Nelly shook so hard that the tray of food in her hands fell, broke and the contents was spilled. She slumped to the floor and wept. Her lovely father was dead and gone. Just like that. But she was with him only a few hours ago. How did he die? She took her phone to call Ash but before she could do so, his call came in.
“Hi dear.”
“Ash… I just wanted to call you right now,” she said between sobs.
“What is the matter?”
“My Dad. He’s dead. Ash my father is dead. He’s lying stone cold on his bed. I was with him just a few hours ago.”
“Goodness me. Take it easy sweetheart. I’ll be there soon.”
“You called. Is everything alright?”
“Emm. Yes, I just found out something about our research.”
“Go on. Tell me. I’m all ears.”
“Don’t worry. I’m coming over. We will discuss at length, but for now, I need to make sure you are all right please.”
Nelly couldn’t be consoled. It was a huge blow and she found it hard to believe.
“This has to be a dream. I need to wake up from this dream. Oh no! What happened to my father. Wake up Dad. No, you can’t leave me now. Daddy please wake up. Please!”
Nelly cried loudly but the dead don’t hear. Ash was at her place in no time. He held her close and let her cry to her heart content. He asked a maid to take Emma shopping. He didn’t want her to know what happened.
“I swear I must find out everything. I will do everything even to the last drop of my blood to make everyone who has a hand in this pay. It’s the difficult situation of the company that sent my dad to an untimely death. Tell me please, what did you find out?”
“Take it easy. Let’s get your father to the morgue while you have something to eat.”
“Tell me already. To hell with food!” she snapped.
“Okay. Fine. I traced the blog that released your news and scandal in the past and traced it to Aria.”
“Aria? That smily bastard!”
“That’s not all. She’s been in communication with Easton. I was able to fish out some from my end and she’s been monitoring you and reporting to Easton.”
“Oh my goodness! This is crazy.”
She took out her own laptop and turned it on. “Let’s see if I have something too.”
“Look. I’ve gotten a response from the server. Look.”
They both buried their heads in her laptop. They stopped reading almost at the same time and looked at each other.
Easton had planted some employees in the company for the sole purpose of taking it down!”
“I will get rid of all of them this minute!” Nelly swore and sprang up.
“Wait. Let’s deal with one issue first.”
“Let me be, Ash. These people have a hand in my father’s death and you want me to wait? You expect me to take things easy?”
“No dear. I’m not asking you to do nothing. Let’s follow protocol. One step at a time. Remember, we agreed not to do anything impromptu. Let’s get the ambulance to take the corpse away, then you eat before we go to the company. I’ll go there with you.”
Nelly finally listened to the word of wisdom. She stormed the company and in a swift movement and expertise, she fished out their fake employees and quickly handed them over to the police for further investigation. They had fake identity cards and credentials so the police took them away. In all things, they didn’t dare to mention Easton’s name. They knew better than to implicate their boss. Easton was still safe to Nelly’s greatest dismay. When they got home, Ash pulled out a flash and inserted into his system.
“What’s that?” Nelly asked.
“I cloned their phones.”
“What?”
While the investigation was going on, fishing out the fake employees and handing them to the police, Ash tactfully sneaked to where the belongings which was taken from the culprits were kept. When the police man was not looking, he put a cord into the phone and with the right tools and codes, every information in each of these phones was sent to the flash he had in his other phone.
“You are so smart!” Nelly finally admitted.
“You should have known.”
“Hush! Come down from your high horse. On a serious note, what do we do about Aria?”
“I think we should pay her a visit or invite her to an open place for a discussion. How do you see that?”
“Not bad. I think I’ll prefer she is invited to an open place. I don’t trust her for any reason.”
“Fine. Let’s do that now while we wait for the information in the file to be assimilated. It will take a lot of time for that. Meanwhile, I know where Aria would probably be. I’ll go check her place of work and book an appointment with her.”
1:30 pm met the trio at a restaurant. Strangely enough, only a bottle of water was before each of them.
“Thanks for honouring our invitation. I’ll go straight to the point. Tell me, why did you dent Nelly’s image on the blogs? Why did you also report her whereabouts to Easton Landers?”
Aria was momentarily struck dumb. She had wanted to confess her evil deeds to Nelly but she didn’t expect her to find out so soon. How did they know that she was the one behind the blogs? How did they also know she has been in communication with Easton? Was it possible that they knew more that this but they were only starting with a few?
“You better not deny anything. We have our proof,” Nelly said with scorn.
“Forgive me Nelly. I know I have wronged you. I don’t mind going on my knees to plead for mercy,” she said and made a move to kneel down but Ash halted her.
“No. There’s no need for that. Answer the question and you better say nothing but the truth.”
Aria opened her mouth and sang like a canary. She told them everything she had done. She was sincerely sorry for her actions. By the time she was done, Ash and Nelly were too stunned to speak.