Ch 18: Bitter Revelations

Recap:

Alright, Mr. Nicolas Freire,' she thought, grimly. 'Do what you want. But nothing is going to stop me from telling Sophia what you've done. I'll find a way!'

Spinning around, she made her way back to her office, disgust filling her.

Thinking of the experiment Cole had told her to do, she immediately dismissed it. A man like him couldn't mean anything to her. She wouldn't let him!

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'This was turning out to be harder than I thought', Cecilia acquiesced. 'He's managing to keep her well away from me. How is it even possible that someone can need their PA with them at every single hour of the day?'

And yet, this was exactly what Nic was managing to do. For the past few days, he had kept Sophia so engaged that she hadn't even been able to eat lunch with Cess. Reluctantly, Cecilia had just bought sandwiches to eat alone in her office since she hadn't really felt very comfortable in the presence of the rest of the staff.

But more than the lack of an eating partner, it grated that she hadn't even been able to reveal Nic's true face to Sophia! That she hadn't been able to reveal him for the lying, double-dealing b*****d he was! As Sophia's friend, Cess felt it was her basic moral duty to enlighten her.

Really? An inner voice spoke up. Will she really appreciate that? Or will she be angry at you for interfering? Will she want you sticking your nose in their business?

'Maybe not,' Cess conceded, unconsciously digging her fingers into the sandwich she was holding, 'but I'm certain she will want to know that he's cheating on her. What she does after that is her and Nic's business, but it's my responsibility to inform her. Once I've told her, I won't get involved any further.'

But you want to be.

And that was part of the problem.

She did want to be a part of Nic's business. And she didn't know why. Her reaction after seeing Nic with that woman had been a little extreme, she acknowledged. It had almost been like...

Almost as if... Nic had cheated on her...

Which was completely absurd, since they didn't even have any relationship - aside from mutual dislike, of course.

There's been something wrong with me ever since I came back to England, Cess mused. Maybe it was something I ate...?

Abruptly Cecilia was snapped out of her thoughts by the shrill ringing of her phone. Even as Cess picked up, she was internally frowning at who it could be, since no one at Nic's office would need to ever contact her regarding any work. The work she was doing was completely unique.

"Hello?" She spoke into the receiver.

"Hello? Ms Knight? There's a phone call for you that I'm transferring."

"Wait. Who is-"

"Cess?"

"-it. Tom?"

"Yeah." He laughed, nervously. "Sorry about ringing at your work place, but when I rang your mobile it was going straight to voicemail, so that's why..." He trailed off, awkwardly. "So, your father mentioned something about you working at Freire Corporation  for a few months?"

"Yeah. Just some preparations for the company charity ball."

"Oh, yeah, yeah." He cleared his throat. "Actually, I was ringing about tonight."

"Tonight?" Cecilia tried to recall what he might be talking about, but drew a complete blank.

"Yeah. You're still coming? For dinner?"

"Dinner! Oh, yes, of course." Cecilia mentally kicked herself, wondering how this drama with Nic could make her forget her own life so easily.

"Great!" Try as he might, Tom was unable to mask his enthusiasm. "Pick you up from your father's house, right?"

"Right. I'll wait by the front door so that you won't have to face an inquisition from my father and brother." She laughed.

"I wouldn't mind," he mumbled.

"Sorry? Did you say something?" She smiled in confusion.

"Uh, no, no. Just... I'll see you tonight."

"Sure. Bye." She smiled.

"Bye."

"Ms Knight." A cold voice broke through the peace of the moment.

Her heart jumped, as she gasped and spun around, receiver dangling from nerveless fingers. A tall figure was leaning against her open doorway.

Piercing blue eyes seared into her soul, staring at her with such contempt it was impossible that she had not already withered into a puddle by his feet.

"May I ask as to why you were clearly attending a personal call during working hours?"

She knew there was no point denying it. It had been fairly obvious.

Trembling, she bravely spoke up. "This is my lunch break."

He scanned her, observing the half eaten sandwich in her hand and the bottle of juice on her desk.

"Lunch break has been over for,' he looked down at his watch, "1 minute, 37 seconds and 500 milliseconds."

Cecilia gaped at him.

"Something you should know about me, Ms Knight," he strolled forwards before bending over her, forcing her to push back into the chair she was sat on, "is that I don't like to see the waste of a single microsecond."

Cess gulped.

"So, would you care to explain to me," he growled, face taut with anger as he bent lower, "why you have been wasting 97,500,000 of them?"

Cess was in awe, marvelling at his mental math prowess, when they were interrupted by approaching footsteps.

Nic had just managed to straighten and take a step back, when Sophia burst through the door.

"Nic, here you are!" She exclaimed. "What are you doing here? The foreign delegation are waiting for you! Let's go!"

With a last searing glance at Cecilia, Nic made his way out her office, Sophia following closely at his heels.

Her friend stopped for a moment to throw Cess a smile.

"Hi Cess. Bye Cess!" She winked, before running out as well.

Cecilia shook her head in amusement at her friend's antics, relieved to find that the tension that had entered the room the moment Nic came, had also dissipated back out with him.

She was glad of Sophia's unwitting rescue, and she knew that she would have to find any opportunity she could to get her friend alone and tell her what she had seen.

With renewed determination, she leapt into her work.

***

"Yes, create an online back up and then put that away in the file. But make sure there are enough copies to be given to every member of the team, first." Sophia commanded her PA, as she walked down the hall briskly. "And, Paul, I need these documents emailed to finance asap. They need to know what the plan is, and I want a detailed analysis of the current market climate on my desk by tomorrow morn-"

She was roughly pulled into a room and the door was shut loudly behind her.

"-Uumph!"

"Shhh!" A voice hissed.

"Cecilia?!" Soph asked, incredulous. "What on earth are you doing?" She looked at the dusty room around them. "And what is this?"

"Shh! This was the only place I could find that would give us any privacy. And where he can't find us..."

"Where who can't find us?" A loud banging noise distracted her. "One minute." She opened the door a fraction to see her frantic PA.

"Ma'am? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Just give me a moment." She shut the door, before turning to face her friend. "What's going on, Cess?"

"Soph, this is really important, ok? Trust me, you are going to want to know this. God, it's been so difficult trying to get you alone..."

"Ok," Sophia spoke, slowly. "And what exactly is this that I will so desperately want to know?"

"Well," Cess hesitated, uncertain what was the best way to tell a girl that the guy she was in love with, had a love for screwing around. "You may want to sit down for this." She looked around. "Except... there are no chairs. Great." She muttered under her breath.

"Cess!" Sophia looked at her impatiently. "Just spit it out!"

"Well... Nic-is-kind-of-cheating-on-you-with-a-dumb-blonde-girl-who-is-not-even-half-as-pretty-or-as-nice-as-you-are."

"What?!"

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AN: Hey guys! I'm back! I apologize for the late update, but there were a few things going on in my life, so I had to set this back for a while.

But I'm back now! And will hopefully be giving you guys regular updates once again.

Sorry about the cliff hanger, but I just can't wait to hear from you all. What do you think Sophia's reaction will be?

Please remember to keep VOTING, SHARING and COMMENTING!

Lots of love,

Xoxo

Btw, love this song by Zayn!! 😘😘😘