After spending the day resting and watching her son play in the villa's field with his father Melissa went to work. On arrival everyone looked at their phones then at her whispering to each other when she got to the building. Some people who had never spoken to her walked over to greet her. She thought people were talking about the ceremony since it had gone on for the whole weekend causing a buzz in the media. When she walked in her office, Nancy and Jenifer were head deep in the newspaper but tried to hide it when they saw her.
"What going on?" She asked stopping in front of Jenifer's desk when she saw their unusual behavior.
"Melissa, hey we didn't hear you come in. Is your foot better?" Jenifer asked covering the newspaper with her laptop.
"What's going on?" She inquired again.
"Have you seen today's newspaper?" Nancy asked getting the newspaper from Jenifer.
"Nancy don't." Jenifer tried to stop her but she paid no attention to her.
The thing Melissa saw when Nancy opened the gossip column, was her pictures all over the page. She sat down clenching the newspaper staring at it. The red stained dress and her drenched face was prof enough of everything said about her. There were reporters at the party but she didn't expect to see her pictures smeared all over the media with horrible story's written about her. Now she understood why Sasha had made her almost fall then poured the drink on her, disgracing her publicly. People calling her names was more humiliating than walking out of a hall full of prominent guest.
...
"Ma'am did you see this?" The assistant handed Sasha her phone when she got to her office. "It's been trending since morning." She explained.
"Thank you, you can leave now." She dismissed her sitting behind her desk.
Melissa's picture was on every social platform, she was accused of forcing herself on Mr Johnson Sasha's fiance with a picture of her falling just to be caught by him. Her character was tarnished calling her all sort's of names, showing how she went around dating wealthy men for financial gain. The dress and jewelry she wore at the party was estimated to be worthy more than her one year salary, they wrote a story how she had coned an older man to finance her expenses.
"Yes I saw it." Sasha said to the person on the other side of the phone answering the call. "Why did you have this published? Now the whole world knows about their relationship and Mark will hate me for this."
"You should be thanking me." The person said. "I commend you for the great show you put up." The person on the other end said clapping their hands. "Why don't you issue a statement, say that she is not your competition, make it clear that Mark is yours."
"No I can't, if Mark gets to know my involvement in this he will surely get back at me." Sasha protested.
"Rest easy, no one will find the source of this information and remember, this is just the begin. Play your part well if you want to have Mr. Johnson." The person said ending the call.
As instructed Sasha made a statement on her social media handle, saying that the lady was not her competition and she had no involvement in her life.
Mark asked his team to take down all pictures on all social media pages. He also demanded an apology from the newspaper company and the story taken down. The investigation on the person who had the story published led them to a cyber shop in the city outcast that had many clients coming in and out with no record or camera's inside making it difficult to know who really set the whole thing up.
Nancy and Jenifer watched Melissa quietly sympathizing with her. They had expected her to get angry or bleak down in tears when she saw the horrible things people where saying about her but she didn't utter a word. She sat for awhile looking blankly out of the window.
"Melissa where are you going?" Jenifer asked when she took her bag.
"I have a client meeting." She said walking to the door.
"You can't leave like this, the reporter's might come after you. Maybe we should call Mr Johnson he will know what to do." Nancy stood before her blocking her way out.
"I can't disappoint my client, the renovation is scheduled to start today besides I can't hide from people because of a few lies spread about me. Don't worry, I'll be okay." Melissa said walking out of the office. She felt really happy she had people who cared about her.
She didn't want to give the person any satisfaction for ruining her reputation by moping and hiding all day. She contacted her team to meet at the client's house as she got in a taxi. Melissa sat in the taxi looking out of the window all sort's of emotions going through her mind. She looked at her silent phone screen light up for the hundredth time, Mark had been trying to call her several times but she didn't have the strength to talk to him. She knew it would be hard being with him when they got together but never did she imagine it being so awful. Degrading her publicly, making people call her name's was hurtful.
"You are the trending lady on media today, isn't it?" The taxi driver asked looking at her on the rearview mirror. "You don't mind what people say, live your life to the fullest. Such a beautiful young lady like you must have suitors and you can't turn them down because some people out there feel threatened." The taxi driver kept talking, telling her stories about his clients and his life without failing to encourage her when she got to her destination.
The big gate's opened when she showed her identification. The house was thirty minutes out of town in a quite environment with fresh air. Alighting from the car she looked at the two story building with a broken fountain and bushes and dried flowers in the once well manned garden. The young lady and her husband received her at the door. Though the house was old, it had a strong foundation needing to only change the furnishings and the kitchen layout to add a pantry. They sat at the kitchen island discussing the various areas need to be improved and a list of material needed.
"Uncle, this is the designer I told you about." Melissa was stunned to see Mr. Crack walk in the kitchen. He had come to give the house key's to his niece and advice on what to do.
"Mr. Crack, have been trying to contact you for awhile now." Melissa told him when they were left alone. The couple were busy on the phone.
"Sorry I can't help you Ms. White." He said getting up.
"You kept the companies financial record how can you not have any information?" She asked getting agitated.
"I'm sorry." He said walking out
"Mr. Crack please help me out, all i want is the truth. You must have all the records, please, Mr. Crack." Melissa run after him shouting.
"Melissa stop, what do you want from my uncle?" She held Melissa's hand stopping her. "I saw the article today but I thought may be it was not true. Now I see you running after my uncle. You should be ashamed." Melissa pulled out of her grasp, looked at her then run out.
Mr. Crack looked at Melissa running down the stairs as he drove off. It reminded him of the little girl who always accompanied her father. Mr. White had given him so much, the day he offered him that job he was at dead end. Debt in all corners driving him to a point of suicide but meeting him changed his life. He paid his debt and gave him money to support his family, now with a breaking heart he seat's back as his daughter suffer. He opened the safe took out a bunch of documents and went through them when in his office. He had kept them so he would have a leverage against the Steven's but more so he would give Melissa justice. Locking them back in the safe he thought of his friend. That company was his pride, he worked had to make it a success so his daughter could run it in the future.
Greed for more money made him betray the only good friend he ever had and the guilt was killing him. He couldn't stand looking at Melissa after all he had done.
"Dad, how much do you trust Mr. Crack?" Jessica eavesdropped on Diana and her dad.
"Why do you ask? He has helped us a lot, I don't doubt his loyalty to me." Mr. Stevens told his daughter Diana sitting back in his chair.
Diana told him how she got her men to follow Mr Crack since the day her father informed her of meeting Melissa. Today she got information about him and Melissa meeting in a house out of the city raising suspicion.
"He knows what happened, we can't risk him giving out any information." Diana said tapping the table with her index finger.
"What? We can't go killing everyone Diana. Keep your men off him and let me take care of everything." Jessica covered her mouth in shock after hearing their conversation. She knew her dad and sister had illegal businesses but she never thought they were capable of killing someone.
"Did they have Mr. White and his wife killed to cover their track's?" Jessica asked herself seated in her office chair looking at the endless tall buildings around her.