An unease settled in Malcolm Meyer’s chest as he leaned back in his office chair, with his left fingers idly tapping against the polished wood of his desk, while his right hand incessantly tugged at the collar of his shirt that continued to feel clammy against his skin.
He had barely slept the night before because sleep evaded him, and as a result of anxiety which clung to the darkest corners of his mind that were entangled in the thoughts of her.
When he arrived home the day before earlier than he usually did because he was bothered, and hoped that Zoe would be home by then already, he noticed that the lights to her mansion had been off. It was not the usual ‘one’ light on, and the rest ‘off’ he usually noticed whenever he was home before he even knew she lived there.
This time, it was completely off. There was darkness everywhere around her mansion, and it was unlike her.
‘Had she even come home at all?’ He wondered endlessly in his heart, seriously bothered that he didn’t see her car leave until he left home in the morning, only to get to the office and meet more problems awaiting him.
The talks of the slush funds they accused him of acquiring had snowballed into something huge because it was like his biggest scandal of all times, and media houses continued to publish news following police investigations.
And yet, amidst the chaos of financial investigations and public outrage, he had only one concern. He was bothered if her sickness hadn’t gotten any worse, and if she was coping well.
‘Was she drowning herself in work again?’ He mulled uncomfortably.
Just as he continued to go through his phone, wondering if he should go with his plan to call and ask if she was doing well, Edward, his assistant, entered his office hurriedly, breathless and agitated.
“What is it again?” His voice cut his steps short at the door.
“Sir…..” he almost stuttered, confused if it was right to even tell him.
“Is it the prosecutor’s office again? Another allegation apart from slush funds?” He questioned languidly without looking up.
“A piece of news has been published this morning, and it is about your marriage that no one has heard of. Someone is raising questions, and it has become an uproar in just an hour. Someone has been digging into your past,” he rushed his words as if he had rehearsed in his head countless times how he would say it.
Malcolm’s heart almost tumbled out the moment he heard that, and his widened eyes which had been so fixated on his phone flashed instantly at Edward in a single movement as his face grew ashen.
“What did you say?” He had to question again to be sure he had heard well, “Someone mentioned Zoe’s name online?!” He demanded, as the tension in his voice sent a chill across the room instantly.
“No. No.. sir,” Edward stuttered as he tried to correct what he said, seeing that Malcolm seemed pissed than he thought he would be, and had given what he said, his own interpretation, “They are just making speculations without knowing who.”
Quickly, he entered and closed the door, as he placed the tablet he was holding before Malcolm so that he could read the articles, forum discussions, and sensational headlines himself, and see that it was just their speculations running wild about who his wife was, and why no one knew her.
However, since it was almost the first time in a long while that the great Malcolm Meyer could be talked about so freely online, some of them began to tag him as an abusive husband, while some speculated that he was probably secretly divorced. Some others dragged his unknown wife through the mud with demeaning allegations.
“I heard Malcolm Meyer is so aggressive and scary. He must have hit her one or two times whenever she pisses him off. Maybe that is why she cannot be seen outside. Her face is probably battered,” one comment read.
“Maybe they are divorced already? They have never been seen together,” another person commented.
“Maybe the marriage news was fake from the beginning though. Because who knows?” Malcolm read another again, his eyes going through more comments like flash.
“Someone told me his mother confirmed it on her birthday that he was married. It is definitely true.”
“But she didn’t forget to mention that he was once married to a woman. It means they are divorced!” Another person who clearly attended the party speculated.
“OMG. Rich people are not good people. They got married without anyone’s knowledge and divorced? I guess he must be a woman-beater as he was rumored to be. Man’s so scary.”
“It’s always these powerful men. Who knows what he did to her behind closed doors?”
As Malcolm continued to read, he managed to keep his rising anger in check, until he started reading the ones that got to his head and made him so enraged.
“If his wife was with a man like him, she must have been just as corrupt and despicable. What kind of woman do you think she was? She is probably just a golddigger too. What do you expect?”
“Women like her always play the victim, but I bet she was just another money grubber. At least she would have gotten alimony after the divorce. Guess we should start suspecting women with the highest amount of assets right now,” one laughed.
“If he used to beat her and she remained, it serves her right for being a fool! She was there for the money.”
“I heard there was a saying that she dazzled everyone with her beauty and charms for months and lied about who she was to people publicly, at Irina Meyer’s birthday. I guess her mother-in-law must have hated her too. Imagine how crazy it must have been!”
“Who is she then? Should we start suspecting every popular woman now? Could be a celebrity or influencer.”
“Does anyone not know anything? Who knows her?”
Malcolm’s eyes narrowed with contempt as he read more, with more anger fueled by what he was reading rising from the deepest pits of his stomach. His breath came out in slow, controlled exhalations, as he suddenly slammed the tablet down on the desk.
“File lawsuits now!” he snapped viciously and rose on his feet as his eyes flashed at Edward instantly, “Every single one of them that spread lies about Zoe should be sued! Every single publication that prints lies about her. Sue them all!”
Edward hesitated for a few seconds, confused about why Malcolm wanted to take action against them when he had asked him not to do anything the previous days, “Should we also clarify the slush funds….”
“Just do what I asked of you!” Malcolm snapped and cut him off, as his eyes burned with something more dangerous than anger, “They can say what they want about my business. But they don’t get to drag her into this. Ever.”
For the first time since the scandal broke, Edward saw something other than cold calculation in his boss’s eyes, and he instantly acknowledged as he left instantly, ready to take action.
‘Prioritizing his ex-wife over his collapsing empire?’ The conflicted assistant couldn’t help but wonder, as he began to make calls to the legal team, ‘Even when financial analysts dissected the ramifications of his legal troubles, and stockholders scrambled for damage control none of it mattered. Only she did. The woman whose name he refused to let be sullied.’