Rose woke up with a flurry in her chest.
It was finally today! The Business Awards.The only advantage of the whole thing with Wayne was that she had been too occupied to bite her nails about if she was going to win the Marketer of the Year Category or not.Rose wasn’t one of those people who if they didn’t win lied around that they had been satisfied just to have been nominated.She really was satisfied because getting nominated was a huge deal and by this time last year, she never would have imagined that she would have gotten to this point in her career.If she didn’t win the award this time, she was going to work harder and try again next year. She planned to only go forward in her career and never backward.Rose was highly confident that the Business Awards was something Wayne couldn’t influence. He didn’t have any ‘relevant’ people to tamper with results on her behalf.He had never seemed like that kind of personAll the other occupants of the Blackstone Corp table immediately straightened their backs and sat at attention. It was like they didn’t want the boss to catch them slouching. Rose took a deep breath to steady herself. Asides from when Wayne had come to her office with the file, this was the first time they were going to be in close quarters for a long period of time since the night of insults.She was going to have to get used to being around Wayne. He was her boss and whether she liked it or not, there were times she was going to have to tolerate his presence. She could totally handle this.She was just going to be polite and mind her business like a proper adult. She was going to greet him and move on with her evening. She didn’t even have to look at him after the greeting.Rose really wanted to send Jessica a text but she wasn’t with her phone. People weren’t allowed to bring phones to The Business Award
The cameras zoomed in on Rose and she showed up on the huge screen onstage.Rose was stunned!The spoon was still halfway to her mouth and it took all her effort to convince her hand to let go. But that was she could manage; she was still frozen in shock.Meanwhile, the host was still going on and on. “This award is not given based on the company the marketer works for. It is given based on what the marketer has managed to accomplish through hard work, innovation and diligence.Rose Cohen is Blackstone Corp’s Chief Marketing Officer, Manhattan Headquarters and she was employed in July. There was a level of doubt concerning if she was fit for the position and would be able to carry out her duties but Wayne Blackstone stood by his decision and stated in a private interview that Miss Rose was a force to be reckoned with. Plus who are we to tell Mr. Blackstone how to run his business?” A chuckle spread through the hall.Ro
The moment had finally come!Jessica was beside herself with glee. She almost gave Tina the standing ovation she thought that she so rightly deserved.The only regret she had was that she had been unable to bring her phone into the hall. The look of shock on Rose’s face was everything. Jessica’s only consolation was that the reporters present had probably all gotten the picture.So she would get it one way or the other when it was published the next day. Hmmmm, maybe she would frame it. Jessica had been racking her brain ever since the first time she had eaten lunch at Winifred’s place. Winifred said that Wayne detested bad publicity and disassociated himself from anything that would put a stain on the Blackstone name, company and the things he had worked hard to build.Ever since then, she had been chanting it like a mantra and trying to see how she could get Rose into that category. But it w
The hall was pretty quiet and the occupants were exchanging glances. They had clearly understood Wayne’s not so subtle threats and no one wanted to get on his bad side.It was well-known that Wayne Blackstone didn’t usual involve himself in these kind of situations; so there must be something really different about this one.After watching Wayne’s display onstage it was hard not to believe him when he said that Rose was being falsely accused.Who would do such a thing?To make it all worse, it was his girlfriend, whom he loved and cherished so much that was the victim of these cruel lies. The poor thing had been ambushed during her big speech; it was hard not to feel pity on her.Coupled with Wayne’s firm declaration that Rose, his beloved was framed, the fear of getting on his bad side and how miserable Rose had looked; there was a general thought in almost everyone’s head:It’s best to forget anything out of the ordin
Rose felt like she was a blown up balloon; just floating around in whatever direction the wind deemed fit. She barely remembered the ride back to her apartment.Ben had been trying to talk to her in order to find out if she was doing okay. She must have said something or maybe nodded because he finally let her enjoy the ride in silence.A huge part of her hoped that this was a dream. That in a few minutes, she would wake up and discover that The Business Awards was still days away and she was so excited that her mind couldn’t stop with the dreams.Maybe she would wake up and discover that she was still working at Sage Poll Inc. But Rose knew that this was real life because she had never felt this bad in a nightmare.Victor was married?So everything Wayne said had been true.Wait, according to Wayne, his name wasn’t even Victor. What was it again? Wayne had mentioned it that day in her office.Nigel?Nicholas?Nathan. Nathan Reynolds.Rose let out a hysterical giggle.“Rose are you o
The Resting Place was a luxurious hotel which Wayne owned.Wayne was sitting in one of the private dining rooms at the hotel. Tom was standing a few feet behind his chair at the head of the table. The other occupants of the room were the journalists and their respective editors-in-chief.“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry for the delay. I gave my assistant an assignment and his presence is highly needed here. In the meantime, please help yourself to anything from the menu.You guys were too busy working to eat at the event.” Wayne said with a sarcastic smile and pressed a button under the table.Two waiters immediately rushed in and handed them menus. Wayne shook his head when they offered him one.At first, the willing hostages hesitated because they were worried about Wayne’s behavior. But they soon cast aside their worries and ordered some food; it wasn’t like Wayne was going to poison them.They were halfway through their meals when Ben finally showed up. He was carryin
Theo and Jessica spent the night with Rose because they wanted to make sure she was alright. She and Jessica had slept on the bed while Theo slept in the living room.She had tried to convince him to go home since there wasn’t much of a difference between her living room and his apartment next door.But he had refused because he wanted to be under the same roof with her.Rose barely slept a wink that night and spent most of it with tears rolling down her cheeks. Her trust had been destroyed. Her big night had been ruined.She couldn’t even bear to look at the award and a part of her wished Ben had left it onstage.Rose pretended to be asleep each time Theo tiptoed to the room to check on her. Bless his soul; he really was a sweetheart.Jessica slept soundly through the night and Rose was okay with that; she knew how much of a deep sleeper Jessica was. Plus she really wasn’t in the mood for conversation.Rose managed to close her eyes for a few minutes and woke up to the smell of Fren
Nathan felt like he was going to pee his pants but he tried to put up a brave front.“What the hell are you doing here? You just broke down my door! You have ten seconds to get the hell out of my house before I decide to call the police.” Nathan really wished his voice wasn’t quivering so much.Wayne let out a cruel laugh, ignored Nathan’s threat and continued walking towards him. Nathan kept walking backwards until his back hit a wall and Wayne stopped a few feet away from him.Wayne grinned coldly. “You won’t believe how happy I am that your arm is no longer in a sling. It means I won’t feel guilty about doing this.”Wayne gave Nathan a right uppercut and Nathan’s feet were slightly lifted from the floor. He landed on the floor in a pathetic heap.There was blood coming from his mouth and he spat out a tooth. It was one of his incisors from the front of his mouth.Nathan’s eyes widened in shock when he saw his tooth on the floor. He looked up at Wayne and shriveled back in fear.“You