The Sabotage

Chapter 7

LILY'S POV

"What's going on here?" Robert's gruff, provoked voice sounded as he came out of his office.

Quickly, as Scarlett looked at him, I wiped the teardrops threatening to spill from my eyes and held back the sobs forming at the back of my throat.

I summoned the courage to lift my gaze to Robert's eyes. The eyes of the boy I fell in love with the first time I saw him walk into our class. The eyes of the man I longed for his love and wanted to spend the rest of my life with even though he was so dumb he couldn't see it that way. It was hard to believe that one day those eyes would be seeing me out of his house and life forever, welcoming Scarlett as his new wife.

No doubt his family members will approve especially his mum since Scarlett will be giving her what I couldn't - a child. A child that didn't come about by mistake. A child Robert approves of.

"Nothing is happening," I said and forced a smile, my heart as heavy as a rock in my chest. "Everything's fine. I was just..."

I didn't finish speaking when Scarlett quickly flew and fell into his body. She hugged him tightly and rested her head on his chest. Robert patted her on the head, gently running his fingers over her lush hair.

I was jealous of the ease of intimacy between them even in public. It was a stark contrast to me and Robert's forced interactions and display of affection. He only hugged me when we were in the company his family members to play our part as a couple. But the hug was without love, just to keep up an act. Our conversations were mostly centred on work-related stuff or his family. Hardly anything else.

I let out a quiet sigh and I looked away from them when I suddenly heard Scarlett sobbing as she buried her face in his chest. This caused me to back at them to see what the problem could be.

"She's lying," she blurted accusingly and my brows shot up in confusion. "Everything's not fine. I came to see you but she won't let me. When I insisted, she became aggressive and hit me on the stomach."

My mouth fell open in shock at her words. I blinked severally to make sure I heard correctly. Hit her? God knows I'll never hit anyone much less her. Though she was as annoying as hell.

"Have you lost it, Lily!" Robert's eyes blazed amber fire as he looked at me. He tightened his jaw and it quivered with rage. "How dare you hit her? When did it come to this?"

"No..." still in shock, I tried to defend myself. "I'd never do that. I didn't hit her..."

"I don't want to hear whatever nonsense that is to come out from your mouth," Robert snapped, taking the words from my mouth as I flinched at his outburst. "She is in a delicate state now. Just know that this is the first and last time you'll ever do something like that again or try to stop her from seeing me."

When he mentioned delicate state, something told me he was referring to her pregnancy, confirming Scarlett's words.

I pressed my lips firmly together to cage the hurtful feeling spreading inside me. What about me? I had his baby growing in my belly. Wasn't I in a delicate state too?

"But...but you said I should schedule all your visits and meetings till later in the evening," I tried to remind him of the instructions earlier.

"You should have been smart enough to know it didn't include her," he replied curtly "Try this next time and feel my wrath," he threatened ruthlessly.

Scarlett's heightened sobs and crocodile tears only made him raise his voice at me the more. No matter what I say, no matter what I do, he'll always believe her over me. So there was no use trying to prove myself.

He started making his way into his office, holding her like she didn't have legs of her own. I watched with a breaking heart as he doted on her.

"Does it still hurt?" he asked in care.

Scarlett nodded and with a fake defeated voice said. "A little. Hope it won't affect the baby?... If anything happens to our baby, Robert it'll be all her fault. You'll have to hold responsible and punish her. I don't want to give birth to a premature baby."

"Nothing will happen to him," Robert comforted her. He huffed out angrily and cast me a glare deadlier than the first before they entered his office and shut the door.

*

*

*

It was time for the meeting and my presentation. The board members and the clients were all present. As the CEO of our company, Robert was present too and he brought Scarlett along. She was just newly employed. She wasn't an important member of the company. Only important members of the company were to be present at this meeting. I didn't know why Robert had to bring her. She was always clinging to him like his handbag and it so much pissed me off.

I kept myself from thinking about anything that had to do with her. I needed to focus because this was very important, not only to Robert and the company but also to my image. I was to do a brief presentation, suggesting approaches we could use on social media to give our clients' business campaign the exposure and recognition they needed online.

I was ready as I stood confidently in front of the conference room. The board members and clients all sat in silence, their attention fixed on me. I took a deep breath and smiled, feeling proud of the amount of work I had put into this. I have been working on it ever since I got the email.

However, I hadn't gone three minutes into my presentation when I noticed the confused look on everyone's faces as they occasionally stared at me and the screen behind me displaying my slide data. They were giving me a weird dirty look that made me feel extremely uncomfortable.

Equally confused, I turned to look at the screen to figure out what the problem could be only to see the unimaginable. A gasp filled my throat as I stared in shock at the content displayed on the screen. Instead of the commercial data I had assembled while preparing for this presentation, I was seeing sex memes and porn adverts.

Unable to understand what was happening, I quickly tried to click through the slides but it only got worse. Murmurs spread across the board members. The clients' once attentive gaze now filled with doubt and disappointment. I could already feel Robert's anger and disappointment heating me to a pulp from where I was. I kept myself from finding his face.

Sweat beaded on top of my eyebrows and forehead. My fingers trembled as I fumbled with my laptop, desperately trying to fix my slides. But it was of no use. The damage has already been done.

A cold sensation prickled into my skin as I wondered where it all went wrong. This has never happened to me before and I made sure everything was set before I began.

Embarrassed, I glanced around the room only to catch a smirk on Scarlett's face. She sat back with hers crossed satisfyingly as if enjoying a show. At once I knew it was her. She did this. She sabotaged me in front of everyone. How could she have done this?

If though I didn't want to, my gaze involuntarily met Robert's since he was sitting very close to Scarlett. The look of anger, confusion, and disappointment on his face was enough to make me wish I had a shell I could retract into.

Feeling the walls closing in on me, I tried to maintain my composure. My voice wavered as I tried to explain the error that occurred to them. But I couldn't even think clearly to come up with something reasonable. The clients whispered amongst themselves and the board members' disappointed gazes kept trailing off to where Robert was seated as if asking for an explanation.

"Miss Jones I believe," one of the clients said as he stood up, breaking the tense silence that enveloped the room.

"Yes..." I nodded shakily, so embarrassed I could sink into the floor.

"Do you care to explain this? Did you bring us here to make fun of us? After the millions of dollars we'd put into this?" He asked angrily. "We were told this company was one of the best in the country. But from the looks of it, this is nothing but an absolute disgrace."