[Chapter 25]
The following week, Natalie took precautions to avoid running into Ike, but Ike kept on hinting at her from time to time.
One morning, she went to the convenience store downstairs to buy some coffee.
As she waited in line, two women glanced at her and started whispering to each other. "Isn't that the woman from the design department who hooks up with Ike?"
"Yeah, I think so!"
Natalie overheard their loud whispering and frowned deeply. "What are you two talking about?"
The two women were shocked by her sudden confrontation. They quickly shook their heads and smiled embarrassedly. "Nothing, nothing. We mistook you for someone else, that's all."
But that wasn't the last Natalie heard of this. She soon realized that someone from the design department must have spread unpleasant rumors about her and Ike.
And those rumors spread like wildfire. Some colleagues who used to be nice to Natalie even started to keep their distance from her.
Previously, Natalie was viewed as a well-mannered, kind young woman in the design department.
But now that someone had spoken ill of Natalie behind her back, people began to view her in a different light.
It was Pamela who had first shown hostility towards her.
Ever since Ike announced that he would select Natalie's design, Pamela had been hostile to Natalie to her face.
So Natalie suspected that Pamela was the one started the rumors.
And sure enough, upon careful but quiet observation, she found that it was indeed Pamela who was gossiping around.
Pamela had even made a group chat with many colleagues from the company. That was where she shared her made-up rumors about Natalie.
One day, during lunch break, Natalie went to the tea room and took a bottle of soda. On her way out, she saw Pamela nearby. Natalie paused for a second and just left.
Pamela glanced at her mischievously then whispered to the colleague next to her, "I heard Quinn went to a hotel with Mr. Lyman last night."
"What? No way! Didn't he have a meeting in the office until very late last night? I don't know why she likes him though. He's such a jerk." The colleague shook her head and sighed. She had thought that Natalie was a beautiful girl and that she was way out of Ike's league.
"Of course she doesn't like him. She's just using him because he's her immediate supervisor. Some women would do anything to get promoted, am I right? I wouldn't be surprised if she used to be a married man's mistress when she was in college. I've heard a lot about her 'frivolous' life in college. She just doesn't care about her reputation. That's her style."
As Pamela spoke, she sipped from her water calmly, as though she knew all about what she was talking about.
"What? What happened to her when she was in college? Tell me everything!" The colleague leaned in closer towards Pamela.
"What're you two whispering about over here? Let me join you!" Apparently, Natalie had come back and was leaning against the door, smiling sweetly at the two women.
"Wh-what? Nothing. We were just talking about some gossip we heard on the news." Pamela was taken aback when Natalie suddenly spoke. She was so surprised that she stammered and her face turned red.
With a gentle smile, Natalie straightened her back and strode over to Pamela. She picked up the phone that was lying on the desk and held it up. "Really? I just came back to get my phone, you see."
She unlocked the phone and glanced at it, then feigned a surprised expression. "Oh, my God! I'm so sorry. The recorder was turned on this whole time. Oh, I know! Let's listen to what you said just now!"
A look of horror flashed on Pamela's face.
She had no idea that the phone was recording their conversation just now.
Natalie turned up the volume of her phone so that everyone in the tea room could hear it clearly.
In the recording, Pamela's voice could be heard loud and clear. It also sounded harsh and mean. All eyes were on her now.
"What? I never did anything you claimed here. But you described it so vividly. How about we confront Mr. Lyman face to face?" After the recording stopped, Natalie sneered.
Pamela had made everything up.
Pamela eyed Natalie warily. She never would've thought that Natalie would dare to make a scene in public.
"You lunatic! How dare you record me? I was having a private conversation with a colleague! This is an invasion of my privacy!" She was so anxious that her voice turned shrill. As she berated Natalie, she tried to grab the phone from her.
But Natalie acted quick and dodged her advance. Looking at Pamela sharply, she said, "You defamed me first. I'm going to call Mr. Lyman right now. We can confront each other in his presence."
Then she strode out of the tea room and went straight to the director's office. She knocked on the door politely and announced, "Mr. Lyman, it's Quinn."
Ike snickered, thinking that Natalie had come around so soon.
"Come in. What's up?" he asked, feigning a concerned expression.
Natalie opened the door and smiled slightly. "Mr. Lyman, could you come out here please? There's an emergency you need to deal with."
Was she actually asking him for help? Awesome!
Ike cleared his throat and smiled greasily. "Of course!"
He then followed Natalie out and found a group of people waiting outside his office.
Pamela was among them, looking nervous with eyes darting around and fists clenched tightly.
"What happened?" Ike looked around him in confusion.
"Mr. Lyman, somebody here has been spreading a rumor that we have an affair. She even went so far as to tell people that we went to a hotel last night." Natalie's voice was calm yet powerful. Everyone couldn't help but look at her. As she spoke, she took out her phone and held it up. Noveloz.com
In fact, Ike's flirtatious hints were borderline harassment, which annoyed Natalie. She wanted to put a stop to this, so she took this as an opportunity to make him give up on her.
After he listened to the recording, Ike's expression immediately darkened.
Now that Natalie had spoken out about him in public, his plan to win her over suddenly seemed like wishful thinking. He never thought that Natalie, who seemed to be a meek push-over, was actually a tough, capable woman.
He had no choice but to snort as though the rumor was completely ridiculous. He cleared his throat loudly and announced, "Everything that was mentioned in the recording is purely unfounded. I had a meeting last night that ran all the way until midnight. If you don't believe me, why don't you ask my wife to testify? Quinn and I are not involved with each other except in matters regarding work."
The crowd immediately burst into whispers now that the rumor was dispelled.
Since Ike even dared to mention his wife, it meant that there was really no affair between him and Natalie.
With a serious look in his eyes, Ike pointed at Pamela and frowned deeply. "Since you have so much extra time to gossip, why don't you focus on work instead? If I hear that a rumor like this spreads again, I'm going to report it to the company leader."
All the color drained from Pamela's face.
She knew that she was doomed this time. No boss would ever tolerate a subordinate slandering his name.