Trapped with a Lawyer

Ella already knew something had happened on her way to Catherine's office. She knocked on the door three times. Catherine looked up and her face became even gloomier.

"Ella, where are the files I told you to print out yesterday? Why there are only two copies of them?"

She knew it was coming. Ella took a deep breath and confronted with Catherine's accusation. She explained: "I worked till 10 o'clock last evening..."

"So what, your working late has nothing to do with me! Ineed to see results from you! Don't you know that I am going to need all these files for a contract signing later?" Catherine angrily threw the A4 paper on the desk and glared at Ella.

Somehow, Ella couldn't shake the feeling that Catherine was deliberately picking on her.

"Excuse me, Ms. Gu, sorry for causing you inconvenience." Ella apologized to her in an indifferent tone.

Catherine loathed her so much that she had to stop herself from scratching Ella every time she saw her.. "What's the use of you being sorry? Now go and print out all the documents I need. If you can't complete the task within 2 hours, you should pay for the loss you cause for the company!"

Ella saw her raging face, and she simply said "alright" and left her office.

She now knew for sure that this Catherine had a huge grudge against her. But she did not know where the grudge came from.

As soon as she sat back at her desk, Ella turned on her computer and began working.

10 o'clock in the morning, Ella felt thirsty. So she saved the document on her computer and walked to the break room with her mug.

At the door of the break room, she heard someone talking in a low voice: "Ella, that mistress is so unlucky. She got bullied by Ms. Gu the first day at work. Did you actually see that Ms. Gu herself touched the power switch?"

"Of course. I would not tell you this if I did not see it myself!"

"Mistress? Touched the switch?" At that moment, all Ella could feel was a rage building up inside her.

"Catherine, I got you!" thought Ella.

She quietly moved into the break room. The gossiping employees gathered there stopped talking immediately. They all went back to the office area with a guilty conscience.

Ella eventually completed the task and handed over the last piece of the file to Catherine before noon.

However, Catherine just responded with a cold voice, "There are now useless. You should now translate all the documents and hand them to me by EOD."

"Useless?" Ella gazed at Catherine who acted like nothing was going on, then she asked: "Do you have something against me?"

'Why does she bully me like this and waste all my time and effort.'

Catherine threw the folder in front of her. She crossed her arms, parted her ruby lips and said: "You are the wife of Mr. Shao, why would I hold anything against you?" Her tone was full of nothing but mockery. Ella did not reach for the folder but confronted her directly: "So you unplugged the power and made all my work in vain. What was that all about?"

'Plus, there is rumor about me being a mistress. Though I don't know yet who started it.' thought Ella.

Catherine's face looked a bit twisted. How on earth did she find out? "Ella, accusing someone without evidence will end up in a lawsuit."

"Lawsuit?" Ella didn't want to argue with her further. She came here to work, not to cause trouble for Samuel. Ella picked up the folder of documents that needed to be translated. On her way out, she said: "You know what you have done. If I catch you doing it next time, don't blame me for making it all personal!"

Having worked in the entertainment industry for several years, Ella had learned a lot of lessons One of the lessons was: A tamed horse is often ridden and a weak person is likely to be bullied.

If she gave in now, she would only end up getting bullied more often. In order to avoid getting bullied, she must stand her ground firmly and defend herself.

However, Catherine followed her out. She stood by the office door, shouting at her in a very angry voice, "You think you can abuse your power as Mrs. Shao and bully the rest?" Her voice was so loud that people in the whole office area could clearly hear her.

All of a sudden, the whole floor went quiet.

Ella felt awkward, but she still turned around calmly and said: "Abusing my power? Sure, I bullied you, so what?" Since Catherine accused her of being a bully first, there was no need for her to explain anymore. No one would believer her anyway.

These were a bunch of easily-influenced and unfriendly colleagues. There was no need for her to pretend to be "nice".

Then, all the people present were shocked to see that Catherine, who boasted of being tough and professional, was now weeping out of anger because of Ella.

This instantly made Ella a horrible person. Many people avoided her as if she was some kind of poisonous snake.

Ella couldn't care less about their opinions. She was only feeling a little bit sorry for Samuel.

She sat back to her seat and clicked open the file. On seeing all these tedious terms and conditions, Ella felt instantly fatigue.

How on earth was she going to translate all these? She barely passed the primary English test. For Ella, translating was 1000 times more difficult than typing.

She took a deep breath and turned on the software on her computer. She started translating sentence by sentence, even word by word.

When her colleagues finished their jobs and gradually left the office one by one, Ella was only half way done.

Soon it was ten in the evening again, Ella's phone started buzzing. Ella saw the caller's name and thought about what happened last night. She still felt hurt deep down. But still, she pressed the answer button and replied: "Hello?"

Samuel heard her voice and sensed her sadness. He stopped loosening his tie, thinking. 'Was she still upset about last night?'

"Where are you?"

Ella browsed through the law files and uttered indifferently: "The firm."

'Maybe I am over-reacting and pushing it too far. Sam is so nice to me and yet I am still mad at him...' thought Ella.

On hearing that she was still in the office, Samuel frowned his eyebrows. 'How come she is still at the firm at this hour?'

"What's going on?" He knew it very well that sometimes Catherine could be as much a workaholic as Emma. But still he never saw Catherine making her staff work this late.

Ella signed silently and explained: "I have not finished the work assigned by Ms. Gu." In order to avoid further conflict with Ms. Gu, it would be wise for her to finish the work first and then go home.

Samuel did not say anything anymore and hung up the phone. Ella gazed at the phone and felt a little bit down as the call was cut off abruptly by Samuel. She then concentrated her attention on translating. Twenty minutes later, someone showed up in the office quietly.

The file in her hands was taken away all of a sudden, which startled Ella a lot. She looked up and saw Samuel standing next to her. Her heart began beating faster and faster.

All her fatigue was driven way and her heart was full of joy. Sam was here for her...

Samuel examined her translation. The content of this document was too difficult for a layman. No wonder Ella worked so late.

But why would Catherine give such difficult files to Ella to translate? One peculiar thought crossed his mind but he shook his head and denied it.

He tidied up the desk and gathered all the files and the A4 paper together. He put them all in a folder and said to her, "Let's go home."