05: No place for you

•Odette•

‘I’ve fantasized about popping your cherry since I was in college.’

Draven’s words from last night replayed in my head as I stepped out of my car. I walked from the underground parking lot to get to the main office building of ‘Eve’, my family’s company.

I hadn’t slept well last night. Draven was all I thought about. Heck, I even dreamt about him.

Why would he be fantasizing about fucking me? We didn’t even know each other in college. He was in his senior year while I was a freshman. How could he have noticed me?

Unless, of course, he knew me before then. Maybe he had noticed me from the tight knit gatherings that the boastful parents of the Upper East liked to force their kids to attend.

Even at that, he should have no business thinking about me. No business wanting to… fuck me.

I had refused him vehemently last night and stormed out of the private room without giving him more time to continue saying filthy things.

I shook the thought off my head as I strutted down the clean white tiles of the office, replying to the greetings of all those who walked past me.

It was a fine morning today. I shouldn’t let a psycho’s depraved desires faze me or distract me from doing my best.

I stepped into the executives' lift and set it to take me to the third highest floor where my office was located. It wasn’t long before the lift came to a stop with a ding sound.

The doors opened and a loud drilling sound welcomed me.

“What the hell?” I covered my ears with my fingers as I got off the elevator.

Even with my covered ears, I could still hear drilling noises, along with hammering and other construction sounds that I couldn’t decipher.

This floor had the offices of the top creative designers of the company. We were only six, including me. I knew for a fact that each of us hated loud noise. So what was going on here?

I walked deeper into the floor, using my eyes to search the offices for my colleagues. The walls were made of glass here, so the offices were see-through.

My own office was the last around the corner down the hall. On my way there, I found no one in their offices. So where the hell were these sounds coming—

I came to a sharp stop when I saw construction workers breaking down the walls of my office. What the hell…

It took a full second for me to wrap my head around what was going on before I marched forward with adrenaline coursing through my veins like there was no tomorrow.

“Who are you people and what are you doing to my office!?” I barked a demand, drawing the attention of a handful of men.

They stopped what they were doing to look at me, the source of the demand. They briefly stared without any regard for my identity, then turned back to what they were doing.

“Is there something wrong with you people? I just asked who you—”

“It’s so noisy…” A soft voice amidst the loud noises rang out.

The rest of my words flew out of my mind. Hives broke out on my skin as I saw the owner of the voice.

Silver walked out from the inside of the office, removing her earplugs. Then she signalled the men to take a break before advancing towards me.

Why… was she walking out of my office?

She was wearing a light pink formal jumpsuit and her straight brown hair was done in a high ponytail. She smiled ‘kindly’ as she reached me.

“Good morning, sister. What are you doing here? Didn’t you get the memo?” She cocked her head one side as she spoke.

I didn’t respond to her greeting, cutting straight to the point. “What memo? Does it have anything to do with these men breaking down my office walls?”

Silver’s brows furrowed. Her lips pulled to a pout as she said, “Don’t you mean my office? It’s not yours anymore.”

A ringing sound blasted in my ears. It was completely mentally set. I tried to act refined, civilized. I tried to compose myself so I wouldn’t behave in an unbecoming manner.

I was trying so hard.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked slowly.

“Daddy said I could pick any office I wanted in the company. The location of yours suited my taste very much. But it was too small for me. So I’m extending it to cover half the floor.” Silver explained with a coy voice.

“There’s not gonna be enough space for the other designers if you take half the floor…” I mumbled my thoughts aloud.

“Oh no. There’s gonna be space for them. They all agreed to the reduction in size to their offices. The only person there’s not gonna be space for is…” Silver tapped on her chin for a second, then her eyes went bright. “... You!” She pointed.

“W-what?” I stuttered.

All this while, there had been a smile on Silver’s face as she spoke. But the moment I questioned her, the smile vanished. She closed the distance between us and the mood shifted.

“Don’t you get it, sister?” She pronounced the last word like it was a curse. “There’s no place for you in this company nor the Valmont family.”

My throat went completely dry as my light brown eyes locked into her striking crystal blue ones that were drawn into vicious thin slits.

“You own nothing here.” Silver whispered.

I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t refute her words. They were dead true. Nothing truly belonged to me here.

“So why don’t you scurry off to South Bronx and connect with your real family, so you all can be nothing together?” The smile returned to Silver’s face, and she stepped out of my personal space bubble.

“Or else I will show you what it truly means to be in a place where you’re not supposed to be.” Silver added with a peppy tone.

Then she flashed a full teeth grin and walked back into the office. The construction workers returned at that very moment and continued their work.

My presence became invisible as everyone went about their day like I wasn’t there to begin with.

My organs felt like they were on fire. I couldn’t breathe. Tears stung my eyes but I blinked them back and pretended they weren’t there. No one here would even care if there were tears in my eyes.

I sucked everything up and turned around, retreating from the dead battlefield. However, the moment I stepped into the lift going down, I collapsed on the floor.

The doors closed the moment a tear trailed down my cheek. I tried to suck it back in, but I couldn’t. I opted for wiping it away with my palm, then reached for my phone inside my bag.

There was only one thought in my mind as I scrambled through my contact list and dialed a number that I had never dared to in the past.

The call was answered at the first ring. I spoke with a small and shaky voice that I could hardly recognize as my own.

“Is the offer still on the table?”

The other party didn’t speak for five whole seconds. Just when I started to regret the impulsive decision, a smooth baritone filled my ears.

“Of course.”