Her Corporate Takedown: Entangled with a Billionaire

*CHAPTER 70: RUN AWAY WITH ME*

"Do you want to run away with me?"

"YES! I am coming immediately!"

The message caught my eye as soon as it popped up on my phone and I replied while dashing to the elevator. It was only Monday, but I was glad for any excuse to leave this crazy office right now.

"Hey Leon, I'm going for lunch with Roshni. Do you want to join us?" I asked as I ran into him in front of the elevators.

"Oh, yes please! I wanna get outta here," Leon replied, sounding the most enthusiastic he'd been all day.

With two weeks left until the decisive Fall meeting, the atmosphere at the company became far more competitive and toxic than I expected. Just this morning, I was pulled into four different strategy meetings about boosting sales.

"Leon, you know Roshni," I said while waving my hand between the two. "Roshni, I hope you don't mind that I brought Leon."

"Yea, I don't mind," Roshni replied.

"Didn't you invite Karren?" Leon asked.

"She's super busy. Actually I am too, but I couldn't stand to be there for another second," Roshni replied.

"I feel the same way, let's eat before we get called back," I replied while walking hastily out the door.

Roshni drove us to his favorite Thai restaurant at the end of the street and we had lunch there.

"The company took a complete 180 degree turn compared with how chill everyone was last week," Leon said.

"This Fall meeting really has everyone on edge. Their promotions ride on these last couple of weeks, it seems." Roshni commented in between bites.

" 'You're new to our team so take your time getting adjusted,' is what I was told by my junior partner when I started on the Silver team last Monday."

"Is this supposed to be taking your time? I don't think your team leader agrees with that sentiment. I saw them putting you through the wringer."

"Funny you should say that," I laughed at Leon's comment. "Because thirty minutes later that same day, my team leader shouted at me, 'Leiya! I need some of those superstar results you delivered on the Brass team! Actually, I need more of it, a whole lot more of it!' "

"I don't know why they think busting your butt a couple of weeks before the big meeting is going to guarantee life-changing results."

"Well, I heard your boss is coming out with something big. What incredible program is he creating?"

This was a great chance to ask about the program. I just hope Roshni took the bait.

"Oh really? I hadn't heard about that yet."

Don't feign ignorance now! Aren't you supposed to be helping me?

He must know that I realized his secret by now, but Roshni made no effort to erase my doubts or confirm my suspicions. He had acted the very same towards me as when we initially met, even after we became good friends.

That's right. He has acted in the exact same manner as he usually does, except that his expression towards Andrei when he saved me at the club indicated that he didn't know that I was involved with Andrei at that time. Roshni must have reacted that way because he thought Andrei was acting out of character.

However, was it too much of a coincidence that Andrei was waiting at my apartment at the exact time he brought me home the next morning, or even the fact that he wanted me to sleep on the hill the entire night with the excuse of stragazing.

The fact was, since that night, Roshni had been brought up to speed and I know for a fact that he's working with Andrei. I became convinced when I thought back on the coffee shop incident. It wasn't a coincidence that Roshni was there, or that the memory card was conveniently left behind. Not to mention, Andrei wouldn't allow a stranger to get involved with a mission I was involved in; I kind of had a feeling about that.

Even if Roshni's presence as a 'neglectful subordinate', was a good setup in the eyes of Jeremy, surely, Andrei could have come up with other excuses to give me the memory card himself.

After considering all the facts and the sequence of events, I came to the conclusion that Roshni most likely found out about me the only time he was out of sight that night - when he went to buy the crepes. I wouldn't put it past Andrei to wait by the food truck and tell Roshni everything.

Most of all, the reason I was convinced that Roshni is Shelli's fiancé, was because Andrei didn't get upset at me for spending a whole night with him. Until I realized that Andrei and Roshni knew each other, I had always wondered why Andrei wasn't bothered by how close I became with Roshni.

Regretfully, lunch time had ended all too soon, and it was time to leave the delicious Thai food behind and return to the company.

As soon as I got off the elevator on the third floor, I received a message from Karren. She said that Bryan was away from his office and so was everyone else on the floor, so she wanted us to try and look for the hidden program.

With the little time I had remaining in my lunch break, I went up to the fifth floor to the IT department. As Karren said, the entire floor was deserted. I looked around cautiously while searching for Karren just in case someone was still there and I found her strolling around by the water fountain.

"Where's everyone?"

"In a meeting," she replied.

"Don't you have to go to that meeting?"

"Nope, I have an excuse."

"Alright, then. Where's Bryan's office? Let's make this quick since I have to go back downstairs soon."

"It's over here."

We walked outside of the main hall of the laymen's cubicles and entered the corridor of the high-standing executives. Karren stopped at the fifth door on the right and opened the door. I was surprised the door was open, but Andrei must surely know about Jeremy's schemes and is allowing him to do whatever he wants again.

The office was large and suspiciously devoid of personal artifacts. He didn't need to keep personal items here, since he already had a secret room (or two), but he should at least have a picture or two. Karren went to search for the program on the computer while I kept an eye on the corridor through the c***k left after leaving the door barely open. Karren.

"I can't find it," she admitted after what felt like fifty minutes. I made the mistake of forgetting to keep track of the time as Karren took longer than expected to find the program.

"Alright. Let's call it a day then."

"Wait, I think this is it. Come and look."

I went to look even though I knew nothing about the program or what it should look like. I was surprised Andrei allowed his computer to be vulnerable to a break-in, but again, if he anticipated this as part of Jeremy's scheme, then I assumed he was allowing us to play this out.

The screen showed several open windows with files I couldn't recognize. As Karren swiped through the windows, one blatantly stood out with files named 'Personal Bolster programs'. I stopped her when I saw it. There was an especially suspicious looking folder named 'Secret projects', and inside it were files labelled under 'Fall meeting'.

It was almost laughable how obvious he was leading the entire charade.

"I told Jeremy we found the program," she said while I watched the blurry afterimages of her fast-typing fingers. "He wants me to copy the program and give it to you to bring back to him."

"Do you have anything to store it on?"

"I have a USB drive."

Karren inserted the drive and I dragged over one of the files to copy it onto the drive. Immediately on releasing it for the drop, several red alerts flashed across the screen and the computer shut off. Karren quickly dragged out the USB drive and we bolted for the door.

Sadly, it wasn't going to be that easy. It was certainly more unnatural if there weren't any security measures preventing the program from being leaked.

Before we could leave the office, I heard the sounds of footsteps in the corridor. They weren't just any footsteps, as it was the sound of heels clacking on the floor. This brazen pattern of walking sounded awfully familiar.

I felt sick to my stomach thinking about how I would deal with that woman again if she was really heading for this office. Weren't they all supposed to be in a meeting? It was far too unnatural for her to appear here in less than a minute after the alerts went off. I waited in semi-hiding for the footsteps to pass by; I desperately hoped they would just keep walking by so that I could get off this floor without being seen.

"Why the long face?" said a random male voice in the corridor.

"I received an alert from Bryan's computer. Did you see anyone go inside his office?"

Oh my gosh! She's really coming here. Karren made herself small out of sight between two cabinets. That was good. It wasn't fair for her to get caught up in any more drama when she was just a visitor here. I, on the other hand, sighed deeply - twice, very deeply - as I resigned myself to take the fall for the both us and make my next few months at this company very miserable or worse, get fired.

"What are you doing in here?"

I stared back at the smug expression on Katelyn's face, who looked more than ready to accuse me of all manner of crimes.

"Would you please answer me? You don't work in this department, so what are you doing in this office? I find it suspicious that I received an alert of a breach from Bryan's computer at the same I found you in this office."

"I have only just arrived myself. You may have received an alert about a breach but I didn't hear anything or see anyone leave this office."

"Are you seriously going to tell me that you weren't the one breaking into this computer?"

"Yes, I was not the one trying to break into this computer. Are you sure you're not the one claiming that there was a breach because I just happened to walk in here at the same time?"

That was a bad question to ask as the crowd of onlookers started to gather and she didn't let the bait get away.

"Look, here is the proof that I received an alert for unauthorized access to Byan's computer," she said loudly while showing her phone around to the crowd, which was followed by a unanimous affirmation.

"If that's really the case, then I guess I just happened to walk in here at a bad time."

"You won't be able to blow this off as a mere coincidence," she said while chuckling. "Were you trying to upload pictures of yourself or something? Then, I could see why you would be ashamed of being busted."

What did she say?!

She had the crowd on her side as they ran with the idea and started gossiping. I see she didn't care why I was actually here, it was more of an opportunity for her to secure her status as Bryan's 'girlfriend'.

"She's the one that's stalking Bryan!" I remembered that voice as one of Katelyn's cult members that approached me that time in the corridor.

"That's right. I saw her all over him at a coffee shop one day," said another who jumped on the bandwagon.

The mumblings endlessly spread throughout the rest of the floor. I had lost my ground and there was nothing I could say or do to mitigate the boiling rumours.

What now? Katelyn looked gleefully at my strained expression and I squeezed my shirt within my folded arms as I racked my brain for answers.

"Why don't you just admit already that you're stalking him?"

"Don't you see Bryan's already taken? Plus, he's way out of your league."

"Katelyn, are you really going to let her get away with this?"

The commentators just couldn't keep their mouths shut and Katelyn continued to spur them on. Before the end of the day, my status as Bryan's stalker who tried to upload naked pictures would be the top trending spiciest news in the company, unbelievably overtaking the number one spot currently held by the hot topic of the Fall meeting.

The very situation I desperately tried to avoid when I decided to take this job was unfolding as I stood here, powerless to do anything to reverse the situation. As the now officially branded stalker, no one would listen to me if I said otherwise.

"It's unspeakable that Bryan would cheat on me, but the fact that you're tempting him makes me very uncomfortable."

Her baseless accusatory statement was followed by woes of sympathy and words of consolation. Despite my third-rate attempt at a threat during last week's confrontation, she still managed to preserve Bryan's reputation while completely destroying mine in the process.

Even after all my training so far, I realized that I still wasn't strong enough to clear this hurdle. I started to feel a little nauseated as the room began to spin. Thinking harder only made me feel more dizzy.

I began to feel like there was no escape.

"So, tell me," the snake hissed in a low tone, assured of her complete victory, "what are you doing in Bryan's office?"

"Uploading naked pictures," joked a random male voice.

"Give them to me instead," said another, followed by an outburst of nasty laughter.

I could feel it. In ten seconds, I was about to pass out. Bracing myself against the table behind me didn't help. At the very least, I managed to distract Katelyn and the crowd away from Karren, who I saw trembling in fear behind me while she sat paralyzed between the two cabinets.

If Karren wasn't able to get away before Bryan returned, I would have to explain the situation to him so that, at least, the poor girl didn't get in trouble.

I just…hoped that…she got out…safely.

"What is all this commotion outside my office?!"