CHAPTER 48

Chapter 48

“Have I gone all wacko?” Isabella knocked her head.

‘I must guard my heart, never to fall for a man. I’m just used to him being near me, but am I sure that isn’t me falling for him? No, it has to be just the hang of it. I have to love myself Mom, Granddad, watch over me. I won’t get hurt again. I’ll protect myself. I know I won’t fall for him. It’s just that he’s been kind to me, and I merely want to repay him. I was never into him, she muttered to herself

She paused briefly before thinking again, “Love is a drug Don’t even think about it. Yeah, I’m only repaying his kindness. I’ll snap out of it. A man like him won’t ever be faithful. Should I fall for him, I’ll be getting nothing but hurt. I’d rather not get emotional than be heartbroken by then. Yes, my heart’s already full,”

Isabella did not sleep a wink, battling with her thoughts all night

When the alarm went off, she could hardly pet up. yawning the washed herself up.

It was then that her phone chimed.

She checked it. Clayton had texted her on whatsApp: (I miss you. Show me your moming look, will you?]

t her eyes, and shared i picture of her messy hair and washed up face with water

An idea sprang to Isabella’s ind. She held the phone, shut i droplets on it.

“I don’t care if I look bad. I’m gonna give him the creeps the mused.

Clayton immediately replied. [Why the dark circles? Couldn’t sleep last night

Isabella sent a sweating emoji. She was pretty impressed by how sharp he was.

Then came Clayton’s grinning emoji alongside his message (Did sleep elude you because you miss me too much, Mrs. Murray?)

Isabella responded with a forehead smacking emoji before setting her phone aside and ignoring him.

However, her mood had been lifted for some reason

Meanwhile, Kayson was already waiting downstairs in the car. The second isabella got into it, he handed her XFC’s hashbrowns for breakfast

“I didn’t send the breakfast to your room as I didn’t want to intrude Kayson explained

“Have you eaten?” Isabella asked

Kayson nodded.

Isabella took a bite and suddenly smiled viciously. “Kayson, are you sure your boss won’t reprimand you if he finds out I ate in his car!”

“I’m sure” Kayson did not hesitate at all

The would! Last my friend got wasted, he drove to pick us up, and I never saw him drive that car again, I think it said seriously while eating

Kayson clenched his fist and feigned a cough. “Boss gave that car to Hendrix”

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Isabella side–eyed Kayson with her mouth agape. “So, if I eat in this car, will he give it to you?”

Kayson laughed. “Nope, it has nothing to do with you eating in the car. Even if you littered the hash browns all over, Boss won’t mind it. Take my word for it.”

Isabella pretended to make a mess before she started pondering. “I’ll leave some food waste tomorrow when you get me more hash browns.

I’m finishing what I have today.”

If Kayson was not behind the wheel, he would have sprawled over the steering and guffawed heartily.

“Promise me, Kayson. If Clayton gives you this car, you sell it, and we split the money,” Isabella said warily.

“Why?” Kayson was puzzled.

“Duh! It’s all thanks to me! Since you took the trouble to give me a

e a ride, I’ll share half the loot with you.” Isabella looked at Kayson like he was some blockhead.

Kayson chuckled. “Mrs. Murray, Hendrix should’ve given you half of that Land Rover’s value.”

Isabella thought for a while. “What you said! But it was Gwen’s doing. I’ll let her know that if she bumps into Hendrix again, she should ask him for half of that Land Rover’s value in cash. Wait, no… The full amount of it. Hendrix has gotten it for free.”

That cracked Kayson up. He planned to tell Hendrix all about it, dying to see the latter’s reaction.

When Isabella got upstairs at Vaughn Corporation, she ran into Rihanna walking inside. They entered the office together..

The minute they got in, they saw Louisa awaiting by their desks.

“Did you send the design draft to Maguire Group yesterday?” Louisa questioned angrily.

Isabella took out the receipt she got from Maggie calmly and handed it to Louisa.

Louisa could not hide her surprise, for it should have been a mission impossible. She passed that casual remark only to put them on the spots. Never did she expect them to succeed in submitting the draft, much less getting a receipt.

Louisa gritted her teeth and checked the receipt before smirking viciously. “Are you two out of your mind? What did I say yesterday? Didn’t! tell you to give it to Mr. Maguire? Who the hell are Maggie and Jordyn? Why submit the designs to some random nobody? You only have one job. I don’t get how you get to stick around here. Best if you make yourselves scarce!”

Her voice grew louder by the second.

Isabella could not help but frown, seeing Louisa as nothing less than an unreasonable wench.

“You’re firing us?” Rihanna voiced coldly.

As a quiet person, Rihanna seldom spoke. Everyone was stunned to hear her, including Louisa. Rihanna’s tone was as icy as the winter, and her aura suddenly became menacing.

Isabella squeezed Rihanna’s hand, gesturing for the latter to relax.

*Ms. Luckett, we did send the design draft to Maguire Group. I can call Ms. Smith now to confirm whether it’s been submitted to Mr. Isabella beheld Louisa and put forward a good argument.

Maguire.”

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“What’s going on?” Zayn suddenly appeared behind Louisa and looked at Rihanna,

47%

Hearing Zayn’s voice, Louisa immediately turned around and smiled. “It’s all good, Mr. Langley. These interns didn’t do a good job, so I’m guiding them.”

Zayn frowned. “What design draft was it?”

Before Louisa could answer, Isabella beat her to it. “Yesterday, Ms, Luckett ordered us to send a copy of your design draft to Maguire Group.”

Louisa glared daggers at Isabella.

A pucker creased Zayn’s forehead. “Didn’t Maguire Group stop accepting entries? Which design draft was that?” He sounded unpleasant, to say the least.

Embarrassed, Louisa murmured, “That random one on your desk.”

“That’s for Vaughn Corporation! Why didn’t you ask me before touching my things?” Zayn’s face fell.

Louisa was frightened by Zayn’s fury.

“Has the design draft been sent to Maguire Group?” Zayn looked at Isabella and Rihanna, both of whom nodded in unison.

“Y–Yes. Ms. Luckett said that if we fall to do so, we’ll lose our jobs,” Isabella whispered while thinking, ‘Why wait when I can add fuel to the fire?”

“This is ridiculous! Who gave you the right to touch my design?” Zayn was pissed.

Louisa’s face turned red.

“What’s going on?” Nigel’s voice came from the door.

That turned everybody’s heads. With Nigel was a group of people, including Paul Jenkins from the HR department and a towering, dashing. and eye–catching guy who scanned the office with interest.

His gaze abruptly stopped at isabella.

Louisa darted over to Nigel

to elucidate the incident, trying to blame Isabella and Rihanna,

The towering hunk walked up to Isabella and Rihanna, grinning. “Are you Isabella?”

Isabella was listening to Louisa distorting the truth. Hearing the mention of her name, she turned to that man in surprise.

The guy smiled. “I’m Edmund Maguire. Thank you for sending me the design draft yesterday.”

“Don’t thank me. We seem to have made a mistake.” Isabella smiled bitterly.

During the interim, Louisa approached and shoved Rihanna at once. “Spill it! Where’s the design draft?”

Rihanna was unprepared and fell backward. Edmund reached to catch her. “Watch out!”

Rihanna stood firm an

firm and got away from Edmund’s hand as if she might get scaled. “Thanks,” was her reply.

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Edmund was surprised.

Isabella stood in front of Rihanna, chiding coldly, “Ms. Luckett, it was you who asked us to send the design draft to Maguire Group. We sent it

and got the receipt. What did we do wrong?”

‘Darn it! What’s the big deal? I’ll quit if she wants it, but I won’t take this lying down,’ she swore secretly.

“It was your own idea to send it to Maguire Group!” Louisa stared at Isabella fiercely. Considering that the girls were but a couple of interns, Louisa banked on them to either take the blame or quit otherwise they wouldn’t be employed anymore.

“How did they get my design?” Zayn stepped forward and questioned Louisa.

Louisa was speechless, not anticipating that upfront interrogation from Zayn. Although Zayn had yet to say a thing to her, he would not show her op. She had been picking on others for ages but had never seen Zayn speaking up for anybody.

Thinking of that, she stared at Rihanna with hatred. In her mind, Zayn must have a crush on that vixen Rihanna,

Edmund tumed to Zayn. “Are you the artist of that piece? Nice to meet you. I’m Edmund.”

Zayn froze, subconsciously shaking hands with Edmund. He did not expect to be greeted by the CEO of Maguire Group himself.

Everyone regained their senses, including Isabella who had just spoken with him.

“He’s the CEO of Maguire Group? Why did he show up in a tiny design department in Vaughn Corporation early in the morning?” were their thoughts.

Standing behind Edmund, Paul, HR manager of the Vaughn Corporation, looked annoyed.

Obviously, it was Louisa who tricked the interns and stole Zayn’s design. One could tell that the design was super important by the look on Zayn’s mien.

Louisa got herself in the soup. Still, she was a relative of the Lorenson family.

After shaking hands with Zayn

Zayn, Edmund said to Paul, “Mr. Jenkins, may I have a word

with Mr. Langley?”

conference room.

“Well, of course.” Paul smiled awkwardly as he led the two to the co

Edmund then turned and peeked at isabella and Rihanna. “If Vaughn Corporation sacks you, the door of Maguire Group opens for you. We always welcome capable employees.”

Paul and Nigel caught on to what he implied. “Why’d we ever sack them? We can’t wait to reward them!”

Edmund mustered a smile. Not another sound escaped him as he followed Paul and Zayn to the conference room.

Nigel wiped the cold sweat off his forehead, eyeballing Louisa helplessly.

Louisa, in turn, charged at Rihanna, but Isabella dragged Rihanna behind her. “Are you gonna fire us, Ms. Luckett?”

Nigel stopped Louisa. “Ms. Luckett, come to my office now.”

With that, they dismissed.

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Chapter 48

Isabella took Rihanna’s hand as they returned to their seats. The former patted her chest to comfort her racing heart.

Then came Rihanna’s gentle utterance, “Isabella, I owe you!”

“What for?” asked Isabella curiously.

“For protecting me,” Rihanna said sincerely.

Isabella grinned. “She looks scary. I thought she was gonna beat us up.”

“What if she did?” Rihanna queried.

“It’s okay, I’ll fend off her. I often get beaten, anyway.” Isabella was nonchalant.

4/%

Rihanna was stunned. Realizing that she had chosen the wrong words, Isabella added embarrassedly, “I live with my stepmom, so getting smacked is common for me.”

Rihanna held isabella’s hand tightly and looked at her. “Me, too.”

Isabella was surprised. Rihanna looked away and continued with a smile, “Seems like we’re both Cinderellas.”

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