Chapter 16
Chapter 16 Chapter Sixteen
Mark, after wishing dad a happy birthday and giving him a wrapped gift he had gotten for him, had
said a sinct goodbye to him and mom and we left. Dad’s smile kept faltering as he looked
between Mark and I.
The ride home was fun. Mark had taken us home with the car that brought him. and Be.
Bored, I had decided to taunt him. I ced my palm on my ch*st , “Poor Be,” I sighed, letting my
shoulders droop as I turned to him, “how will she get home now that you’ve left with the car?”
He hadn’t said anything. He jaw just remained clenched as he fixed his gazd outside the window.
Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g
I sighed again. “I hope her heart doesn’t hurt so much when she’s trying to go home or when her
friendsugh at her that her lover left her.”
I caught his pinky finger on the palm he pressed on hisp twitch.
I needed more than that. I sighed, suddenly changing the topic. “Now, I can’t see the Italian bar guy
again,” my ch*st rose higher as I sighed loudly. “I guess I’d have to meet up with him some other
time then.
More of his fingers twitched again but that was the only reaction I had gotten till eventually, I got
bored of his silence.
Now, as we stepped into the house him, loosening his tie as he walked into
the living room. Me, removing my heels and letting them swing in my hands as
I followed him into the room – the shrill of his phone disrupted the calm silence.
“Hey,” his voice came out rough so he cleared it and tried again. “Hey…” There was a long pause
as he listened to the person on the other end of the line then,
“I’m sorry I left.”
I rolled my eyes. I didn’t need to be told who it was. Uninterested, I padded my
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Chapter 16 Chapter Sixteen
feet to my room. But, behind my closed doors, I couldn’t help but wonder what they were talking
about. His soft murmurs drifted to the door and I wondered if she was asking him to return to the
party or something.
Ever since this farce called a marriage began, Mark and I had always had sepa-
rate rooms.
“Come on, Bell. You know I don’t like it when you cry,” his voice drifted to me and then her sobbing
did too. He had put the phone on speaker.
I frowned as I listened to Be’s cries boom out of his phone’s speaker. Why wasn’t he making the
phone call in his room? Was he trying to keep an
eve on me? Perhaps, he thinks since I couldn’t go to meet Luigi, I would invite him in. Or maybe he
just wanted to make sure I didn’t sneak away.
Whatever his reason was didn’t bother me. All I wanted was a good night’s sleep. I stretched my
limbs and lulled myself to sleep with the voice of Be’s distressed and frustrated cry.
I had a small victory today.
I would pack out tomorrow after I’ve paid Mark.
These thoughts brought a smile to my face as I gathered the nket that was left after I had
covered my b*dy to myself and drifted into a blissful sleep.
I woke up to the sound of my rm clock. It was 6:00AM. Though I hadn’t been going to work for
the past three years, my rm was set in that time. I always wanted to wake up early so that I
could help Mark prepare for work and also watch him leave for work. I groaned groggily and my
hand shot out to stop the sound from disturbing my sweet sleep.
At exactly 8:00AM, the rm rung again. The first thought that came to my mind was that I would
be leaving Mark’s house today and he’d also sign the di-
hous
vorce papers.
The thought alone brought a smile to my face. And I stretched my limbs and
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Chapter 16 Chapter Sixteen
copsed back on the bed, feeling refreshed and energized. I stared at the ceil- ing. Today was
going to be a long but good day. I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when I throw the money
in his face.
“I’m moving out today. I’m moving out today!” Was my mantra and song as I got ready for work. I
tapped my feet as I brushed, singsonging the words. I nodded my head to the beats I made with my
m*uth as rapped the words and put on my shoes.
When I stepped out of my room, fully dressed and ready for a productive day, I could already tell
that Mark was gone. The servants weren’t rushing up and down, they delivered their assigned tasks
with ease.
I didn’t meet Grace at work. I truedher kine but it wasn’t going through so I de- cided to wait till she
arrived. Throughout work that day I didn’t get a whiff of Grace. I focused on drafting the jewelries of
other customers while I waited. At the end of the day, towards evening, she still wasn’t around. I
didn’t have the pa- tience to wait so I headed to the finance department. I would exin to her after-
ward.
“Hello.”
“Good evening ma’am.”
The secretary there had a bright smile on his face as he greeted me. “Good evening. Inform the
head ountant that I’m here to see him.”
He nodded and made a call. I was hastily summoned in.
The ountant was all smiles as he ushered me in, already waiting at the door. “It’s a pleasure to
have you back, ma’am.”
I smiled, “Thank you. I don’t think we’ve met since I got back, right?”
“We haven’t,” he confirmed as he got in his seat.
I got in the seat on the opposite side of his desk too and started to tell him.
what I needed.
The ountant’s face had be solemn as I spoke. “That wouldn’t have
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Chapter 16 Chapter Sixteen
been an issue a month ago, ma’am.”
I raised a curious brow. “And It would be a issue now?”
“Yes, Kind of.”
My heart dropped an inch.
He smoothed his palm on the edge of the desk. “You see, we needed more hands in our
department so we hired a new employee, after series of tests of course. We picked the best out of
the bests. This employee had mistakenly giv-
en the wrong dimensions and textures of fabrics and machines to our main sup-
pliers. We had already paid and when our orders arrived, all of it were wrong. There was no way
they could be of use to us and the suppliers weren’t willing
to refund and take back the supplies.” His eyes swept to the door before it fell back on me, “You can
ch*ck our storage rooms, it’s where we’ve stocked them hoping they’d be useful one day. So we
had to ce new orders since our cus- tomers were on our n*eck, demanding for their orders.
Some of the customers were impatient so we refunded them which made them really mad and
bitter.”
I rested my elbows on the desk and held my head in my hands. “How didn’t I get
a whiff of this at all?”
“It would’ve deeply affected our goodwill so we quickly sorted it out with the
public rtions. They demanded a lot but we needed the bad reviews and bitterments down
ASAP so we caved in. They handled the crisis effectively and
stopped it from escting.”
I thought he was through until he spoke up again.
“And now, the wrong supplies are taking up space so we needed to expand our storage to
amodate the right ones that are on their way. We started to re- strategize so we spent quite a
lot on logistics too. Right now, we’re struggling to stay grounded with the cash flow we have left.”
He took a deep breath and sped his hands on the table and held my gaze. “I’m sorry ma’am, but
if I should approve the withdrawal of such amount then I am simply approving the fall and ruin of
Luxe Vogue.” Then he muttered, “I
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Chapter 16 Chapter Sixteen
doubt we even have up to that right now.”
“f**k!” The ountant flinched back as I thumped my fists on the desk without thinking. “Shit shit
shit!”
“I’m sorry,” I heard him mutter, “I wish there was a way.”
“And where’s this employee?!” I erupted.
“He’s been ced on suspension, ma’am.”
“God!” I reclined on the chair and titlted my head back. I tried to calm myself down. My savings is
still there. I didn’t know how much I had there since I had
ced it on an automatic saving ount but I was sure it was a lot.
I sat back up. “But I checked the financial statements, everything looked good.”
“That must be a month ago, ma’am. Our financial statements are in ruins right
now, nothing to boast about.”
I made the calction and nodded to myself. He was right, I had halfmindedly
checked the financial statements during my trip. I hadn’t wanted to be actively in-
volved in work yet then.
“And why am I just hearing of this? Does Grace know?”
“No, ma’am.” He shook his head. “We’ve held several meetings and we have everything under
control.”
“You have everything under control yet we’re on the verge of sinking?!” I yelled at him and his gaze
dropped to his sped hands.
“Inform the HR team,” my voice was firm and determined. “Get your team too. We’re holding an
emergency meeting right now. Meet me in the board room.”
I picked up my bag and headed to the boardroom. My hands shook as I tried Grace’s number again.
Thankfully, it went through.
“Girl,” my voice was urgent. “Where have you been? I’ve been trying your line all
day.”
“Oh really?” She sounded at ease. I was sure she’d panic when she hears of the
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Chapter 16 Chapter Sixteen
“Whatever, juste over. We’re holding an emergency meeting right now. I’ll exin everything
when you get here.”
She must have sensed the urgency in my voice because she didn’t ask any question. “Alright. I’ll be
on my way.”
Less that an hourter, everyone was seated in the boardroom. Some of the members breaking a
sweat as they had to rush here.