Penelope’s two options rang in your ears, but it took a few moments for them to fully sink in. Your hesitation caused the predatory grin cracking Penelope’s veneer of civility to only widen, she was savouring in her perceived victory.
The two options, if posed alone, would each have been the single worst thing that could have happened to you. But both of them presented at the same time? Unthinkably awful!
Signing your life over to become property of Weston was effectively signing over to become Penelope’s property, and you knew that the platinum-haired sadist would make sure you suffered the worst torture imaginable for the duration of your contract.
On the other hand, allowing Penelope to basically strong arm Jenna into endorsing her senatorial campaign would basically guarantee her the win. In a seat of power like that, Penelope could make the lives of every affected in the state, if not the entire country, infinitely worse!
And the third options, Juli’s expulsion and your degree being revoked, were unthinkable. You had been lending a helping hand to Small Wonders for so long that you had input on at least a third of their active patents! If your degree was revoked, all of them would come under review, and would risk being pulled. Small Wonders could also come under investigation for working with a “fraud” such as yourself, you couldn’t allow that!
… But you also couldn’t make Jenna help Penelope into the state senator position, which left only one option…
“i choose option one…” you grumbled, hated yourself for uttering the words, but forced them out anyway.
“I’m sorry Matthew” Penelope feigned, exaggeratedly leaning towards you, cupping a hand to her ear. “Could you repeat that.”
You scowled, and Penelope relished in the sight of you opening your mouth to speak again.
“I choose Option One,” you sighed, loudly enough to satisfy the demonic dean, as she allowed a small, satisfied chuckle to escape her lips.
“What a selfless father, you would surrender yourself to avoid Juliana’s expulsion? It warms my heart,” Penelope showered you with false praise, while inwardly celebrating your stupidity. “Why it almost makes me want to ensure the staff take it easy on you. I won’t, but the feeling is there at least.”
Penelope produced a contract, sized for her, not you, and slid it towards you. You recognised the obvious appearance of a usage license document, and even though you knew it was coming, your stomach dropped all the same. It was one thing verbally agreeing to Penelope’s demands, but a whole other thing to actually follow through and sign your life over to her for the next few years…
“I’ll spare you the trouble of thumbing through the whole document and paraphrase it for you. I am a busy woman after all. I don’t have time to watch you struggle to read through the whole thing,” Penelope began to describe the contract without even having to glance at it, evidently having memorised the terms. “It states that for the contract duration, which will terminate upon Juli’s graduation from this institution, you will be deemed property of Weston University.
“You will remain on premises at all times, unless I determine that a certain usage requires you to leave campus. When not in use you will be securely stored in my office, and you will be allowed no visitation rights. You will be fitted with a tiny tracker to ensure that this is complied with.
“The license covers every conceivable usage, there are no uses that will be disallowed. I will designate several “custodians” to oversee your use in the event that I am unavailable, Professor Larsen being one of them.
“If any, and I repeat ANY of these statutes are violated in any way, shape or form, I- sorry Weston University reserves the right to extend the period of use proportional to the indiscretion. Are these terms clear to you?”
Your head swam with information, but the terms were clear. If you signed that document, you were destined for a hellish existence for the next few years, or longer if Penelope decided to leverage that last part, which you would be stupid to believe she wouldn’t.
But, seeing no way out, you nodded your head. Penelope’s smug, satisfied face made you almost want to take it back, but you had no other option, so you had to allow her to relish in her victory. Penelope dropped a pen sized appropriately for you, if not a little too cumbersome considering it was half your size.
“Before I sign, I need to tell Mari what is going on!” It wouldn’t be fair to leave Mari in the dark about this, so you couldn’t in good conscience sign before speaking to her.
“Well you see Matt, the unfortunate thing is that I can’t really allow time for that,” Penelope shrugged. “I’m a busy woman, and I’ve already wasted more time on one tiny than a woman of my position can justify. If you don’t sign now, I’m pulling the deal. But, since I’m so kind, I’ll call Juliana in here after you sign and get her to relay the information to Mari…”
You sighed as Penelope robbed you of the chance to even speak to your wife one last time as a free man… and signed the document, no other option than to trust that Penelope would keep her word.
It was a struggle to sign the paper with such a large pen, but you assumed that was why Penelope gave it to you. Dropping the pen with an exhausted sigh, you slowly turned back around, dreading the grin that was no doubt plastered across Penelope’s face-
SLAM
Your entire body screamed in pain as a hand slapped down, flattening you in an instant. When the hand retreated, it was not Penelope’s body that the hand was attached to, but Professor Larsen! The Scandinavian scholar eyed you analytically, still not revealing much about her feelings toward you. After all, Penelope could have ordered her to do that.
Speaking of your worst nightmare, your flattened eye caught site of her off to the side, making a phone call. You prayed that she was keeping her word, and was going to call in your daughter so she could explain what was happening to someone in your family.
“Hi Stacey,” Penelope addressed the woman on the other end of the line, you assumed a personal assistant. “Could you do me a favour and schedule an immediate meeting with…”
1) “…Juliana Jacobs?” Penelope is keeping her word, and perhaps this meeting will provide some light on how this “plagiarism” debacle began…
2) “…the faculty I designated as custodians for Matthew Jacobs during his employment at the university? He should probably get the chance to meet the women who will be taking care of him…” Penelope is not keeping her word! Your family will have no idea where you are!
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