Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Three months later

It was six in the morning during the peak winters of California. The sun hadn't yet arrived in the east and the sky was still dark. The office of Richmond Industries was completely empty.  Because of the extreme winter the office hours have been reduced from morning ten to evening five instead of nine to six. Every one of the staff was raining praises to the kind hearted CEO a week ago when the change of timing was announced.  

It was very much before the working time. Pulling her long coat more together Aliza sprinted towards the entrance of the stylish superstructure. The security at the entrance greeted her with a salute. "Mam, Good Morning! So early?" The forty year old Buffy bodyguard Samuel greeted and asked Aliza with curiosity. "It is the year end time Samuel, some last bit of errands are still left over to run." Aliza replied to him in a clipped tone.

Samuel nods to Aliza with a pleasant smile. Nobody doubted her in the office. She had been working in Richmond Industries for more than two and half years and everyone in the workplace knew she was soon going to be the wife of the CEO. "You're right madam. Happy new year to you in advance." Samuel was chirpy. Aliza nods and manages a cheery voice. "To you too Samuel." 

She sprints towards the elevator wiping away the sudden beads of droplets appearing on her forehead. Even in the high winter months she was feeling sweaty and suffocated. 

Face is the index of mind. When we try to do something unscrupulous and unlawful our pressure rises and we sweat profusely. Aliza was feeling the same.

You have to do this Aliza. Her mind strongly ordered her when her morals were taking steps behind. He is a man with no morals. He killed many people without ethical values. He is a mafia don. There is nothing wrong if you denounce him.

Love, what about our love? Aliza's conscience intervened but the other side countered in a mockery. Love? What sort of love? Love towards an underworld leader? Love towards a beast who claims life of people with no renounce within a leap of an eye? Do you think your life will be safe with such a man? Can you plan a family with him? What about kids? Will your kids be safe when their father is the biggest national criminal?

It was too overwhelming for Aliza when she learnt about Charles' nature just three months ago.

No Aliza screamed aloud to her conscience, closing her ears with tears  trailing away her eyes. Then go ahead with your work with no second thoughts. Her ethics replied sternly.

Making a heart of steel she entered the elevator and pressed the eleventh floor. She directly went to the server room and switched off all the CCTV cameras in and around the office including the parking. She then entered the lift and pressed the seventeenth floor to enter the CEO's room. Walking towards the desk she removed the lock of the computer and connected the cable to her mobile. Half an hour later the entire information required was loaded into her phone.

Aliza released a loud sigh. She looked around the room if any CCTV cameras were working for one more time and walked out of the lobby with a triumphant smile.

******

It was eight in the night. The work was always busy at  Richmond Industries. With the last document stapled Aliza heaved heavily and walked to the CEO's office with the file in her hand.

When she knocked at the entrance there came a deep voice of her boss "come in". The room was eerily dark when she opened the door. Aliza looked around the place in panic.

Suddenly there was a spark of light through a lighter followed by a puff of smoke from his lips. "Aren't you paid well here Aliza?" His voice was smooth but she knew well the menace behind those effortless words. Aliza had been working for Charles Rodriguez for more than a year. Her feat trembled in fear analyzing his possible conclusion.

"Answer me damn it! Aren't you paid here well?" His voice echoed between the silent walls of the dark room in a deathly gear. Aliza jumped on her legs in fright and trembled in her speech. "Ye....yes sir."

"Then why did you sell our quotation of dock supplies to Reymond industries?" Aliza went pale at the lethal intonation of her boss. She gulped heavily and told him in a shivering voice. "Sir, i....it wasn't me. I did not know...."

"Then what is this?" A bunch of papers made contact on her face flying in the air and the next second he was in front of her like a fiend filled with vengeance. Aliza felt she was going to lose her consciousness in pallid after assimilation of the pernicious aura of her deleterious boss.

"Stop the babbling nonsense." He yelled in her face. His features were turning more red and eyes dropping the wild tornadoes. A shiver ran down Aliza's spine drinking in the dangerous aura of her demon boss. He switched on something bending down to his desk. Complimenting to her toe curling fear a wall opened opposite revealing a hidden camera fitted inside the wall.

"You stopped all the CCTV footage in the office for as long as you were here but this.... This was still working recording your every moment." Charles pointed to the camera fitted inside the wall in a very low, parlous tone. His eyes were sharp like a tip of the knife looking straight into her like a pierce into her soul. Aliza gulped heavily, she could see it clear before her eyes it was the silence before the storm.

Blocking her windpipe he pushed her to the wall behind and held her throat  hard. That's it! Aliza understood she was going to lose her life in the coming couple of seconds. Her eye balls went up, almost losing her consciousness when he bent his head and spoke low in her ear, gritting his teeth. "I DO NOT TOLERATE DISLOYALTY, MISS STELWART AND YOU JUST INVOKED THE SLEEPING MONSTER IN ME BY SHOWING YOUR UGLY NATURE."

Kissing her neck he inhaled her scent and released her with a jerk with an ache on his features. Aliza chokes on her breath looking at the devil in trepidation and shivers in her tone. "Please believe me sir, I'm innocent." Charles looks down at the rise and fall of her pulsating chest. "NO MATTER WHAT I CANNOT STOP LOVING YOU AND I HATE MYSELF FOR THIS."

"Do not show me your face again ever in your life. You are dismissed from the job."

***