Beneath the Mask

A question of Loyalty

James POV

The morning began like any other, with me seated at my desk reviewing documents. My phone buzzed insistently, and I sighed, reluctantly answering it.

“James Blackwood speaking,” I said briskly, already anticipating the usual corporate chatter.

“Blackwood!” barked a furious voice. I immediately recognized Alan from Delnut Enterprises.

“Alan,” I greeted, keeping my tone professional despite the sharp edge in his.

“Do you have any idea how incompetent your company appears right now?” Alan didn’t wait for me to respond. “We’ve been waiting for feedback on the contract since yesterday. Not a single word! Is this how Blackwood Enterprises does business? Because if it is, then consider our partnership over!”

I blinked, struggling to keep my composure. “Alan, there must be some mistake. The contract—”

“The mistake,” he snapped, “was trusting you to send someone competent. That girl you sent—Sophie, wasn’t it?—she didn’t represent you well at all. Slow, disorganized, and completely unprepared. This has been a colossal waste of time for both me and my company!”

“Alan, let me—”

“No, James. We’re done here. Good luck finding another partner who’ll tolerate such carelessness and incompetence”.

The line went dead, leaving me gripping the phone so tightly my knuckles turned white. Months of negotiation, strategic planning, and late nights—all gone in an instant. For what?

Before I could process the fallout, Sophie walked into my office, a stack of papers in her hands.

“Good morning, Mr. Blackwood,” she began hesitantly.

I stood abruptly, rage boiling over. “Morning? You still have the guts to greet me!” I snapped, my voice echoing through the room. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

She froze, her brown eyes wide and startled. “Sir, I— my brother….”

“Save it!” I slammed my hand on the desk, the sound reverberating like a gavel. “I just got off the phone with Delnut Enterprises. Do you know what they said? They called you incompetent! You’ve embarrassed this company—my company. Months of hard work, gone. Because of you.”

Her face paled, and she opened her mouth to speak, but I wasn’t finished.

“This isn’t just a mistake, Sophie. This is sabotage. Do you have any idea how much you’ve cost us?”

“Mr. Blackwood, please—”

“No!” I roared. “I don’t want to hear it. I trusted you to represent this company, and you’ve failed spectacularly. You’re fired. Pack your things and get out. Don’t ever come back.”

The words hit her like a physical blow. For a moment, she just stood there, as if she couldn’t quite process what I’d said with tears rolling down her eyes but I didn’t give a f**k about it. Then, without another word, she turned and left, the door clicking shut behind her.

As the silence settled over the room, I collapsed into my chair, my anger slowly giving way to unease.

Sophie had worked for me for two years. She could be timid, overly cautious, and slow to act, but incompetent? That didn’t fit. If anything, her attention to detail has always been her strength and the reason she has been with me that long.

I replayed the brief moment she’d tried to explain herself, her voice trembling as she mentioned… something about her brother. But I’d been too angry to listen.

Was there more to this than I realized?

Before I could dwell on it further, my phone buzzed again. I answered it reluctantly, my nerves already frayed.

“Mr. Blackwood,” came the urgent voice of my family’s housekeeper. “It’s your aunt. She’s been rushed to the hospital. It’s her asthma.”

The color drained from my face. “I’m on my way.”

At the hospital, I rushed through the sterile halls, my mind racing. I found my aunt in a private room, lying pale and weak against the crisp white sheets. But my attention was immediately drawn to the figure sitting beside her.

Sophie.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded, my voice louder than intended.

She startled, standing abruptly. “Mr. Blackwood, I—”

“I told you to stay away!” I snapped, anger bubbling to the surface again. “Now you’re following me here? What kind of stunt is this?”

“James!” my aunt interrupted weakly, her voice strained but firm. “Stop it. Right now.”

I turned to her, stunned. “Aunt Rachel—”

“She’s the reason I’m alive,” my aunt said, cutting me off. “I had an asthma attack on the street. Sophie saw me, helped me with my inhaler, and brought me here. If it weren’t for her, I don’t know what would’ve happened.”

Her words hit me like a sledgehammer.

I glanced back at Sophie, who looked torn between wanting to explain and wanting to bolt from the room.

“Sophie,” I said after a long pause, my voice softer. “I… I’m sorry. Thank you for helping my aunt.”

She nodded, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “I’m glad she’s okay.”

She looked like someone who had been crying nonstop. I wanted to ask but of course I knew better.

After Sophie was gone, I sat beside my aunt, my mind racing.

“She’s a nice girl,” Aunt Rachel said, her voice gentle but insistent. “When I saw her, she’d clearly been crying. But even with her own pain, she stopped to help me. James, you made a mistake with her, didn’t you?”

I hesitated, running a hand through my hair. “There was an issue with a client. A major one. I fired her this morning due to her incompetence”.

My aunt frowned. “And you think she’s incompetent?”

“She’s never been,” I admitted reluctantly. “That’s why it doesn’t make sense.”

“Then you need to fix it,” she said firmly. “If you’ve misjudged her, you owe her an apology. And maybe her job back, too.”

I nodded, though guilt already gnawed at me.

Back at my office, I instructed my assistant to send Sophie an email, asking her to resume work the next day. But as I sat at my desk, the details of the Delnut deal kept circling in my mind.

Why had they been so harsh? Why had they waited until this morning to call, despite Sophie supposedly handing over the contract?

Something wasn’t adding up.

I picked up the phone and dialed Alan’s number, but it went straight to voicemail. Suspicious, I logged into the system to check Sophie’s records, searching for clues.

A creeping unease settled over me.

There was a pattern here, one I hadn’t noticed before. Deals that Sophie had been involved in, deals where something went wrong, all connected to one specific rival company.

As the pieces clicked into place, my stomach churned.

This wasn’t incompetence.

It was sabotage.

And Sophie might’ve been caught in the crossfire.