The crowd let out a gasp of horror. Miriam and Horace crashed together to the grass.
A sharp pain throbbed in Miriam's arm. But, the Rolls-Royce Phantom was gone when she glanced upwards.
Security guards had already nabbed Horace.
"Reginald Deveraux, you are cursed! You'll meet a terrible end!" Desperate cries.
In no time, the soldiers had carried him away like a dead dog and forced a cloth into his mouth to silence the screams.
Miriam looked after me as I left. It's like a battlefield, my father said of the corporate world. Or hell, she maybe had thought.
You could make one careless mistake and wind up in an eternal swamp.
The enigma in Phantom is nothing but the devil himself who has taken form of a human being and decides and designs all in every ones destiny. But alas, the poor need to work for the devil when they can barely even live.
The moment Miriam walked out of Evergreen Enterprises' building, she received a bank text alert that the 80,000 transfer to the kindergaten was successful. Three thousand nine hundred and eighty eight was her account balance.
Indeed children are expensive in this era. The bill for meals and school fees for their triplets totaled one hundred and eighty thousands!
Not to buy formula milk for them also. What am I supposed to do?
Miriam struggled with her thoughts for awhile before making a U-turn back into Evergreen Enterprises.
Nigel is the only one. In broad daylight, he won't do anything, right?
The dude is true. I am not the wealthy heiress anymore. I need to feed my family and the kids. Currently pride don't matter.
A man was being led to the VIP elevator by several bodyguards as Miriam stood in the foyer, waiting for the elevator.
Everyone would bow and address him kindly wherever he went. "Good morning Mr. Deveraux!"
She couldn't see what he looked like, being too short and too distant. But there was no mistaking who it was—Reginald Deveraux, the president of Evergreen Enterprises.
I can't help but feel like I know that guy from somewhere.
She shook her head and berated herself for being so star struck.
Why would every time I see a tall, muscular man, I think of that gigolo?
He is the president of Evergreen Enterprises and not a gigolo! Did you think that was what Sultry Night was about?
"Mr. Deveraux, the person who dragged Horace Looney away was an observer—No, she just signed up to work as a secretary on the thirteenth floor five minutes ago. Our newest employee. Miriam Carlisle is her name, Ambrose Deveraux said."
While he scribbled on a piece of paper, his employer wrote nothing. The man grunted with his signature but not until he was done did he say: "Me."
Until her probee time Miriam would be getting 8k a month that'd take care of her basic life insurance, and for the probees it's ten thousand.
After the admission processes, Miriam was doing some mental calculation whether her pay will be able to take care of her family's expenses. I believe only the formula milk for the kids will take eight thousand dollars a month from me. Talk less of our expenses.
Lost in her worries when some other workers came to welcome her. "Hi, Miriam. Welcome to ....administrative department!
"Oh, I'm grateful."
Miriam shook their hands with a smile. Being her first ever formal job, Miriam knew better than not to familiarize with work mates.
We will have your welcome party as usual. Is it OK for you?
Sure, I will be the one to treat you with dinner then!
Ha! You make a good point. We'll leave as soon as we're finished here.
That's right!
Miriam's colleagues left and waited for her down in the lobby when she was about to leave work because she had some things to finish up.
She filled out the forms, grabbed her briefcase, and headed off to the elevator. But the doors closed before she could reach it.
The VIP elevator doors slid open. She stepped inside, unphased.
"This is the president's private elevator. Now please exit," the bodyguard scolded her.
The unknown man in the elevator made a motion before Miriam could reply, and his bodyguard ceased following her directive to get lost.
Miriam turned and instantly turned back again. Reginald Deveraux, you are the devil!
It was like the temperature outside had dropped a couple of degrees, pronto.
The man looked like a Greek god and he was tall. It felt as if he loomed right behind her.
Miriam chewed her lip. She realized she'd stopped breathing. Through the mirror in the elevator, she saw the man glaring icicles at her.
Now he looked for all the world like a lion about to spring on his prey. Move quick!
Hoping to get out of this stuffy place as soon as possible, Miriam stared at the number that was flashing on the elevator screen.
Eleven, ten, thirteen, twelve,—
Her heart beat wildly as she silently counted the numbers. What she had no idea of was that Reginald was heading her way.
Ding! The elevator finally made it to the first floor.
She darted out as soon as the doors opened. She stumbled and fell because she was in a hurry.
Splat! She fell face-down on the concrete.
Everyone outside let out a shocked gasp. A couple workers who had just exited the regular elevator laughed and put their hands over their mouths.
Miriam wanted to die. She quickly stood up and ran outside, her hand covering her face.
A tiny smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he watched her run away.
Miriam had thought that the welcoming party dinner was going to be at some restaurant but it turned out to be just a drinking session at Sultry Night. She hadn't expected Nigel to be there either.
This is a meeting of the admin department. What's an HR person doing here?
Miriam wasn't happy about it either but she wasn't going to angrily shoo him away in front of her coworkers.
Nigel had met her coworkers. He'd even made anymore pizza orders and an order for bottles of the most expensive liquor that sat around the table.
One of my male coworkers raised his hand. "Mr. Forsythe, this alcohol is over eight thousand dollars." We should not be treating our coworker like this.
"You didn't know?" Nigel grinned. "Miriam's a heiress. She's rich. She used to buy drinks for everyone on Sultry Night. Not like she ever cared about them."
"Oh," I said. "Is that right?" A few of the women turned curious eyes on me, and I jumped into the discussion with Nigel and Miriam's friends.
"You're an heiress, Miriam? No way!"
"No,..."
"You are, of course." Nigel snickered and rudely cut her off. "Richard Carlisle's only child, the richest man in Westcliff." Guess you know about him?
Carlisle Richard?" The man said, "The one who committed suicide off a building four years ago?"
"That's why I recognized the last name Carlisle so familiarly."
"I think I heard about it." Ms. Carlisle came to Sultry Night and spent the night with a transsexual prostitute after the Sterlings broke their son's engagement with her. Is that right, I wonder?
It was her coworkers, thoug
The others where laughing and Rose smiled with them. Roy Young, the boss from the administration department, stood in front of her and scolded at the others „How are you doing? Are you treating our new colleague like this? Stop laughing about her because we have to work together in future." The other said to Roy „All right I am sorry."
They apologized right away to Miriam.
Not saying anything, privately Miriam left the room when she saw Nigel's ecstatic gaze.
She wanted to come away from all that and start anew but it just wouldn't leave her. I just can't seem to get rid of it.
Miriam took a deep breath stifle herself.
What's wrong? Was it really that awful?" Nigel countered with a growl.
"You did it on purpose." Miriam frowned at him. "To humiliate me, you deliberately hired me and made me take my new colleagues out to dinner. You're getting back at me for this!"
"Yep." Nigel grinned and nodded. "I spent a few hundred grand just on food and booze for you guys."