SWNOVELS Chapter 33 Thirty Three
As the week wore on, Isabelle realised that the man she should be worried about avoiding was not Jacob. Everything at home had gone back to normal, as if her drunken antics had never happened. It was a big relief, because she had no idea how she would have reacted had he brought it up again.
Instead, the man she needed to avoid at all costs was unfortunately one who was around her all day long-her department director, Mr Grayson. After he had called her to his office on Monday morning to offer his help, he had been more and more direct with his advances towards her. He showed her way too much attention in the guise of work, but he never passed up a chance to make hints about what his true intentions were.
She took every precaution she could to avoid running into him, but there was only so much hiding she could do when she worked under him. If only there was a way to put his advances to an end once and for all, she would not hesitate to do it.
One day, while she was in the bathroom at work, she found out that the situation had escalated way beyond her grasp. Two women were talking outside, and the moment her name came up, she became alert and started paying attention to their conversation.
"Have you heard about the new girl and Mr Grayson?" one asked the other.
"About how she is hooking up with him? Yeah.”
"She doesn't look like the kind, but it's the innocent-looking ones who are the worst."
"I know, right? You would think she is classy with the way she carries herself."
"Some women have no shame. She hasn't even been here for a month and yet she's already sleeping with her senior. That's probably how she got the job in the first place."
Isabelle kept quiet and didn't leave her stall until after the two women left. That was how she found out that rumours were swirling around the office about her and Mr Grayson. It didn't take long to figure out where they were coming from-Claudia.
She didn't confront her right away, instead biding her time for the perfect chance to shut her up once and for all.
A chance presented itself soon enough when a few days later, she walked into the break room to find Claudia in the company of two of their coworkers, talking about her. Staying out of sight outside the door, she listened to what she was saying.
"Are you sure she was with the director last night?" one of the women asked.
Claudia nodded. "I saw them with my own eyes going into the hotel. Haven't you heard? She had the same behaviour of seducing men in college, including her professors. Who knows who else she is sleeping with besides Mr Grayson?"
Isabelle inhaled deeply to calm herself. It seemed that the woman was hell-bent on creating rumours about her the same way Ann had. But in the same way she had shut down Ann, she was going to make sure this one thought twice before creating more rumours about her.
Leaving her hiding spot, she marched into the room, her phone in hand. The group that was gossiping about her broke up the moment they saw her, acting like they weren't just talking about her. But she wasn' about to let them get away with it.
Making her way to Claudia, she stopped in front of her and showed her the phone she held. "I have recorded everything you just said about me, and I'll not think twice about reporting you to the police if you don't stop slandering me."
Her voice was loud enough and everybody in the room heard her, including those in the office. Claudia looked at her phone and then at her, and then crossed her arms across her chest. "I haven't said anything that was not true," she claimed arrogantly. She had probably figured that if Isabelle had recorded her, there was no need to deny doing so. Instead, she could act like she hadn't spread fake rumours about her. "Oh, really? Were you with me in the same college to see me seducing my professors?" she demanded.
"People talk," Claudia claimed. "It's common knowledge, everybody knows."
"Everybody knows? From where, your mouth? You didn't even know me before I started working here, yet here you are, talking about me to everyone as if you've known me all my life. Can you show us the proof of everything you are saying I've done?"
Claudia huffed. "Proof? I saw you go to the hotel with Mr Grayson, and that's all the proof I need."
"With Mr Grayson, you say? Okay, we'll see about that. But first, let's see what my schoolmate from college has to say about your claims of the kind of person I was in college. Since we went to the same school as me, he should know better than you, right?” Taking her phone out, she sent Seth a message, asking him to come to her department.
Claudia scoffed and looked around, trying to influence the others who were watching. "We are not going to wait around for your little witness to get here, we have work to do."
Isabelle looked up at her and gave her a flat smile. "Don't worry, he works here too. He'll be here in a minute."
Claudia's smug expression fell at Isabelle's announcement, while a murmur rose among the onlookers. It was the moment of truth-everything was about to be revealed, and Isabelle had no intention to back off until Claudia was put in her place.
Claudia attempted to regain the upper hand. "If he is your friend, he is probably going to lie to help you. Who knows, maybe he is one of the men you seduced while in college."
"Why don't we wait until he gets here and hear what he has to say?" Isabelle told her. She was confident that once Seth vouched for her, nobody would believe Claudia anymore. Seth was popular in the company, and everybody respected him. Nobody would doubt a man of his character.
Besides, Seth was not the only one she was looking to clear her name. It was time to kill two birds with the same stone-silence Claudia and get Mr Grayson to back off.
Stuffing her phone in her pocket, she reached for Claudia's arm and tugged her towards the door. "Let's go and meet the department director and you can tell us about exactly where you saw us two together." "What?" Claudia shrieked, trying to release her arm from her grip. "Let me go!"
"You keep saying that you saw us, so why don't we go and ask him about his whereabouts last night? See if your stories match."
The murmurs around them had turned into excited chatter as their colleagues watched them. Isabelle was not fazed. Clearly, this was the only way to make a statement. It was also the most effective way to shut down whatever rumours Claudia had started. In the same way the rumours about her had spread quickly throughout the company, so would the truth.
Claudia looked around, hoping for someone to step forward and stop Isabelle, but nobody did. Instead, everybody was looking on as the woman dragged her towards the director's office. She never could have expected her to make such a scene in public. She couldn't let her get her way!