Chapter 4: Never mention her in front of me

Rachel in her room after showering,

I put away my dirty clothing in my laundry bag and sat down in front of my mirror to dry up my hair.

While drying my hair, my mind kept on going back to the time with Creepy Director at the restaurant and Ville Residence.

I felt bad being a bother, yet I felt a warmth in my heart for his concern.

He was a stubborn and persistent man. I smiled as I thought of it.

Suddenly, I remembered what Jennifer Yong did. It gave me a shiver!

Soon, I switched off the one and only fluorescent lamp, laid down on my bed and tried to sleep.

Even though, I felt exhausted after going through a hectic day in the office which was nothing but routine, yet I couldn’t sleep because whenever I closed my eyes, I saw the Creepy Director’s face.

Why?

After tossing in bed for an hour, I fell asleep.

I opened my eyes and felt blind due to the glaring sun that shone in through the opened window.

Then, I realised that this wasn’t my room. It was a wooden house. Even the bed that I laid on was the ancient Chinese wooden bed.

I stood up and walked to the window. Suddenly, I felt my heart melting from the beautiful scenery that was before me.

The vast field of wild flowers with mountains at the background. Breeze blew onto my face and I closed my eyes to enjoy it.

I smelt the fresh air and fragrance from the wild flowers. I heard the squeaking sound of a door opening behind me. I turned around and saw a man walking in.

I tried to look at his face, but it was blurred. He walked towards me. Then, he touched my belly and said,

“You have to eat, our child need food as well.”

Suddenly, I realised that I was pregnant.

He led me outside of the room to a living room where there was a small dining table. I noticed that there were two smaller rooms beside the bedroom that I was in.

The design of the house was ancient. Everything was made of wood and bamboo.

I sat down at the table and there were a few dishes on it. He said, “Vegetables and chicken are from our own garden. Eat up, you need all the nutrients.”

I felt the warmth of love.

After the meal, he led me to one of the smaller rooms. As soon as I walked in, I knew that it was a simple study room.

There was a long table with paintings, brushes and colours on it. Books bond with strings were on the wooden bookshelves.

He took a painting on the table and showed me. It was a picture of a couple but it was blurred. He spoke, “This painting is about us. It showed our love. We will continue love one another for many lives to come, our love is eternal. This is our destiny. No one would and no one could separate us.”

Suddenly, darkness came. I felt that I fell into the darkness.

I screamed and woke up in sweats.

My goodness! It was the same dream but with more details this time. Even though, I didn’t know much, at least there was an ancient Chinese design house with three bedrooms.

There was a painting of a couple and the woman was pregnant. However, the beautiful scenery of the field with wild flowers were lingering in my memory.

It was so real, I wonder whether such place existed.

I took a quick glance at the time on my phone, it is 7:30am.

Oh dear! I am going to be late. I should be leaving my apartment now. A quick wash and a rush to the bus stop.

I was able to catch the 7:40am bus and I kept my finger crossed that the traffic has not picked up.

I managed to descend from the bus at 8:15am and I rushed to the usual café to buy my breakfast as take-outs.

I didn’t have the extra minutes to sit down and have my breakfast at the café. The owne, Uncle Lim whom had been used to my routine breakfast was surprised that I was a little bit late today.

He laughed at my nervousness when I bid goodbye after paying for my breakfast.

However, the moment I walked in the office entrance, everyone stared at me and there were lots of whispers.

Wow! Hello! What’s going on? Are they gossiping about me?

Shirley and John came running to me, and pull me into our department.

“Rachel, tell me the details?” John said, and Shirley went,

“Come on girl, don’t hide anything from me”

“Huh? What is going on? What details? What am I hiding from you?” I responded.

“Raju told us, apparently in front of everyone when we arrived that you left with the new Director, Mr Jeremiah around midnight. He told us that both of you enjoy the conversation, later went for dinner, and it was Mr Jeremiah’s treat for you. Is it true?” John said excitingly.

“Gosh! When did you two join the Gossiper Club?” I scolded Shirley and John.

“He was working late as well, and invited me to dinner as he was famished. That’s it. Nothing else, of course we chatted and talked. We are humans, don’t we communicate by talking.” I replied angrily.

“Enough, back to work. We are not done with the project preps.”

Ignoring them, I quietly thanked God that I was able to clock-in by 8:25am.

I gave a sigh of relief and walked briskly to my workstation. I put my bag on my workstation and went to the pantry with my breakfast.

I had a quick breakfast and then, rushed back to my desk to start on my work.

As I have promised Mr Aaron to complete the flow chart and budget, I called Linda, Jennifer’s Assistant to inform her that Mr Aaron wanted me to obtain the confirmed budget and provision for the current year as well as the current status of budget spent.

Linda replied, “Rachel, I am most willing to provide you the data but I need Jennifer’s approval.”

In fact, I didn’t have to obtain it from A&F Department as I have been given the access of all data in the company by Mr Aaron since my first year at Rectitude Development.

However, out of respect I sought their permission.

This was due to a previous incident last year where Mr Aaron told me to print out accounting data from my PC for him to review without informing our accountant.

When she found out, she was furious and stormed into Mr Aaron’s office about it. It happened that I was called to Mr Aaron’s office for other matters.

She saw that I was there, she bombarded me as if there wasn’t any tomorrow for me, as if she was killing me with her words.

Mr Aaron chimed in and shouted at her. “Jennifer, who are you to scold her? I am the one who authorised her to print out the data, and she is the only one the company that has access to every data of every department that is in our system. I have given her the full authority.”

Jennifer was fuming when she heard Mr Aaron’s words.

Yet, the next sentence that came out of her mouth were cruel, “But she is too young to handle such access. I can’t trust a kid!”

Wow! That was an insult to me, worse for Mr Aaron.

Mr Aaron banged the table and stood up. “Are you trying to criticise my judgement? Jennifer Yong, remember this! She is my most trusted personnel in the company. All the executives in the management knew about this, and no one ever question me. How dare are you?”

Mr Aaron gestured her to leave his office immediately without uttering any word.

I was stunned to see Mr Aaron behaving angrily. I have never seen him bursting out in anger.

I kept mum and could only observed that Jennifer was one who crazed for power. Jennifer stormed out Mr Aaron’s office immediately.

Even though, she never complained to Mr Aaron about me again after that incident but one could feel her resentment towards me.

Everyone in the office felt it because as long as her subordinates mentioned my name, she would instantly gave a long darkened face and snapped at them, “Never mention her in front of me.”

Many staff have seen it with their own eyes and many warned me to be aware of her. However, her behaviour has reached the eyes and ears of Mr Aaron and his wife, Mrs Elijah.

They have always reminded me to be careful especially when I worked late.

However after thinking of what had happened at Olive Restaurant last night, I was kind of freaked out.

Suddenly, my intercom rang. The displayed showed that Linda called. “Yes Linda. Did she approve it?”

Linda replied in whispers, “She told me sarcastically that you have the access. Need not ask for her approval. Rachel, just do as what Mr Aaron said. No point of talking to a moody and emotional person like her.”

She then continued to gossip about Jennifer, and I have to stop her by saying, “Linda, thanks for your help. I have to get back to my work now.”

Having heard Linda’s words about Jennifer’s reaction, I chose to proceed with the access via my laptop into the accounting system to retrieve the data I needed for the compilation of the new budget for the coming year.

While the data was being exported, I reviewed the flow chart draft and sent to Mr Aaron for his advice.

After sending to him, I sent him a text about it.

In less than half an hour, Mr Aaron replied,

Good, email the same to Jeremy.

I did as told, and it just dawn upon me that I needed to inform Jeremiah about my email as well.

I searched for his intercom number and called. He didn’t answer my call, so I decided to call later.

I continued to look into the accounting data and draft out a budget.

Buzz! Buzz! I took a quick glance at my phone, John sent me a message.

I was puzzled, on why did he send me a text when he was sitting behind me? I read the message that said,

Why is Jennifer Yong staring at you? So creepy! Don’t look up! Pretend to walk to the pantry and I will observe her for you.

The same chill that I had last night went up my spine again. I pretended to stand up, stretch my body, grasped my tumbler and walked to the pantry.

Right at that moment, she followed me.

John and Shirley followed from behind, not knowing what would happened but they seemed to be curious or fear for me.

As for me, my heart was pumping! I was freaking out!

I unlid my tumbler to dispense some mineral water into it. I pretended that I didn’t know that she was behind me.

Suddenly, she came up to me and pulled my hand away from the dispenser.

I was startled! Her action caused some water to spill out from my tumbler and splashed on the tiled floor.

I was furious and snapped, “What the heck? Why are you doing such a thing?”

She glared at me with dark eyes and she lifted her right hand up.

At that moment, I knew that she wanted to slap me. I was able to dodge her slap while John came in time to grab her hand.

Shirley gave a shriek and shouted, “Jennifer, what are you doing?”

Suddenly, other members of my team came running and asked,

“What happen?”

Susan Liu came as well and said to Jennifer,

“Ms Yong, I think you owe Rachel an apology for your childish behaviour.”

Jennifer tilted her head up high, glared at Susan and me without replying Susan.

Then, she walked out and purposely bumped on the shoulders of John and Susan.

I stood there, shook my head and uttered, “Unbelievable!”

Susan and everyone came over to ask, “Are you hurt? What happened?”

I told them, “Mr Aaron had instructed me to do the budget for next year which is something that I do every year. All of you knew about it. I knew that I can retrieve the data without her or her subordinates’ help but out of respect, I told Linda who went to ask for her approval. She told Linda sarcastically that I have access to all data, thus, I need not her approval. After Linda told me, I went straight to retrieve the data using my own access code. Next thing you know, she came her to slap me! Wow!”

John said, “I knew that she was up to no good. When I saw her standing staring at you without saying anything to anyone, I knew that she would cause trouble.”

I smiled to John and said, “Thanks for the heads-up John. If you didn’t message me, I didn’t know that she was there. Thanks for stopping her slap as well”

Everyone heaved a relief.

Susan spoke, “I will report this incident to Mr Aaron. Her behaviour is unacceptable. She is a certified accountant, she is supposed to behave professionally.”

Having said that, Susan walked briskly out of our department.

The rest of my team went back to their work while Shirley stayed with me as I continued to fill out my tumbler.

Shirley patted my shoulder and comforted me,

“Rachel, we are always supportive of you. You are not at fault. You are only following our boss’s instructions.”

I was trying to hide my fear of being ‘almost attacked’ by a crazy lady. I faked a smile and thanked Shirley for her support.

Within minutes, I was back to my desk and my phone instantly buzzed.

A message from Mr Aaron that said,

Rachel, I heard from Susan of what Jennifer did. Are you alright?

I replied,

Mr Aaron, Don’t worry, I am fine.

Mr Aaron read the message but he didn’t reply anymore and I presumed that he understood my meaning.

However, my hands were shaking and I put them under my table to hide it. I took a long inhale and exhale, then drank a gulp of water to calm myself.

In fact, I had never really understood Jennifer’s resentment towards me. Whatever that upset her were in fact my jobs.

I was instructed to work, but she didn’t like it. For this matter, I couldn’t do anything to please her as it wasn’t my fault at the first place.

It was her heart, a dark corner of her heart which made her hated me to no end.

In fact, what I knew about her was more than the usual working attitude. As I used to work late at night, I happened to ‘bump into her’ one night while walking to Mr Aaron’s office to retrieve a file as instructed by him through a phone call.

It wasn’t literally ‘bump into her’, it was more of what I saw and heard things that I shouldn’t had.

Mark Siaw, the Head of Legal Department was in his office at that time, it was approximately 9:30pm.

Legal Department was on the same floor at the Managing Director’s office, I had to pass-by Mark’s office in order to go to Mr Aaron’s office.

However, once I reached the Legal Department, I heard the sound of panting and groaning.

Mark’s office was with glass-panels, and the curtains were not properly drawn. I was startled to see with my own eyes that Jennifer and Mark was engaging their lustful sexual act.

I walked briskly and looked the other way, pretended that I saw and heard nothing.

I didn’t think that they saw me as they were in their own world.

I never tell anyone about this matter as it was none of my business. Yet, I knew that they were and are having an affair.

I sympathised Mark’s wife and children.

But on the second thought, she resented me! Maybe they knew, that was the only reason I could find for myself on her resentment towards me.

Buzz! Buzz! Mr Aaron’s message,

Come to my office for discussion

I replied,

Noted. On the way now

Upon reaching Mr Aaron’s office, I knocked on the door and he uttered, “Come in”.

Mr Aaron was on the line and he gestured to me to take a seat. He sounded angry with the person on the other land. After some moments, he hung up the call. He spoke,

“Rachel, it was Jennifer that I was talking to. I have warned her of her bad attitude towards you. She knew that you have the right to access all accounting data, yet she wanted to find fault in you still. I just couldn’t understand her. Please don’t put this matter in your heart, let it slide. It wasn’t your fault, Jennifer is the problem itself.”

I was almost calmed down by the time I reached Mr Aaron’s office, and I was able to smile and nodded my understanding.

Then, Mr Aaron asked,

“Please meet up with Jeremy later to discuss what you have emailed to him. He told me that he had received it from you and that, he would like to have further discussion. He should be in his office now.”

I nodded, yet felt puzzled.

Why didn’t the creepy director call me? Why did he need Mr Aaron to inform me of it? I felt confused.

I walked back after meeting Mr Aaron and went to Jeremiah’s office. I knocked a few times but no one answered.

I dared not open the door, but waited for a few minutes after a few more knocks.

In the end, I gave up and walked back to my desk.

Exactly at 12:00 noon, my colleagues were getting ready to leave for lunch. I was hungry like a horse but after glancing the stack of documents on my left side of my desk, I dropped the idea of having lunch at the café.

Jeremy was in his office the whole morning,

Buzz! Buzz!

I woke up and realised that my phone rang.

Goodness! I dosed off at work. What a shame!

A quick glance at my phone display and I quickly slide my screen to answer.

Jeremy : “Yes, dad.”

Dad : “Have you discuss with Rachel?”

Jeremy : “No, dad. I haven’t seen her.”

Dad : “What? She went to see you right after meeting me. It was about an hour ago. Are you sure?”

It just dawn to me that I fell asleep for more than an hour and Rachel might have knocked on my door but I was so deep in my sleep that I didn’t hear anything.

Jeremy : “Dad, I will meet up with her after lunch.”

I gave dad the assurance that I will definitely discuss the flow chart with Rachel by today.

After some more conversations, we ended the call.

I took a glance at my watch and it is past 12:00 noon. No wonder my tummy is growling!

I stood up, took my hand phone and walked out of my room.

Rachel tried to focus on her work with a hungry stomach but in vain,

I bent down to open my drawer cabinet where I stored my instant cup noodles. I simply took one, stood up and walked to the pantry.

Once I poured hot water into my cup noodles, I walked back to my seat with it.

Suddenly, someone bumped into me from the left corridor. Hot water from the cup noodles spilt out, I gave a cry of pain and dropped the cup.

I was furious and in pain. I didn’t even bothered to look at that person.

“I am sorry, Rachel. Are you alright?” That was Jeremy’s voice.

I looked up at him as I bent down to pick up the cup. I didn’t respond to his concern at all.

He took the cup from my hand and threw into the nearest bin. Then, he turned and held my hands to check on my injuries.

I was stunned. I quickly pulled my hands away.

What’s wrong with him?

As Rachel pulled her hands away, I promptly explained my action,

“Rachel, I didn’t mean harm. I just want to check on any injuries.”

I could see a few patches of redness, I felt bad and upset over my silly action.

She replied hastily, “I’m fine. No worry.”

She quickened her pace to walk away from that spot.

My feeling said that she was angry and avoiding me. I followed her to her desk where everyone had left for lunch.

She was alone and apparently trying to have noodles for lunch.

“Rachel, I am very sorry. Let me buy your lunch as I have spoilt your lunch.”

I spoke while standing in front of her desk.

“I insist, Rachel. Let’s have lunch together.”

“I am sorry that I can’t go out for lunch. I have urgent work to be completed today.” I replied courteously.

I was quite mad with what Jeremy did to my noodle cup but that was few minutes ago.

I have calmed down, and I really need to focus on my work now.

I saw that Rachel was stubborn and I didn’t wish to pester her anymore. Instead, I suggested,

“How about I buy lunch for you? You can eat it at the pantry later. What do you want?”

I gazed at him and smiled knowing that I couldn’t decline anymore. Then, I replied,

“Anything light. Thank you.”