Once Celsie opened the door she was surprised to see Amy standing there, “Hello!” Amy greeted with an apologetic smile as Celsie looked at her, taking in her tennis outfit.
“I’m sorry to barge in on you unannounced. I feared you wouldn’t take my call, so I didn’t bother to call,” Amy said as she took in Celsie’s pyjamas and disheveled hair which was not tied back as usual, “Are you fine?” Amy asked with concern.
“Yeah. Sure. Is everything okay?” Celsie asked as she held the door open for Amy to walk in. Once Amy did, she shut the door behind her.
“Yes. Everything is fine. I was at the office earlier, you know, regarding the teamwork the CEO gave us,” Amy reminded her.
Celsie sighed when she remembered what Benne had done the previous day, “Oh, that! I told you that you guys didn’t have to worry about it,” Celsie said as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
“Please sit down and make yourself comfortable. Do you want coffee?” Celsie asked, and Amy shook her head as she sat down.
“No. Thanks. Let’s just talk,” Amy said, implying that she wanted Celsie to also sit down and talk to her.
“I already told you, it’s not necessary. You all don’t have to worry. I’m handling things already,” Celsie said as she sat on the other couch.
Once Celsie had sat down, Amy leaned forward in her seat, “Well, it was necessary. At least right now every one of them is making an effort to quell the rumors and prove your innocence. If the CEO hadn’t done what he did, I doubt they would have done their research to see if you were guilty or not.”
“They’re trying to quell it? How?” Celsie asked curiously.
“For starters, I asked them to publish some of the news clips from eight years ago, especially the testimony of your best friend whose family was involved, and those of some of your male classmates who were harassed by the psycho. That is part of the reason I’m here,” Amy said and stood up in surprise when Celsie’s parents, Lucas and Sonia walked into the living room.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that you had company. I can come back later,” Amy apologized as she stood up, but Celsie’s mother waved off her apology.
“That is nonsense. Sit down and tell us what you were just saying,” Celsie’s mother as she sat beside Celsie, while Lucas and Sonia went over to the kitchen to bring out the twin cane chairs.
“This is Amy, she is my secretary. Amy, these are my parents, my twin brother, and Sonia my best friend,” Celsie briefly introduced them before giving Amy the go-ahead to say what she had to say.
They all listened quietly to Amy as she shared her plan with them, and by the time she was done, Celsie and Sonia exchanged a glance, “It’s a good idea, thanks. But we already agreed to use my neighbor’s YouTube channel. She’s a blogger,” Celsie explained.
“A YouTube channel? I don’t think the video will receive as much attention as Opal’s Magazine would,” Amy pointed out.
“It will don’t worry,” Celsie said confidently, not willing to divulge Bryan’s and Benne’s plan to feature in the video to Amy. Although she was grateful to Amy, she couldn’t be as trusting as she had been anymore. And she believed that a video would be more effective than a magazine.
“I think you should…”
“Or maybe my wife and I could feature on the magazine instead? We were unfairly accused of using our so-called wealth to turn the case in our daughter’s favor after all,” Celsie’s father interjected.
“I think the public’s opinion is beginning to sway already,” Lucas said, raising his phone to show them the arguments which were going on on Twitter regarding the issue. While some people believed the new evidence that had surfaced on the internet regarding Celsie’s innocence, there were others who still strongly believed that Celsie was guilty and was once again trying to bury the case by bringing up false evidence and they were pointing to the fact that Sonia the ‘coattail climber’ could not be trusted if she was involved in it.
“That reminds me, don’t you think the same person might be behind both scandals? I mean it can’t just be a coincidence that you are both under attack at the same time, can it? It’s just too timely. If Miss Smith’s scandal hadn’t surfaced at this time, she would have easily been a reliable witness to prove your innocence. But now whatever she says will be discredited unless she is also able to prove that she is innocent of the allegations leveled against her,” Amy pointed out, and Sonia’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.
She has been so upset about her breakup with Bryan and then worried over Bryan’s disappearance that she hadn’t thought of it until now. Amy’s theory made sense. It didn’t make sense that anyone would just jump to the conclusion that her relationship with Bryan was fake simply because she broke off their engagement. Celebrities did that all the time. The only way someone could have come up with that was if they were sure beyond reasonable doubt that the relationship was fake.
Apart from Bryan, Celsie, Jeff, Mia, and Bryan’s CEO she doubted that there was anyone else who knew about their false engagement. And she highly doubted that it was Celsie or Bryan who had given out such information to the press. It couldn’t be the CEO either. Bryan was a major star in his agency and he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize Bryan’s chances, at least he had proved how far he was willing to go and protect Bryan’s career. Jeff was Bryan’s manager and he had nothing to gain by doing something like this, so who could it be? Mia? Mia was like a sister to her and even though Bryan could be very annoying, she knew for a fact that both Bryan and Mia had mutual respect for each other, so who else could it be?
At that same time, Celsie’s brain was working in overdrive. She could remember vividly that she had mentioned to Anita that the CEO was nice to her because of her relationship with the CEO’s soon-to-be sister-in-law. It only made sense that if Anita was behind her problem, she would also have tried to find a way to remove Sonia from the picture.. But then, Anita had no idea that Sonia was going to break up with Bryan that day, so how come all the plans had fallen into place? Unless of course, she had planned to reveal that the engagement was fake and ruin their relationship, but unfortunately for her, Sonia had been fast enough to end the relationship herself, thus changing Anita’s plans. The question which was now begging for an answer was how did Anita find out about the fake engagement?
Even though Benne had asked him to just focus on Jade’s case and leave the company and Celsie’s issue to him, Harry couldn’t help being restless. He was bothered by all that was going on, especially since he was already involved in all of it.
Somehow even though he wasn’t very close to Celsie, he had come to become fond of teasing her, so his worry wasn’t just because of his duty to Benne. Celsie was someone Benne was in love with, and Benne was his best friend.
He stared blankly at the laptop screen in front of him, before picking up his phone. He went on social media to take a look at all that was happening, and he was slightly relieved to see that Celsie now had people who were defending and supporting her.
His relief was soon replaced with curiosity, and then anger as he read through the old news clips that were attached to the posts, and he suddenly understood Benne’s reaction when he saw what Celsie had endured at such a young age, and was being forced to face again now because of someone stupid who had posted started this news without checking the facts.
He felt disappointed in himself for trying to stop Benne from getting ‘too’ involved because of the little pressure he had faced. The pressure he had faced was nothing compared to what Celsie was facing. Celsie needed all the love and support she could get, and he was sure that most of the shareholders had daughters too and would be able to understand Celsie and relate with her family once they saw all of this.
He downloaded all the attached photos and connected his phone to his system so that he could copy the photos before logging into his Gmail account on his system. He copied all the shareholders he could, as he started to compose a text.
He raised his head when his bedroom door was suddenly pushed open a while later and Jade raised her hands in defense when he glared at her.
“Don’t give me that look. I’m properly covered, and I knocked but you didn’t respond so I had to come in,” she said defensively as she approached him, dressed in a flowing dress.
“What do you want?” He asked impatiently.
“Are you busy?”
“As you can see,” Harry said, still looking at her as he waited for her to say what she wanted to say and leave so that he could return to what he was doing.
“With what?” Jade asked as she made to sit on his bed, but one look at the way he looked at her, she straightened up and sighed, “I thought we were past this now and was beginning to work well together. Besides, what are you busy doing? It’s weekend, and Benne already asked you to focus on my case. Is that what you are working on?” Jade asked as she tried to take a peek at what he was doing.
Seeing how curious she was, and knowing that she wasn’t going to leave until he answered her question, Harry handed his phone to her so that she would see the development on Celsie’s case, “I’m sure you’ve been too busy with your case to follow up on this.”
“Wow!” Jade murmured as she went to sit by his dressing table while she digested all she was reading, “That must have been tough for a girl at that age,” she said with a deep frown when she finished, and returned his phone to him.
“I thought so too,” He said as he turned his laptop to her so that she would see what he was trying to do, “I’m trying to compose an email. I want to send an email to the shareholders with these photos attached. They should at least see the other side of the story before making their judgments,” Harry said, and Jade gave him a nod.
“Yeah. I thought as much. I didn’t think you would abandon the company just because Benne asked you to. It’s not like you,” Jade said with a small smile.
“Good. So now that you know what I’m doing can you quietly state what you want and leave?” He asked in a pleading tone.
“I thought you changed your mind about me leaving. How can I help?” She asked, changing the subject from why she had come into the room.
She had actually come in wanting to know if he had heard from his men regarding Jero’s current location or if Jero had tried to contact Brandy yet, but that could wait since nobody’s life was in danger at the moment. Family came first.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.