One Wild Night

As Lucy headed for the elevator, she noticed the way everyone she passed by was staring at her and murmuring under their breaths. It made her feel quite uncomfortable so she tried not to meet anyone's gaze as she kept walking. 

Why were they staring at her that way? Was it because she was dating her driver, or was there something else she didn't know about? Although she knew that dating her supposed driver was going to stir some gossip in the office, she wasn't sure that it was bad enough to make them murmur about her in this manner, especially considering the fact that most of the ladies had shown interest in Tom at one point or the other. 

Lucy stopped by the elevator and opened it. Just as she stepped into it, she noticed that the two ladies who were walking behind her and were about to take the elevator with her, quickly moved away so that she would ride the elevator alone.

"Good morning," Lucy managed with a polite smile, but neither of them responded to her greeting as they hurried away while murmuring something under their breath. 

Their action only seemed to intensify Lucy's suspicions that something was wrong. It couldn't just be about her relationship with Tom. What was it? She wondered as she rode the elevator up to the third floor which housed the fashion unit, instead of the seventh floor where the CEO's office was. 

She knew that whatever it was, she could find out from Amy, since Amy was not only her secretary, but was also the person she most interacted with in the company apart from Tom.

By the time the elevator door opened on the third floor to let her out, she had worked herself into a nervous mess. Her stomach was already in knots, her palms were sweaty, and she was having palpitations.

She couldn't remember the last time she had this feeling, but it was one she had hoped to never feel again. She grimaced against the slight headache she was already beginning to feel, "Calm down, Lu. It could be nothing serious," she assured herself under her breath as she approached her office.

Once she stopped by the door, she reached for the doorknob but paused when she suddenly heard her name being mentioned.

"I don't think Miss Perry is capable of something like that." It was Amy's voice.

"Well, you can't always judge a book by its cover. Who knows? Maybe that's why she is such a workaholic! She's using it to hide her psychopathic tendencies," Another feminine voice said. 

"Thinking about it alone sends chills down my spine. I hope it isn't true. I don't think I will ever look at her the same way if it is true," one of the guys in the office said.

Psychopathic tendencies? Lucy's brows pulled together in a concerned frown as she tried to figure out what they were talking about. Just as she turned the doorknob she heard it.

"It's not just about looking at her. I don't want to work in the same office as a murderer!" The other female voice said, making Lucy stiffen.

Her heart skipped a beat when she heard that, and her stomach churned as she tried to process what she had just heard. Murderer? She asked herself as her vision blurred. Was this about Jamie's death? How did they know of it? The only person she had spoken about it to recently was Tom. Tom wouldn't do something like this to her by exposing such a painful secret, so who else could have done it? Perhaps someone from the neighborhood where she grew up knows someone working here and told the person about her past?

Was it all happening again? Would she have to deal with this one more time? Even though the court had pronounced her not guilty eight years ago, people had kept staring at her like a murderer so much so that her parents had to move them from the former neighborhood even though they had claimed it was because they didn't want the house to keep reminding her of the night of her abduction since she seemed to jump every time she heard the sound of the doorbell.

She dropped her hand from the doorknob and reached for the wall instead to steady herself when she started feeling lightheaded. 

As she tried to steady her breath she didn't know when the tears started dropping from her eyes. One after the other the tears fell until her entire body started shaking from the force of her sob. When she heard footsteps coming from the opposite direction, she raised her hands to her mouth to muffle her sobs as she quickly dashed for the ladies' room on that floor, since she didn't want anyone to see her that way. 

She knew that she shouldn't be hiding. If anyone was supposed to be ashamed, it should be the lot of them for judging her when they didn't even know the true details of what had happened eight years ago, but she knew that humans hardly cared for the truth. They only cared about the first part of the story they hear. Any other version of the story would be seen as a lame attempt by her to cover up the truth.

Once she got to the ladies' room, she heard voices coming from inside, and it sounded like they were also talking about her, so she took a detour. The only place she could be in right now without running into anyone was the storage room on that floor, so she quickly ran into it and shut the door before giving in to the tears. 

Meanwhile, Tom's heart was pounding really fast in his ears as he took the private elevator to his office. He needed to get Lucy out of the company before she finds out what was happening. After seeing how merely telling the story had made her go into shock, he wasn't sure she would be able to stand it if she found out that the news was all over the net. 

Immediately the elevator door opened and he stepped into his office, he didn't bother with wearing his disguise costumes, he just walked straight to her office, and his heart sank when he realized that she wasn't in her seat, and it seemed like she had not gotten to the office yet. 

Judging by the time she left him at the parking lot and all the calls he had made in between, she should have been settled in her seat by now. So where was she? Had she probably heard of it already? But from who? He wondered and dismissed the thought since he knew that no one would be bold enough to confront her about such a thing. He was going to worry about who had started such a hateful rumor only after making such that Lucy was okay.

Once he opened the door and stepped out of the office, he looked down the hallway to see if she was still on her way and maybe had only just stopped to exchange pleasantries with someone, but the hallway was empty. 

Perhaps she had decided to stop by her other office to pick up some documents? Without thinking twice about it he headed for the elevator and rode to the third floor. If he didn't see her there, he was just going to ask the head of the security unit to check the security cameras until he found her.

Once he stepped out of the elevator, he walked in quick strides to her office, but before he could open the door he heard them speaking.

"If I was the CEO I would fire her immediately. How can such a person be the CEO's personal assistant?" a female voice was saying.

"To think that he had stayed this whole time without a personal assistant, and of all people, the assistant he chose turns out to be a murderer! It seems the CEO has a poor taste in people." 

"Andrew! You shouldn't say something like that about the CEO!" Amy snapped at him. 

"But it's true! Isn't it? I feel for her poor driver. He's lucky she hasn't killed him yet," another female said.

"All these are rumors! We don't know for a fact yet. You shouldn't say such hateful things about her when you don't even know the truth," Amy half yelled at them, and they began to laugh.

"Amy you should just say that you feel bad that you're the secretary of a murderer. Stop sounding so defensive of her. Besides we all know that there is always an element of truth in every rumor," the other female voice said. 

Tom's hands balled into a fist as he listened to them. What if Lucy had been the one standing here? These were the words she would have heard about herself? Tom wondered as he opened the door.

All conversations ceased the moment the door opened and they all turned to look at Tom, "Good morning! You read the news, right?" The lady who had been speaking I'll of Lucy asked with a smile as though she couldn't wait to share it with him.

"Hi, Tom! What brings you here today? Does Miss Perry want something delivered?" Amy asked to distract Tom from what 

"I'm looking for Miss Perry, did any of you happen to see her?" Tom asked, deciding to ignore all he had heard and focus on finding Lucy. He could always deal with these people later for running their mouth this way. 

"How can you who drives her to the office be asking us such a stupid question? Or did your girlfriend ask you to come and find out if we are badmouthing her so that she can kill us too?" One of the guys asked with a scowl, making the other guy and lady laugh, while Amy gave him an apologetic look. 

"Just ignore them. I'll come with you to find her," Amy said as she got off her desk, ready to walk out with Tom.

"Don't worry. I'm sure you have work to attend to," Tom said, feeling glad that Lucy at least had someone who was on her side.. He looked at the other three faces in the office making sure to check the names on their identity cards which were hanging on their necks before walking away to find Lucy.