*CHAPTER 67: DECEPTIVE STREAK*
2034 Words
To fool your enemies, you must fool your friends. To think such a cliché line became the mantra of my current life.
I'll never forget what Andrei said that day at the safehouse. Ever since he told me that the Undercode heirs usually have their partners close by, I realized that I had never seen Shelli with her partner. Not even once. Every moment that I saw Shelli, she was always alone.
That's absolutely suspicious, isn't it?
The thought had been irking me from the moment Andrei mentioned it. Since Shelli started her internship at Andrei's company at the same time I began working there, the only possibility I could come up with, was that her partner was also one of the new employees who came on at the same time as us.
Out of everyone who started working at Bolster that week, there was only one person who was the most suspicious.
"Hey there, Leiya!"
Are you lying to me, Roshni?
"Hi Roshni," I replied with the classic, innocent Leiya smile I had now perfected.
I stood no more than 5 feet from my new best friend, the person I thought I could be the most carefree around; someone I thought was completely detached from my current messed-up life.
"How was your week off?" he asked, looking down on the supposedly oblivious girl with his deceitful gaze.
It all made sense. Roshni said he was engaged, so Shelli must be his fiancée. If he was purposely hiding that, it made sense that he had never spoken to her when they were in the same vicinity, like when we were all together at the newcomers' party and at the barbecue.
"It was definitely a more hectic week than I wanted it to be." But I'm sure you already knew that, didn't you?
What I didn't know, was how much Roshni knew about my situation. If there's anything I've learnt over these past couple of months, it's that anything goes for the sake of the mission. That was the cardinal rule of a spy. To that end, Andrei would definitely make Shelli keep my involvement with them a secret if necessary, but I don't want to make Shelli lie to Roshni because of me.
"Really? You can't call that a vacation, then."
However, it's also possible that Roshni already knows about me. I can't say for sure, because of the way he reacted the night he rescued me from Andrei and Richard. That time, his actions felt like he didn't know anything about me. What's more, if he knew about me, I don't think he would have told me he had a fiancée. So, it's either that he still doesn't know or he found out about me after that day.
"Tell me about it. So much for my precious week off."
I seriously don't get the game Andrei was trying to play. He wanted me to figure out that Roshni was Shelli's partner but he didn't want me to say anything about it. In any case, I can't say anything until Roshni officially tells me himself.
"You'll need to put in a request for another week off soon."
Just please tell me that you really aren't lying to me, Roshni.
In the brief time I glanced down and then looked back up at him, his attention diverted away from me. To my left, a petite figure with a smile as bright as the sun appeared. Roshni returned a wave to Karren, who walked up beside me. I, in turn, waved to her, while shooting a disappointing glance Roshni's way, at his less-than-appropriate intentions.
"Are you heading to the meeting now?" he asked Karren, who was also no-less-than conspicuously flirting with him.
"That's right. Shall we go together?" she asked him with the classic shy, cute girl smile that was bound to trap any single guy. Or did you forget to mention that you're not single, Roshni?
I made sure he could feel my irritation while watching the scene in front of me. He mostly ignored me, though he sent a few awkward glances at me while he continued talking to Karren.
I gave up on interfering and turned to walk away from them, but then Roshni stopped me.
"Hey, aren't you coming?" he asked.
I turned around to clarify what he meant, when I was met with a troubled expression on Karren's pouty, yet still cute face.
"No, you should both go on ahead. I'll just grab a coffee before going upstairs." I would be the one troubled if she thought I was interested in Roshni, so I just wanted to leave them alone.
"Alright, don't be late then." Roshni started to walk away with Karren in the opposite direction.
"Wait, late for what?" Was there something going on?
"The meeting. Didn't you get the email?" I quickly pulled out my phone to search for the mysterious email that I was sure I did not get. Or, I suppose I did get the email. What's this about a new project?
"I see it. So, it's today."
In fact, it was in five minutes, but since Karren didn't want me around, I still stuck with my grab-a-coffee plan.
"Thanks for reminding me. I'll meet you there."
I arrived at the conference room just in time for the meeting, whose start time had been delayed for another fifteen minutes because a certain VIP was running late. I also noticed Roshni was nowhere to be found even though he was on his way here when I left him.
"Where's Roshni?" I asked Karren.
"He went to the restroom," she replied.
The VIP who was supposedly running late was sipping on bubble tea in a secret room nearby when Roshni entered the room.
"How did it go?"
"Well, she gave me a baffled look of betrayal but I don't think she figured out the mission."
"Okay. I guess we'll proceed with the original plan."
"She won't like you stringing her along again."
"I gave her enough hints to figure this out. If she hasn't, then she's not ready to play the game at our level."
"Or, you could just tell her exactly what's going on."
"You know I can't do that."
"Suit yourself. I hope being such a perfectionist doesn't come back to bite you."
When Bryan finally entered the conference room, everyone took their seats and the room fell silent. For such a young CEO, or CTO to everyone else here, his presence was certainly commanding. He announced the start of the meeting as well as the start of the new project that was apparently proposed by Jeremy.
Him again? I wasn't sure whether to feel excited or dreadful about this new project.
It seemed the sales and IT departments would pair up for this new project. More specifically, Leon and Roshni formed one team and, of course, Karren and I formed another team to begin the beta phase of the project. Both pairs would work under Jeremy in the beginning to get things rolling and we would be told the details of the project this afternoon. This meeting was held just to announce the start of the project, the participants and the expected timeline.
After the laymen were dismissed, the top brass all stayed behind to talk about the for the "Fall meeting", or so I thought I heard on my way out. The lower ranked executives all perked up whenever someone mentioned this Fall meeting for some reason. Before I could ask what that was about, Karren asked me to go with her to the restroom.
I could only think of one reason for this sudden confrontation. Does she really think I have a thing for Roshni? Then, I need to clear that up pronto. We left the guys behind and went to the nearest restroom. After making sure it was empty, Karren addressed me with a dejected expression.
Before she said a word, I already felt a tremendous amount of pity. I didn't even know the reason, but before long, I was already hugging her and I heard a couple rounds of sniffles coming from my shoulder.
"What's wrong?" I asked as I gently separated from the hug and looked at her. I guessed this might not be about Roshni anymore.
For a second, two fearsome thoughts came to mind, but I didn't want to spare them another second.
"This," she replied as she took something out of her purse while clearing her throat.
The first thought I had, was that she was being bullied, considering she was from a different country.
"I didn't know how to bring this up before, but, I just had to tell you."
The second thought I had was regarding Jeremy, considering I just saw her leave his office suspiciously some time ago.
"What's this?" I asked as I took the folded card from her.
I unfolded it, and it turned out to be a third problem, even worse than the two scenarios I imagined.
In my hand was a picture of Bryan and I looking chummy in the parking lot on that Saturday when we went for dinner.
Where did she get this picture from? What is this confrontation really about?
"Why do you have this?" I tried to sound like it wasn't a big deal but my mind was exploding in a panic.
"I'm sorry," she said in a whimper.
That was not the attitude of someone who would be coming at me with a threa and it left me feeling even more confused.
"The truth is, I got this from Katelyn's office."
Oh my gosh! Not that woman again.
"Jeremy made me take it from her office."
"Wait. Jeremy asked you to do this?"
"Yes, I am assigned to his team in the IT department and he said he would give me a good evaluation in exchange for doing a few 'tasks' for him, but now I'm ashamed of all the things I've done behind everyone's backs."
"Are you serious?"
"You're the only one I can talk to about this."
No, please don't drag me into any of this.
"The truth is, he's so selfish and I hate being on his team. But when I tried to leave, he threatened to reveal all the things I had been doing for him. Chances are, he'll do the same thing to you if you tell him you're going to stop."
What?!
"That’s the reason we were paired up for this. You're also doing some 'assignments' for him, aren't you?"
Uh…well, this just got complicated. Since I more or less agreed to cooperate with him, I couldn't exactly say no.
"That's right. I guess he told you about that."
"Yea, I think he wants us to work together this time for another of his special assignments."
"So, he proposed this new project as just another way for him to 'get ahead'."
"With the Fall meeting coming up, everyone is on edge and will do anything to appeal to the top executives so that they can get a promotion."
"I see. Then, is the Fall meeting where promotions are handed out?"
"So I've heard. Everyone becomes very competitive here over promotions. Even Jeremy is willing to do anything."
"And Katelyn too, apparently." I looked again at the photograph of my blunder. "What was she going to do with this?"
"I don't know, but Jeremy found out she had this and made me get it from her office to keep you safe."
I guess he did something good for once, even though it was his fault I ended up in that situation in the first place.
"Thanks for getting this picture out of her hands." I gave her another hug filled with joy this time. "We'll get through though this for sure." I wanted to reassure her but I couldn't give her my complete confidence.
I left promptly to find Andrei to tell him the dire news and discuss a way to rescue Karren from Jeremy's clutches.
Unfortunately for me, I didn't even take ten steps before I ran into the bane of my existence at this company.
"Where do you think you're going?" said Katelyn as I rounded the next corner.
- Writer
