoff looked happy to see me.

"Mama," the squealed waving their little arms around.

"Hi sweeties," I said bending down to kiss their heads.

Edward just gave me a hard smile as I sat down.

"Burning the middle night oil, Bella," Garrett boomed in his big voice.

"Something like that," I replied.

"Wine," Esme asked, in that same clipped tone that her son had.

"Thank you," I said holding my glass.

Edward poured a glass for me silently, indicating how pissed he was. A closer look at him showed that his pinks were slightly pink. Another clue that he had been drinking for a while.

"Just a half glass please," I told him, thinking that one of us needed to be sober.

"You got it," he replied.

"So Bella you just missed the announcement," Tanya said purring, stroking her husband's arm.

"What's that," I asked assuming she met Garrett's promotion. Given how sensitive Edward was being, I didn't want to say anything.

"I'm going to Milan to do a show – isn't that wonderful," she replied in her pseudo European accent.

"Wow – congratulations," I replied automatically. That wasn't news – Tanya's work took her all over the world. She had been to Milan more times that I could count. I think she did that so she could play the "poor provincial Bella" game. I refused to rise to the bait.

"Yeah – with my promotion and Tanya's little venture – we're going to have a great Christmas," Garrett replied tactlessly. I just stared at him wondering how he could be so insensitive with his brother sitting right here. Here we were wondering how we were going to pay for Christmas and Garrett was bragging about what he was going to buy his kids. Edward was fuming at this point.

"Well Edward got some good news too – did you tell them honey," I asked, squeezing his forearm.

"My old boss offered me a job in his new agency," Edward said humorlessly shooting daggers in my direction.

"Oh really Edward – that's wonderful – why didn't you tell us?" Esme asked.

"Doing what son," Carlisle asked.

"I'm a CFO in a box," Edward answered taking a swig of his wine.

"What the fuck is that," Garrett asked confused. Now it was my turn to glare. I didn't care what he taught his kids but I didn't what mine cursing like a sailor.

"Language," Esme scolded.

"Basically small businesses contact with my boss and I go in and do the functions that a CFO would do like financial statements," Edward explained to his dimwitted brother.

Everyone stared Edward like they had no idea what to say. I wish I had never brought it up. Then Garrett spoke up. That idiot really had no tack. "Holy shit – that's priceless man – you're like a temp," he shouted.

I had enough of him demeaning Edward. "You know a number of companies contract for this service – it's a pretty lucrative market," I replied challenging him.

The look on his face said he was up for it. If there was one thing that Garrett liked was verbal sparring especially when he thought he'd get a good kill in. And normally I didn't rise to the challenge.

"And what are you basing your conclusion on," Garrett asked, grinning.

"Simple," I replied, "During the last recession in '92 small businesses make the majority recovery. Corporations at the moment are heavily distrusted. Small business is going to see a surge and often do some of the most innovative work. They don't have the resources for a traditional CFO. But they have the need especially if they want to stay competitive in the market. People with Edward's experience are especially valuable. The most creative work is often seen during recessions. "

Garrett and the rest of the table looked at me flabbergasted. I sat there feeling a little smug for a minute. Only a minute.

"Anything to back it up," Garrett asked.

"Forbes – I read an article in it," I told him

"Like that chick in Working Girl," he asked referring to the Melanie Griffith character.

"Ah hah," I replied dryly, as Edward snickered, "just like her."

"She was from Jersey too wasn't she," Garrett said.

"No she was from Staten Island," I fumed. Asshole. They were two different places. Edward like he did every time some reminded him where I was from.

"Same thing," Tanya replied, taking a sip of her martini, "Not Manhattan."

Fortunately that round of torture ended and the conversation turned back Tanya's trip where she asked Edward if he wanted to come. To my shock he looked he was seriously considering it for a minute. Garrett didn't too happy about that either.

And that torturous dinner was over. Carlisle had a car service take us all home. The minute we were alone in our apartment Edward turned around and said, "What was so goddamn important that you make dinner on time!"

I blanched at this reaction. I knew he was upset but it wasn't like I hadn't told him I was going to be late. "I'm sorry," I said, making it, "Jessica needed me to stay late."

"Dammit Bella – I needed you to be on time for once! Do you realized since you started this job you haven't been on time at all! You're the one complaining about money and you're staying later so we need Lisa more," Edward yelled.

"That's not fair Edward – you're -," I stopped what I was saying.

"I'm not working," he finished for me. He was very flushed and I wondered how much he before I had gotten there. I knew he had 3 more glasses during dinner.

"Well you're not," I said quietly.

"I'm trying," he spat, "What are you going to do if I get a project!"

"We'll cross that bridge if comes to that," I said quietly. We both knew that wasn't going to happen.

Edward just started at me and left the room. I stood there in my living room feeling awful and alone.

AN: Okay – so do you think that Bella should have waited for Jessica or was she right going to her boss? What about Edward's reaction – do you think that's fair?

Thanks for taking the time to read/review/favorite/follow this story. I'm sorry for the delays but my hospital is going to accreditation and it's kicking my butt.