Chapter 63: Chapter 63

“Dee, I need a favor from you,” I ask.

He stops what he’s doing and he looks at me, waiting for me to continue.

“I, I left my phone at K’s house, is there a phone or a computer I can use to check my e-mails?” I hesitantly ask.

He doesn’t seem surprised about it, and then he walks towards the other bedside table and pulls out the drawer.

There I see the pouch which I left at K’s. Then he puts it on the bed, “I thought you’d never ask,” he says.

“You had this since yesterday? How foolish of me!” I blame myself, “Thank you, Dee. I need to check some important details.”

“Do you want to use my laptop on my study table instead?” he offers.

I try to open my phone, I thought it was because I turn it off but it seems the battery died indeed, so I accept his generosity, “Uh, yes please, my phone died anyway, thanks, Dee.”

We once again go back to the study room, and he turns on the laptop. Then he leaves the room so I can have time.

I sit in front of the computer and stare at it for a while. I somehow feel nervous about what I will see, but it needs to be done.

So without any delay, I open my social media account, my work e-mail, and my business e-mail and find out what will happen to me.

And just as I expected, my social media accounts are flooded with message requests and messages from my relatives, friends, and some gossipmongers. There are two things I see from them, bashers and admirers.

I take a deep breath, ignore all the personal and direct messages, and deactivate everything.

The next thing I check is the business e-mail for ‘Events For Keeps’, somehow I need to assure my other three clients for this month that nothing is changed and we will go as planned.

So I open it and see dozens of e-mails from them, too. Apparently, they are much quicker than I was. They saw the videos even before I could see them, and they were keen to take precautions.

Three kinds of e-mail flood my business account, concern, sympathy, and then cancellation.

Yes, all three of them canceled, all at once. Seeing this, I feel a bit of discomfort around my throat, it seems that my airway is somehow blocked.

My sweat registers all over my face and body, and it starts to feel hot.

I close all the mails and mumbles, “I am so sorry, K. I guess we will go down because of my stupidity.”

I still gulp despite the blockage in my throat, and now, the only thing left is my office e-mails and chats.

The usual maximum of ten greetings by the time we time in and out now fills around hundreds of commentaries about me, my works, my career, and how I become a billionaire whisperer.

“Billionaire whisperer, huh! Bullshit, all bullshit!” I click my tongue and disdain paints all over my face.

How easy for them to judge and how easy for them to forget all the things I’ve done for the company.

I bite my lips out of rage and I don’t even notice that I’m already bleeding.

I keep on reading, and browsing and cursing towards my officemates who seem to not know me at all.

“I can’t believe she did that, serpent really is pretentious,” says the woman on the furthest part of our office.

“Didn’t she just break up with her longtime boyfriend? Do you think he cheated on him?” accuses the tallest blonde girl in our department.

“I wonder if she also did that to other of our clients so she could get a pitch. Her works are good after all, maybe she had some help,” and the doubts keep rising.

“Yes, she’s beautiful, but why use it for carnal things, seducing people?” comes from the most religious, or should I say, most hypocritical woman in our team.

Whore, cheater, pretender, are just some of the malicious words I came across in our group chat.

But I can tolerate that much, but the two e-mails with distinct subjects do the did.

One e-mail from Cindy, my boss, has the subject line that goes like that, “Postponement of the Key Largo Article.”

It is followed by the saddest news ever, the e-mail sent to me by the HR department of our company itself, the subject line is, “Suspension for Misconduct.”

Just like that, my tears fall like a waterfall again, and the throat tightening I feel goes down to my chest.

I feel it in me, my heart muscles are constricting. I couldn’t breathe. Am I having a heart attack? Or maybe panic or anxiety attack?

So before I pass out, I call Dee out, “Dmitri!”

Then the next thing I know, my cheek is now kissing the carpet on the floor, and see Dee dashes towards me.

Then I hear him calling someone hysterically.

He holds me in his arms and taps me on my cheeks, but I don’t feel a thing.

I can see his mouth moving but I couldn’t hear anything at all.

And there, I close my eyes.

***

I am awakened by the bickering of two people beside me. I haven’t opened my eyes but I decide to keep it that way.

I hear one voice is owned by my charming billionaire Dmitri, and the other one is from a woman, a very mad woman.

My eyebrows almost raised but I manage to keep them down.

“Who is she?” I thought. “Her voice sounds familiar but I don’t know where I’ve heard it before.

The woman yells at Dmitri, “Are you out of your mind, Dmitri? You skipped work so you could stay here with her? That’s absurd!”

“I know what I’m doing. Don’t concern yourself with my company. I run it. And nothing will happen to it,” Dee counters.

“Wake up, Dmitri! And you have the guts to call me here just to look after your woman? That whore? Isn’t she the one from the exhibit? Is that why you insisted on sponsoring Jodie’s artwork, huh?” she confronts him.

Exhibit? Sponsored? Is she, Nikolai’s wife? His sister?

“Don’t you dare call her a whore. She’s anything but that. I won’t let you insult her!” Dmitri hisses at her.

“Isn’t she? Then why don’t you, or her, make a public apology, or a presscon to clear out the issue? Why is she hiding here under your pants?” she throws questions that sound relevant and rational.

Maybe a presscon would do! Why isn’t Dee doing it?

“Will you stop now, Heather? I will deal with it alone. Just focus on keeping her healthy!” he orders.

“Don’t worry, she’ll live. She just had a panic attack. Now if you’ll excuse me, I am a busy person! You better fix this Dmitri!” she warns him.