Though she felt angry, she also felt helpless. Who could measure the bitterness in her chest? Unfortunately, changing her agent was not an easy thing to do, not when she had been chosen for her by the agency. And unless she managed to totally free herself and leave, would changing her agent even succeed in changing anything?
Taking a light breath, Sharon's face regained the previous calm, but without the accompanying light-hearted happiness. Her eyes remained on the bustle and the mundane scenery outside. Silence returned inside the MPV as it continued down the road, until it was shattered once again.
*Ring~ Ring~ Ring~ Ring~*
Sharon hadn't put her phone away after the call earlier. It had remained in her hand, so when she calmly lowered her head, a simple turn of her hand was all it took to see the name of the caller this time, and it was not Gladys.
Sharon allowed a small smile to grow at the corner of her mouth, and with levity, brought the phone to her ear:
"Hello, Sheila? I was thinking of dropping by later to see you. Is everything okay there?"
Unfortunately, it was not a tone of the same kind that responded to her, instead, it was a tearful voice that came in through the receiver, a tearful and desperate voice:
"Sharon, save me~ I messed up~ Please, save me~"
Sharon's expression changed, and even without knowing what happened, the feeling of impending doom that hit her caused her heart to skip a beat.
Half an hour later, Sharon arrived before a cafe, her golden hair tied with a scarf whose triangular tail shimmered softly under the sunlight with the up and down of her hair with her steps, while her face was covered just the way it had been back at the airport. As she walked inside, she looked around, then locked onto a table at the edge on the far right, a discreet corner where there was only a single person.
It was a woman with shiny smooth black hair that reached the middle of her back. She was sitting with her back to the entrance, but when Sharon saw her, she didn't hesitate to walk over with firm, sharp steps. Spinning on her heels upon arriving at the table, Sharon looked down at the woman wearing a sleeveless blouse with a plunging neckline over a waist-hugging skirt and who was forcing the hands bringing the coffee to her lips not to tremble, then asked, calmly but dryly:
"I am here, Sheila. Now, tell me, what have you done?"
_ _ _
_ _ _
"So, let me summarize. You invested like usual, this time, in a logistics chain that is young but well established, am I right?"
"Yes."
"And you did do the due diligence, verifying all information before acting."
"Yes."
"Then you signed the contract."
Sharon said that sentence with suppressed frustration. Her friend tried to display some calm amidst the overwhelming shame:
"Yes."
"But then, afterward, when their capital chain hit a snag not long ago, you felt that something was not right. You thought it was a matter of embezzlement, but you found out that it is something worse."
"Yes. I thought that the investigation on the main leaders of the chain had come out wrong, that there had been some management mistakes or simply that something happened that made one or many of them change. But when I looked into it and reviewed all the financial documents for the last three to five years, I found out that I have been fooled. And now, I might have become an accomplice for what they are doing since I went above and beyond to secure a position I thought was advantageous. I might be arrested and go to prison. Please, Sharon, help me~ I don't want to go to prison~ I don't want my life to be destroyed~ I don't want to lose everything I have~!"
As she spoke till there, Sheila's expression collapsed, her face losing all the resolve she seemed to have mustered as the dread from the situation came rushing back at her. Only the quality of her make-up saved her from getting her face overrun by smudge, but that did nothing to help her pitiful appearance.
Looking into Sharon's bright blue eyes with her own hazel ones, Sheila moved to hold her hands, trying to calm the anger causing the blonde's chest to heave up and down. And it seemed to work, somewhat, as Sharon suddenly deflated.
Looking down at the hand on hers on the table, Sharon looked back up at the pitiful tear-streaked face that had none of the usual confidence and mature glow, and exhaled. Pulling her hands back, she leaned back in her seat, and asked with as much calm as she could muster:
"Tell me, is there anything else you are hiding from me?"
"I–"
"Think before you answer, Sheila."
Meeting the hard sapphire blue eyes, Sheila froze, then guiltily shifted her eyes to the side.
"I might have invested in haste after getting some inside information and I put the other positions in jeopardy to get more funds."
"You–"
"And there is your signature on some of the documents."
Sharon froze, her breath getting stuck in her chest. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she looked at her friend as if she was only getting to know her.
"You–"
Forcing a breath down, Sharon swallowed her anger, and continued:
"Insider trading and signature falsification?! And on top of that you gambled with all our foundation? Are you crazy?! What went through your mind to dare do something like that?! I created the company. I only asked you to help me manage the dream I was not able to take care of personally while at the same time letting you realize your own dream of being a successful businesswoman. And now… This is how you repay me?"
Sharon forced in a deep breath. She was so angry that she had to force herself to take another deep breath. Sheila took advantage of the brief lull to rush to the blonde's side and crouch down to hold her hands again:
"Please, Sharon. I didn't know. I never wanted to drag you into something like that. I thought that would be an opportunity, and I wanted to seize it. I was just hasty, please, don't abandon me. Please~ I just made a mistake~"
Sharon looked down, and at that moment, she didn't see Sheila's beautiful appearance. She did not even see her friend whom she had shared a dormitory with back in university. She only saw…
*Ring~ Ring~ Ring~ Ring~*
The ringing interrupted Sharon's thoughts. Pulling her hands out of Sheila's grip, she turned to her bag at the side, and saw the call from an unknown number. The ominous feeling that had been swallowed by anger after hearing Sheila's words came rushing back, and she answered with a frown:
"Hello?"
"Have you enjoyed the past month of leisure well enough?"
The pupils in the middle of the sapphire blue eyes abruptly contracted into pinholes.