Chapter 31
Charlotte waited for Evelyn to finish her tirade.
Her gaze was clear and cold as she looked down at the younger woman. “What exactly makes you so ‘elite‘? Your pig brain that can’t even win at Connect Four? Or recycling my leftovers and treating them like some prize? Or maybe stealing the job I no longer want and acting smug about it?”
“And what’s this ‘our circle‘ nonsense? Who’s ‘us‘?”
“You spend your days doing nothing useful except screwing around like animals in heat. I want nothing to do with your filthy little zoo. You and Issac are welcome to lock yourselves in there together.”
Her tone remained calm, but her words were pure venom.
Evelyn had a hair–trigger temper, and Charlotte’s words sent her into a rage. Her young face contorted with fury.
She started shrieking halfway through Charlotte’s speech. “Shut your fucking mouth! I’ll rip your face off! I swear to God I’ll kill you!”
Finally, she leaped from her chair and lunged at Charlotte to slap her.
Charlotte stood her ground. As Evelyn approached, she forcefully slammed the stack of documents into the girl’s face, sending her staggering backward with a bloody nose.
“Handover complete. Good luck running Harmonex into the ground.”
With that, Charlotte turned and walked away.
“Charlotte Whitmore, I won’t forget this! You shoud be dead, you hear me? DEAD!” Evelyn screamed, holding her bleeding nose, her shrieks threatening to bring down the building.
No one from the project department dared approach.
When Charlotte exited the office, she walked some distance before her team cautiously gathered around her, offering words of concern and sympathy.
Mandy Titianne, the Team Three leader, braved entering the office to retrieve Charlotte’s belongings. She carefully wiped clean the awards rescued from the trash and placed them in a box. “Charlotte, let me carry these down for
you.”
Seeing her loyalty, Charlotte felt a warmth in her heart, her eyes moistening.
Even in her darkest hour, there were still glimmers of light.
“Thank you,” she replied with a smile.
The project team escorted her to the elevator, and Mandy accompanied her to the ground floor with her belongings.
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Before leaving, Charlotte told Mandy, “Let everyone know to just do their jobs and avoid confrontation with Miss Grantham. Hopefully she’ll get bored and leave on her own. If any projects start having problems under her management, report directly to Issac. Don’t wait until she tries to blame you–these are multi–million dollar projects none of you can afford to take the fall for. If Issac knows it’s her fault, I think he’ll handle it.”
Mandy nodded. “I’ll tell everyone.”
Charlotte hugged her. “Stay in touch.”
As she drove away from Harmonex, rain began to fall, each drop feeding her melancholy.
Ten days left.
Almost there.
***
Evelyn went straight upstairs to complain after Charlotte left.
Her brother Jayden was there too and looked confused at his sister’s swollen, red nose. “What happened to you?”
Evelyn sat between them, crying pitifully. “I was being so nice–made her coffee, offered her my chair. But from the moment she walked in, she started insulting me, calling me shameless, and calling Issac and me… filthy animals.”
“I was just trying to ask her about work stuff and didn’t dare talk back. Not satisfied with just verbal abuse, she started getting physical–threw all the handover documents in my face and pushed me to the ground.”
Issac listened with a stony expression, saying nothing.
Jayden was furious and incredulous. “Has this woman completely lost her damn mind? This is beyond outrageous! Issac, what are you going to do about this?”
Issac: “I’ll apologize to Evelyn on her behalf. She hasn’t been herself lately.”
That’s it?
Evelyn had expected him to summon Charlotte for a confrontation, to defend her honor. When this didn’t happen, she grew even more furious. “I don’t want your stupid apology! I want her on her knees begging for forgiveness! And I want to hit her back just as hard!”
Issac’s eyes instantly turned glacial. “That’s not going to happen.”
Jayden frowned. “Why the hell not? She assaulted my sister without provocation. Shouldn’t she be held responsible? If you’re going to enable her behavior, the Granthams aren’t opposed to taking legal action.”
Issac’s hands tightened as he considered this for a moment. “…If that’s how you want to play it, I can only express my regret. Not only will our partnership fail, but we’ll end up in court.”
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The Grantham siblings were stunned.
Jayden: “You… care about this woman that much?”
Issac leaned back in his chair, his response unequivocal. “She’s my woman. No one touches her.”
Evelyn trembled with rage.
He had seemed so happy with her. He had barely gone home, barely spent time with Charlotte. He didn’t love her anymore–so why did he still care?
Realizing she ranked lower than Charlotte in his heart, she wanted to tear the woman apart.
But right now, she feared Issac’s rejection more. She quickly changed her tone from demanding to submissive. “Never mind. Charlotte was just upset because I’m close to Issac. I didn’t really expect her to kneel–I was just venting. Don’t be angry.”
Jayden: ”
She was the fourth daughter of the Grantham family. Why was she debasing herself fighting for a man’s attention against some nobody? It was humiliating!
“But Issac, after suffering such a terrible ordeal, you absolutely must make it up to me,” Evelyn pouted adorably.
Issac’s expression finally softened, his eyes growing tender. “Of course I will.”
Evelyn left with a stomach full of resentment.
***
As soon as Charlotte got home, she received a call from Gloria.
“Darling, tomorrow afternoon, Charlie Stark from J&R Corporation has arranged to play golf with Zarek Weasley at Shinnecock Hills. I’ve already told Charlie I’m bringing someone along. This is your chance to shine, kitten!”
“You’re the absolute best, Gloria! Mwah, mwah, mwah!”
“Oh god, I just got goosebumps. Wednesday, two o’clock, don’t stand me up or I’ll never forgive you.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
This good news put Charlotte in such a good mood that she ate more dinner than usual, making herself uncomfortably full.
Late that night, she was on the treadmill in the home gym, trying to burn off her meal.
After about twenty minutes, her phone rang. It was Issac.
He hadn’t come home again tonight.
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She was used to his absence by now, but why would he call at this hour?
Charlotte hesitantly answered.
As soon as the call connected, she heard rapid breathing from a man and woman, followed by a woman’s pleased, wanton moans. “Oh god, Issac, I can’t take anymore! You’re so fucking big… you’re killing me with that cock!”
“Ahhhh!”
Charlotte was already feeling queasy from overeating. Instantly, her stomach churned violently. She bent over and violently threw up on the floor.
Her phone fell with a crack, the screen shattering.
She vomited until there was nothing left but bile, and even then continued to dry heave.
She didn’t remember how she made it back to her bedroom.
Lying in bed, she expected to be consumed by pain, to lie awake all night wishing she could tear out her heart and throw it away.
But strangely, the “poison” didn’t take effect. She lay with her eyes open, listening to her own slow, heavy heartbeat, surrounded by profound silence…
Time ticked away.
At some point, she closed her eyes, and darkness instantly swallowed her.
When she woke, dawn was breaking.
Charlotte got up, showered, cleaned the gym, ate breakfast, and bought a new phone.
That afternoon, she went to Shinnecock Hills Golf Club as planned.
