Birthmark
Emma.
When we got to the pack house, Zane gave me my phone back and I was able to talk to my family. I told them I was fine and on vacation. I stayed at the pack house for a full week, getting to know everyone and enjoying Zane’s company. His family was great and it was heart-breaking to see them looking so sad as they buried their father. Zane told me everything that had happened and I told him he should have told me earlier. I would have been more understanding. He didn’t agree.
I began to prefer pack life over my lone metropolitan independent lifestyle. The whole pack was like one huge family and everyone loved and supported each other. It was so nice to see and experience. I felt like I had been given another family. I enjoyed the stay there to the point that I didn’t want to leave. But Zane insisted it was important for us to go and see how things were running at the company. Although he was getting updated every day, he wanted to go there and ensure that what was being forwarded to him was accurate.
I had been talking to Birthmark, the private investigator I hired. He was a very good hacker. After seducing Kim at a club, he had been invited to spend the night with her. When she slept off, he got to work and got into her phone. He sent himself all the compromising videos and photos Kim had and then deleted them from her phone and cloud storage. Some were stored on her email. Birthmark managed to delete all of them before leaving.
When I got to Sunham, I met up with birthmark and he told me about the videos and photos. It appeared she was blackmailing both the COO and human resources officers at Milner Inc. she had compromising videos of them. I realised that it was how she managed to get her way. Those men were too scared of the videos coming out.
Birthmark sent me the relevant videos and I went to the COO.
“Good afternoon, Miss Bennett.” Mr. Harlow said. “I’m surprised to see you here.”
“I can imagine you are,” I said, looking directly at him. “You’ll be even more surprised by what I have to tell you.”
He studied me for a few seconds. “What could that be?”
“I could show you a video, pictures or recordings but I’ll save you the embarrassment.” I said, pausing for a while. “Do you understand what I’m talking about?”
His head tilted a little. “Go straight to the point. I don’t have all day.”
“Neither do I. I know why you fired me.”
“I told you why.”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “I mean the real reason not those lies you told everyone.”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” he says. He was playing dumb but that was okay.
“Should I refresh your memory? There’s hotel and in that room are two people. One is a COO of one of the biggest insurance companies in this city. The other is the assistant to one of his employees. These two people-”
“Stop,” he almost yelled. “How did you know that?”
“I have everything that Kim used to blackmail you,” I told him.All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.
“How did you-”
“I have my sources,” I interrupted. “What I want to know is why you’d chose me to take your fall. You fired me to save yourself and didn’t have the courtesy to tell me what was going on. We could’ve made a plan to trap her but you chose to let her into the company, knowing she could destroy it. I once had respect for you but now, I’m not even sure if I want to work here anymore.”
“You have to understand. I had to save my family. She was going to pretend it was rape and I’d go to jail for that. I didn’t care about myself but what would happen to my family.”
“You mean the family you don’t care about? If you had any love for your family, you wouldn’t go around sleeping with any woman that came your way. Didn’t you have any shame? Didn’t you think about your wife, children? How would they feel if they knew how much of a moron their father is?”
“You can’t come here to judge me so stop talking like that.”
“Why shouldn’t I? You have done wrong. You fired me unfairly. I think I have the right to point that out in whatever tone I want. I’m a good person Mr. Harlow but I’m not stupid and I’m not afraid to inform you that I have those videos. I can use them if I want. I could’ve gone to the police but I came here so we can work this out. You better be careful how you treat me.”
By the time I finished speaking, Mr. Harlow’s lips had parted and he was staring at me. He had never seen me speak with so much anger before. Usually, I kept my anger inside and don’t show it especially at work but this was too much. This man didn’t seem sorry about what he did to me even though I was trying to help him. With these videos and photos, I could get him into so much trouble but I chose to talk to him. I wanted us to find a way for Kim to get out of the company, without her having the ability to sue us. We couldn’t use this evidence because Harlow would be in trouble. We needed more and Birthmark had said I just had to give him more time.
“I’m truly sorry, Miss Bennett. Please forgive me. I’m glad you chose to come here so we can decide on the best possible course of action. I can promise you that you’ll get your job back when all this is over. Infect I’d already recommended you to a few of my friends but I’ll make sure you stay here. You’re a valuable-”
“Let’s not go to that. I need to go to the children’s center right now. I’ll give you the number of the man who helped me. Call me after speaking to him so we can come up with something.”
Right outside Harlow’s office, I meet Harry who was heading to the boardroom.
“Hey,” he stopped, looking at me sheepishly.
“Hi,” I smiled, not wanting to remember that I had turned him down after he helped me so much. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do for him. I had fallen in love with someone else.
“I want to talk to you. Do you think we can get some and go out for coffee, maybe?”
“Sure, when?”
“Hey,” Kim had somehow reached where we were without me noticing. “It’s your turn to make a presentation and everyone’s waiting. Could you please hurry?”
“Give me a few-”
“Don’t worry,” I raised my hand. “I was just leaving. Please go make your presentation.”
“But-”
“We’ll talk later,” I said, walking away.