Erased

CHAPTER 117
LILY’S POV
~ “Wait, Lily. I know another way.”
I turned to face him, my brows pulling in. What other suggestion did he want to make again?
“Let’s…” he hesitated as though this was hard for him to say. “Let’s move out of the country.” ~
“Uhh…” My brows knitted together as I stared at him in confusion. He never ceased to amaze me with his ideas. First, he proposed hiring an assassin to take out Robert. Second, to drag the matter to court and now to fly out of the country. I was starting to think he was taking this too far.
“Yes…think about it,” he was almost hysterical as he moved out from the table and approached me. “You, me and the kids, just the four of us. We can move to Africa or to some quiet luxurious island nation where Robert would never think of finding you and slowly rebuild our lives there.”
He seemed excited as he said that almost as if this was some breakthrough idea that could make a difference. I don’t think I have seen that kind of look on his face before.
“I don’t know, Noah,” I let out a sigh, seeming unsure because this was just too much for me to take in. “Moving out of the country and starting over can be incredibly daunting.”
“Come on,” he pressed on. “We can do it. Together, we can do anything.”
With the kids and I moving out of the country with him and staying with him, it seemed like he was part of the family. I had thought about leaving the city or country severally times before but when I considered the inconveniences and difficulties that came along with it, I had to think again. Even though the kids love him, I don’t think they will like the idea because they have slowly built their lives here.
“The company, Noah…what about the company?” I asked. “Who will look after it while we are gone?”
“That’s not a problem,” he brushed it off with an easy smile. “I’ll find someone I trust to do that or even sell it. When we get to our new destination, I’ll use that money to set up a bigger company for the two of us to manage.”
Obviously, he had everything planned out. If I should say yes right now, I know he’ll start making preparations immediately. He seemed so happy I didn’t want to ruin it. If I should say no, that’ll break his heart and make it clear our relationship was one-sided because he has been doing his best to help out and make good offers but I kept rejecting them.
“I’ll think about it,” I said, managing a smile since I couldn’t say yes because I needed time to process it or no because I didn’t want to break his heart. “I’ll tell the kids about it so I can know what they think.”
“I’m pretty sure they’ll love the idea,” he said excitedly. “Kids love going on trips.”
He didn’t seem to have a problem with my response. Inwardly, I breathed out in relief for that. I had thought he’d have that disappointed look on his face which he’d try so hard to hide like when I turned down his marriage proposal.
“I better head back to my office,” I said, feeling a little nervous. “I have taken much of your time already.”
“No problem.” He smiled warmly.
I turned towards the door, about to take my leave when he called me back, saying something important he forgot to mention.
“Before I forget, the managing director of AllClear-the skincare brand we’ve partnered with-is ready to review your ideas for the commercial. Please email your pitch to him and also forward it to me. Once it’s approved, we’ll start making arrangements to hire models and shoot the commercial.”
“Alright.” I gave a firm nod and headed out of the office.
After we got that deal a few weeks ago and had a meeting with the owners of the brand, I began working on the pitch as quickly as possible. My ideas were spectacular and I was positive they’d like it. All I just had to was proofread and make necessary adjustments if any before sending.
AllClear offers a wide range of skincare products, from gentle cleansers to advanced anti-ageing creams. They’ve been a major player in the industry for quite some time now, so partnering with them was a huge deal. Positive reviews online from people who have used their products encouraged me to try them out and I wasn’t disappointed. I used their sunblock cream, and it works wonders on my skin. I’ll definitely recommend it to any woman who wants a breakthrough on her skincare journey.
In my office, I sat on my seat and pulled open my laptop, excited to review the pitch before sending it to Noah and the managing director. I navigated to my work folder, the one where I kept all my files and pitch ideas and clicked it open. However, my heart dropped to my stomach when I saw the folder was empty. Every document, every note, and every file related to work was gone.
I clicked through other folders, but nothing was there. I couldn’t seem to understand what was happening as I was almost caught in a panic attack. I blinked several times and put on my glasses to make sure I was seeing correctly. I even had to reboot the system. Yet, it kept showing me the same thing. Everything was gone. It was as if someone gained access to my system and erased all my work.
I sat back in my chair. Shock filled me and my mind raced as I tried to understand what had happened. What went wrong? I couldn’t believe that all the hours I had spent on the pitch, all the late nights and hard work, had simply vanished from my computer like it was never even there.
The fault couldn’t be from my side because I could never do something like this even if it was a mistake. On days I couldn’t complete work in my office, I carried my system home to finish it. But since last week, I haven’t carried it home. I had left it in my office which I made sure to lock on leaving.
The cleaning lady couldn’t have done something like this. She didn’t have any reason to. She hadn’t cleaned my office in about a week now as I kept it clean always. Plus, she was almost reaching retirement age. There was no way she could be perfect in operating a computer.
Memories of what in the past came crawling back like a nightmare. I remember working hard on assembling my slides and preparing for the presentation only for Scarlett to sabotage it on D-day. That disaster hit the company hard, and Robert ended up firing me. I can’t let that happen again, especially now that I’m in such a top position.
My heart was ramming in my stomach and tears were welling up in my eyes. I was taking deep breaths not to let them get the better of me. I quickly grabbed the telephone and dialled the company’s security line.
Once the call went through, I didn’t wait for him to say something as I quickly spoke.
“Tony, please I need you to check the security footage of my office from last week till now and let me know if there was anybody that entered without my knowledge.”
“Okay…” He sounded confused at the rush of my words. “Give me a minute.”
I heard the clacking of a keyboard in the background. I waited in silence. Tony was head of security, responsible for overseeing the installation of CCTV cameras in the company and monitoring the footage.
Moments later, he came back on the line. “Mrs. Jones, I have gone through all the footage of your office and can confirm there was no unauthorized entry. I’ll send it to you so you can see for yourself.”
I didn’t wait for him to finish as I put the telephone back into the casing. I glanced around helplessly, feeling the tears I was holding back trail down my cheeks. Sooner or later, Noah will come asking why I hadn’t sent the pitch to him. What do I tell him? What do I do now?