Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Zelda
The air in the car was pensive. And I stared straight ahead at the road as we drove home.
After we had had our argument last night and I’d let it slip that I didn’t love him anymore, it had been complete silence ever since, and when we got home I slept in the guest room.
This morning was no better.
I wasn’t in the mood to argue and neither was he. I told him I was coming in to work, he had only huffed and stalked out the dining room, leaving his breakfast unfinished. And now, we were both in the backseat of his car, heading to the company. Suddenly, his phone rang beside me, drawing me out of my musings. I watched him fish the device out of his suit jacket.
‘Chloe,” the caller ID displayed in big, bold letters on the screen. My anger began to bubble immediately.
Julian cast a surreptitious glance my way, before turning away to pick the call.
‘I told you not to call me so early in the morning. What do you want?” He spoke in soft tones.
A woman’s high pitched voice could be heard on the other side of the line but for the life of me, I couldn’t hear what she was saying.
He listened for a minute before uttering a sullen, “Fine” before hanging up.
The next thing I knew, Julian was rapping on the car window next to him.
‘Hughes, stop the car.”
Hughes did as he asked and parked by the side of the road.
‘What’s going on?” I asked, confused by what was going on.
Julian didn’t bother glancing my way as he replied. “Get off.”
“Excuse me?” I frowned, wondering if those two words were supposed to be meant for me.
“Get out of the car,
Zelda.”
Oh, hell no. He had to be joking,
“Is this your idea of a joke?” I demanded incredulously.
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“I’ve got errands to run and I honestly do not have time for your whining. So get down now.”
“But…but..how will I get to work?” I spluttered.
Julian shrugged carelessly. “Take an uber or something.”
Hughes who had been listening in on our argument cleared his throat, the tips of his ears bright red. I’m positive Julian was deriving unholy joy in embarrassing me in the presence of the driver.
“Fine,” I said between my teeth. “Do as you wish.”
Gathering what was left of my dignity, I opened the car door and stepped out. Julian tossed some dollar bills after me and I watched them land on the floor.
“In case you don’t have any money on you.”
And with that, the car zoomed off, leaving me standing there.
The longer I stared at the money Julian had thrown at me like I was some cheap stripper, the more I blamed myself. This was all my fault. For years, I played the good girlfriend and let his family walk all over me. I had lost myself in the process and was consumed by the overwhelming need to please him.
But that was all coming to an end. I, Zelda Shaw, was going to reclaim everything I had to ever sacrifice because of Julian. Even if it was the last thing I did, I’d stomp that arrogant son of a bitch into the ground!
I was thirty minutes late to work.
Being late made me frazzled.
Stumbling into the large space, I frantically searched the cubicles for a familiar face.
‘Hey, you!” I noticed an older woman approaching me. Her face was crumpled in a scowl.
‘You’re late. And on your first day, at that.”
‘Are you talking to me?” I asked dubiously as I glanced around to make sure it was me she was indeed yelling at.
‘Who else would I be talking to?” she snapped. “Get to work before the boss hears about this.”
Her loud tone was already attracting an audience, and the other employees didn’t bother hiding their curiosity as they tried to figure out what the commotion was all about.
‘Who are you supposed to be?” I asked, forgetting I was supposed to be a lowly intern.
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Her eyes widened comically.
“I’m your supervisor and I’ll have you know you’re this close to being served a query.”
Bristling, I opened my mouth to give her a piece of my mind when we were interrupted by a pretty, young woman who stepped in between us.
“There you are!” She exhaled audibly. “I was just about to go look for you.”
I watched as she made a show of noticing the supervisor’s presence.
“Melinda, I didn’t see you there,” the supervisor said, with her arms crossed over her chest.
The new woman turned to me, giving me a one over before turning back for the supervisor.
“So what’s the commotion about? Are you telling me this unruly woman is just clocking into work now, Lisa?’
Did this woman just call me unruly?
“First of all,” I began, but a third lady interrupted and didn’t let me finish.
“Oh, I forgot to submit some files and she volunteered to help out,” she said.
Melinda studied us with suspicion for a long while.
“Fine. This should never happen again, do I make myself clear?”
I glared right back at the old hag until she decided to leave us alone and take her troubles elsewhere
“Fine. This should never happen again, do I make myself clear?”
“You’ll get used to Melinda’s unsavory character,” the third lady said to me as soon as we were alone, smiling. “I’m Lila by the way. What’s your name?”
“Zelda,” I answered. “and I bet if Melinda had known who I was, she would’ve been singing a different tune.”
I saw the slight look of confusion on Lila’s face when she heard that statement. She even had to look at me from head to toe again.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were a high ranking officials here. Although I could’ve sworn I knew all the high ranking officials in the company.”
Letting go of her hand with a nervous chuckle, I remembered what I and Julian had agreed on. Or rather, what he had made me agree on.
‘Don’t let anyone know you’re my girlfriend, alright? Wouldn’t want them to think I practice nepotism.’ He
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had told me earlier on.
The fact that I once owned the company and had hired him was to be forgotten and kept a secret.
“I’m not high ranking.” I admitted sheepishly. “Just started work today as a matter of fact.”
Lila smiled –she seemed to like doing that a lot- and clapped her hands together in excitement.
“Great! I’d love to show you around, then.”
Her joy was infectious and I found myself grinning back.
“I’d like that, actually. It seems there’s been a lot of changes here.” I observed, trying to decide if I liked the new look or not.
“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know Annalise, would you?” I asked Lila. Annalise used to be my Chief of Operations and the closest thing I ever had to a sister. Our friendship at the time never survived Julian’s poison and I had only myself to blame.
Maybe, this was the time to make amends.
“Annalise Morris?” Lila asked.
“That’s the one!” I confirmed.
“She left the company a while ago.”
I was not expecting to hear that.
“She did? Why?”
Lila shook her head. “No one was really sure but there were talks about misconduct.”
“No way,” I whispered wondrously. In all my years of knowing Annalise, she was the type of woman who put her head down and worked hard. She was also very meticulous and wouldn’t have done anything to implicate herself.
A voice in my head whispered that maybe Julian must have had a hand in all this.
“A lot of employees were let go. No one knew if their jobs were safe or not.”
That explained why I was unable to recognize anyone in here. Julian had taken the company I had built from the ground up and had changed everything. All traces of me were gone and I’d been darn impressed if I wasn’t so pissed by that.
“You can find your cubicle over there,” Lila pointed to a non decrepit corner in the room.
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“That’s where all the interns are, actually.”
A freaking intern. That was what I had been reduced to. Beggars, however, couldn’t be choosers and in this scenario, I was the beggar.
Just then, a familiar laugh rang out behind me and I turned to dare to see Julian usher in a pretty, young thing into his private office with a rakish grin plastered on his face.
‘And that’s our CEO, Julian Parker.” Lila informed me cheerily.
‘And who’s that with him?” I asked like I didn’t already know who that was.
‘Chloe works here too. She’s Julian’s wife and we call her ‘Mrs. CEO.’
Gritting my teeth together and clenching my hands into fists slightly, I tried not to let this rage surging up ny system take over me.
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