Sold To The Billionaire

THE HOAX

A plethora of hi and hellos filled the hallway when Hailey walked in and she was so cheeky in responding to the greetings, smiling ever so sweetly and beaming with excitement even though she didn't feel pysched about coming to work today. Her belly began to churn lowly from the insides of her only official work blazer, which she wore for occasions as serious as this.

"I should have just stayed home, what is it with this diarrhea building up?" Hailey muttered inwardly while still smiling at a coworker.

She was about to reach for coffee from the vending machine before Fred came back to get her to the conference room.

"Ma'am, oh sorry...Hailey what is going on with you today? I hope you're fine. You don't seem to be in the best of your amazing self. Should I ask them to reschedule?" Fred asked from a place of genuine concern.

"Cancel? No no...what do you expect our investors from China, Nigeria, and Spain to say when I keep them waiting and still fail to appear before them? That right there is a big slap on the reputation this company is trying to build and garner over the years. So Fred, lead the way. Better late than never."

"As you wish ma'am." Fred said in mock courtesy, while Hailey followed behind him.

The breezy room made Hailey relax, compared to the scorching sun that hit her eyes when she woke. She fought very hard to compose herself; most especially her thoughts that raced from one expensive tuxedo to the other in the conference room, then she adjusted the laptop on the podium and set it up to connect to the projector slide.

Then she spoke with an aura that relaxed the tensed up atmosphere, "good morning ladies and gentlemen. I sincerely apologise for the lateness and if you would all permit me, I'd love to proceed immediately with the reason we are gathered here today." She nods slightly as their faces exuded approval.

She set up the projector slide by plugging the compatible cable into her laptop, then she turned on the laptop and what appeared on the big screen shocked her to her marrows.

All the colour drained from her face and she was literally dead while on her feet. Standing in front of these important men and women and facing this sheer embarrassment, she wished she killed Maggie when she had the chance to drain her mortal body of every ounce of living fuel, blood or whatever name her enraged mind thought it fit to be called at this critical time of her dwindling career and the murky waters in that once clear path.

The loud moan of the parties having the threesome dissipated into the air and sent chills down her spine. It turns out Maggie had used her laptop again to log in to her pornographic channel when she couldn't use her phone, and she let it shut down while the video had a few minutes to be done with.

"Turn it off already!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She heard her supervisor yell at the top of his baritone voice.

Instinctively, she turned it off and tears started forming in her eyes but she sucked it in and raised her eyes to look at the audience in the room. The air suffocated her very essence and she felt faint and the blood rushing to her brain made her feel intoxicated, but it wasn't one that stemmed from drinking sweet wine, it was mad fury.

She managed to look at her boss and then said with the biggest air of sincerity, "I am really sorry sir. To our potential investors who have travelled to come from across borders only to be welcomed with this debacle, I sincerely apologise. Words cannot express how sad I am about this inappropriate content on a rather important conference meeting.

I sincerely apologise for the inconveniences caused." With that, Hailey packed her belongings off the podium and briskly walked away with whatever dignity she could muster in the gathering of judgemental and piercing eyes gazing intently at her.

Then, the Sixth Sense kicked in...

She could hear their thoughts, it was like she got into their heads and all the disparaging comments flew like fighter jets into her troubled mind and their bitter feelings ran deep.

"Stupid b***h!"

"w***e!"

"She thought she could fool us with her good looks."

"The vile thing has made me behold iniquity."

"I travelled first class for this nonsense?"

"Nothing good will come out of this foolish woman if she keeps this up."

"If she is wise, she will willfully apply for a resignation immediately. We are downsizing staff and she is too skilled to be here anyhow we look at this. I'm glad this happened so she will never come back here in shame."

The voice of Mr Phillips, her manager was loud and clear. He wasn't so different from the way he talks physically and she was going to grant him that wish. After all, she needed to get somewhere better, a bigger job somehow, anyhow...it just has to work.

"Not a problem sir, I will drop my resignation letter on my way to collect my things at my workspace. So, don't worry about my returning to the Emiliano Corporation. It was nice to connect here and work with you. Thank you." Hailey didn't turn back to see the shell shocked face of Mr Phillips because, he was definitely stunned with the "how did she read my thoughts?" petrified look plastered across his face, like mustard smeared across a Keetos diner hamburger.

With the air of victory and finality of not giving her Manager answers to that million dollar question his expression portrayed, she walked out of the conference room and dropped off the short letter she prepared on his cluttered desk, returning the company's documents in her possession...neatly filed.

It was as if she anticipated this day, she ignored every "what happened" and walked to her car and zoomed off to the woods, her favourite getaway spot and the very heart of Mystique Falls.

She parked across the entrance of the serene woods, took her picnic scarf, a few things to help in her meditation and definitely her iPad for music, for she was ready to let the tears cascade down her eyes; for she needed processing of everything she had experienced in the last few hours and also think of possible ways to kill Maggie without attracting the attention of nosy Ms Jenkins who always let her cat stray into her own terrace.

Meditation and the Shitsu style of Japanese reflection had become a part of her. She sat down for hours, yelled, screamed, ranted and then fell silent for hours, sitting like a monk and soaking in the therapeutic breeze only nature can provide, the sounds of the waterfall in the distance which was now very clear and loud as she was a vampire who had no clue how she became the living dead.

She sat still and could even hear her breathing, and just then a twig broke under someone's weight and instinctively her eyes opened to behold this god of a man who just came out fresh from a swim.

He was in a white towel draped across his pelvic region and her mouth was agape, unconsciously of course. She was lost for words until he cleared his throat and spoke.

"You don't have to stare. I'm hot and I know it. The name is Dylan." He extended his hand to shake her.

"Cocky bastard." She said a little to loud and then covered her mouth in astonishment. She left his hand hanging and scurried away, leaving her wallet behind.

"Hey, you could have at least told me your name." Dylan said wondering why she ran from him.

"Get lost." Hailey didn't look back, she half walked and half ran to her car and zoomed off into the distance.