Ethan’s POV
I smiled triumphantly as I saw the deep frown on Monica’s face. I couldn’t help but appreciate this splendid idea from Mia.
Setting Nicholas up was the best way to scatter their relationship. If Nicholas and Monica aren’t on good terms, I could draw closer to Monica and get her back. Then Greg could use the video to blackmail Nicholas and get the company.
“Where was this done?” she asked, her gaze fixed on the phone.
“In a high-class hotel. He lodged in a room and had sex with another woman on the night of Uncle Karl’s birthday. He cheated on you, Monica. Nicholas isn’t good for you” I replied, and she looked intently at the screen, as if trying to figure out something.
Suddenly, her eyes widened, then she abruptly removed her gaze from the screen and fixed her gaze on me.
“Is this how desperate you’re to separate me and Nicholas?” She asked, staring at me with disgust in her eyes.
“What?” I said, shocked and confused at the same time.
“You’re so disgusting, Ethan. How could you have stooped so low to do this sort of thing? I thought you were more mature than this?” She said, her time steady and sharp as her eyebrows knitted together in a frown.
“No, no, I didn’t do that. It was Greg” I uttered abruptly. My eyes widened in shock as soon as I realized what I just said “Shit” I said, running my hand through my hair, sighing in frustration.
Spitting out Greg’s name just like that means that I just implicated him.
“So you and Greg are now a team? Huh?” She said, then stretched out her hand, gesturing that I took my phone.
“Well I’m sorry to disappoint you Ethan, but the woman in that video is me,” she said, and the little smile across my lips slowly dissipated into thin air.
“What?” I exclaimed, my voice trembling as I gazed at her, not blinking my eyes.
“Yes, Ethan. The woman in that video is me and to think I almost fell for your lies. It’s a good thing I looked closely at that video” she said, staring at me from head to toe in disdain.
“That’s not possible. You weren’t at the party that night” I said, finding her words ridiculous and staring at her in disbelief.
“I didn’t arrive in time, but I was at that party, Ethan. I arrived because of a disturbing call from Anthony, who said Nicholas was behaving strangely and thinking about everything now. It makes perfect sense. You drugged Nicholas and you set him up” Monica said, pointing her index finger at me accusingly.
So all this time, the operation was nothing but a failure. Looking at the video again, I could only see Nicholas’s face because we had instructed the video editor to blur the face of the lady because we thought the woman we had hired for this plan had done her job, but the truth was far from our thoughts.
My left hand trembled by my side as I stood in front of Monica, feeling rejected, mocked, and stupid.
Did the lady Mia hire play a quick one on us? Did she run with the money we paid her? How was it possible that Monica came to the party that night and no one saw her?
These questions filled my mind, but there were no replies. My phone began to vibrate in my hand and, raising the phone to look closely at the screen, I discovered it was Greg calling.
“I’d advise you to stop whatever game you and Greg are trying to play and let Nicholas and I live our lives,” she said, then walked past me into the house with two huge muscular men staring daggers at me and walking closely behind her.
“We were fooled again?” I muttered under my breath as I thought deeply about what might have gone wrong.
“Sir please you can’t go in” A young lady walked behind me as her heels clicked loudly against the tiles.
I paid no attention to her as I pushed the door of Greg’s office open and stormed into his office “We have to talk”, I uttered coldly.
“I’m sorry sir. I tried to stop him from entering, but he didn’t listen to me” the secretary said, her voice trembling.
“It’s okay Hannah. You can go back to your desk”, Greg said, his hand under his chin as he stared back at me, not sparing a glance at his secretary. ” What brings you to my office?”
“The plan failed, Greg. All this while, we thought we had succeeded in getting hold of Nicholas permanently, but we were just
“what do you mean?” Greg asked, clearly confused by what I was saying.
“The plan failed. We hired someone to sleep with Nicholas, but things went south” I said, my nostrils flaring in anger.
Things weren’t going the way we had planned. It wasn’t going the way I wanted, and the worst part is no matter what we did, it was as if someone or something was destroying our plans.
“Explain in simple words, Ethan. You’re beating around the bush” Greg yelled, clearly anxious and curious about what I was saying.
“We succeeded in drugging Nicholas, but we didn’t succeed in the set-up. He had sex with Monica and Monica is the woman in that video.”
“What” Greg uttered shakily, his hand which was formerly under his chin dropping hard on his desk “f**k” he yelled, groaning as he scattered the files which were previously arranged neatly on the table. “How is this even possible? We had this carefully planned.”
“I don’t even know if we were playing or if Mia connived with the lady and took our money. We paid the stripper in full and gave her clear instructions and yet, she didn’t even show up.”
“But I saw her that night,” Greg said, pacing around with his hand on both sides of his waist.
“You did?” I asked, staring at him in disbelief.
“Yes, I did. We had eye contact and I saw her taking the elevator to the floor where Nicholas’s room was” Greg said, his brows knitted together in a deep frown that formed lines on his forehead.