Chapter 17

Around this time, everyone would either grab a coffee to jumpstart their morning or sneak in a quick nap at their desks to shake off the early morning grogginess. But today, as soon as Isabella walked into the office,she noticed everyone hauddled in small groups, whispering.

Olivia rushed over and dragged Isabella into the break room.

"Isabella, did you hear? Mr. Mitchell didn't show up this morning.He's usually here by now," Olivia said, her voicedripping with mystery,"And get this, the cops came by and they are in the conference room now."

When Isabella heard that Philip hadn't come in, she felt relieved.

"Olivia, let me fill you in..." Isabella whispered in Olivia's ear, giving her the lowdown on last night's events. "And if everything went as planned,he's still in custody, along with Ivy."

"Isabella, you are so..." Olivia struggled to find the right words. She wanted to call Isabella brave, but that didn't quite cut it,saying she was amazing felt too vague and didn't capture her smarts.

Seeing Olivia's stunned face, Isabella let her keep it secret.

"I get it. I just can't believe it. You are really something else!" Olivia was still reeling from the shock.

"Headquarters sent an email!" someone shouted from the office.

"What's the scoop? Mr.Mitchell got canned!"

"He was taking bribes from partner comnpanies and even bribing higher-ups. Wow, just last year, he pocketed a million bucks in kickbacks from one project. No wonder we didn't get any bonuses even though the project

was a hit."

"Check this out, he also used his position to harass female employees.What a creep. I'm reporting him; he harassed me too. Luckily,I was smart enough to record it. He backed off because he was scared I'd expose him."

"Ivy was brought into the company by him. Look, it says Ivy only graduated high school and became Philip's mistress, then he pulled strings to get her into the company."

Isabella skimmed through the headquarters' document which didn't mention last night's events but listed offenses that could land Philip in jail.She finally felt a sense of relief.

She quickly ran out to call Michael. "Hey, Mr. Johnson,thank you.You were right; Philip really got arrested. Headquarters just sent a document firing him."

"See, I told you nothing would happen!" Michael said, sounding pretty pleased with himself.

"Yeah, you're amazing," Isabella replied.

Michael wanted to tell her that he was the one behind it all, but figured she wouldn't believe him anyway, so he kept it to himself.

After hanging up, Isabella went back to the office, where everyone was still buzzing about the document.

"Ivy used to be a woman who sold her body. Could she have some disease?It won't infect us, will it?" a male colleague shouted.

"She's not your mistress, so what are you worried about?" another male colleague laughed.

"Having Ivy around seems to create a negative vibe in the office."

Seeing the male colleagues who used to fawn over Ivy now avoiding her like the plague, Isabella found it pretty amusing.

With Philip arrested, no one was in the mood to work, and the office was buzzing with a weird excitement.

The phone at the front desk rang.

The news from the call made the receptionist break out in a cold sweat.

"Mr. Allen, Isabella, Olivia, a partner company called saying that the design proposal we submitted yesterday is identical to our competitor's.They tried calling you, but you didn't answer," the receptionist said,sounding anxious.

It was like someone hit the paúse button; the arguments stopped dead in their tracks.

"Leaking a bid proposal is a big deal. Could there be a spy in our company? We need to dig into this."

"Wasn't Isabella in charge of this proposal? Could it be her..."

"Do you really think Isabella would betray us? This is clearly a setup."

"Who knows! Anyway, it's not my problem. I haven't even seen the proposal."

The colleagues started bickering again.

Isabella couldn't dodge responsibility for this. She and Olivia had nailed the overall design, and she had been handling the final touches. It was also her who sent the proposal to the partner company.

Isabella had no clue how it ended up with the competitor, but clearing her name was going to be tough. Especially now, with headquarters cracking down on branch issues, she might get caught in the crossfire. She didn't

know who was framing her or how to prove her innocence.

"What's the point of arguing here?" Olivia couldn't stand everyone throwing around baseless accusations. "If you think Isabella did it, show some evidence! Without evidence, it's just gossip."

"Check the surveillance!" a colleague shouted.

"Yeah, check the surveillance. Let's see what she has to say then."

"I trust Isabella; she didn't do it. Isabella, the most urgent thing now is to quickly refine and polish our plan B and submit it on time," Eric stood up,showing his trust in Isabella and giving her the follow-up task.

"Mr. Allen, isn't it risky to let a potential spy keep working on the project?"a colleague questioned.

"If you think Isabella is a spy, you need to provide evidence. Without it,everyone here is a suspect," Eric said firmly.

'Well said!' Olivia silently cheered him on.

The colleagues headed to the surveillance room to check the footage,leaving Isabella in the office to refine the design proposal and try to spot any potential issues.

Olivia went too; she wanted to see who was framing Isabella.

In the surveillance room, the colleagues found that a segment of the footage had been clearly deleted, conveniently missing the crucial evidence.

Everyone in the company could view the surveillance, but only one person had editing privileges: the branch manager,Philip.

Suddenly, it all clicked for everyone.

"Mr. Allen has a good eye. He said it wasn't Isabella, and it really wasn't."

"Don't you think Mr. Allen treats Isabella differently?"

"Oh? How so?"

"I think Mr. Allen likes Isabella."

Olivia felt a bit uneasy hearing her colleagues' chatter. She thought she was worried about Isabella, whose reputation could be harmed by rumors of Eric's crush. She also felt sympathy for Eric who finally had a crush on someone, but Isabella was married.

"I heard that headquarters has been trying to transfer Mr. Allen there, but he refuses. They even offered him a promotion, but he declined. He just stays in our department. Do you know why?" a colleague said to Olivia.

Olivia felt uneasy and didn't want to talk. She shook her head.

The colleague continued, "I heard that Mr. Allen got drunk and said that there's someone he has a crush on in our department! Do you think that person could be Isabella?"

Olivia said, "Don't spread baseless rumors. Just keep it to yourself."

Although Olivia told others not to spread rumors, she was secretly planning to sabotage this crush, protect Isabela's marriage, and save Eric from ruining Isabella's marriage.