HEADLINES-SHAWN CHEUNG AND EVELYN WEI SPLIT! EVELYN INFERTLE???
'Shawn Cheung filed for divorce from Evelyn Wei, citing claims that Ms. Wei is infertile.' The fine print read. The room erupted in comments. Deming looked confused before he pulled out his own phone. Evelyn recovered her composure and reached over to place a hand on her father's arm. His face was contorting with anger. Evelyn pulled her father away from the podium and she turned her back on the crowd to speak with him.
"Ba, I'm okay. It's going to be okay," she said to him. She felt anything but okay but she would deal with this her way. All the feelings she had in the past week turned into pure hatred. Hatred for the man she had loved. Hatred at herself for not seeing how cruel that man could be. She took a breath before walking back to the podium.
"Excuse me," she said into the microphone to no avail. Some people glanced at her but continued to speak. When they were paying her no mind she whistled into the microphone. That immediately stopped everyone in their tracks as the ear piercing sound went through the air.
"Thank you," she said when everyone turned their attention back to her.
"I don't enjoy dabbling in gossip. So I will say my piece now," she began. She held her head high ignoring the most recent stab to her heart.
- - - - -
THE OFFICES OF LI CORP
Jinhai was sipping at his second cup of coffee that day. His mind going back to this morning and the way Evelyn blushed while staring at him. He was in a very good mood. His phone rang and he ignored it for a moment.
Zain burst into the room. He didn't knock or announce himself.
"He's done it." He said simply. Jinhai grabbed his phone from the desk behind him as he set his coffee down. The second he saw it, he was livid. He dialed a number. When he heard the connection click he didn't bother with greetings.
"Do it. Phase one." He said into the phone and then hung up, ignoring the questions coming from the other end of the line. Zain knew what his brother did. They had waited for the news to break but they didn't expect it to be this bad. Shawn probably took the most vicious route because she nearly ran him over last night.
Jinhai threw his phone down on the table. He had a plan that he currently wanted to chuck out the window and go and empty a clip into Shawn's face. He was forcing himself to remember that he had a better plan. Shooting him would be too fast and too easy.
Jinhai wanted Shawn to suffer. He wanted to strip him of everything that matters to Shawn. He had all the ammunition he needed to do it. He was biding his time. But now, Shawn fired his first shot. Jinhai retaliated with his. This round would go to Jinhai. He had a moment's regret but it couldn't be helped. 'I'm sorry, Xiaoli,' he thought before he closed his eyes, leaning back into his chair. He needed to believe that the ends justified the means. He prayed to any God willing to listen to his prayer, that she would forgive him.
- - - - -
BACK AT WEI'S WORLD ORGANIZATION
Evelyn held a hand up to interrupt the questions that some tried to ask.
"It's true, Shawn Cheung and I are getting divorced. However his claim that I am infertile, is fallacious. The article has no facts, no truth to what has happened. I implore-" she didn't get to finish. Everyones' phone began to ring again. She was worried what it could be this time.
HEADLINE-SHAWN CHEUNG'S EXTRAMARITAL AFFAIR; TRUE CAUSE OF DIVORCE.
'Shawn Cheung's extra marital affair with woman, while Evelyn Wei was pregnant. Who is this woman?' The headline shook her to her core. The headline confused her. When she was pregnant? It couldn't be recently, no one besides Lady An even knew about her pregnancy. Not even Shawn knew. She knew Lady An would never betray her. The only other thing that made sense was her pregnancy from a year ago.
There was a link at the end of the article and when it was clicked the sounds of passion could be heard through out the room from the various phones in the audience. The women immediately closed their phones, not wanting to see such things. The men however didn't exactly have the same qualms.
Evelyn clicked on it too. It was a video of Shawn and Amy in a passionate embrace. They were in a hallway, their clothes were disheveled but still on.
"Isn't your wife going to mind?" Amy asked him.
"She doesn't have to know," Shawn said then kissed her again. Amy laughed low and sultry.
"But she's pregnant," Amy said. The way she didn't put up any resistance belied any real concerns on the matter.
"So?" he said, then kissed her again. This time Amy kissed him back just as fiercely as she wrapped her legs around him. The video ended when they disappeared into the bedroom. Amy's shirt was being lifted above her head.
Evelyn felt physically nausous. She knew that Shawn was cheating on her for at least a year. But to see the proof was unbelievably painful. If she felt like her heart was torn before, Shawn was doing the flamingo dance on the pieces now. She dug her nails into her skin. She needed the physical pain. Without it she would crumble. She couldn't do that now.
The crowd began to get rowdy again. Her father gently moved her from the podium.
Everyone quieted when he stepped in front of the microphone.
"Shawn Cheung, is scum. What he did to my daughter, your VP was disgusting. Imagine that a man did to your daughters, your sisters, your closest friends what he did to my daughter." He bellowed.
"Ms. Wei, we're with you!" they said. Other words of encouragement could be heard and Evelyn thanked them, then turned her back on them and waked to the elevator. Ben, Mingxi, and John took one look at each other then immediately went after her.
Evelyn made it all the way to the bathroom by her office before she hurled up her breakfast. She rushed to the toilet and the contents of her stomach came out. When she finished she flushed the toilet and went to the sink to rinse her mouth out with water.
Mingxi handed her a piece of mint flavored gum without saying a word. Evelyn took it from her and mumbled her thanks before she put the gum into her mouth. Evelyn then went back to her office. She unlocked it with her thumb print. The trio followed her in. She sank down heavily into her chair.
"Sis," Ben said hesitantly. She held a hand up. She took some deep breathes to steady herself. When she finally felt calmer she opened her eyes. Mingxi and Ben had concern in their eyes. John had his hands in his pocket. He was worried about his boss but he wasn't sure how he should express it.
"Let's get to work," she said effectively putting a stop to any conversation that they wanted to have. She went though her emails and had John and Mingxi print copies of proposals and contracts.
They went through a few of them together and Evelyn showed them how to spot errors and complications. At first John looked for grammatical errors and found a few. Evelyn told him that certain things will affect the wording but it may not bear weight on the final outcome.
Soon it was lunch time and everyone started to head out. Evelyn had Mingxi order her spicy beef noodle soup and an iced tea. Evelyn ateat her desk when everyone else left.
She was just finishing up when a knock sounded at her door. She used buzzed the person in. It was Deming.
Evelyn wasn't sure she wanted to talk to her father right now. Papers were around the room filled with marks in the margins, and red marks across the page.
"I see you've been busy," he commented. She nodded.
"I'm here to work. So I'm going to work," she replied. He sighed. He hated seeing his daughter like this. He sometimes forgot how good she was at hiding her emotions when she wanted to. It was a trait she inherited from her mother. But he also knew his daughter well enough that it was an act and she was really hurt inside.
"I'm pulling Wei's funding from CGC." He said.
"Won't you be breaching contract?" she asked him. He shrugged.
"For some," he said.
"Ba, you can't do that. I know you want to do something to Shawn but you can't do it if it will hurt the company," she tried to reason with him.
"You can't expect me to sit back and twiddle my thumbs," he retorted.
"That's exactly what I expect. We'll find a way to get him back. But I need you to leave CGC alone in the meantime," she said. She looked at him and his expression didn't change. He was too calm. Realization dawned on Evelyn.
"You already pulled the funding," she said as a statement rather than a question.
"Yes," he admitted. Evelyn closed her eyes.
"I'm prepared to pay for the breach. But in the long run he will suffer and that's what matters," he said. Evelyn tried not to react. She couldn't believe that this was how her day was going. She had such high hopes too.
"Fine," she said, it's not like she had much of a choice. Her father smiled a triumphant smile then got up to leave. Evelyn wrapped up her food and threw it in the trash.
Mingxi, John, and Ben filed back in and they continued with their work. Before long 6 o'clock came around. The three left the office and Evelyn sat back. She finished her final markings on a proposal.
She sighed thinking back to this morning and the news that had spread like wildfire. The employees looked at her with sympathy and some with pity. She hated the look of pity. She knew she would need to grow a tougher layer of skin if she was going to make it through this.
Her office phone rang on her table. "Evelyn Wei," she answered, as she pressed the speaker button.
"Ms. Wei, I have Mr. Zain and Mr. Jinhai Li are here to see you," the receptionist said. Evelyn pinched her nose. She really wanted to be alone right now. "Send them up," she said anyway.
She went to get a cup of coffee. By the time she sat back down on her chair there was a knock at her door.
"Come in," she called. The brothers filed in one after the other.
"Hey, how was your first day," Zain asked taking a seat in front of her. Jinhai closed the door then took the seat next to Zain.
"It was fine, for the most part." She said.
"Evelyn-" Zain said.
"Tell me-" Evelyn said at the same time.
"Go ahead," Zain said. Evelyn took a breath.
"Did either of you have something to do with the second article?" she questioned them. She managed not to sound too accusing. But there were only so many people with enough influence with the media that would dare cross the Cheungs.
"Yes," Jinhai admitted. Evelyn's face flashed with a pained expression but disappeared in an instant. She didn't want to believe it but now she couldn't try to deny it.
"Why?" she asked. She didn't need to ask 'how,' she knew they had their ways. It probably helped that they owned half the media.
"Because of the first article," Jinhai replied.
She wasn't upset. She didn't have any room to feel that way.
"Thank you," Evelyn said. Jinhai and Zain looked at each other with surprised expressions.
"What? I thought you'd be upset," Zain said.
"Do you want me to be?" she retaliated. They shook their heads.
"It hurt at first, but not because of you. It was just so painfully obvious what an idiot I've been. Also he chose to do it in the way he knew would hurt me most." she said referring to how Shawn decided to report the divorce to the public. The brothers looked at each other.
"I'm sorry, Evelyn. I should have asked you first," Jinhai said. He knew there was a good chance she would feel hurt by what she saw. But he also knew it was the fastest and most effective way to prevent any negative backlash at her from what Shawn had done.
"I understand your reasons. I'm guessing you looked into him." she said. Jinhai and Zain shared another look, reluctant to tell her. She caught the look and sighed.
"Don't you think I have a right to know?" she asked in a soft voice. Zain shifted uncomfortably.
"Yes. It's just that none of its pretty and I for one would prefer not to tell you for the moment," Zain said. Evelyn thought about it. Did she really want to know?
"Fine, don't tell me. But next time give me the heads up." She said, they nodded.