CHAPTER 32
ROBERT’S POV
“What confession are you talking about Frank?” My brows furrowed as I asked.
He looked away in somewhat fear, hesitant to talk. I couldn’t help but notice that colour had drained from his face and his eyes looked like they were on the verge of tears.
Realizing I had to make him feel comfortable to open up to me, I stopped what I was doing and got up from my seat. I approached him like a father to a worried son and held him by the shoulder, reassuring him. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”
He looked back at me but struggled to maintain eye contact and nodded slowly. Whatever was bothering him must be something very serious because, in his nine years of working here, I have never seen him like this. He was an important member of this company. I didn’t want anything that would derail and make him not give his best for the company.
“So then talk to me,” I said gently as I came closer to him, trying my best not to put pressure. “Whatever the problem is, I’ll be more than glad to help…”
“It’s Lily…” His lips quivered as he said her name.
On hearing her name, I suddenly remembered everything she did. Rage coursed through me and I tightened my fist, feeling my veins bulge against my skin. After all these years, that was the last name I expected to hear from his mouth. I didn’t want to hear her name ever again. I didn’t know why everyone around me kept bringing her up like she was some legend. I know she was good at her job but she could die for all I care.
“What about Lily?” I asked nonchalantly and in disgust laced with anger, letting my hand down from his shoulder and looking away.
“She was innocent, Boss, of those accusations that made you fire her from the company in front of everyone. She didn’t do any of that stuff.”
“What?…” I looked back at him in utter disbelief and scoffed, shaking my head. “You must be out of your mind. Seeing you like this, I’m convinced you’re high on something. What did you take before coming here? I don’t know you as someone who messes around with drugs or anything like that.”
Offended, I started making my way back to my seat. He has just succeeded in ruining the rest of my day with this.
“I’m not high on anything, Boss,” he put in a lot of effort in trying to explain. “You’ve got to believe me on this. I’m telling you the truth…”
“The evidence was clear!” I interjected sternly, causing him to flinch and keep his mouth shut. “There is no denying she did all that. She is not innocent. She was a traitor who was working with the enemy to sabotage the company and steal it from me. She deserved everything she got and more. Now if you have nothing else important to say, I ask that you leave my office and don’t bring this matter up ever again.”
Sitting down and adjusting on my seat, I focused my attention on what I was doing before he came in with his nonsense. But I noticed he wasn’t making any attempts to leave my office. I looked up at him from my computer screen with a glare. “What are you still doing here? I said you should get the hell out of my office!” I shouted at him.
“Calm down, Boss. I’m not going anywhere until you hear me out,” he insisted.
His boldness and persistence amused me to an extent. I guess it’s time I called my security to kick him out and suspend him indefinitely from work for disobeying my orders.
“You believed all that because Scarlett made you to,” he said as he approached me, slipping his hand into his pocket to bring out his phone. “For some reason, I couldn’t quite understand but not far from jealousy, Scarlett wanted Lily out of the company. So she asked for my help in hacking into her system a few hours before her conference presentation nine years ago and swapped her slides with all that embarrassing data.”
He played the recording on his phone. It was a conversation between him and Scarlett where she was revealing her plans to him and directing him on how to go about it.
“She also made me forget all those fake documents about those shady phone records and credit alerts from anonymous bank accounts,” He added as the recording finished playing.
His tone fell so did his gaze like one remorseful of his actions. “I’m sorry, Boss but Lily is innocent. She has always been. I never meant to do any of this. I never meant to be the downfall of someone that done nothing bad to me.”
I felt my world spiralling out of control as I tried to wrap my head around everything he just said. All this proves Scarlett was responsible for the company losing that million-dollar worth of deal and brainwashing me into firing Lily one of our greatest assets in the company.
I can’t believe the woman I love and have a child with could do such a thing to me and all these years remained calm about it like nothing ever happened. She made me believe Lily was the enemy lurking in the shadows. She made me believe she was a traitor to the company while it was her. No wonder she has been acting this way ever since she replaced Lily as the chief marketing officer of the company and my personal assistant, her nonchalant attitude and unprofessionalism costing us millions of dollars worth of deals and valuable clients. At this point, I’m convinced her actions are intentional. She wanted the downfall of this company. She wanted my downfall.
“Why?…” Tightening my jaw as regret and anger built up inside me, I lifted my gaze to Frank. “Why did you do this? And why did it take you this long to tell me?”
“She offered to pay me a million dollars if I helped her with it. But she barely paid me a quarter, promising to balance later. Yet whenever I ask her about it, she makes me feel like shit. For the past nine years, I have been at war with myself for what I did to Lily. She didn’t deserve it at all. She was good, maybe too good and one of the company’s greatest assets. I hate myself for what I did. Whenever I remember it, I struggle to sleep at night. I never knew it would have such a disastrous impact on me.”