Chapter 22

AMANDA'S POV

I was the only person on the seventh floor as it was already 10 pm. Mr. Reynolds has already wasted a lot of my time by compelling me to arrange and rearrange the files in his cabin so I decided to go home after completing all the required pending work. James was not present in the office so it was easier for me to stay as his presence annoyed me to an extreme extent.

I placed all the mess correctly in their respected positions before leaving my cabin and also made sure to lock the entrance door. I walked through the hallway bypassing James's cabin and then I thought about doing some digging to get the relevant information; to assure myself that what is right and what is not, so I walked in without thinking anything more.

"This is wrong ", said the positive side in me.

"What he did wasn't right either ", said the negative side within me. Tonight, the negative side was dominant as compared to the positive one.

I first took a brief look over the files on his table, they were scattered everywhere so I just went through them without correcting the mess. They were all the professional ones so I could not enjoy any fruits out of them i.e they did not include any necessary information for my usage.

I then opened the drawers which were beneath his desk. It was shabby and messy too. I tried segregating the items with my hands so that I could view each one of them properly. I came through some mint chocolates, his pair of spectacles, and even 4 -5 packet of condoms. I wasn't shocked about him being a sex-hungry animal.

Nothing could be found in the first desk too so I proceeded towards the second, there were bits of paper. I looked at them one after another and something popped up in the mind that shook me because a paper read the letter "S" just as in Samarrah's wallet, though it read James. It felt like the paper was crumbled before and then was straightened. I took a picture of the paper from my mobile phone's camera.

I then rushed towards the other drawers as quickly as possible because it was turning late already. The only thing which was left for suspicion was his laptop, I just prayed to God that it wasn't password protected. I seated myself on his chair and opened his laptop. "please,God. please ", I tried butter polishing God, we all do this at least once, don't we?

I tapped on the start button of his laptop with my fingers crossed. Then there came an option "LOG ON AS JAMES" OR "ANOTHER USER "

I clicked on the initial button at once and I got access to his laptop, I wanted to hop and dance out of excitement but I controlled my emotions. I opened the images folder, I found myself in one of the folders. The picture had me, Mr. Reynolds and him, it was taken when we were in Pallapora town. There was a big cross on Mr. Reynolds's face and my face had a circle on it.

The cross on Mr. Reynolds's face totally shocked the shit out of me. He claimed to be his best friend forever. But, maybe he was just jealous of the fact of me being with Mr. Reynolds all the time. Every coin has two sides, so I had to totally jot down the point of James being the fuck boy so my presence or absence wouldn't affect him by any chance or maybe he had some sort of personal grudges towards Mr. Reynolds but I did take a picture of it too in my phone

And then I realized that I was not here to fight the case for Mr. Reynolds, I was here for my sister. I tried adding her name to the search bar because there were too many crappy pictures of him on his laptop and from which 60% included porn stuff. Too many options popped up after adding Sam's name, I clicked on them one after the other. It contained many pictures of James and Sam, hugging each other, kissing each other on lips, on the neck, on the forehead. All pictures were extremely lovely but considering the fact that he was a moron, they were fake too.

"I did not even touch her ", James words echoed in my mind, again, and again, the fact that he was lying was very clear for me and my doubt on him for making my sister pregnant was cleared too. I somewhat managed to find out all the pieces of the jigsaw. I now had to match them together to make a clear picture out of them.

I snapped every picture of them and then added all the pictures I took tonight in the safety deposit vault because Samarrah had this old habit of looking at my Albums. I had no idea about the new Sam but precaution is always better than cure.

I tried looking all around his cabin for assurance that I had left nothing important which could come in my use later and thankfully I had left no perks too of any clues for James to find out that I had been inspecting his cabin. I kept all his belongings in their respective places and assured myself twice before leaving his cabin.

I wanted to know everything about James because this guy was turning the element of mystery lately. I wanted to know why he lied in the first place, I wanted to know what was he planning against Mr. Reynolds, I wanted to know that did he have any idea regarding me as being Samarrah's older sister.

I walked through the hallway, the lights were dim as there were fewer people in the office. Most of them included the watchman and the cleaners. The elevator had me alone in it, I was scared a bit because I was the kind of girl who did believe in tooth fairies and haunting witches, Vampires and werewolves are highly fictitious though.

I gathered all the courage and went through the empty lobby and finally reaching the entrance sighed and wished the watchman goodbye. I took a taxi and finally reached home. I ate something first and then side hugged mom and kissed her good night.

I curled myself around my favorite fluffy teddy bear with thoughts that were confusing me. I couldn't sleep, I was continuously swiping over the pictures I collected lately. I just needed to talk with someone over it but at the same time, I didn't want Francis and Gina to worry for me. I wanted to tell Mr. Reynolds for not trusting his best friend so much but I knew he wouldn't believe me and term that picture-evidence as 'photoshopped' .

I kept my eyes closed for a while and just decided to stay silent and also feel the silence after having a chaotic life.

\-Tring Trong-

I rubbed my eyes tightly which may have caused my kohl to smudge, I didn't wash my face nicely yesterday because I was in no mood for it so I hopped directly in bed. I didn't even realize when did I actually sleep cause I was awake till late overthinking about everything.

I added toothpaste to my brush before twirling it around my teeth. I observed myself carefully in the mirror whilst brushing, the area around my eyes was surrounded by a lighter shade of black, maybe because of dark circles or maybe because of the smudge due to black liner. I rinsed my mouth thoroughly and washed my face and rubbed the face-wash more around the dark area.

Hopefully, it turned into a lighter shade of black and the rest of the mark could be hidden with a bit of foundation. I got ready within 10 minutes and went downstairs. Mom and Samarrah were already leaving for the doctor's appointment.

"Good luck", I waved them goodbye.

"Breakfast is ready on the table, have a Good day baby", mom rushed while catching Sam's hand tightly. She felt weak lately and that was the reason mom treated her like a kindergarten kid.

I stuffed the scrambled eggs with folk in my mouth and drank the orange juice which mom left on the table for me to drink.

I carried my handbag on my shoulders and left for the office again. I had a day off from college thankfully so I decided to reach the office prior then the normal time I go.

I encountered Sonia Josephs: my colleague and first-ever friend in this office on the gateway so I waved her cheerfully and went towards her and shook her hand.

"Hey what's up?", she questioned me whilst warmly shaking my hands.

"Nothing much, how about you?", she questioned me back and we both started walking together in the office premises.

"C-can I ask you something?", I finally questioned,

"Anything", she was sweet enough to answer that.

"Do you have any idea about James? the best friend plus the manager of this company ", I started inquiring about James again. These days I felt like I was working in an investigation department gathering clues now and then.

"That pervert?", she questioned back and my eyes widened with his answer.

"Yes, him. Why that name?" I questioned curiously.

"Because he has slept with almost every good looking slut of this office ", she looked at me and continued while walking "you won't believe "

"Make me ", I instinctively replied.

"he even promised some girls in my department that if they agree to sleep with him for a night, he'll grant them promotion", she looked annoyed.

"And did he ?" I questioned.

"Yes, of course, those girls sold themselves for a position, I doubt that our CEO supports him"

"No he doesn't, not at all ", I defended Mr. Reynolds.

"Good thing, Ill catch you up later ", she side hugged me and went towards the department where she worked in.

"See you soon around then ", I locked my sight on her till she finally disappeared.

After an hour I was in my cabin sipping upon my cup of coffee. There's a popular saying that

'no matter what the question is, coffee is the answer'.

I decided to think about an excuse so that I could travel with James to his place and find about his dirty little secret regarding Mr. Reynolds. I had gathered enough clues for Samarrah and I decided to skip the sister part and do justice to my job. The only way I could end at James's place was through slut based activities, no matter how much I hated it but I couldn't let anything wrong happen to Mr. Reynolds, though he was a jerk at times I couldn't deny the fact of him, helping me so many times.

The siren suddenly rang and it was certainly a signal of Mr. Reynolds for me to be ubiquitous in his cabin. I marched towards his cabin the moment I got a call.

"We're in real hurry Miss Waters ", Mr. Reynolds looked at his watch.

"What for ?", I questioned watching him hurriedly.

"the model which I appointed to feature for our company's new outlet suddenly has a cramp in her leg ", he loosened his tie " the clients could be here any moment, I need you to run your contacts and find me the best girl you can "

"I-I ?", I stammered.