Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 147128 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 736(@200wpm)___ 589(@250wpm)___ 490(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147128 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 736(@200wpm)___ 589(@250wpm)___ 490(@300wpm)
His angry eyes landed on me. ‘Yes, they chose Kimberly.’
‘What was her plan?’ Stan asked, just as surprised as the rest of us.
William smirked but it held no amusement. ‘Her plan? Well her plan was our plan. That would be the short answer.’
‘What do you mean?’ Trisha questioned.
William released a long breath. ‘She chose to go first, presented what she prepared and it was the exact one we had worked on.’
‘How could that happen?’
He faced me. ‘Maybe you could tell me that, Charlie.’
There were crickets in the room. An awful feeling filled my chest. ‘What?’
‘I asked Wilma and she saw you and Kimberly talking in my office.’
‘And?’ I continued.
‘And?’ he repeated, his brows shooting up.
‘She was in there waiting for you when I came in to…’ Before I gave away too much, I stopped myself, my brows knitting together in genuine confusion at his tone. I sat up straighter, leaning forward on the desk, meeting his gaze head-on. ‘She was already in there William, waiting for you. What does that have to do with anything?’
I forgot that there was anyone but us in the room.
He lifted an eyebrow. ‘What does that have to do with anything?’
My mouth tightened. ‘Yes,’ I said curtly.
‘Did you think that she could be in there looking at our plan? Maybe?’
My brows drew together. ‘She was nowhere near your desk.’
William scoffed and turned around, stalking back to his corner in front of the windows. He was rubbing the bridge of his nose.
I stood up, turning towards him, my frown deeper. ‘Why would she risk going in there to look at your plan? She wouldn’t dare to do something like that.’
He spun around. ‘Are you telling me you’re protecting her?’
‘No!’ I rushed out.
‘Okay guys,’ Rick started, coming to stand between us even though we were nowhere near each other. ‘You both need to take a break here. You’re raising your voices and people are taking notice.’
I ignored Rick, but stayed in place. ‘I’m telling you, she wasn’t near your desk. And hell, even if she did look at your plan, are you saying the blame is on me? That I let her look at it or something? Don’t you know the relationship I have with her?’
William shook his head, looking away.
‘Tell us what happened,’ I forced out through gritted teeth. ‘Is it a similar plan or the same one? Did you present ours?’
‘How do you think it’d look if I repeated her exact same plan? I told them Kimberly’s was the better option and she should take it on.’
‘You did what?’
His expression turned thunderous. ‘What did you expect me to do? Look like a fool by repeating her words – words that I wrote down? They already thought I was unprepared. I worked with this company before. This will affect how I look in the industry. This is my job. This is something I’m very good at and it’s something I take very seriously. I was distracted with you and this happened.’
That shut me up. I distracted him? And did he think I didn’t take my job seriously?
I backed up and sat down. Stung beyond words.
Nobody spoke for at least twenty seconds.
Trisha’s phone started ringing. ‘I need to take this,’ she muttered and quietly left the room, leaving me with William, Stan and Rick.
Stan was the last person I expected to take my side, but he did. ‘Okay, so she was in your office and maybe glanced at the papers, did whatever. She sees Charlie coming and she walks away. What did she say to you, Charlie?’
I looked up when there was silence. He was waiting for me to respond. ‘She said she was waiting for William so she could ask him something about the meeting. She left before I could say anything, then Gayle walked in and William came right after that.’
‘You should’ve told me,’ William mumbled.
My heartbeat accelerated, my face heating. ‘I would’ve never thought she would do something like that. I’m sorry. I… I wasn’t thinking.’ I frowned down to the desk. ‘I guess I was distracted as well.’
William shook his head. He took his phone out and glanced at the screen briefly, then lightly threw it on the desk.
‘What happens now?’ Rick asked the obvious.
‘Nothing. I apologized and told them they were in good hands. If Kimberly can manage to put everything she stole into action, they should be good.’
‘You’re not going to say anything to her?’
‘Do we have proof that she looked at our work?’
‘No,’ Rick mumbled, whispering some colourful curses.
I stood up as Gayle and Trisha walked in.
‘I’m going to talk to her,’ I muttered, half to myself.
‘You’re not gonna do anything,’ William objected, his voice rising again.
‘I don’t think that’s the best idea,’ Rick put in at the same time.
‘What’s going on?’ Gayle piped up before I could answer them.
I walked stiffly around the desk and stood next to the open door, ignoring Trisha’s and Gayle’s inquisitive looks.