Chapter 9

"Good morning Al," José chirped as he made his way inside Alejandro's office. Alejandro looked up from his computer screen and glared at José.

"What do you want, José?" Alejandro growled.

"Oh, there's no need to get all worked up," José sneered. "I'm simply paying a visit to my baby brother." He peered over at Alejandro's computer screen. "Hard at work I see?" he snorted.

Alejandro studied José's face clearly - he had the same mischievous expression Alejandro knew all too well. He's definitely up to something.

"Save it, José," Alejandro snapped. "I know you're hiding something, so just spit it out."

"Ah, now there's that temper," José smirked. "Well, since you brought it up, I thought I'd let you know that I've made some good progress on the assignment Papá gave us last week." José made himself comfortable on the couch and propped his feet on Alejandro's coffee table.

"Get your dirty feet off my table," Alejandro grumbled.

"So I had one of my informants conduct a few, let's call it background checks on our key competitors," José continued, ignoring Alejandro's comment. "And at first nothing particularly interesting popped up. But then one thing did." He paused for suspense and turned around to observe Alejandro's reaction.

Alejandro had a horrible feeling about what José was going to say next.

"Heather Kasuga from Illuminate," José smirked. "Well, let's just say that she...wasn't exactly a saint in her younger years."

Alejandro felt a lump forming in his throat. "Wh- what are you getting at?" he glared at José.

José immediately sensed the desperation and panic in Alejandro's voice. Oh, this was going to be good. So good.

"I say we give Heather a little proposition," José began. "Either Illuminate dial down their marketing and sales, at least for the next little while until the Annual Jewellery Business Awards. Or...this information gets leaked and her and Illuminate's reputation will be ruined. I have a contact in the media who I've reached out to already, and they'd be happy to do a special article on this."

"Really, José? Resorting to blackmail with something that happened years ago? That's low, even for you," Alejandro gritted his teeth.

"Why do you care so much?" José sneered. "You and I both well know that this isn't the first time the company has done something like this, and you never objected previously, so since when did you suddenly become so soft?"

Alejandro instantly stood up from his desk and stormed over to where José was sitting.

"Don't you fucking dare," he growled.

"Or what?" José challenged, a smirk on his face. He was clearly enjoying this. "What are you going to do about it Al, huh? You think you're just going to show up and be her knight in shining armor?"

"Just give me the fucking media contact!" Alejandro yelled. He felt a wave of anger take over his body. He took another step closer towards José and leaned down, firmly grabbing him by the collar of his shirt.

"In your dreams," José taunted, without flinching at Alejandro's grip. "I will also let you know that I've already discussed my plans with Papá and he approves, so I didn't even need to tell you this news at all. The only reason I thought I'd give you a heads-up was because, well, you're technically still the other Chief Operating Officer here. Although that might change pretty soon," he sneered.

Alejandro knew that José would not budge, and as much as he wanted to punch him in the face right now he knew he needed to firstly change tactics and do his best to remain calm. He took a deep breath.

"What if she says no, you publish the article, it gets traced back to you and the company gets sued for defamation? Or blackmail? We cannot afford a lawsuit right now," Alejandro argued.

"Oh there's no need to worry about that, Al," José snickered. "I'm not dumb enough to let that happen."

"...And besides, it can't be defamation if it's true," he added with a smirk on his face.

Alejandro's mind raced like a jungle of thoughts.

Unbelievable.

Or was it really such a surprise?

After all, what else would he expect from José?

Heather.

Heather.

He needed to warn her before José got to her first. He would deal with him later.

Alejandro aggressively pushed José back and grabbed his car keys, before exiting his office. How was he going to tell her? He didn't have her number or anything, and in his mind his remaining option was to drive to her office and tell her in person.

He made his way down to J&B Co's underground carpark and then typed Illuminate's office address on Google Maps. Luckily, it was supposed to only be a twenty minute drive.

Unfortunately for Alejandro, it did not turn out to be just a twenty minute drive. It turned out that there was some road work being completed, which was severely slowing down the traffic. Alejandro honked his car horn at the cars in front him but it was no use. The long line of cars moved like snails. Stupid traffic!

After an hour, he finally pulled up to Illuminate's office block. He made his way through the doors and to reception. He read the name badge of the woman sitting there - it said 'Sierra (Secretary)'.

"Where's Heather? I need to see her," he quickly said.

"I don't think now's a good time," Sierra responded, looking at Alejandro with a frown on her face.

"Please, it's urgent, I need to see her," he said, his voice breathless.

Sierra sighed at seeing the desperate and worried look in his eyes. "Fine, she's upstairs, her office is at the end of the hallway to the right."

"Thank you," Alejandro nodded and sprinted up the stairs.

As soon as he reached Heather's office, he immediately knew something was wrong. Heather looked upset and she was with another man who appeared to be trying to calm her down.

"What are you doing here?" Heather's eyes instantly widened when she saw Alejandro standing at the door.

"Heather, what's wrong?" Alejandro had a worried look on his face.

"Are you here to mock me?" she snapped. Alejandro took a step closer and looked into her grey eyes. They were clouded by sadness, anger and fatigue.

Nathan recognized Alejandro at once as the man who was with Heather that day at the hotel pool. Not that Spaniard again.

"Look, I don't know who you are, but you need to leave now," Nathan calmly and firmly said.

"Heather, please, talk to me," Alejandro pleaded.

"You want to know? Fine!" Heather angrily tossed her iPad towards Alejandro's direction. Alejandro quickly caught it and his hands shook as he turned his eyes to the article and words on the screen.

Just In: Top Executive at Illuminate Jewellery Allegedly Revealed to be Former High School Bully

Alejandro read through the rest of the article and felt his blood boil. José that lying bastard.

But there was also something else he noticed - the wording of the article was mostly quite generic and there was no mention of Heather's name anywhere in the piece.

Alejandro took a deep breath. He had to be honest with her. "Heather, I'm so sorry, I- I wanted to warn you-"

"You - you knew about this?" Heather didn't think things could get any worse but they just did.

"No! I mean, yes, but I promise, my brother José leaked the article, I would never want to hurt you." Alejandro felt his heart sink at seeing Heather's face tainted with a look of hurt and betrayal.

"Heather, look at me, please," he whimpered in a soft voice.

Upon hearing Alejandro's voice like that, Heather willed herself to look at him once again and she studied his expression carefully. She found herself staring right into Alejandro's emerald green eyes and that was when she saw the sadness and pain, but also kindness in his eyes. He looked genuine. At that moment, her heart was telling her that he was telling the truth but her head was telling her not to believe him. Do I follow my head or my heart?

"You're lying! I bet you were in on this too," Nathan growled at Alejandro. Alejandro turned to look at Nathan. There was something about this guy that gave off strange vibes and that he didn't trust, but right now he didn't want to stir any more drama and make Heather more uncomfortable.

"Heather, don't listen to him, he's just saying that to mess with your mind," Nathan added, upon realizing that Heather looked conflicted as to whether or not to believe Alejandro. He then took a step forward, as if to block Alejandro from Heather's view.

Heather closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Both of you - leave, I need some space and time alone." Alejandro took another gentle look at Heather and slowly stepped outside, with Nathan following closely after him.

Nathan glared at Alejandro from behind, a smirk on his face. He would deal with the Spaniard, but there was something more important he needed to do first.

***

It's probably Heather, have you heard how she talks in some of her interviews? She's clearly a narcissist.

#BoycottIlluminateJewellery

Illuminate preaches empowerment - what a hypocrite. Never buying from them ever again.

#BoycottIlluminateJewellery

Guys, we don't know if the article is even true yet. Let's not jump to conclusions.

As she sat in her office, Heather scrolled through all the comments on Illuminate's Instagram page, tears of frustration slowly swelling up as she read through each comment. She wasn't used to caring what other people thought of her. Nor did she want to care. After all, and after all those years, she was accustomed to believing that no one else's opinion mattered.

But this was her business. All those years of hard work in building Illuminate destroyed in an instant, by one stupid article. And all because of her past. She thought that she could move on from her teenage years and high school life but in the end it all came back flooding back like a nightmare.

As she angrily wiped her tears and refreshed Illuminate's Instagram page once more, she suddenly noticed that a new 'story' had just been added. She frowned and clicked on the video and then immediately let out a gasp when she saw the person featured in the clip.

***

Alejandro angrily called José as soon as he got into his car. José picked up immediately, almost as if he was expecting the call.

"There was never going to be an ultimatum was there? You were always planning on publishing the article as soon as I left," Alejandro spoke to José through gritted teeth.

"Ah, you figured it out," José smirked. "Correct, it does not matter who takes the blame, Illuminate will suffer reputational damage either way. And besides, keeping the article open ended makes it more interesting for people to guess and reduces the risk of a successful defamation lawsuit."

Alejandro couldn't believe that he had fallen for José's sneaky tactics. Rage burned through his veins and body. "You fucking lying bastard!" he yelled into his phone.

"It was all just a test to see what you would do, after that day when she came to the office and you chased after her. And I must say, you exceeded my expectations," José responded on the other end of line.

"Aww, how sweet, it looks like my baby brother Al is in love," José continued to mock Alejandro in a high pitched voice. "Too bad she probably hates you now if she doesn't already," he sneered and then paused for a moment, seemingly distracted.

"...Although it looks like Illuminate has taken matters into their own hands already."

"What do you mean?" Alejandro growled.

"Check their Instagram story," José snickered. And with that, he hung up.

Alejandro immediately opened Illuminate's Instagram and clicked on their latest story. He froze at what he saw next.

"Oh my god," he whispered.

***

At the same time, Heather was also watching the Instagram story:

"Hi everyone, this is Nathan, Strategy and Operations Director at Illuminate, I want to address some rumors. In my high school years I have done some things I regret. However, it was a long time ago, I've grown since then and have apologized to and made up with the people involved. I'm sorry to anyone I've disappointed but hope you can all continue to support our founder, Heather Kasuga and Illuminate's upcoming jewellery collection, The Red Velvet."

Heather gasped once she finished watching the video and she scurried over to Nathan's office.

"Nathan, why did you do this?" She demanded an answer.

"The article didn't specify a name so it doesn't matter," Nathan replied. He then looked at Heather right in the eyes.

"I would do anything for you Heather..."

"...I would take a bullet for you."

--

A/N - how are we feeling after this chapter? :P

All I'm going to say is, hang on tight ... ;)

Thanks for reading and see you next week!