Chapter 18

The next morning, Axel wakes up feeling groggy with a sharp headache. Holding the temples of his forehead, he tries to recall what happened. When was the last time he got this drunk?

He thinks about Aylin and how he knows he should just have a one-to-one talk with her to clear up everything but he also knows that she's hiding something and she refuses to open up to him. Although he does respect her privacy. He can't help her and their relationship if she wouldn't tell him what's really bothering her. For this reason, he had requested Eric to once again run a background check on her. There are a few things that don't click. She did come clean about being a spy but there are still some pieces of the puzzle missing in this whole game. He gets up to get himself a glass of water and when he looks at the time, he realizes that he is late so he gets ready.

As he leaves his room to go to the office, he sees Aylin standing all dressed up for the office. She was wearing a white shirt with black pants. Her hair was high in a pony. For a second there, he had gotten confused as to why she was all dressed up. Then it hits him that he had formed a contract with her.
Oh shit. He had yet to speak to the rest of the people at his office about this. But since he also made a commitment to her, he doesn't want to tell her to wait. Making her wait isn't even an option. But he is worried about how the people at his office might react. Since they all like him, he thinks they will also like her.

"Let's go."

She adds, bringing him back from his thoughts.

He nods in return, feeling embarrassed about how she had seen him drunk last night.

On the way, there was this awkward silence and heat in the car. Both had things to say to each other but they avoided eye contact. Until Aylin remembers all the files she had gathered yesterday.

"Oh right. As per our contract,"

Her words make Axel scowl in annoyance, but she continues speaking,

"Here you go. I gathered some data that might be of use to you. Actually, do you know about Willow and Butler? Both are part of the presidential elections committee. Father recently became quite good friends with them. And they both are friends with the person who is in charge of the mayor commission committee, Jeffrey. The announcement for the mayor's elections is coming up pretty soon. They need funding and extra funding if you know what I mean."

"What? Is this going where I think it is going?"

Axel turns to her in surprise and she nods in response, adding,

"Yes. The business union members are sort of divided as you already know. The three top companies are Zen Company, Father's, and yours. The Zen company is sort of on the neutral side as you know it."

"Yeah, he's not really interested in union politics."

"Yet he is the union's head."

"Because my company and your father's company didn't want each other to be the head so we chose a neutral party."

"Yes, well like I was explaining. The union is divided into three. One side with you, one with my father, and one remains neutral. So before father announces that he will partake in the mayor's elections, he will need to make sure he has the maximum number of voters and funding."

"So your father is planning to run for mayor and he wants the Zen Company to support him. But this is just a mayor's election, he doesn't need that much support does he?"

"He plans to gather allies now for later on when he goes into the federal assembly."

"He plans to run for the presidency in the future??"

"That's too far in the future but yeah that is his end goal. For now, he wants to be the mayor and gets hold of all the transporting companies and make them support only his business and of the people that will ally with him."

"So he plans to cut us off."

"I think so."

"Thanks for telling me."

"No problem. Although what are you planning to do now? I was thinking we can get the Zen company towards our side. How about it? Do you know them?"

"I do know Atlas and we are on good terms but we don't know each other that much to be called as friends."

"I see. I wish I could help but I haven't met his wife Elaine."

"Well, I'll just think about it. We will figure something out."

Once they reached the office, all eyes were on Aylin. Everyone kept greeting Axel happily but when they would see Aylin walking with him, their faces would turn sour with a mix of surprise.

Axel introduced Aylin properly after gathering all the staff. While they clapped in front of Axel but as soon as he was gone, they all looked at her with their eyes full of scorn and contempt.

Axel's father was quite dear to every single one of them as he had already treated them as family. For this reason, after his death, they naturally came to hate Abbott and all the people that were associated with him. Before it was just rivalry, but now all the feelings towards them were hate and revenge. And right now all of these feelings were being expressed toward Aylin.

To say Aylin was oblivious to all their thoughts would be a lie. She could feel all the scrutinizing eyes on her filled with rage. She could hear all the whispers badmouthing her. But still, she continued to smile because she was doing this for Axel and her mother.

What she didn't tell Axel was the fact that her father had three spies here sent by her father. She thought that he wouldn't believe her so it was better to gather evidence and then rat them out.

Lexi, whom Axel had secretly put in charge of taking care of Aylin, took her to her office.
The first few days of office work went by in a blink. There was a foreign envoy and Axel got extremely busy and barely came to the office meanwhile, Aylin also had a fair share of work to do.

Since the employees couldn't openly bully Aylin, they also didn't want her to stay there. This is why they deliberately gave her so much work so that she would give up and run away. They would even hand her their work to do, lying that it was part of her job. Even if Aylin knew it wasn't the truth, she didn't say anything. She felt like she had no right to say anything because there is a 100% chance that her father did in fact murder Axel's father.
Her reaction somewhat irritated the staff because they didn't expect her to continue to be so polite and sweet toward them. Lexi tried to warn them multiple times to stop all this but Aylin would stop her. She said that they have every right to be angry and if they can't express their emotions like this then how else are they going to get some comfort?

Before the week ends, Axel surprisingly comes to the office even though he wasn't supposed to. His meeting had finished earlier than expected and he decided to review all the projects that were going on to see how things are progressing. Even though that is what he claimed, internally he wanted to see Aylin and check if everything was alright for her or if she needed anything.

He asks them all to send in their project report before lunchtime. During lunchtime, he reads them all and is surprised to find how well they had all organized things. Even though he hates to admit as they were his employees, and although they all did a good job, they would tend to make some habitual mistakes from time to time. But from the reports he read, it almost seemed as if someone else had done this work.

After doing a quick review, he decides to check on Aylin. He goes to the cafeteria to see if she was there but she wasn't. He thinks she must have gone outside for lunch and instead heads to see her office if it's big enough for her or if she needs anything.

When he enters her office, he sees huge piles of papers and files on her desk. Although they were organized, the towers were so tall that you could barely see the person who was sitting behind them.

And this is what happened to Axel when he was about to grab the top file from one of the towers and another hand came from the opposite side. They both get surprised and scream at the same time,

"What are you doing here?"

Aylin then replies,

"I am working as you can see. Can't you knock?"

"I thought you were out for lunch."

"I already ate."

"But what is all of this?"

Axel grabs a few other files and quickly realizes that others have been giving all their work for her to do.

"What the hell!"

"Give them back to me. Can't you see I'm working? If you have nothing to say, then don't bother me."

"This is not part of your work!"

"So what? They asked for help and I accepted."

"It's not your job!"

He grabs a bunch of her files and storms out of the office.

"Axel!"

Aylin runs after him.

Eric who runs into them asks what's wrong but before he could ask, Axel angrily tells him to gather everyone together.

"Wait! What are you doing?"

Aylin grabs his arm to stop him.

"What I should have done from the start. It was stupid of me to think that they won't bother you out of respect for me."

"They don't! This is just work!"

"This is bullying!"

They were yelling at each other when the staff who were noisily coming together, chatting with each other, laughing, became all serious after seeing the unexpected sight.

"What's going on?"

"Are they fighting?"

"Did she really turn out to be a snitch?"

"See! We were right!"

Whispers could be heard until Axel drops one of the files on the ground and it makes a large thud.

He glares at the staff and then throws another file at the ground.

"This! Miller, it was your job!"

He throws another file.

"And this was your job, Stacy!"

He continues to throw down all the files on the ground one by one. The tranquil aura was filled with serious tension. No one dared to utter a single word except for Axel.

"What the hell is going on?! Do you think that I will just stand by and keep quiet as you all continue to bully my wife?! Is this what being a professional is called? Are you all kids?! This isn't high school! My wife is not your secretary! All of this is your job! What are you getting paid for? If you don't want to do your jobs, then that's it. Pack up your things and leave. Right now!"

Everyone's eyes go round at this. No one had ever seen Axel this angry. Their eyes turned towards Aylin, some pleading with her to help them, others scorning her for snitching out on them but in both cases, they all stared directly at her, which made Aylin extremely uncomfortable. She then takes a deep breath and grabs Axel's hands to make his attention divert toward her.

"Axel! What are you saying? You can't just fire all of them!"

"You stay out of this. Please."

"No, I won't stay out of this. You won't even listen to me! Every one of them has worked so hard and you have no right to fire them like this. And all these files you are talking about. They just needed me to review it once so that there are no mistakes. They did all the work!"

"Stop lying! I know you are lying just to save them but they should know what they did wrong."

"I'm not lying."

"Aylin!"

"Axel, please just stop. Let this matter go."

She turns to see everyone's eyes fixated on them. This makes her feel embarrassed.

"They were bothering you! I can't just let that go."

Aylin already hated all the public eyes on her, and the fact they were fighting and that they were fighting in public was just too much for her. She wanted Axel to stop all of this so she blurted out,

"Urgh....I hate you."

So...how do you like the story so far? Also, YES! This book is LINKED with AFTER THE LIE!!! 🤩 Hope you enjoyed reading! Keep scrolling to read more ♥️🫶🏻