“Are you calling me manipulative?”
Fiona lifted her head and pulled out her phone tearfully. “
Charmaine, I’ve always thought of you as a friend, but you… I initially didn’t want to pursue this matter any further because we’re friends, but since you’ve become so heartless, I don’t think it’s bad of me to retaliate…”
With that, she clicked on an audio file that contained a phone conversation between her and Charmaine…
“When I saw President Morrison carrying Bethan, I was upset. After all, President Morrison is your boyfriend, so how can he be carrying a b*tch like Bethan…”
“Brettley was carrying Bethan simply because she got hurt, and he wanted to send her to the hospital.
That’s all it is. If you got slapped, it’s on you because you jumped to conclusions and talked nonsense.”
Charmaine slumped in a heap on the floor as soon as she heard the recording.
She finally realized why Fiona had so sternly ordered her not to talk about this anymore.
It turned out that she had been recording this conversation to prove her loyalty toward Brettley…
“Brettley, this is the recording of a phone call between Charmaine and me just now… You know better than anyone how bad my memory is, so I always record my phone calls to listen to them later o n…”
With that, Fiona wiped away her tears and buried her face in Brettley’s arms again. “Charmaine and I were never in this together at all. I don’t know why she wanted to pretend like I was in on everything as well…”
Brettley let out a sigh, then lifted his head to glance at Charmaine coldly, with his arms still wrapped around Fiona. “Go to Human Resources to process your termination, then leave this place immediately. Morrison Group doesn’t need an employee like you.”
Charmaine slumped against the floor and felt as though someone had hammered a nail right into her heart.
She had been helping Fiona all this while, but Fiona had backstabbed her instead.
Arianna could not help but feel sorry for Charmaine. She let out a sigh and stepped forward to help her up, then said, “Go to Human Resources. I’ll help you gather your things.”
Charmaine closed her eyes and let out a bitter smile, then finally turned and left.
She had already lost. She was no longer able to win against Fiona.
After Charmaine left, Brettley turned around and glanced at Bethan, still holding Fiona in his arms. “
Since you’ve hurt your arm, you can take the next two days off.”
Bethan chuckled when she heard this before she replied coldly, “Never mind. If I take two days off, the project will be delayed. I want to continue working. It’s more important to continue bringing in revenue for you, Mr. Morrison.”
Brettley paused when he heard Bethan’s words. He knew exactly what she meant by this.
She wanted to earn as much money as she could so she could leave Banyan City along with the children.
As soon as he thought of this, Brettley glanced at Christian impassively. “Take her home.”
With that, he turned and left with Fiona.
Bethan stood motionless, curling her lips into a smirk a s she watched the two leave.
Brettley would never disappoint her. Even when faced with accusations from Charmaine, he still had other means of disposing the evidence and finding a way to excuse Fiona’s behavior calmly and level- headedly.
“Bethan,”
Christian’s voice pulled Bethan back to reality. “Do you need me to send you home?”
Bethan turned to look at him. “Thank you, but I feel like staying back and continuing my work.”
Christian frowned, then glanced at her injured arm. “
Is work more important than your health?”
“No, but leaving this place is more of a priority to me than my health.”
Christian was so stunned by Bethan’s reply that he did not know how to answer.
“Either way, thank you for your help, but if something like this happens again in the future, you don’t have to help me anymore. I don’t like being kissed in front of so many people, ” said Bethan coldly. Then, she strode into her office, slamming the door behind her.
Christian froze for a moment, then let out a sigh of exasperation.
He had to admit he acted too rashly. He could not seem to put his finger on it, but somehow, when he saw how hard Bethan struggled to suppress her emotions, he could not help feeling sorry for her.
That was why he had rushed forward and tried to kiss her in front of everyone, without any regard for the consequences his actions might have brought.
As he had regained his composure, he suddenly realized just how inappropriate his actions were.
He contemplated for a moment, then pushed Bethan’s door open. “I want to apologize to you.”
Bethan, who was busy drawing a sketch, did not even look up from her work. “That’s okay. I know you wanted to help me.”
The more understanding she was, the guiltier Christian felt toward her.
He let out a sigh. “I have to admit I crossed a line just now, but… I was really worried about you. If you need any help in the future, you can always come to me, and I’ll try my best to help you.”
Bethan’s hand that held her pencil paused when she heard this. Then, after a moment, she lifted her head to look at him. “Now that you mention it, I do have something you can help me with.”
Christian immediately perked up when he heard this.
“What is it?”
“Since you’ve known Fiona for a long time now, you must know how her condition was like in the past. Do you know what kind of disease she has?”
Bethan had wanted to ask this for a long time. She was curious what kind of disease Fiona had that would render her body so weak that she would have to be hospitalized every time she lost control of her emotions.
Even though Fiona had undergone her surgery, her condition did not seem to improve at all. On the contrary, she still appeared weak, as if she would collapse at any moment.
Bethan had sent Zayne and Samson to look into this, but they could not find any information about this.
Christian did not expect Bethan to ask him this question, so he froze for a moment and then let out an awkward smile. “I don’t know.”
Bethan could tell he knew something but did not feel like telling her, so she shrugged and replied, “
Alright then. I don’t have any more questions.”
Even though she and Christian were friends, she did not think they were close enough that he was obliged to tell her the truth about everything.
Christian stood in the doorway and continued to watch Bethan work. Just as he was about to say something, however, someone pushed the door open.
It was Arianna, who had helped Charmaine gather her things and escorted her out of the department a while ago.
“Is your friend gone?”
Christian could not help teasing as soon as he saw Arianna entering the room. “You knew Charmaine was trying to cause Bethan trouble, yet as Bethan’s assistant, you still helped her and even voluntarily escorted her out of the department. What a kind person you are! “
Arianna knew he was being sarcastic, and her face turned a little pale upon hearing this. She bit down on her lip and said, “Charmaine is a nice person, and she helped me a few times in the past… The reason I sent her off is so I can thank her for helping me in the past, and not… I didn’t mean to betray Director Bethan…”
Seeing how upset Arianna was by this accusation, Bethan furrowed her brows and said, “That’s okay. You did nothing wrong, so you don’t have to explain anything.”
Christian shrugged. He had a feeling that Arianna wanted to talk to Bethan in private, so he quickly bade them goodbye and left the room.
As soon as he left, Arianna closed the door tentatively, then strode over to Bethan, whispering softly, “Director Bethan, Charmaine…told me a secret before she left.”
Bethan lifted her head to look at Arianna. “What secret?”
“It’s…”
Arianna let out an exhale. “Charmaine told me that Ms. Blake is planning to sabotage your competition. She told Charmaine that as long as she made it onto your team, she’d be able to carry out her plan, so…”
Arianna bit down on her lip. “Please be careful and keep your sketches with you all the time.”
Bethan furrowed her brows. “Alright, thanks for telling me.”
She had an inkling that Fiona would try to sabotage her during the competition. However, on second thought, she decided that Fiona would not dare to try..
It was not because Fiona was a good person, but simply because their team was supposed to be representing Morrison Group.
If Fiona sabotaged everything, not only would she humiliate Bethan but Morrison Group as well.
Seeing that she was Brettley’s girlfriend, Bethan guessed that Fiona would not dare to commit a rookie mistake like that.
However, since Charmaine had already given Arianna this warning, Bethan had to take it into consideration and keep her guard up.
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