SWNOVELS Chapter 27: She was leaving?
As soon as Charlotte was ushered into the office, the man inside, who seemed to have been anticipating her arrival, stood up in an animated flurry.
"Mr. Crowe, I've come to..." Recognition struck Charlotte, and for a fleeting moment, she was speechless.
"You? You're actually Mr. Parker's assistant?"
The man's surprise was tinged with a hint of eagerness, and there he was, the same sleazy fellow Charlotte had taught a lesson the night before during an unpleasant roadside encounter. Chloe's meddling was more intricate than she had thought.
Charlotte got straight to the point, "I'm here for the copies Mr. Parker requested."
"Not so fast, Charlotte," Mr. Crowe said, his voice slick as he rubbed his hands together, revealing a set of gleaming teeth. "It must be fate that brings us together again."
"Please, Mr. Crowe, the copies," Charlotte insisted, her voice firm.
"You've got quite the temper," Mr. Crowe remarked, unfazed, as he dangled a document envelope just out of reach.
"Share a night with me, and the documents are yours," he proposed brazenly.
"Mr. Parker's done with you; why be loyal to him? I'll throw in two million on top of the documents, how about that?"
Two million - it was an amount she had earned in half a year with Liam, and now Mr. Crowe was offering it for just one night.
Charlotte knew Mr. Crowe wouldn't hand over the documents easily, but she wasn't about to sacrifice her dignity for them.
"I need to verify the contents first," she stated.
"Sure, take your time," Crowe acquiesced, handing her the documents, then casually locked the office door.
In his territory, with the doors locked, he wasn't worried about her running off with the documents.
"I need the originals, or how can I be sure you're not deceiving me with fakes?" she challenged.
"No problem, here you go." Crowe was unusually accommodating, thinking he had her cornered.
It was a data file, brimming with numbers that could make one's head spin.
"Aren't you afraid I'll memorize them and make my own copies?" she asked.
Crowe laughed off the idea, "Memorize it? Even the sharpest accountant in my finance department can't do that. Memorize? Don't make me laugh."
"I actually can." And Charlotte wasn't boasting. Her beauty was matched by a rare talent for numbers.
She had once been a cashier at a supermarket, and when the power went out, it was her mental agility with numbers that saved the day.
After reviewing the data three times and committing it to memory, Charlotte tore the papers into pieces without a word.
Crowe's smirk turned into a look of horror.
She fed the shredded pieces into a paper shredder, then finally turned to Crowe, "Shall we talk now, Mr. Crowe?"
"Talk... about what?" Crowe stammered, panic-stricken. The project was his father's pet project; he was just playing at company man.
If his father found out about the data loss...
Charlotte smiled at his terrified expression, "Without the documents, Liam might just fire me, but the project stalling will hurt the company. Think you can handle the fallout?"
"I..." Crowe was at a loss for words.
"Did Chloe tell you how much Liam values the company's interests when she asked for your help?" Charlotte continued.
"Chloe... you know about her? What else do you know?"
"I also know Liam won't let you off the hook, and neither will Chloe."
Crowe was shaking in his boots. He was nothing more than a pampered fool, lusting after Charlotte and duped by Chloe's machinations, waiting in his office for Charlotte to walk right into his trap. If the project truly stalled, not just Liam - his own father would skin him alive!
Seizing the ripe moment, Charlotte gently began, "I could pin everything on Chloe and the head secretary, but you, little Mr. Crowe, will have to do something for me."
"What?" He was too shaken to ponder why she referred to him as 'little Mr. Crowe' instead of just 'Mr. Crowe'.
"You'll help me with..."
Charlotte whispered her condition into his ear before giving him her phone number.
"After I deal with the head secretary, I'll send the exact data to you. Don't be afraid."
With a handshake that trembled with fear and relief, Charlotte stepped back into the sunlight, a deep breath of satisfaction filling her lungs.
Next on her agenda was to clear her name and handle the head secretary.
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Charlotte marched back to Parker Group with purpose, making a beeline for the head secretary's office. She calmly dropped the bombshell that the critical data had vanished into thin air.
"I'm not here to debate the merits of your shady dealings with Chloe," Charlotte began, her tone even but her words cutting like a knife. "My reputation is on the line, and that's my sole concern. Do you grasp the gravity of that?"
The head secretary's face drained of color as she weighed the implications, and after a moment's contemplation, she slipped out of the office without a word.
Soon enough, the buzz of frantic justifications from Nancy, the new general affairs assistant on the twenty-fourth floor, echoed through the halls. Her protests, however, were short-lived and soon silenced.
When the head secretary returned, her hair in disarray, she grumbled, "Youth and ambition led her to believe she could climb into Mr. Parker's bed. She refused to leave."
Charlotte was really pleased with how well she knew her place.
After dealing with the head secretary, there would be others that Chloe could manipulate. It might be better to keep this defeated underling around. She could serve as a smokescreen against Chloe, and there's no fear of this fool daring to stab her in the back a second time.
With not a single word of the injustice or the obstacles thrown her way, Charlotte quietly handed over the documents.
"Mr. Parker, I've retrieved the copies."
Liam didn't respond; instead, he looked her over critically, scanning her from head to toe as if checking to see if someone had touched her.
With each passing second under his gaze, Charlotte's heart grew colder.
It was clear he wasn't oblivious to her plight; he had deliberately set her up to fail.
"I've been framed," she stated, a surge of defiance pushing her to seek the truth of how far Liam's cruelty could extend.
"Only Chloe could orchestrate a scheme of this magnitude."
Charlotte locked eyes with Liam, searching for any flicker of emotion on his face.
He despised being manipulated, and Chloe's intrusion into Parker Group affairs was a cardinal sin, even if she was his fiancée.
If he truly didn't care, it meant he was fully aware of Chloe's actions and had silently condoned them.
Anxiety knotted in her stomach as she awaited his response.
"Charlotte," Liam leaned back into his chair, a lazy, languid look on his face. "My fiancée was merely playing a small joke on you."
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Did he dare call this torment a joke?
Charlotte wanted to laugh, but her lips refused to curve into a smile.
Instead, she let her head drop, hiding the twin trails of tears that she couldn't hold back.
She had cried too much for Liam these past few days.
He wasn't worth it.
"Liam, does Chloe's treatment of me mean nothing to you?"
"What happens to you is of no consequence to me," his voice was cold, devoid of warmth.
"Charlotte, we're done. Those were your words, remember?"
"Is that so?" A wretched smile flickered on her lips. "I understand now."
With that, she spun on her heel and strode out, her steps hasty, as if she was desperate to leave everything behind.
Liam clutched the arms of his chair, his composure shattered, replaced by disbelief and panic.
She was leaving?
Had all her attempts to leverage him amounted to nothing more than a hollow my affections for you are genuine? His body tensed, almost unable to stand.
But then, his calm returned.
She hadn't resigned.
She was still an employee of Parker Group, still his personal assistant.
Still within his realm of control.
The anger that had flared up dissipated just as quickly.