After spending the weekend crying secretly, Sarah had made up her mind to pay Ethan back in his coin. So when she woke up on Monday morning, she had her bath and put on one of the outfits she had bought in Beijing. It was a beautiful white suit and a tight miniskirt.
Intentionally arriving at work a little later than usual, she ran into some of her colleagues in the parking lot, who were also hurrying to get to work. She was pleased to see heads turn involuntarily in her direction, as she walked by. Some had complimented her outfit, while some just ogled her lustfully.
On her way to her office, she ran into Stan. Just the man she wanted to see.
"Oh my gosh!" Exclaimed Stan, as Sarah approached him.
"Good morning to you too," replied Sarah, smiling vivaciously at Stan.
"You look stunning, ma'am. China sure looks good on you!"
"Thank you, Stan," Sarah said, touching Stan's shoulder in a friendly way.
Not one to miss an opportunity, Stan leaned in and pecked Sarah lightly on her cheek. Unlike before she didn't resist his move.
Stan was a bit surprised, but he kept his composure.
"So, what did you get for me from China?" Stan asked, placing his hand on Sarah's waist.
"You'll have to see me later in my office for that," Sarah said in a sultry tone. And with that she matched on to her office, swinging her hips from side to side.
At her office, Sarah settled down quickly before burying her head in the pile of work that lay on her table. She had been away for a week, and now there were a lot of payments and accounts to vet and balance.
So engrossed with work, she didn't hear her office door open. When she felt the presence of another person in the office, she raised her head to see Ethan.
He was putting on a fitted gray suit as well as shiny black Italian leather shoes. Sarah's breath caught when she saw him looking dashing as usual. But she quickly composed herself. She wasn't about to o forget her resolve to make Ethan pay for spitting her.
"Good afternoon Sarah," Ethan said as he took a seat opposite her.
"Good afternoon Mr Frank. How can I help you, Sir?" Sarah answered, sounding as official as possible.
Ethan smiled calmly, unfazed by Sarah's coldness. "You haven't been picking up nor returning my calls. Care to tell me why?" Ethan asked.
"Well, it was the weekend and I don't pick official calls outside working hours," Sarah replied, without raising her head from the document she was working on.
"They weren't official calls Sarah, and you knew it," Ethan said, crossing his legs.
Sarah continued to work on her document.
"Can we talk, Sarah?"
"What's there to talk about, Sir?" Sarah asked looking up blankly at Ethan.
"How about us, for starters?" Ethan asked.
"Us? I don't know what you're talking about, Sir, but there is no us," Replied Sarah, giving Ethan a cold stare.
"Oh, please!" Ethan exclaimed, throwing up his hand and rising to his feet. "Can you just cut the pretense and stop being so dramatic."
"Dramatic? I'm being dramatic?" Sarah asked, boiling with rage as she rose to her feet.
"Yes, Sarah, you're been dramatic. We're adults for crying out loud, so I don't understand why you are acting so worked up over nothing."
"I'm acting worked up over nothing, huh?" Sarah asked hysterically. "Fuck you, Ethan! I leave my daughter behind for a week to fly across the world with you, only to be spitted and treated like scum by you and you have the guts to come in here and accuse me of being childish, when in fact you're the one who behaves like a prepubescent teenager."
Sarah looked so stunning in rage, and Ethan wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her. But the stern look on her face cautioned him against it.
"Watch your tone, Sarah. I'm still your boss." Ethan cautioned.
"I'm Mrs Dean to you Sir, and yes you can fire me if you find my services below par. But until then I'd like you to excuse me, I've got work to do." Sarah said, taking her seat.
Ethan stared down at Sarah in disbelief. He didn't understand why she was getting so worked up over a mere fling he had with Wendy. He also didn't understand why he cared about her feelings.
"We're not done yet," Ethan said, "Know that and face reality."
Sarah didn't respond to Ethan.
Ethan turned to leave furiously, bumping into Stan who was coming into Sarah's office.
***
After closing from work, Sarah went straight home to spend time with her daughter. She ordered a box of pizza and settled in the living room to watch Cinderella with her daughter. Edward had still not returned home since Saturday, and Sarah wasn't bothered.
They were busy munching down their pizza when the calls began to come in. First, it was Rhonda, Sarah's friend from college. Then it was Stan. Then Felix called. They all sounded hysterical, talking about some scandalous articles about her and her boss in the evening papers and tabloids.
Bundling Amy into the car, Sarah drove hurriedly to the nearest newspaper stand. Her heart bursting with diverse thoughts and questions.
How did it get out? What was the extent of the leak? How does she survive this shame?
At the newspaper stand, Sarah saw the picture of Ethan and herself displayed on the front cover of most of the newspapers and tabloids with different scandalous headlines.
BILLIONAIRE AND PLAYBOY ETHAN FRANK CONQUER MARRIED WOMAN.
ETHAN FRANK CAUGHT IN AN AFFAIR WITH HIS EMPLOYEE.
MARRIED WOMAN SARAH DEAN SLEEPS WITH HER BILLIONAIRE BOSS ETHAN.
SHAMELESS MARRIED WOMAN IN AN AFFAIR WITH HER YOUNGER BOSS.
She quickly picked up a few of the papers, paid the vendor and zoomed off. Back home, she locked herself in her room and read the articles.
As she read the papers, Sarah couldn't help but notice how detailed and accurate the articles were about her affair with Ethan. There were even pictures of her chats with Ethan.
How could they have gained access to her conversation with Ethan, if he hadn't leaked it out to them?
In her rage, Sarah concluded that Ethan had leaked their conversations to tabloid journalists to hurt her and get back at her for standing up to him today.
"That son of a bitch," Sarah yelled, flinging the newspaper in her hand.
She knew Edward would have seen them by now and would be on his way home to confront her. She didn't know how she was going to handle him yet, given his propensity for violence.
Packing up a bag for Amy and herself, she locked the door and drove off.
Sarah checked into a motel and spent the night thinking of what next to do, how to respond, and how she was going to face the world after this humiliation. Wiping off the tears that poured down from her face effortlessly, Sarah reminded herself to be strong and face the world headlong.
***
Ethan was at the prestigious Venus golf course teeing off when his phone rang. It was Bennett, his lawyer. Wondering what he wanted, Ethan answered the call and put the phone to his ears.
"Good evening Bennett, whatsup? Ethan asked, completely unaware of the scandalous headlines and articles.
"Whatsup?" Bennett asked hysterically. "You're whatsup Ethan! What's this news about you and a married woman? What's wrong with you young man? Do you know what this means? How this affects…"
"Hold on a moment," Ethan asked, cutting Bennett off. "What are talking about?"
"I suggest you get to the nearest newspaper stand then call me back." With that Bennett dropped the call.
Ethan found his way to the nearest newspaper stand opposite the golf course and bought a few of the evening papers. Sitting in his car, Ethan read each of the articles carefully. He wasn't new to scandals but even for him, this was nasty.
Ethan wondered how this was going to hurt the company. He didn't care about his reputation, since it was no news that he was a womanizer. He just didn't want to be the reason why his father's legacy crumbled.
Pulling out his phone, Ethan put a call through to Bennett.
***
Lucy went jogging after she got home from work. On her way back, she stopped by the newspaper stand to pick up the evening papers. And just as she expected, Ethan and Sarah's pictures were all over the papers. She bought all the papers that carried the story and went back to her apartment.
Back home, Lucy took her time to read each of the articles, laughing heartily to herself, as she read how Sarah was portrayed as a desperate and loose morale older woman who is trying to take advantage of Ethan's youth and weakness to advance her career.
Lucy didn't think she could have done a better job of tearing Sarah down. She also knew she owed Edward Dean a big thank you, for putting in the final nail to his own wife's career coffin.
She decided to call him and celebrate.
They agreed to meet later at a bar and celebrate.