Chapter 4 Four

The security men by the door tipped their heads in a silent greeting as she walked past. Followed by the cool air that made her sigh.

Only a few number of people were in the lobby just as she'd wanted. It was a Saturday and while no one should be working, Ivonne had other plans.

As usual.

A competition was coming up and she needed things in order.

The competition was for anyone who could try to breach their system and close the loop hole in it. The reward was a sum of twenty-five million naira.

Her father owned this skin-care company-one that she hoped he would pass than to her while she was still young.

They had an IT section and that was one of the places she liked to be in-besides managing every other department.

Ignoring the people's greetings. She stepped into her elevator. A private one she had installed just for herself.

She considered it bothersome waiting for the elevator as other people were inside. A private one was way better.

She stepped out immediately the doors opened. Almost bumping into Patricia.

The fair skinned lady grinned at her. Her chubby cheeks baked with make-up.

Ivonne looked down at her due to her height. She was wearing a pink flay skirt that covered her knees, a big green top with sleeves that reached her elbow. Proudly rocking black sneakers. Her black bone straight wig dropped to her shoulders

" Good morning Miss. Ivonne." she said in all cheer. Handing her a hot coffee.

Ivonne took her coffee and walked down the hall with Patricia on her ass.

"Uhm, Miss. Ivonne the conference room..." she trailed off.

Taking a long sip from her coffee, she hummed "Hmm,what about it?"

"It's the other way."

" So?"

"Becky and Juliet's team are waiting in the conference room." Patricia announced.

"Dismiss." she said without effort.

"Miss. Ivonne!" Patricia exclaimed as her voice rose.

Ivonne stopped and turned to her.

She lowered her head immediately, "I'm sorry."

"Go and dismiss them, and why were they waiting that long anyways?" she gave a dismissive wave of her hand.

"You asked them to-you told them to wait there that you had-"

"Well, now I want them dismissed. Go." she turned to leave, drinking her coffee as she moved away.

"Miss Ivonne!" Patricia called and ran after her.

"What?"she snapped. Suddenly irritated.

The girl recoiled "Miss. Kemi has been waiting for you in your office for a few minutes now." She opened her tab. "So far we have more than a thousand contestants for the competition set for Monday."

"Mmmm that's good. Let it be known that we'll announce the winner that same day. Since I'll be going on a forced vacation I need it done. I want to supervise it myself."

"Yes, Miss. Ivonne."

Reaching her office door, she stopped abruptly and turned to Patricia. "Who was my schedule given to again?"

"I'm handling it as your P. A." Her voice held pride.

Ivonne eyed her from head to toe. She shrugged "Makes sense. Don't mess it up or else when I get back you'll be fired in the blink of an eye." she glared and shooed her away.

She pushed her door opened and held Kemi's gaze.

"Ugh!" Ivonne groaned. Sheilding her eyes from her as the dumb stranger came to mind.

Just how fucked up was she before she left Kemi's place?

"You're...surprisingly late today, are you feeling ok?" Kemi said with a curious smile on her face.

Care before death.

Ivonne walked towards her desk and sank down on her chair. She dropped her bag on her white desk. Glancing at everywhere but the human in front of her.

Tell the truth or lie?

"I'm fine." she gruffed.

"O...kay. You can't look me in the eye. What did you do now?"Kemi accused and leaned forward.

"So I supposedly went to a club yesterday..." She narrated everything as best as she could and as far as her memory served her.

"Hold up. Let me understand this better, you don't remember anything at all?" Kemi asked. She sounded confused and that was understandable.

Ivonne sighed, causing her shoulders to drop. "Except when I was with you though, after telling you that I would stay a few minutes more."

Finally, she lifted her chin and held her gaze.

Kemi had a hand under chin as she turned her face away in thought.

"Let me see, hmm. After that, you did ask me for a beer. I gave you one but when I came back after a while, I couldn't find you and they were tons of bottles on the table but it never crossed my mind that you'd take it all." she finished in a chiding tone.

Ivonne turned her face away. "So what are you saying? That I said that? I said something so perverted and dirty, let's not forget dirty and to a complete stranger."

"Could be possible. I mean, being drunk can make one do so many things." Kemi mumbled.

"Say something." Ivonne snapped.

"Are you sure you can't remember if you told him you'll give him pleasure for a whole month?" a smile parted her lips. She couldn't help it. This had to be the most stupidest thing she'd heard all morning.

"Kemi, I can't remember anything except when you told me to stay a few minutes more." Ivonne groaned.

"Well look at it this way, you have a whole month to get this company. Why not have a little fun with him?" she wiggled her brows.

Ivonne's lips twitched. "No!" she shooed the thought away. "I'm not interested. He's too much of my type." she shook her head fervently.

"Oh?"

She watched as Kemi scooted closer. A wide smile of interest on her face. It made her rethink on her words.

"Tell me about this total spec of yours and how it's is much of a bad thing."

Ivonne laughed. "Sweetie, in all honesty, that man, is a walking god."

Kemi's eyes widened. "Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! Finally! This is wonderful. Tell me more. Gimme details. Now!"

She shrugged "Tall. Dark and handsome. He has the kind of body I would consider perfect. Those protruding eyes. But it's not like I stood there and just... stared at him." she quickly clarified.

"I believe you."

"Good." she snapped. "I was all worked up about getting him off my property. But I'll tell you one thing, he is a dumbstar!"

Kemi's smile fell as knitted her brows in confusion. "What? What's a dumbstar?"

"Someone who's dumb and is a star at it." she said with an eye roll.

Kemi grimaced "Yeesh. That's deep and so you."

Ivonne grinned. "Indeed. Now, enough about him."

"I don't know. It'll be hard forgetting you finally admit someone is your spec!"

"It's no big deal. Don't worry. I'm over it."

"Mmm. Alright then. Shouldn't you be in the conference room? Heard you were gonna have a meeting with-"

"I canceled." she cut in.

Kemi clamped her mouth shut. She'd known Ivonne long enough to not be surprised by what she did.

"Well if you knew you weren't going to make it on time, why didn't you just call?"

Ivonne narrowed her eyes, "Okay, first off, I didn't know I was going to run late. Secondly, even if I did, I don't see a problem with them waiting for me. I mean they work for me-"

"Bullshit!" Kemi concluded and Ivonne dropped her hands on her desk, turning her head slightly to the side. A pout on her lips, she stared at her.

"They work for your father." she stated.

"You're lucky you're my best friend." Ivonne gave a tight smile. Although it sounded more like a hidden threat, Kemi smiled.

"And as your best friend, I have privileges that I'm entitled too and one of them, is telling you to stop treating your father's workers like they are worthless piece of garbage!" she yelled.

"It's not your company yet so don't act too cocky, rude and irritable around them. They are humans too."

Countless of times they've had this conversation and countless times more Ivonne had ignored every word.

"Well they should act like one. Imagine, I'm the vice chairman. It's not easy-" she started to complain.

"That's because you wanted it that way." Kemi cut in.

Ivonne stared at her for a while, a pointed look on her face. She tilted her head to the side, her teeth sinking down on her bottom lip. "Whose side are you on?"

Kemi mentally threw her hands in the air as she brought back the old familiar topic.

"Because you're my bestie and you're supposed to support me all the time."

"No. Don't even start with that."

Ivonne opened her mouth to speak but kemi shut her up with a hand that signaled 'stop'.

If the conversation continued, Ivonne would whine about her taking the side of other people and she would try to convince her that it wasn't so, but then Ivonne would get annoyed and as usual take it to heart.

Which would lead to Kemi storming out of the office, mad. And Ivonne would be in there, irritable and a bitch.

The two stayed under a comfortable silence.

Knock knock.

"Come in." Ivonne yelled. Her voice already on edge.

The door opened and Patricia peeped in before slowly walking in. She was holding a big brown envelope.

"What is it?"

The cold tone of her boss had her trembling down to her shoes. Her grip on the envelope tightened and she gulped.

"I saw someone come drop this off at the reception so I decided to get it for you."

"Drop it on the table and leave."

Quickly, she walked over and placed the envelope on her desk. A quick glance at Kemi who smiled tightly at her, she knew immediately something was up.

"Who did they say it was from?" Ivonne asked.

"Your lawyer." she replied and hurried out before her boss would be so kind as to kick her out.

"That was nice." Kemi said with a forced smile.

Ivonne rolled her eyes. She ignored Kemi and her words. She just didn't get it. In fact, she was yet to meet anyone who would understand her.

She glanced at the envelope that Patricia dropped earlier. A slight crease on her brows.

🎶 Like the way she work, ayy

She always puts me first, yeah

And I know I've been around,

But I swear you got the best on Earth, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.🎶

She dug out her phone from her handbag and immediately answered the call.

"Hello?" she said into the phone.

"Good morning, Miss Ivonne." the familiar voice of her lawyer came through.

"Oh Mr. Smith," she turned to Kemi who leaned forward. Turning away, she said, "I just got the envelope you sent me. I'm about to check it. Anything I should know?"

She asked as she tried to think on when she asked him for anything. She always made sure to get her documents from him under twenty four hours.

Glancing at the envelope, she didn't remember asking him for anything the day before.

"I...Uh-was just calling to ask if the...erm-papers are ok. Er-I" he stammered. "I have the original copy here and I've put it away just as you asked."

Papers? Put it away just as you asked?

"My shitty memory aside, why are you stuttering?" she queried.

She ignored Kemi's gasp at her choice of words to an old. "Answer me." she demanded.

He was sounding like he was embarrassed or something. Maybe there was a naked woman in front of him.

"Me? Stu-stuttering? No no" he quickly said. "I have to go now. Enjoy your month. Ma'am." he gave a mirthless laugh and almost immediately, the phone went dead.

"Mr. Smith?" she called sternly. "Did you just hang up on me?" she doubted while pressing the phone hard against her ear.

"Hello?" she huffed. She looked down at the phone in awe before turning to a concerned Kemi.

"Is everything okay?"

"The motherfucker hung up on me." Ivonne announced with a pose.

Immediately, Kemi scowled. "Language."

Narrowing her eyes, she said, "I'll fire him. I swear on my mother's grave, I will."

"Number one, you will do no such thing. He's been your family's lawyer for years and number two, your mother's not dead." she scolded. "Yeah, blame your shitty memory for that."

Ivonne groaned. "Whatever." she muttered as she took her seat behind her desk. Her gaze fell on the envelope and she picked it up. Examining it.

"What's that?" Kemi asked.

"I don't know. He was acting strange about it." she told. "I wonder what it is."

"You don't know?"

She shrugged.

"Well, go ahead and open it."

Ivonne tore the top of the envelope and poured out its content on her desk. One flat laminated paper fell out. She picked it up as Kemi inched closer.

"What does it say?" Kemi asked, her curiosity higher than Ivonne's.

"You tell me." she flicked it in her direction and Kemi was quick to catch it.

Ivonne leaned back on her black swivel chair, watching as Kemi scanned the paper. She waited for her to speak but when a series of emotions crossed her face, Ivonne leaned forward.

"What's wrong? What does it say?" she asked.

Her eyes widened. She glanced between the paper and Ivonne. Then she knitted her brows and took a closer look.

A scowl.

A smile.

She huffed.

"Ah!" she managed to say. She let out a mirthless laugh and in the blink of an eye, her face turned serious.

"Okay, you're starting to make me worry." Ivonne confessed, tilting her head to the side.

"Amaka!" Kemi exclaimed.

That was all Ivonne needed. She knew immediately that something was up. Kemi would never call her that unless it was serious and she had done something terribly wrong.

But what did she do this time?

Quickly, she yanked the paper and went through it.

Her eyes bulged. Threatening to pull from their sockets.

She gaped, searching for words.

Her brain seemed to have shut down trying to process and understand the...abomination it read.

"What have I done?" was all she could whisper.