Penelope's POV
I managed to keep myself busy for several hours, pretending to focus on quarterly reports and responding to routine emails.
Yet my thoughts kept drifting elsewhere. Each time a colleague passed my workstation, I felt that familiar knot of anxiety in my stomach, convinced they were studying me with newfound interest.
Then I realized my instincts were correct. They genuinely were watching me.
I caught the hushed conversations that immediately ceased when I approached. The furtive looks, followed by urgent whispered exchanges. Linda, Bernie's executive assistant, offered me a greeting with a smile so strained it looked physically painful. Quinton from the accounting department examined me with an intensity that had never existed before.
When Felicity returned from her lunch break in the mid-afternoon, she marched directly to my workspace with an expression mixing genuine worry and unabashed curiosity.
