Chapter 683 I Stole The Blueprints
Rory made her way out of the suburbs under Hugo’s watchful eye. On one hand, she felt relieved that she got out in one piece, but on the other hand, she was very hungry.
It was the dead of night by the time she got back to town. Hence, there weren’t many people on the streets.
Rory had no choice but to steel herself and beg for food from a nearby restaurant since she had no cash on hand. The restaurant owner couldn’t bear to see how pitiful she looked and had wanted to serve her food. However, his face fell after receiving a phone call. In the end, she got kicked out of the restaurant.
Rory tried her luck and visited a few more diners. However, nobody wanted to take her in.
Feeling embarrassed, she had no choice but to head toward her office building.
Alas, the entrance was locked. The only option left for Rory was to find a sheltered place to spend the night.
The next day, Oscar sent Amelia to work as usual. However, a weak voice rang out as she approached the office building’s entrance.
“Amelia.”
Amelia turned around and saw Rory standing not too far away. Her eyes widened in shock.
“Rory, what happened to you?” she asked.
Rory grabbed her arms as her eyes flashed with fear. She said, “Amelia, I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”
Amelia was baffled.
“Amelia, why are you still standing around?” Oscar’s voice rang out. Rory froze, let go of Amelia, and moved to the side.
“I thought you left already,” Amelia replied.
Oscar lifted the bag of breakfast in his hand. “You forgot breakfast.”
Amelia took it from him and smiled. “Hurry on. You’re going to be late for work. Look, you have scared Rory. She used to be a big fan, always asking me questions about you.”
His lips curled into a half-smile. “Really? What an honor.”
Amelia pushed him toward the car. “You should go to work.”
Oscar placed his hand behind her head and pulled her in for a French kiss as if they were the only ones around.
“Amelia, I will get to the bottom of things regarding the theft of your blueprints. I hate presumptuous people. I won’t forgive whoever comes begging for your forgiveness after doing something wrong,” Oscar said after the kiss.
Amelia was baffled as she could tell that Oscar was threatening someone else.
“Go on. I will find out more about the blueprints.”
Oscar nodded.
Amelia turned to check on Rory after Oscar left. “Rory, are you okay? You don’t look too good. Do you want me to take you to the hospital?” she asked out of concern.
Rory shook her head and replied awkwardly, “Amelia, let’s head in.”
Amelia gave her a once over. “Rory, why don’t you go home and refresh yourself first?”
Rory shook her head and twitched her lips. “Let’s go, Amelia.”
Amelia let her be.
Their colleagues were shocked to see Rory looking slightly disheveled upon their arrival at the design department. After all, she was known for being vain and had always dressed to the nines for work. It was as if she was trying to seduce all married and unmarried men in the office, causing her female colleagues to look at her with disdain.
She was a menace to her female colleagues for being a promiscuous woman. Rory thought she did well hiding her true colors, but little did she know that her colleagues viewed her as an easy woman.
Hence, everyone was gloating over how disheveled she looked at that moment.
“Rory, what happened to you? How could you look so unkempt? Don’t you feel inferior standing beside the beautiful Amelia? We have a lot of rules even though we are a small and medium-sized enterprise,” one of her female colleagues mocked.
Rory gave her a look as she clenched her fists before releasing them.
Amelia stood in front of Rory and smiled. “Lillian, Rory ran into some trouble today, so she’s not in a good mood. Please stop making fun of her.”
Lillian pouted and simpered. “Did you go through a breakup? But it’s okay. You’re a social butterfly. Plenty of our male colleagues from various departments like you, so it’ll be easy for you to move on to the next relationship.”
Amelia sent Rory to the restroom to freshen up and to shield her from all their female colleagues’ mean comments.
She knew many of them had taken offense to Rory’s high-and-mighty attitude. Rory is bound to get herself insulted at the workplace one day if she doesn’t change her old ways, but it’s going to take a great deal to get her to change.
Amelia sat down at her desk and was about to start her day’s work when she recalled that she was suspended from work since no one knew the whole plagiarism story yet. Hence, she turned on her computer and sat idly by.
Jolin walked into the office while carrying a computer bag and handed Amelia a cup of tea she had brewed. She then looked around the office in search of Rory.
“Mrs. Clinton, is that annoying woman not here yet?” Jolin asked.
“She went to the restroom.”
“Then, I’ll go there too.”
With that, Jolin turned around and left. However, Amelia called out to her.
“Is there anything else, Mrs. Clinton?”
“Jolin, life has been full of lemons for Rory. Don’t make things any more difficult for her.”
“Mrs. Clinton, you can’t just judge a book by its cover. She could be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Have you never suspected her of stealing your blueprints?” Jolin replied.
Amelia was stunned. It did cross her mind that Rory was the thief. However, she refused to believe that a girl in her mid-twenties would do something like that. She would rather the thief be someone else as it would make Rory seem very scary if she were the one who did it.
Jolin smirked. “Mrs. Clinton, she’s not an angel. Let me go to the restroom first.”
Amelia stared into space after Jolin left.
It was just as Tiffany had guessed. Rory was an ungrateful child.
Jolin went to the restroom and blocked Rory’s way out. She folded her arms and said, “Rory, how dare you mess with Mrs. Clinton? Not only will you have to apologize to her in public later, but also bark three times and call yourself a bi*ch.”
Rory clenched her fists tightly.
Jolin leaned forward and pinched her chin. “Rory, you should have seen this coming when you stole Mrs. Clinton’s blueprints. You shouldn’t have messed with her, of all people. I would have cut off your hands if it were up to me before you turn into a thief for good.”
Rory just let her be.
“Remember to bark three times and call yourself a b*tch later on. I’m not as kind as Mrs. Clinton. She may be able to forgive you for stealing her blueprints, but not me and Mr. Clinton. You’re not even worthy to be called a dog in our eyes as it would be an insult to those very loyal dogs.” Jolin looked at her in disdain. “You’re just an ungrateful child.”
Rory stayed in the restroom for a while longer after Jolin left before she returned to her desk.
She felt scared and vulnerable and she stood in the middle of the office and stared at her colleagues. Everyone had arrived by now. Rory was about to back away when she saw Jolin’s warning gaze.
She opened her mouth and felt her throat tighten up all of a sudden.
“Rory, what’s the matter? Go back to your desk if you don’t have anything else. Don’t stand in the way,” someone said as he couldn’t stand how Rory had blocked the entrance.
Rory gave him a look and remained rooted to her spot.
“Hello everyone, I’m the one who stole Amelia’s blueprints and posted her work on the internet. I wanted to humiliate her but regretted my decision when people accused her of plagiarism. I was really scared that I would ruin her career just like that. This is the reason why I’m standing here today and apologizing to Amelia. I hope she can find it in her to forgive me.” Rory finally spoke up.
The crowd went into an uproar upon her words.
“Rory, is this true?”
“Rory, how could you do that? Amelia has been so nice to you. You’re being very ungrateful.”
“Rory, this is too much. Amelia is a very talented designer, so as a fresh graduate, you shouldn’t have messed with her out of jealousy.”
“Rory, do you know your actions will cause Amelia to lose her job as a designer and get blacklisted in the industry?”
Everyone was criticizing Rory for stealing the blueprints. Nobody cared if it was the truth, for they only believed what they saw and heard. They were the personification of justice there.
Rory kept quiet as she was criticized by her colleagues, while Amelia stared at her quietly, feeling perplexed. She was puzzled why Rory would do that to her when she had never done anything to hurt Rory in the first place.
She didn’t get why as she thought she had treated Rory well.
“Rory, why did you do it?” Amelia asked as she couldn’t figure out why.
Rory gave Amelia a look and cried out, “Amelia, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what I was thinking.”
Amelia was stunned. How could Rory gloss it over with such a lame excuse? Did our relationship mean nothing to her? Oh my, humans are really complicated creatures.
Instead of feeling sad, she pitied Rory. After all, she had a lot of potentials. She would have gone places if she had focused her energy in the right place.
