I balled my hands up in a fist. I was so devastated.
As soon as the video stopped playing, the workers leaned close to one another, blabbing like jobless idiots. The female workers who obviously didn’t like me for some unknown reason, were smirking at me, seeming quite happy for my predicament. Who could have done this? Mr. Shawn?
I turned back to him, swallowing my tears. “Mr
Shawn, who filmed that? Where in the world did you get it from? Huh?”
“That should remain confidential.” He put his hands behind him, wandering in front of me. “Someone sent it to my office this morning.”
“The video is false. Mr. Arthur’s a witness. Yes, we stumbled against each other last night, but I can assure you that nothing went on between us, and nothing goes on between us. He’s just my boss,” I explained.
He laughed, his laugh sounding quite crafty. “What do you think I am? A dummy? I’ve once seen you and Ryan kiss, here at the office. And, you really expect me to believe your stupid words?”
Some of the workers gasped, and resumed gossiping to one another. Of everyone, Natasha was the only one who seemed worried and sorry for me. She knew I wasn’t a bad person.
“But sir…” When a tear left my eye, I wiped it off immediately, and just sniffled. “I need to know why you care this much? This sounds stupid to me. Let’s assume that the video isn’t false. Isn’t it my decision to be with whoever I desire to be with? How’s it related to my work? This is stupid. Why do you even care?”
“The rules!” He retorted. He lowered his eyebrows at me, his index finger pointed at me. “The rules will always be the rules.”
“Then this is a stupid rule!” I yelled back. Oh well, I was more than ready to attack every word he would sputter.
He took a step close, his eyebrow cocked at me. “Pardon? You call my rule stupid? How dare you?”
I scoffed. “Yeah. A rule that intrudes people’s personal life is the same as stupid. What are you? God? If you were God, everyone would probably turn to pancakes for the tiniest sins they commit.”
“Serene.” He clenched his teeth. The way he seemed angry, felt so much like he was going to hit me soon. “Before you began working here, the rules were intact. But, you decided to break the rules, yet you don’t feel remorseful. Do you know how crazy that is? And how unprofessional it is?”
“Sir, what’s with this ruckus?!” I ran my fingers into my hair, refraining from the urge to hit him hard. How could he still keep on blaming me? “Fine! Every woman in here knows that you’ve broken your own rules several times! I’m sorry to say this, but yeah, eighty percent of the female workers are aware of this.”
He gripped my hand arm, and spoke amidst gritted teeth, “Shut. Up.”
“Wait, are you trying to ruin my reputation, only because I rejected you?” Oops, I was losing my temper to the ultimate point. Gosh, he caused this. “Tell me! Is all this because I refused to accept your stupid feeling that you call love? You’re embarrassing me in front of everyone, but you aren’t talking about yourself! You bent the rules first. You asked me to come to your office, only for you to tell me foolish things.”
His eyes turned red. I knew I should stop speaking, but I was way too upset to keep quiet. “Serene,” he called, breathing hard. “If you don’t stop speaking, I promise to make your life miserable.”
“Create misery.” I smirked at him, killing his mind and confidence with my sassy spirit. What a fool he was. “Raymond Shawn, I’ll knead the dough, and bake the bread in order to survive when the misery comes forth. And, as far as I’m concerned, you won’t have a taste of the baby under my panty.”
He smirked too. “Who’re you to decide that? I own you already, woman. You’re my mission.”
“You’re a fool!” I pushed him off me. “You’re disgusting. Who do you think you are? Huh?”
The door barged open. Turning around, I sighted Ryan standing by the threshold of the door, seeming quite flustered. Good, he was finally here. He would tell everyone that that video was a fake one.
He walked over to us, glimpsed at me, then glared at Mr. Shawn. “What’s going on here? Why am I not invited to this meeting?”
Mr. Shawn shrugged. “Cause you always cause trouble. Obviously.”
“Serene, what’s going on?” Ryan turned to me. I was about to say I was fine, but he asked, “Why are you crying? Did he hurt you?”
I sniffled, sensing worry in those blue eyes. “He’s framed me. No, he’s framed us. Donno how it happened.”
“Framed us?” He narrowed his eyes like he was trying to understand what I had said.
I nodded. “Someone was filming us last night. And, the person went on to add a couple of edits to the video, making it seem like we were… about to sleep with each other.”
He frowned harder. “Where’s the video?”
“On the screen,” I replied.
He walked to the screen, clicked on the button, and watched the video. Done watching it, he rolled his hands in a fist, sighed hard. I knew he was extremely furious.
He turned around, faced Mr. Shawn. “Raymond, did you do this? Did you send someone to install some cameras in my house? Huh?”
“No. I can’t stoop that low,” Mr. Shawn said. The low tone of his voice was proof that he was indifferent to this discussion. “It was sent to my office this morning. Guess I’m not your only enemy. You’ve got a whole lot of enemies.”
“Do you find fun in ruining a woman’s reputation, all the time?!” Suddenly, probably extremely angry, Ryan grabbed Mr. Shawn’s shirt’s collar, towed Mr. Shawn to him. “Do you have to sleep with every woman? I can guess that she refused you, then you decided to embarrass her!”
“Stop this madness!” Mr. Shawn forced himself off Ryan’s grip.
“No, I won’t!” Ryan yelled back.
“You won’t?”
“Yes! Until you get some senses, I’ll mess your life up,” Ryan threatened.
“Fine!” Mr. Shawn snapped his fingers in the air, turned to me. He was panting, a sneer lingering on his lips. What now? “As for you, woman, I called you over cause I wanna send you off to the streets. I was changing my mind regarding that. But now that your man has come to fight for you, I’ve made a final decision.”
“What?” Tears welled my eyes. He had better not say what I was thinking.
He sniggered. “My beloved Serene, you’re fired. Get your stuff this instant, and leave here. Your journey in this office… ends here.”
I pulled my hand over my mouth. This man had just ruined my life. What was I going to do now?
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