I'm ready to murder him after what I had heard from Harith. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply to calm my nerve otherwise the CEO of the Global Institute of Technology is no more alive.
"He is busy, not now." Harith grabbed my hand when I was about to take a step towards his office. "I don't care," I said and looked down at my hand when I noticed he didn't release my hand from his strong grip.
"He is not in his right mind; he has already fired ten employees who were working under the financial department just because they failed to submit the report on time. So it's not a good time for an argument. It will affect us more." He warned me again.
"If he wants to fire me then he can, I don't care." I gritted my teeth while gradually saying every word but somehow he seemed calm which caused me to narrow my eyes at him.
"Are you kidding me? He never likes the idea of firing you at least not now, until he gets whatever he wants." He blurted out, the bitterness in his voice is evidence that he is saying this forcefully.
"What do you mean?" I narrowed my eyes this time giving him a pointed look.
"Can't you see, he is always staying here just because of you, even not bothering to visit his other companies or check the ongoing status of his current project which is worth the thousands of billion dollars." He let go of my hand and shoved them into his pant pocket.
"He was not ready when his dad asked him to take over his company for the sake of his employees, but to my surprise, he accepted his dad's proposal and told me to go to handover this company to one of his best men who are worth for his trust but I don't know what made him change his mind." His eyes are solely on me like I'm the reason behind this trauma.
"When his eyes landed on you while he was giving a speech in the conference Hall, directly looking at you, like no one was in the room, I confirmed that it's you, because of you he changed his mind." I tensed a bit but maintained a straight face showing him I'm not offended by his words. Why is he telling me all of the sudden?
"First I thought he might have been attracted by you but again it was proved when you two were making out inside his office and I am the witness of the entire scene but I couldn't get one thing that why he is showing interest on you when you have your own little family. I don't think his taste would turn this bitter." He shrugged his shoulder.
"What do you mean?" I snapped at him furiously. "First I didn't kiss him, he just forced me and secondly it's not what you are thinking because we are nothing more than a boss and employee." I gritted my teeth.
"I didn't finish yet." He said and continued his blabbering. "...if it's not for your fault, Juliet wouldn't have lost her job and deep down I know you guys have something to do in your past which was not to be considered as good at all."
"Enough." I raised my hand to stop him from accusing me of a mistake that I didn't commit.
"So you are blaming me for Juliet...” before I could finish the sentence he cut me off. "Of course you are the main reason why she lost her job." He snapped me back.
He is not the old Harith who I have known for a month. He is behaving so strangely like I snatched his favorite toy from him. Deep in my heart, I have a feeling that he is aware of our past life but yet he didn't ask anything until today.
"Okay, if you think it's my fault then I will fix the problem," I said calmly turning my heels from him and starting to walk towards his office with a blank expression.
I don't know how to feel right now. Why does he blame me for Juliet's sudden termination and why does he act too harsh towards me as I have planned this to her deliberately.
"It brings you five minutes late than I thought." He said glancing at his wristwatch, half sitting on his table, plastering a giant smirk on his face the moment I stormed inside his office.
"Why did you fire her?" I threw my question straight away looking at him, folding my arms against my chest demanding the answer.
"Do you know how you look when you get mad?" He said and eyed my hands which were folded against my chest.
"You...you pervert." I released my hands immediately and formed a strong fist ready to smash him when I felt his eyes are holding an unnecessary stare on my chest.
"Like I didn't see before." He made an unholy comment causing me to get angrier than I was already.
"Yeah...but remember not only you." I asserted but regretted the moments when he took one step dangerously towards mine and grabbed me by my shoulder causing my face to slam against his hard chest.
"Don't ever repeat that otherwise, I will regret my action which will be not pleasing for both of us." His face hardened.
"Why did you fire her?" I asked the question once again pushing him away with both hands as to how far I can but he didn't flinch.
"Because I want to." was his stern reply. "Why?" I asked feeling exhausted and depressed.
"She did everything you told me by and It turned into the opposite of my favor..." I looked at him, confusion engulfing my brain making me furrow my brows deeper.
"You are so clever, aren't you?" He questioned, sounded like my professor as I got the wrong answer in mathematics yet I tried to prove my answer was correct.
"What do you think? You can stay away from me just because she is helping you through your whole nonsense. Huh? I can see the harness in her eyes whenever she was working with me. I wonder what you told her about your past... I mean our relationship." He raised his brow.
Now thing makes sense that why he fired her. Because she is the one who dared to come between us and he didn't like the way she was acting in my favor. So he fired her and if she is no longer between us, he will get his stinky attitudes on me.
Harith is right. Juliet lost her job because of me, why didn't I think of it earlier that he is capable of doing whatever he wants even it to cost a life to get back whatever is rightfully his.
"You shouldn't have done this to her. Her family is depending on her. She.. she just...please." I pleaded with him even though I hate this moment. For now, I wished the earth would open his mouth and swallow him not giving any trace of his identity.
Why would I wish for earth would swallow me as other people thinks? I can't sacrifice my life for him. I don't want to die so early because I want to live my life with my daughter for a hundred years.
"So what do you say?" He asked bringing me back from my little battle.
"Huh?" I looked at him and the ground. Why the ground didn't swallow him yet.
"Come out of your strange thought, it will never work." He said fully aware of what I'm thinking right this moment.
"If you are okay with my deal then I will hire her back.” He said and started to roll the crystal ball which was kept on his table.
I thought for a moment then let out a loud sigh. If she gets her job back then it's not awful to do what he says at once.
"Okay, deal," I admitted in defeat.
His lips twisted upwards before he spoke and it made me hate him better in my life.
---
I called Juliet but it went only a voice message. I tried again but in no vain.
"I'm sorry." I heard a familiar voice speak behind my back. Immediately, I recognized the person and turned my heels to face him but his grey eyes filled with full of regret.
"I'm sorry, Riya. It's not my intention to blame you but I did. I'm sorry. Please." He apologized sincerely.
I was angry when he blamed me for her termination but when the arrogant male monster confirmed to me that he had fired her because of me, I forgave Harith but didn't forget his words which were sharper than the knife and his words are not able to forget by a day.
"It's okay. I know who you are." I gave him an assured smile and entered my office. I wanted to talk with Juliet personally.
---
"I can't, Riya," Juliet said after the nth time of me convincing her about taking her job back. "Please Juliet, at least for me. I feel guilty for bringing you into this mess. Please give me a chance to amend my mistake." I asked her clutching her both hands.
"Please." I made a guilty look on my face when her red puffy eyes looked at me which is trying me to say more and more and it has proven that she had been crying from the morning.
Right now I am in her room and we both are having a heated conversation for over an hour. She was so adamant about taking her job back.
"Fine," I muttered and slummed my shoulder as feeling defeated. I can't force her and it's not on my list. 'Give her some time.' my self conscious said to me.
Suddenly she hugged me not giving us a place to breathe. I felt more worst when I heard her whimper which is getting louder but I stayed like a statue giving her support as to how long she wished to take from me.
"Edy... Edward-- broke up with me." She said between the whimper making me freeze on the spot.
My brain refused to function. How it's possible. He seemed so nice and a good guy. I met him once a time when we were in Juliet's house for dinner. They look so peaceful together. He never broke his girl's heart. I may not be good in love but still, I have faith in love.
I rubbed her back up and down in a comforting zone. "It may be a normal fight that you guys get into often". I tried to comfort her.
She unwrapped her hands from me and looked down at her feet then shook her head like 'No' she confessed: "He ma.. he made clear everything between us." Her voice cracked at the end.
"Why?" I found my voice shuttering but somehow I managed to stay strong for her. It's too much for her. She was indeed in love with him.
I know how it feels like and I don't want anyone to experience that kind of pain that would kill us day by day.
"He was with me because of my money, when I told him that I lost my job he broke up with me saying I was nothing but a useless penny which he has planned to get rid of earlier." She sobbed hardly burying her face between her palms.
Ohh! God!!!
"Shh... He is not for you. He is just a pain ass who doesn't know the difference between gold and copper." I tried to ease her pain but I know it won't work.
"He was acting so weird for these days even made a silly fight over small things but now I understood why he did all of these." She wiped her tears and blew her nose.
And now I get the point of why she was distracted from her work sometimes.
To my surprise, she smiled at me and hugged me again. "Thank you, Riya. At least I got my job back." I was taken aback by her sudden change. She was a crying mess just a while ago and now she is acting normal pretending as nothing happened to her.
She is so confident not only in her work but in life too. If I had in her shoes I would have been fallen for a month thinking all my misery.
"What made him change his mind?" She asked knowing the reason for her termination.
"We made a deal."
"A deal?" She asked.
"Yeah, I agreed to go with him to the party."
She gave me a 'are you serious' look as masking her tear face into a frown.
"Just one day and it is not going to change anything," I assured her and gave her hand a light squeeze.
"I'm fine, Riya. You faced more than me. I wanted to be strong like you." She gave a weak smile which I returned with equal favor.
"See you tomorrow," I said and she nodded her head. She may be good at pretending but I know she was a broken shell inside.
One thing is sure, her pillow will get heavy rain on tonight.
*