CHAPTER 10
LILY’S POV
Robert came closer.
Though I was crumbling on the inside, I strengthened and braced myself for whatever scolding I might receive. If he could lash out at me the way he did when Scarlett lied that I had hit her on the stomach, who knew what he could do now that I accused her of something this serious?
“Lily…” He pronounced.
I know I wasn’t supposed to feel this way now but the way he called my name ignited a spark I didn’t know existed inside me for some time now.
I took in a deep breath, trying to maintain my feeble control as I waited for whatever it was he had for me.
I realized that no matter how much he pissed me off or how far he pushed me away, no matter what he did to me, I still… loved him. I can’t help loving him and I can’t stop loving him. I hate him for everything he’s doing to me. I hate him for not noticing me since high school. I hate him for seeing me as nothing more than his secretary and a wife to please his grandpa. Despite all that, I love him because of how much he meant to me. Because of how he makes me feel. I love him for countless reasons I can’t even pinpoint. I was a fool for him. And I hated that. I hope that one day I’ll find the courage to finally get over him. But I fear that day might never come.
“Tell me this isn’t true,” he said with a distinct tightening of his jaw. It quivered with a feeling I couldn’t quite decipher.
The intensity of his tone and the sharpness in his gaze immediately pulled me in, grabbing my attention intensely. A sense of unease crept over me, and I couldn’t shake off the feeling that something serious had happened.
“What?…” I asked cluelessly, trying to understand what he was talking about. Understand what was happening. My heart was racing. So was my mind. What have I done now? “What isn’t true, Robert? What are you talking about?”
He exhaled sharply, his anger palpable, and without a word, tore open the top of the envelope. I watched with a mix of suspense and intense curiosity as he brought out a single sheet of paper and thrust it forward to me.
Hesitantly, I took it and went through it. My brows furrowed deeply as I couldn’t quite wrap my head around what I was looking at. In the paper were phone records, numbers, and dollar signs that seemed like credit alerts and transactions from unknown bank accounts.
“So what Scarlett said was true, uhhh?”
I lifted my eyes from the paper to him, blinking severally as I was more confused than ever. “What are you talking about Robert? What did she say? I don’t understand any of this. What is all this? Who gave it to you?… what’s going on?”
“In that paper are lists of the phonecalls you made to numbers that didn’t have caller IDs and were untraceable along with credit alerts you received from anonymous bank accounts,” he explained and I couldn’t help but notice he was looking at me like I was some kind of criminal. “At this point, I’m convinced you are trying to rat us out to the enemy. Scarlett was right. It all makes sense now. You’re the traitor we have in this company, aren’t you? You’re trying to sabotage us, steal my company from me. How could you Lily? After everything I have done for you? Don’t I pay you more than enough for you to want to destroy us like this?”
“What?” My eardrums slammed hard against my skull and my lips fell open in shock over what he just revealed. I was so phased out I momentarily lost my ability to think and form words.
After I finally got a hang of myself, I managed my voice “… This is absurd. There is no way you can believe any of this. Listen to me Robert, I’ll never do anything to hurt you or the company. I care about it as much as you do… I swear with everything in me. This is a setup. Everything in this paper was made up by someone who wants to take me down. I have never received such an obscene amount of money from any anonymous bank account before, and nor have I made any calls to reveal any confidential information to the enemy. After all these years I have been working for you, you still don’t trust me? Were you secretly investigating me? Did you do this Robert?… Or was it Scarlett?…”
With everything in me, I tried to explain myself to him but he wasn’t giving me the listening ear. It was as though his mind was made up, blocking away everything I was saying to him. When I noticed his reluctance to reveal who could have presented him with such fake evidence and his reaction when I called Scarlett, I was convinced it was none other than her. She must have paid a tech genius to set this all up and perhaps hack into my system to swap my slides
for those sex memes and porn adverts. How unbelievable.
“Scarlett did this, right?” I pressed on, genuinely begging him to open his eyes and see the bigger picture. “Can’t you see, Robert? She’s doing all she can to sabotage me to get you to fire me. She’s brainwashing you into hating me…”
“Enough!” He snapped, causing me to flinch as tears watered my eyes. “You are always blaming other people for your mistakes, pointing fingers when you know very well you’re the one at fault. It’s pathetic and immature. I have had just about enough of you. It doesn’t matter where I got all that info from. The important thing here is that it serves as evidence of the kind of person you truly are and your intentions for this company. You are a traitor Lily, a backstabber, you’re ungrateful and you can’t be trusted anymore. Thank goodness I found out about this on time otherwise you would have been the downfall of this company.”
His harsh words and accusations daggered me. They battered and bruised me, causing more tears to well up in my eyes.
“Robert please, you have to believe me on this…” my shaky voice managed as I pleaded. “I didn’t do it.”
He observed my miserable state for a moment. I noticed the hardness in his eyes was somehow softening. I could tell he was starting to pity me, not in a bad or condescending way but in a way that suggested he knew there was no way I could have done all this. He wanted to reconsider. But quickly, as though something else took hold of him, he clenched his jaw and whipped his face away, warding off any emotion.
He pulled the door open and with a cold voice called the security.
At this point, there was no use trying to explain myself to him again. His mind has already been overfed with all the lies Scarlett cooked up. And if I continued, he’d only say more hurtful things to me. I can’t bear it anymore.
It didn’t take more than five seconds for the two buff security men who usually paraded the company’s building to appear, ever ready to carry out their boss’s command.
“Throw her out!” Robert ordered sternly, directing them to me.
They wanted to grab my arms and lift me off the floor but I didn’t let them.
“Don’t touch me,” I said firmly, resisting their touch. “I know my way out.”
Wiping the tears that stained my cheeks and stifling a heavy sob, I gathered the remaining dignity I had left and went to pack my things from my desk, after which I left. The entire company seemed to turn its back on me as I did.