Teresa resisted the urge to move as Mary brushed her hair. She had enough of Mary telling her to 'stay in place' (not directly quoted, since the original sentence included either better words, somehow, or more profanities.) Mary wasn't patient, but the end result was most of the time worth it. Teresa hated waiting too, but she wasn't exactly impatient.

Mary's fingers ran through her hair rapidly and Teresa had no idea what she was doing and had at that point decided that she would just end up reading a book.

Mary wasn't slow, but Teresa felt jumpy at the thought of missing the meeting. It was super important and she felt even worse with Thomas in her head, asking her what he'd done. Like he didn't know. She almost called out on his bullshit but decided against it.

Teresa Thomas was back to talking. Teresa almost punched the wall in front of her as she responded. Shut the hell up Thomas before I turn off this connection. You know I can do that.

Fine then do it. It's not like the connection is doing me any good anyway. Teresa knows that's a lie. She can feel Thomas's frustration, probably at being caught but Thomas is the one who can sense emotions better.

You know what I'm feeling right now. I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out yourself. She scowls and right after Mary is done with her hair, she switches off the connection. WICKED doesn't like that done, but since Thomas's actions, they had instructed her to do so.

"Hey you good," Mary muttered, her voice loud against Teresa's ear.

"Of course I am. Not like my friend betrayed me or anything." Teresa grumped as she observed the last bit of her hair. "Thanks, this looks nice."

Mary ignored Teresa's previous comment. "We have seven minutes to arrive, which means you have more than enough time. You'll reach there in two and you won't be late. Now hurry," Mary ran out of the room and called the lift as Teresa wore her shoes hurriedly.

Teresa waved to Mary as the lift doors started closing. She took a deep breath of relief and geared herself for the information.

***

Teresa's breath was uneven as she looked around the room. Thomas and she had been in important meetings before, along with Aris and Rachel, but her nerves had never been patient. She tried not to fidget as she looked at the pristine walls of the room. There were no windows, but it was obvious. The main part of WICKED with all the sensitive information (most of it) was kept there. She looked at the poorly concealed door in the other corner of the room, where the main documents were kept.

Rachel in her seat shoved Teresa. "Ava is here," she muttered.

"Good evening Dr Paige," Dr Martin said strongly, her posture stiff. "May we begin?" Ava Paige nodded and sat down.

"So, about this betrayal," Ava looked at them. "How much are you ready to know?"

Finally wrote another chapter. So the next chapter has a hell lot of revelations along with poor Thomas still in jail. We'll get back to him in a little while. Just building along this story as of now till the main rising point of the plot is exposed. I'm sure some of you might have guessed it already.