The President’s eyes flashed red when he heard her silly excuse.
“You don’t know? You turn a meeting into a pornographic cinema and you dare say you don’t know!” He roared angrily as she slammed his hand on the table, making Jade flinch.
Jade saw the way the others were looking at her with disapproving looks and it made her heart pang hardly.
“Ms. Jade I’m sorry I can’t tolerate such kind of behavior–”
“This isn’t me” Jade cried out panicky, interjecting the man. She didn’t want to lose her job. “I didn’t do this, I don’t know how this got there” Jade desperately explained, she was on the verge of tears. She looked from Mr. Simon to Mrs. Lin with desperation, but she lowered her eyes down. She was too embarrassed to even let her gaze linger on them for too long.
The man was about to say something when Mrs. Tracy leaned towards him and whispered something to him. The man narrowed his brows at Mrs. Tracy but she gave him a nod. He turned back to look at Jade who looked like she was about to faint any moment from now.
The man looked at her with angry eyes, before saying, “This meeting is canceled” he declared and angrily stepped out of the office in large strides. The others gave her several weird looks, shook their head disappointedly as they walked out of the room, except Simon who was walking towards her.
“Jade in my office,” Mrs. Tracy said before walking out. Jade looked at the woman’s retreating but didn’t say anything.
“Jade, what Happened? what was that?” Simon hurriedly asked when he approached Jade.
Jade slowly lifted her head to him, her eyes glistening with tears. “I don’t know” She spoke softly, a tear rolling down her cheek. She couldn’t keep it in anymore.
Simon looked at her and he noticed her body was shaking, and he put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. She was stupified by the sudden turn of events. He sighed when he saw her like that. He might not have known her long but he knew how professional and ambitious Jade was. She was too smart and too driven to make such mistakes. Sometimes, one doesn’t need a year to know someone.
He could tell she wouldn’t make such a mistake, such as sabotaging herself in such a grand style, ruining her career which was yet to start.
Something was wrong somewhere.
…..
Jade slowly walked into Mrs. Tracy’s office after leaving the conference room. Mr. Simon had manageably calmed her down and requested her to meet in his office after she had spoken with the vice president. She was shocked to see the president seating across Mrs. Lin’s desk as they both waited for her.
Her heart skipped several beats nervously, and her steps became heavy. She felt her heart fall through her stomach when she met the cold gaze they were shooting at her. She drew air into her lungs to calm herself down. She decided to stay calm just as Simon had advised her to do. Crying wasn’t going to help her at the moment, she had to be strong.
“Sit” Mrs. Tracy ordered coldly. Jade looked from Mrs. Lin to the President, she nervously nodded her head before taking her seat beside the angry boss.
“Tell me what happened in there” Mrs. Lin went straight to the point. She wasn’t the type for dallying.
Jade looked at the woman and slowly shook her head, “I don’t know, I really don’t know. I don’t have such videos on my laptop and neither was there any on the drive the last time I checked. This is a mystery to me” Jade desperately explained. She didn’t know if they would believe her but that was the truth.
“Then can you explain how a por…” The man trailed. He was too angry to even pronounce the words out of his mouth. “How that happened” He demanded angrily. Naturally, he didn’t want to get involved in this, he felt so embarrassed by her unscrupulous act in the conference room and would have left her to the disciplinary committee to handle or worse fire her back there, but Mrs. Lin just had to step in. He had noticed that the vice president was unusually fond of her. He knew she wasn’t the type to form a bond with an employee, but she did with this one, and it had his interest. It made him wonder how a girl who was well spoken of his company could display such a shameful act in an important meeting.
Jade turned to the man, “Sir I didn’t put that video in the drive. That drive was given to me by Mr. Simon and I wouldn’t dare put such videos in it” Jade explained.
“It’s the truth, I really can’t explain how that happened” She added.
“Who else had access to the drive?” Mrs. Lin suddenly asked, earning her a look from the president.
‘What was she insinuating?’
Jade thought about it, for a while before answering, “No one. Mr. Simon had given me the drive and after I made the PowerPoint presentation I made a copy for myself and kept it at the office. I only brought it out from where I left it this morning”
“And did you take a look at it before the presentation?” Mrs. Tracy Lin asked while Jade shook her head.
The president who noticed the way Mrs. Tracy was handling the situation scoffed at the realization of what she was doing. “Are you trying to suggest someone tried to sabotage her?” He gave Mrs. Lin a questioning gaze.
“Sir that’s a possibility” She glanced at him and replied.
Jade who hadn’t thought of that for a second because she was yet to snap herself from the shock of what had happened, narrowed her brows.
‘Could someone had done this?’ She asked herself. If yes, then who?
Her eyes widened when she suddenly remembered something. It was that look on Stephanie’s face back at the elevator.
‘Good luck on that presentation, I hope you have fun on that presentation’ She remembered Stephanie saying that.
‘Was this the fun she was talking about? That evil daughter of Hades! No wonder she had an ominous feeling about her attitude this morning. She should have thought of this.
This was all her doing.
A grim look appeared on her face when this realization dawned on her. Her heart began to pound heavily, her eyes filled with immense anger.
Jade abruptly stood up from her seat and looked at both her bosses.
“I think I know who did it” She suddenly announced.
“Who?” They asked simultaneously.
“Give me four hours and I’ll provide you with the evidence” Jade boldly requested. The president and Mrs. Lin gave her a questioning gaze, but she didn’t say anything, right now there was an angry fire in her eyes and it would consume Stephanie alive. The man looked at Mrs. Tracy quizzically, and she gave him an approving nod.
The man sighed and looked up at Jade. “Fine, you have four hours. If you can provide me the right evidence, I’ll kick whoever is behind this out of my company, I’m tired of all these useless people working in the company” He declared as he stood up and walked towards the door.
He paused and looked back at Jade just as he was about to turn the knob. “Four hours Ms. Peterson, or it’ll be your ass being kicked out of my company,” He said before walking out.
Jade looked at Mrs. Lin who gave her a dismissive nod. Jade bowed slightly and walked out of the office.
Her blood was boiling with anger.. She was going to get that devil and give her the same embarrassment she had endured.
Jade brought out her personal flash drive which she had copied the PowerPoint presentation into and had taken home.
She opened the file and it was intact. There was nothing wrong with it. She opened the flash which she had used for the presentation and indeed that video inside it. Her face contorted into a deep frown. The gloomy look on her face was enough to murder anyone right now.
“Jade you’re back? How did it go?” Sara inquisitively asked the moment she saw Jade. She had walked out of the office and hadn’t been around when Jade returned.
Jade was lost in thought, so much that she didn’t hear her.
Sara looked at what had gotten her attention when she didn’t get a response. She gasped when she saw the video that was paused on the screen. She covered her mouth and looked around to see if she had drawn any unwanted attention to them. She snatched the mouse away from Jade’s hold and closed the tab, making Jade to snap her head towards her, it was only now that she realized someone was standing close to her.
“What is wrong with you? Why are you watching that here?” Sara mouth yelled at her. She didn’t expect Jade to watch such kind of videos at work…..she didn’t expect her to watch such things at all.
“It’s not what you think.” Jade told her disinterestedly, but the girl gave her a skeptical gaze. Wasn’t that what all cuprits say when they were caught red handed?
Jade sighed and turned away. Right now she was really angry and the last thing she needed was someone giving her a dirty look or wanting her to give some sort of explanation.
Sara sighed resignatedly when she noticed the nonchalant gaze Jade had just shot her.
“Look babe I’m not judging” She tried to explain.
“There’s no need. I get it” Jade dismissively said as she swivelled around with her seat, her eyes looking out for something.
“There are no camera’s in this office are they?” Jade suddenly asked, as she continued to look around.
Sara narrowed her eyes at her, was she asking because of the xxx video she had caught her watching. But she didn’t ask, rather she answered, “There are”
Jade suddenly stopped swivelling around and looked at Sara, “There are?” She asked in surprise. She had not paid attention to the camera’s in the office, because she hadn’t had any reason to.
“Yes” Sara replied suspiciously.
Jade abruptly stood up to her feet and started hurrying towards Simon’s office. She had a feeling going with the camera was going to be a wide goose chase but it was worth a try. If Stephanie had really wanted to tarnish her image she would have been meticulous enough to avoid the camera’s. But she still had to try. She had three and a half hour. When she had boldly declared to provide the evidence, she really had nothing in mind.
“Any lead yet?” Simon curiously asked the moment she walked into his office. Jade had informed him she knew who was behind but she was yet to disclose the person’s identity.
“No sir, but do you think you can give authorization to check the CCTV’s” Jade asked. She was sure Simon could help her get authorization to look the CCTV footage.
“I was just going through that already. Come take a look” Simon said. He had already taken it upon himself to look at the footage. What happened at the conference room had not only affected Jade, but also him and the entire team. And if someone had naturally tried to sabotage one of his team members he’d love to personally expose that crazy person.
“Really?” Jade eyes lit up as she approached his desk.
“Yeah” He turned his laptop towards her so she could have a clear view.
“Sir do you think I can get a copy of this” Jade requested.
“Sure” Simon willing agreed and brought out a flash from his desk and made a quick copy for her.
“Thank you sir” She said appreciatively, as she hurried towards the door. She had limited time to find the proofs to prove that idiot was the one behind this. She had not wasted her time to go confront that useless bitch. When she was done finding the right evidence she’d pay a visit.
“Jade” Simon called her. Jade turned to look at him.
“Don’t fret, you’ll be fine. I assure you” Simon told her with an assuring smile. He could tell she wasn’t as calm as her exterior revealed, but she is doing a good job hiding it. Another reason to like her.
“Thank you sir” Jade said and rushed back to her desk. She caught sight of Sara and Julius staring at her as she walked towards the desk. She guessed Julius must have told Sara already, hence the look they were shooting at her right now. She didn’t need to ask how Julius knew. This was a corporation filled with different people, news were meant to spread.
“Jade is it true? Was that why you were looking at that stuff?” Sara asked the moment Jade approached the desk.
“Something like that” She nonchalantly replied.
“But that’s impossible, I watched you make that PowerPoint yesterday before leaving. What could have happened?” Sara asked in unbelief. “I’m sorry for earlier” She quickly apologized when she remembered how she had looked at Jade minutes ago.
“It’s okay. I have to look at the footage.” Jade said as she slot the drive into the system.
“Can I help? Two eyes are better than one” Sara offered.
“Make that three” Julius volunteered his eyes. Jade was moved by their kind gesture.
She looked at both of them and said, “Thanks but you have work right? You don’t want to get scolded for lazing about”
“This is work and I’m sure Simon won’t mind. This affects the whole team, so we can always help” Julius told her. Jade shot them appreciative smiles before turning towards the monitor and they all started going through the camera footage.
After several minutes of looking at the footage, they all had disappointed looks on their faces, because they couldn’t find anything useful in it.
“Whoever did this was smart enough to avoid the camera’s” Julius said.
“So what do we do?” Sara asked in a worried voice.
“I don’t know” Jade hissed out frustratedly.
“Did you find anything?” Jade and co turned to find their boss, Simon standing behind them.
“No sir” They echoed. Simon was about to say something else when one of his team members approached him.
“Sir one of the security men brought something, they said that they saw it outside our office door last night, during their patrol” The young said.
“What is it?” Simon asked.
“A flash”
_______
*Stephanie’s office*
Hysterical sounds of laughter could be heard from Stephanie’s office, as she lolled back on her swivelling seat.
“Who knew it would be that easy” She said amidst laughter, as she threw her head backward and bellowed out another round of laughter.
“This is too good. Poor thing” She tsked.
“Who knew a mere video would bring her down? I should have thought of this way before now….. What a shame, I had to wait so long. Let’s see what the Jake will think when he gets to know how his stupid girlfriend has embarrassed herself at the company” She rupt out another fit of laughter.
“This is too good, I finally got to you Jade Peterson” She cackled hysterically.
WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 24
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