One Night Stand Gone Wrong

Arielle spent the entire week drowned in insults and jabs aimed at her, but she was too busy to care.

A few people were in awe of her indifference and ability to endure.

While a bunch of people thought she was too shameless to care.

The majority, however, kept their opinions to themselves.

Unbeknownst to them, Arielle was listening to everyone and keeping note of overly verbose people.

A part of her job was cleaning the company, which meant she had to root out the bad apples.

This rumor had helped Arielle by creating an environment of conflict. It was a chance to evaluate people’s characters.

Arielle disliked people who thrived on gossip and other people’s misery without empathy or remorse.

She would include them on her list of toxic people ruining the work culture.

It was up to Thomas what he wanted to do with them.

Finally, the day of the banquet came.

Arielle showed up with a date who happened to be the man whose hotel room she had entered in one of those videos.

It threw everyone into chaos as they could not understand her motive.

Thomas gripped his wine glass tight as soon as he saw her linking arms with someone else.

But as he stared at her, he noticed something peculiar. Her date seemed to be checking out men and not women. It was subtle, and he would not have caught it had he not been staring daggers at them.

That made him relax and heave a sigh.

Finally, the time came for Arielle’s presentation.

Arielle was halfway through when she realized that no one was listening to her.

As such, she breezed through her report without any explanation. Her presentation ended 30 minutes before it should have.

The noisiest employees took this as another validation that she had been using immoral ways to get to the top and did not know her job.

While the rest, who were paying attention, were annoyed by the abrupt increase in speed.

The 30 minutes Q&A round got extended to 60 minutes.

The gossipy employees and the bribed ones began to ask her embarrassing questions, making their intentions clear.

“Well, since you people want to gossip, why don’t we talk about the pretty necklace that Miss Emma Payne is wearing?” Arielle was waiting for this provocation to retaliate.

Thomas had given his go-ahead in whatever she had planned, so she did not hold back.

“Miss Payne, where did you get such an exquisite piece of jewelry from?” She asked, pushing Emma to the spotlight.

“Someone does not know her job and diverts the topic to glittering things to make her presence known. Why do we even tolerate them in the company?” Emma scoffed.

Arielle humbly said, “You are right. I was too busy thinking of your jewelry and where you got it to be able to finish the presentation as planned. Won’t you assuage my curiosity, Miss Payne?”

Emma was smug at Arielle’s subservient attitude, so she answered, “As expected of vermin! Since I am feeling generous, I might as well tell you – my would-be-sister-in-law Sophia gifted this to me.”

Emma was oblivious to Sophia’s discomfort. Sophia sucked a deep breath as a sense of foreboding came to her. Emma felt smug at showing off and telling everyone that Sophia was Thomas’s fiancé.

Arielle, surprisingly, chuckled, “I had thought Miss Payne and Miss Green were best friends. I had not imagined Miss Green was so insincere that she would humiliate and dare to provoke Miss Payne by making her wear fake jewelry. In a PGI event, no less.”

Everyone gasped as Sophia’s eyes turned murderous. Emma went red with anger and embarrassment.

Thinking it was a trick of Arielle’s, she exclaimed, “What nonsense is that? You even dare to pretend that you know anything about Soul’s jewelry. At least know what is above your paygrade, bitch.”

Thomas frowned in distaste at her bad behavior and said, “Mind your language, Em! That’s no way to talk.”

Thomas did not approve of billeting another. Especially his employees who worked hard for him and his family’s company.

Emma was furious at being scolded in front of everyone and forgot all her manners, “How dare you talk back to me? And for this bitch? Does she have anything against you? Why are you so protective of this slut?”

Thomas did not want to embarrass his sister, but he could not let her talk crap about Arielle like that. Besides, Emma needed a harsh lesson.

“She is better than you in every way. You would be nothing if you were not a Payne.” Thomas said without holding back. It resulted in another loud gasp and silence.

Arielle cut them off as she said, “Hey, Evan, miss me?”

Arielle’s phone was on video calling as she projected the image.

“Elle, my love! Did you finally come back to your senses and decide to date me?”

“And have all those pretty flies around you after my blood? I think not! You are on the loudspeaker, and I have projected the video in front of several hundred people, by the way.”

“Damn! My reputation is going to be ruined by you one of these days.”

“What are friends for?”

“Heartless bitch!” Evan exclaimed, but everyone could see there was no malice in his words.

“Since you have already called me heartless, might as well ask you for help?”

Evan suddenly turned solemn.

Everyone watching could finally believe that it was indeed Evan, the top designer of Soul Jewelry.

“Elle, honey, I am not designing another beautiful pendant for your 5-year-old goddaughter. Anything other than that, count me in as long as I can help.”

“Don’t worry! Do you think I am that prodigal that I shell out 10 million dollars worth of gifts every other month?”

“In that case, I am at your service, little Elle.”

“Well, the butterfly necklace that you designed for my goddaughter, I saw it on someone else’s neck today.”

“Oh! Hahaha! I was going to call you about this, slipped my mind. Some bitch called my assistant and asked for a real-looking replica for 5 Grand. Can you imagine? She even dared to threaten me by using some company’s name – PGI. I remembered you had a contract with PGI, so I had a little fun. I guess you found out already.”

Evan burst into laughter while Emma nearly bit her tongue in embarrassment. Sophia did not know where to duck her head.

Arielle rolled her eyes, “What did you do?”

Evan laughed even harder, “I filed a police complaint, of course. And with consent, I sold a necklace with a little voice transmitter. I bluffed and asked for 50 grand instead of 5. If you have seen it already, the cops should be close by.”

Evan nearly toppled.

Arielle was speechless, “Did you not hear when I said you were on speaker and your image projected in front of everyone?”

Evan only shrugged, “So what? Publicity is publicity. Besides, the cops would announce it soon.”

Arielle only shook his head, “Alright, I gotta go. I will see you next week. Brunch at my place! I will text you the details. Ar and Belle will be there as well.”

Evan waved goodbye, “Make sure to make garlic shrimps. See you!”