“I don’t care if you don’t refer to me as your sibling or not. I’m the daughter of dad’s original wife, and you’re just a bastard daughter. If you’re here for business matters, then let me give you a piece of advice. Don’t let people find out that you’re a mistress’ child. Our boss absolutely detests extramarital affairs.”
I was trying to scare her on purpose. If Crystal was around, I would have watched my mouth, but Yvette was on a completely different and lower level of intelligence compared to Crystal.
As I’d expected, her face grew green. When she opened her mouth to speak, I interrupted, “You’re here as a representative of the Tanner Corporation, no? Are you sure such a high-ranking secretary like yourself should be here arguing with an employee instead of, I don’t know, actually going to your meeting?”
Yvette raised her hand to hit me in a fit of rage, but the sound of the elevator doors opening startled her, her documents all falling to the floor. She quickly stepped back and bent down, waving me off before I could do anything. “It’s fine.”
“You are very punctual, Ms. Tanner. Our meeting is at four in the afternoon, but you’re already here at half-past three.” Richard stepped out of the elevator, smiling when he saw her standing close to me. “Do you know my employee, Ms. Tanner?”
“Getting to work with you is my honor, Mr. Whitrow; of course, the very least I could do is show up early. As for this employee…” Yvette’s face scrunched up in confusion. “I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before, but I just can’t put my finger on it…”
She tapped her head lightly, seemingly deep in thought before suddenly recalling something, her mouth falling open in fake shock. “Oh! Aren’t you that little thief from the mall? I mean—”
Slapping her hand over her mouth as if she hadn’t meant to say that, she glanced at me apologetically. “Sorry, sorry. It’s just a joke.”
Public humiliation like this was what Yvette and Crystal were both good at. I could already feel the curious gazes of the higher-ups standing behind Richard burning into the back of my head. Is there a hole somewhere for me to hide in? Anywhere?
“You watch your mouth! You know very well why those diamonds ended up in my bag! How dare you act all clueless as if you didn’t frame me and go and cry to Dad, causing him to throw away my birthday gift!” I blew up at her. I knew that this was not the time or place to be arguing with Yvette, but I couldn’t take her nonsense any longer.
“What are you talking about?” Yvette snickered. “We may both share the same surname, but we aren’t related in any way.”
“Um… Vonnie, you should leave,” one of the managers spoke up, stealing nervous looks at Richard’s slowly darkening expression. “We have an important meeting to get to.”
Hugging my documents to my chest, I silently retreated from the scene, the sounds of Yvette talking badly about me slowly growing faint.
“The employees here should be valued by way of their morals and ethics more than they should be for their work efficiency. You can’t have a thief working amongst your company; it’ll be bad for the company’s reputation! If anything happens at any sort of corporate banquet because of her, the company will be blamed for it…”
“Yes, of course, Ms. Tanner…”
I wasn’t sure how I made it through the rest of the day. On the way back home from work, I paid a visit to the supermarket and bought a ton of groceries, immediately heading for the kitchen as soon as I got back.
About an hour later, I stood in front of a table full of multiple dishes, finally having burnt through all of my leftover anger from that morning. It was only then that I remembered Christopher saying he wouldn’t be coming back for a few days.
The entire house was silent except for the sound of my heartbeat echoing in my ears. Loneliness slowly crept up upon me, threatening to overwhelm me and pull me back into the depths of despair.
Picking up my cutlery, I cut off a small piece of the caramelized pork I’d made and put it in my mouth. It tasted the same as always, but for some reason, I found it hard to swallow and ended up throwing all of the food away.
It was hard for humans to get used to loneliness after having enjoyed the company of another person, after all.
I used to wait excitedly for Lyle to come home like this, only to find out that he didn’t care whether or not I would be waiting up for him. Thus, I resolved to never do such a thing again, and yet, here I was — anticipating someone who wasn’t coming back.
