Chapter 12 - Phony

A short while later, Patricia was in front of her as she stood up and moved toward the door. Patricia opened the door silently, her head bowed and her hands shaking. Bernard was standing there waiting for her, he tried to grab her attention by looking up at her, but she completely disregarded him. As he watched her walk down the corridor, his shoulders slightly sagged. Lifting his shoulders, he got ready for his meeting with the CEO. He put on his signature charming smile like a thick coat of makeup and donned confidence like a coat as he walked up to the door and repeatedly knocked then waited for a response before entering.

" Don't you realize that keeping me waiting is rude?"

Elnora raised her attention to him and remarked with an expressionless face, "As you know Mr. Newman, I'm a very busy person."

Pointing to the seats in front of her desk, she said " please have a seat"

Bernard was absolutely caught off guard, but he immediately regained his composure and took his seat. Elnora concentrated her gaze on Bernard, who was mesmerized by her, and sat back in her chair as she spoke.

Her tone was both serene and authoritative. " if you are a true journalist, you should have known not to publish such a story without adequate evidence or inquiry. "You do realize, Mr. Newman, that I have the right to sue you for defamation of character and libelous comments. I firmly believe that the press does not operate solely on hearsay."

Bernard grinned, imitating her attitude, and said in an equally confident voice, "But, Miss Smith, you haven't sued me yet that implies I'm on to something, and this meeting alone demonstrates that, " there is no smoke without a fire, Miss Smith." he added after pausing briefly to gauge her response.

"You are not worth the stress Mr. Newman," Elnora remarked with a smile that conveyed strength and control.

Her statement stung. She probably didn't know anything about him or his past, and she was probably not intending for it to sound the way it did but to Bernard, it felt like she did. It felt like she was alluding inadvertently to his downfall and financial difficulties with her statement. Without saying a word, he stared at her. He didn't want to lose his composure or his grip on the subject, so he was going to find a way to make Miss Smith's fake smile disappear.

" That's because you do have something to hide and a lawsuit would attract the attention of the media and they would do a lot of digging and whatever you're trying to hide would suddenly be blown wide open. You're no different from the CEOs of companies like BlackRock, The Vanguard Group, and even the founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto; do you even know what that name means? It means a cleaver middle man and that Miss Smith is who I believe you are."

He finally replied. He closely observed Elnora's every motion and tried to judge her reaction, but she was so composed that she didn't flinch or twitch.

" Are you here to lecture me using nothing more than conjecture? I believed you to be a journalist, and as far as I'm aware, Mr. Newman, journalists dont just report purely speculative ideas. I didn't bring you here to argue with you, this is not a superiority contest and I'm not trying to determine who has bigger balls in this battle. Mr. Newman..."

" wow street lingo, where did you learn that Miss Smith, your previous life? Is that what you're trying to conceal ? " Bernard interrupted, with a wide smile.

Elnora sighed "you are embarrassing yourself Mr. Newman, you sound like a child, who is willing to do anything to get what he wants, even if it does not make sense. "

"I thought I already made it plain, I do want to get something, and that is, whatever you are trying to conceal and I know I am on the right path... Unless... You want something else Miss Smith," he said with a suggestive smile.

He was aware that he needed to come up with a new strategy, and putting on his usual charm was the next best thing but he was, unfortunately, setting a trap for himself and gradually falling into it.

Elnora smiled and for a moment, he believed he was making headway as he sat back and waited for her to respond. “ If this is how you flirt with every woman you're sleeping with right now, then I'm certain they're dumb. Did you think you will just walk into my office and into my heart with ease? Mr. Newman, you have no shame, Patricia was just here and you still have the audacity to do this?" She said in a cold menacing tone.

Bernard was lost for words, his face went pale, he was parplexed but, refusing to be defeated he immediately attempted to regain his composure and responded, nearly stammering "I...I have no idea what you're talking about Miss Smith"

He sat upright and straightened his suit.

He was terified and Elnora could see the fear in him, she was relieved to have gotten him where she wanted. She smiled and slide the same set of pictures she had shown to Patricia" I knew you'd say that Mr. Newman, what do you have to say about these then? Scanning through the pictures he was aware he had been caught.

Lying or attempting to talk his way out of this wouldn't help him, but he still had a few tricks up his sleeve, and he wasn't going to let her win. " Are you trying to blackmail me miss Smith ?" He asked.

Elnora was shocked, her face had abruptly gone icy, not out of fear but out of fury and irritation. She was staring at him with an expression that was impossible to decipher . She was losing patience with this so-called journalist and she could no longer hide her irritation behind a smile.

" Assuming I did date all these women or slept with them, they're nothing but pawns in my chess game to get to you My queen, stepping stones to get to the real prize at the top. These..." He said gesturing to the pictures on the desk " can do nothing to me, I'll only weave a beautiful story out of it, after all, that's something I'm good at" he said with a wink.

Elnora resisted the overwhelming urge to smack him across the face. She let out a loud breath as she watched the triumphant smirk on his face. " Flirting with the receptionist was also a way to get to me right?"

Though surprised, he put on another flirtatious smile and said" of course your majesty"

"that just makes me cringe, Mr. Newman. Your acting is so bad it makes my skin crawl. You're a bigger liar than I thought. Can you say all these to their faces? He remained silent so she continued " I squandered my time by setting up this meeting. The past few minutes was a complete waste of time. However I would advise you to stop whatever it is you think you're doing. it's pointless and you're just propagating misinformation.”

Elnora stood up and walked over to the door before turning around to say, " actually this wasn't that bad..."

Bernard, who was already feeling dejected, smiled at this remark , little did he know that smile would quickly fade. He turned in the direction of Elnora, who held the door open, his face turned pale as Patricia Johnson walked back in; her tear-stained face had disappointment written all over it. Her eyes held Bernard's and in them was betrayal and hurt; it appeared as though something in her had cracked Bernard tried to speak but no words came out, he tore his eyes from hers, the intensity of her gaze was starting to burn him. He looked from Elnora who had her arms crossed, a victorious smirk playing on her lips, to Patricia.

Then a whisper was heard " I listened to everything.... I heard all you said. She went silent for a few minutes, then she abruptly yelled, "Why?", Why did you use me ?", He said nothing.

Slowly lifting himself to his feet, he stuttered "B..baby" but immediately bit his tongue as Patricia charged at him, slammed her hands on him and beat him, pounding her fist on him as he shielded himself from her blows, "my life was fine before you came in, I had a job, why did you have to ruin me?" She shouted as she continued beating him.

Elnora walked past them, nonchalantly picking up the telephone, and called for security while she watched. A few minutes later, security arrived and Bernard was escorted out of her office, while a distraught Patricia was being calmed by the receptionist.

Before leaving the office with the receptionist, she collected herself and apologized to Elnora.

" Well that was interesting” Elnora said once her office door was closed but she didn't relax. She quickly requested the technical team to conduct a thorough bug sweep of her office and sure enough, they found not one but two listening devices. As she toyed with the devices between her fingers an elaborate plan crept into her mind and a huge smile spread across her face.