**One month later** Arielle woke up late. She had slept past 3 am after completing the report she wanted to discuss with Thomas that day. It was Friday, and she wanted to get some things out of the way before she could relax for the weekend. Arielle had the unhealthy habit of being too engrossed in her work and forgetting about her health and everything else. The more work there was, the more she would work off on adrenaline, making herself extremely tired by the end of each grueling project. She shut her eyes as she leaned in the elevator and yawned behind her palm. She was aware of the people looking at her wide-eyed as if she were an alien. Arielle could feel a few unfriendly gazes on her, but she ignored them. She had almost two decades of experience in ignoring hostile looks. However, what prompted her to open her eyes a crack was a feeling of someone stealing peeks at her as if she was a precious treasure, and they were afraid of disturbing her. She ignored that as well
**Three months later** Thomas and Arielle were living in their high. Their work was going exceedingly well. They were practically living together. No one knew of the secret fling. They were happy and content with each other. However, the company was in chaos. Arielle was good at her job. She had accurately flagged most of the employees hired through back-doors - using connections or due to sucking up to others, rather than their workability. She had, similarly, flagged troublesome projects likely to end up as a liability. There were a lot of peaceful and forced exits and contract breaches in the last three months. That led to a series of unrest among the employees. The internal stir and tense environment had Arielle and Thomas cracking their heads. It was evident that people were let go due to their incompetence. As such, people hired on merit and doing their work well need not have panicked, but unfortunately, that was not the case. Arielle suspected that someone could be
Arielle was leaning against the counter while her espresso brewed when Emma arrived. “You! Make me a cup of coffee!” Emma ordered Arielle like she would order her servants at home. For Emma, her employees were nothing better than her servants. Being the oldest child, the only child for the first five years, and the only girl in the family, she had been excessively spoiled. No one in her family corrected her attitude as it went from bad to worse as PGI flourished. Emma’s grandmother was the only one who would not tolerate her behavior, even with her husband speaking on behalf of the kids. Perhaps, Emma and Thomas had different personalities despite being siblings because of their grandmother. Thomas had stayed with his grandparents since he was young because he disagreed with his elder sister, which led to constant fights. Emma would avoid anyone in the family who tried to discipline or contradict her. Hence, Thomas lived with his Grandma rather than his parents. Arielle ignore
Seeing Sophia coming toward them, Arielle smiled at Thomas and said, “Go take a long piss or something!” Thomas was dumbfounded. “Excuse me!” Arielle said without changing her expression, “I see Sophia Green making her way here. Let me talk to her in private.” Thomas frowned but did not turn his head. He left after saying, “Whatever she says, don’t take it to heart. I will give you an explanation later.” Arielle frowned but nodded before he left. Arielle acted unconcerned and started playing with her phone as if she had not seen Sophia. “May I take this empty chair?” Sophia asked, emphasizing the word empty. Without waiting for a reply, she took Thomas’s chair and tea as if she was marking her territory. Arielle kept her phone aside and said coldly, “Miss Green, I have company as should have been evident by the teacup on the table and the coat hanging on the chair.” Sophia sneered aloud, “Miss Ward, why are you so hostile towards me? I am here to offer an olive branch.” Arie
**Three weeks later** Arielle had all the proof to sue both Emma and Sophia. When she was about to take action, Thomas’s mother, Emelia Payna, approached her. It derailed her plans. Emelia threatened to make her disappear if found entangling with Thomas, who was due to marry Sophia. Arielle waited for two weeks for an explanation from Thomas, but he did not say a word. Thomas merely explained that Sophia was the girlfriend he had at college, the one who had tried to use him without knowing his identity. Thomas had assured Arielle that he did not have any feelings for Sophia, he had not had any in years, and Sophia was nothing to him. But he could tell something was bothering Arielle. His worries came true when he arrived in her apartment to see candlelight dinner, wine, and a table full of his favorite dishes. “What’s wrong?” He asked straightaway. “It’s scary how well you know me,” Arielle laughed bitterly. “El, what is it?” He panicked. “Let’s break up!” She said, looki
**Two weeks later** The second last Monday of Arielle’s contracted time in PGI proved to be a difficult one. Emma and Sophia had managed to collate some ‘evidence’ against Arielle and were determined to push her to the abyss. As soon as lunch break started, the main LCDs on the reception hall and the cafeteria blew up. A video, composed of a few small clips strung together, was played in a loop. Emma and Arielle were having an altercation in the break room that ended with Emma dumping hot coffee on Arielle. Arielle left the office without informing anyone. Since there was no audio, people only saw Arielle ignoring Emma and being disrespectful. Emma was, after all, a Payne, former CEO of PGI, and current Managing Director. Arielle was just a specially recruited contracted employee. Worse still, she seemed to be dating the CEO, sleeping her way to the top. The next video showed Sophia apologizing and begging Arielle while the latter only had a disdainful, indifferent expression
Arielle spent the entire week drowned in insults and jabs aimed at her, but she was too busy to care. A few people were in awe of her indifference and ability to endure. While a bunch of people thought she was too shameless to care. The majority, however, kept their opinions to themselves. Unbeknownst to them, Arielle was listening to everyone and keeping note of overly verbose people. A part of her job was cleaning the company, which meant she had to root out the bad apples. This rumor had helped Arielle by creating an environment of conflict. It was a chance to evaluate people’s characters. Arielle disliked people who thrived on gossip and other people’s misery without empathy or remorse. She would include them on her list of toxic people ruining the work culture. It was up to Thomas what he wanted to do with them. Finally, the day of the banquet came. Arielle showed up with a date who happened to be the man whose hotel room she had entered in one of those videos. It thr
The hall was still silent as everyone processed what was going on. Arielle, the one slandered the entire week, was friends with Evan, the top jewelry designer of Soul Jewelry, the most unique and best jewelry brand in the world. She had purchased a 10 million dollars worth of necklace for her 5-year-old goddaughter. Emma Payne and Sophia Green, the rich kids born with silver-spoon, were involved with the case of fake jewelry and bribing and threatening. Emma recovered and threw the necklace at the floor, which not unexpectedly broke to reveal a small chip with a glowing red dot. Sophia was shivering and looked ghastly. As if on cue, a police officer, accompanied by the manager, came looking for Miss Sophia Green. Arielle interjected as Sophia started to make a scene. “Officer, why don’t you have dinner and wait for a while? I also have to sue Miss Green. It might save time for you as well. Please!” Arielle said respectfully. The officer nodded, and the manager himself brought