Chapter 13
2092words
I smiled to myself though as I watched the news and reached for my phone to call up William and ask him if he had heard. And then it hit me. He had said something about Keith getting what he deserved. Could he have released the news about Keith's past?
I excitedly dialed him to talk to him,
"Hey, what's up Em?"
"Hi, Will. This was you, uh?" I asked happily, but my question was followed by a stretch of silence,
"I'm not sure I understand you. Care to explain?"
"I mean, the whole Keith thing. He is on the news at the moment and I thought you might have been the one that disclosed the story about his history of assaulting women."
"Oh. I was going to call you about that. But it wasn't me Em."
"It wasn't you?" I asked, suddenly confused.
"No, it wasn’t.” He said and he didn’t sound like he was playing around.
If it hadn’t been Will who went out of his way to do this, then who did?
“Em?”
“Yeah?”
“whoever it was, they definitely have your back."
Yeah, I thought, still confused. I supposed they did.
PARIS's POV
"Sir, we've presented all of the evidence to the police. They are taking legal action as we speak."
I nodded without looking away from the window.
When I saw the video about that lunatic from the banquet harassing Ember again, I wanted to leave everything I was doing and find him and beat him to an actual pulp.
Then I had wanted to call Ember and find out how she was doing.
I wasn't in the position to do either. But being an Alpha was more than just being the strongest of the pack. It also involved being the most resourceful.
And I put my resources to good use.
I found a guy to find out everything about Keith Lancelot, and he discovered quite a number of things. One of them and the most important was the fact that he had a past history of sexually harassing women. These women had been found and reached out to.
The women who came forward to speak about their similar stories of being harassed by Keith were all afraid to tell their stories. However, a couple of hundreds of dollars put their minds at ease.
I didn't bother with disclosing a certain woman he had raped. I didn't think she would want to be disturbed. But I'm sure where she was, she would be glad that the man who raped her was finally exposed and behind bars.
"Sir, is Miss Ember aware that you are going to this lengths for her?"
Only then did I turn to look at my lawyer,
"She isn't. and I'll urge you to keep it this way."
He nodded, "does that mean you still have feelings for her?"
"What?"
"you would go to these lengths just to help her, surely that means you still love her?"
I scrunched up my face in distaste and lied through my teeth, "Stop talking nonsense, will you? I don't have feelings for a bloody omega who doesn’t know what she wants."
But the lawyer only nodded, "Yes. Of course."
I was a liar. But I was a liar who had his dignity in check, I thought as visions of Ember filled my mind.
How are you feeling now, Ember? I thought sadly.
At that moment my phone rang and I looked down at it to see Kate's name.
"You pick the wrong moments," I muttered and left the phone to ring. There was no way I was going to be able to speak to Kate when I was slowly losing my mind over Ember.
EMBER's POV
Life felt good. I hate to admit that Keith was more of a bother to me than I cared to admit. But I sincerely was breathing easier because he was gone.
I got up from my seat and started to prepare for the board meeting that was to take place when a knock came from the door. As the managing director, it was normal to have 'visitors' but I was going to make it a rule that everyone presented not-so-urgent cases to my secretary. I was still somewhat weary of the knocks on my door.
But regardless of it all, I asked the person to come in,
"Good morning," I said watching the woman who wore a tailored suit and skirt and grimaced where she stood at the door.
But Now you see it, don’t you? Now you see my displeasure at all the visits?
"What is fine about the morning?" The woman asked haughtily.
"Excuse me?"
"Do you know who I am?" the woman asked, her cheeks reddened with what I believe was anger,
"As I just began working here, I'm afraid I don't know every employee in this company. Much less their names. How may I help you?"
" You can start by leaving." She snapped. To say I was shocked was putting it lightly.
I tilted my head at the woman. To be honest though, What evil had I done to deserve such hate?
"And why would I do that, Ms.-" I looked at the name tag on her shirt, "Joan?"
"because ever since you got here, all you've caused is trouble. Because of you, our most competent producing director got sacked, and was put behind bars-"
"Now you hold it there," I said, cutting her off. The mere mention of Keith had my blood going hot, "whatever happened to Keith, he brought that upon himself. I will not let you stand there and blame me for anything. In fact, I will not even condone this disrespect from you. Get out of my office." I said and she looked at me dumbfounded,
"What?"
"you heard me. I said get out. If this is how employees in this company disrespect those above them or even the ones who work alongside them, then there is much work to be done about that. And I'll see to it, don't you worry. But for now, get lost." I said mildly, and I watched as she balled her hands into fists.
"you are going to regret stepping your legs into this place."
"no, I think it's you who is going to regret it. Now, leave. I won't repeat myself."
She looked like she had more vengeful things to say, but instead, she jutted out her chin and left.
My hands were shaking and I did my best to steady them before leaving for the meeting.
"Ember, we were just waiting for you, have a seat, so we can begin." the president said,
"I'm sorry for the delay," I said and took my place, only to turn and find none other than Joan shooting death glares at me from across the table we all sat on.
Ah, so she was part of this too.
Not for long, I thought grimly.
"You were all asked to present a plan that would help the financing department manage our budget. Please pass it down to my secretary, and I will review it." the president said at the end of the meeting, and we all were asked to leave.
Joan didn't try to butt heads with me, but I did notice that after I'd submitted my plan, she was looking at me with a menacing smile.
I did try my best to ignore it, knowing fully well I'd handle her soon enough, but something about that smile made my skin crawl.
And sure enough, before the work day ended, the president invited me to his office, and scowled down at me when I entered,
"Sir, is something wrong?" I asked, unsure what I could have done to earn that expression. Or was he too blaming me for what had happened to Keith?
"This plan you submitted today, is it an original?" I looked at him completely dumbfounded.
"Of course, it most certainly is. I worked on it through the weekend."
"Well," he began, drawing out another copy and placing it on the desk, "it is very much like Ms. Joan Kentucky's"
I looked through Joan's folder and was bewildered. How was she able to take my work and make it hers in such little time? It was impossible.
Unless…
I remembered the way she had been smiling mischievously earlier and it clicked. She must have found a way to get it done between then and now. But how?
"Sir, this was given to you right after the meeting?"
He looked at me with that scowl, before shaking his head, "about an hour ago."
That was several hours after the meeting.
"I know this is hard to believe. Me being a new employee and all. But if I can get evidence that this Employee's work is plagiarizing mine…" I said trailing off. His eyes were very searching and made me lose my footing.
“You mean to tell me that ms.Kentucky is actually plagiarizing you?”
I nodded, “I think so and I’ll do my best to prove it.”
He heaved out a breath and nodded, "very well then, You have a day. Then I'll decide what happens next to the both of you."
"Yes sir, thank you." I said, and he dismissed me.
The next day, as I passed through the hallways to get to my office, I could see co-workers giggling and whispering to each other.
I was very sure, I had nothing funny on my face, but I did not fully understand it until I heard someone say,
"I heard the president called her yesterday. She's barely spent two weeks and she's already going to get fired."
"The big announcement will probably happen today."
"that'll teach her to mess with Joan."
I shook my head as I walked into my office. When this was all said and done. There were a lot of people that were getting pulled out of the company.
But at the time, other things took priority, like getting the footage I needed to prove my innocence.
I did get it though. I had to make a stop at the security department once again and the man there was happy to help me.
Once I secured the footage, I wasted no time in getting it to the president,
“I’ll look into it.” He said, his expression indifferent and dismissed right after.
It took a long full hour before the president called for me back to his office and he still had that scowl,
"You asked for me.” I said quietly when I entered his office.
“I did.”
“Well, here I am.” I said awkwardly.
He raised a brow at me, "I see. Very well then. I watched the footage you brought forth. As we all well know, plagiarism is a crime. And a punishable one too. But it's also damn well annoying to the original creators. Are you annoyed, Ember?"
I stared at him blankly for a moment before finally smiling,
"I'm peeved, sir. Very much so.."
“I would be too.” He said and got up from his chair,
“There’ll be a meeting in an hour's time. I expect you to be there… I’ll see you then.”
I nodded, “very well sir. Thank you, for hearing me out at least.”
“That’s fine.”
~~~~
"Well, as you all know the one who presented the best plan is to be rewarded. But while going through your folders, I experienced some complications." The president stated at the start of the meeting when we were all seated.
I watched as Joan looked around as though the news confused her.
"Ms. Kentucky, did you have any aid during the course of creating your plan?" the president asked, and all eyes were on him,
"No sir. I didn't. Is there a problem?"
"Hmm." was all he said and turned to the big screen, picked up a remote, and clicked," Before I say anything else, I'd like for everyone to watch this."
He turned on the tv in the room and scenes from the footage played before us all. Once the video was over, there was awry silence, before Joa spoke up,
"I can explain." she cried,
"Of course you can and you will. you'll get your chance when you face the disciplinary committee. But without wasting any more time. I'd like to announce the winner of the award for the plans you all made." he said and made eye contact with almost everyone in the room.
He was an intimidating man. Perhaps he was an alpha of his own pack.
