Thirteen

EVE'S POV 

When I got to the Edwards Group building, I headed up to the floor I had been on the previous day. However, when I emerged at the waiting room leading to the room, I had been interviewed in, a well-dressed lady approached me.

"Are you Eve Luciano?" she asked politely.

"Yes, that's me," I replied.

"Welcome to Edwards Group, Ms Eve. I'm Liliana, the vice president's assistant. Please come with me, the vice president is awaiting you."

I blinked. 

"The vice president?"

"Yes. I'll show you the way."

I went with the lady, surprised at the turn of events. I had expected to be led to an interview room. Why does the vice president want to see me?

As we went, I noticed that many people stared at me. 

Do they know me?.

The previous day, nobody had really paid me any attention. But then I thought of the apology email from the company. Maybe this people here knows about what had happened to my interview.

Linda came to a stop in front of a door and pushed it open. Stepping aside, she gestured for me to walk through.

 "Please come in."

"Thank you" I told her as I walked past her. 

The room was a conference room, it appeared with a long oval table surrounded by about twelve seats. There were already five people inside, one of whom I immediately recognised. Ella.

My gaze moved from her to the others in the room. I remembered them from the day before, they were the other interviewers.

But there was another who I had never seen before, a tall man dressed impeccably in a grey suit. He walked towards me and held his hand forward.

 "Good morning, Ms Luciano. I'm so grateful you could make it. I'm Dickson Mateo, the vice president of the Edwards Group."

I accepted his handshake, a little taken aback by his warm welcome. Was this how courteous everyone around here was? 

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr Dickson Mateo. I was happy to receive your email."

"Please have a seat" he invited, pulling out a chair for me 

I took the seat, which happens to be opposite Ella's seating position. Dickson took the seat at the head of the table while Liliana hovered to his right, a tablet in her hand.

A single glance at Ella quelled any thoughts that I was entertaining of offering her a greeting. She had her arms folded across her chest and was glaring at me openly.

"Ms Luciano, let me apologise once again in person, about what happened with your interview. It came to my notice that your rejection was not according to our company's guidelines, and that's why I called you here to iron out the matter." He said as he regarded Ella. 

"Ella, here, is the one who was responsible for your rejection, so I've called her to this meeting to explain herself and her actions."

I nodded. 

"Does this mean that I did pass the interview?", I asked curiously.

Dickson turned back to me.

"Yes. In fact, you exceeded our expectations, and our panel's decision was to hire you right away. But Ms Ella brought to question your character, and eventually, they decided to reject you."

l frowned at his word. 

"My character?" What does that even mean?”,

Dickson nodded. 

"Yes. Ella mentioned that you two were classmates in college, is that right?”,

"That's true" I agreed, as my eyes slided over to Ella.

 What kind of tales could she have contorted to make the entire panel unanimously reject me?

"What exactly is going on here?", I asked, clearing the sudden silence.

"Ella, would you mind telling us why you didn't think Eve was qualified for the job?"

Quickly I kept my gaze at Ella, and watched every word that left her lips.

"Like I told my colleagues yesterday," she began, her hate-filled eyes fixed on me.

 "This woman is of poor morals, and she might corrupt this company if we accept her."

I scoffed. 

"Poor morals? What are you talking about?"

Ella turned her gaze to the vice president.

"Eve Luciano stole a classmate's design while we were in college and went ahead to win a scholarship with it. There were complaints from the original owner of the design, but the professor was on Eve’s side because she slept with him"

"What?!!!" l sputtered, not believing my ears.

Where on earth had she come up with such a lie? Stolen designs? Sleeping with professors?.

"She was known around campus to sleep with a lot of men, including other girls' boyfriends, so it was no surprise that she slept with professors for favours in class. This is why I rejected her, Mr Dickson Mateo. Surely, you agree that a person of such loosed character can not be allowed to work in the Edwards Group of company?”,

"But I did not do any of that!" I snapped, glaring across the table at her. 

"When did I ever steal a design? Whose? And those other things you are accusing me of are unfounded and entirely false!"

"Do you think you can walk in here and pretend to be a goody two shoes and expect everyone to believe you? Unfortunately for you, am here to reveal your true colours," Ella spat. Turning to face Dickson as she continued.

"Why would I create lies about her? I only brought up the past because, as a HR employee of this company, I was truly concerned about the kind of damage her kind of character could do to the work environment."

"Can you prove any of your accusations?" the vice president asked.

 "When was Eve accused of stealing a classmate's design? And, can you provide details on her affairs with professors and her promiscuous nature?"

Ella settled back in her chair and held her head high.

 "Yes. The issue with the design happened during our second year in college. The best student was to get a scholarship and apprenticeship with a renowned designer. Eve won the award, but the design she presented was reported as stolen by another student. But, because of her affair with the professor, she was not disqualified"

“You are lying!!!”, I exclaimed.

“You and I both know that the design was mine",

Quickly I turned to Dickson. 

"It's true there was a conflict surrounding my design during the competition, but it's not as she is putting it. Actually, it was the other student who stole my design, and after thorough investigation by the school, it was proven that I was the original owner of the idea. In fact, after that incident, I abandoned that idea altogether and presented a different design for the competition. That's the one that won me the first place. This is something that can be easily checked and confirmed with the college, if we must go that far."

Dickson nodded and turned to Ella. 

"What do you have to say about her side of the story?"

"She is obviously lying" she claimed.

 "Probably everybody we were classmates with, can remember what really happened back then."

"Since both of you are giving different accounts of the incident, my office will have to investigate further. As a company, we cannot simply reject Eve based on your words alone. We will need concrete proof before taking further action."

"I would really appreciate that" I said to him, feeling relieved that the company was no longer going to take Ella's words blindly. 

If they indeed took the step to investigate the issue regarding the design, it wouldn't take them long to discover that I was not in the wrong.

"Rest assured l'll do everything to ensure a fair treatment to all this," Dickson assured me. 

Facing Ella again, he asked, 

"Concerning your accusations about Ms Eve’s promiscuous behaviour, do you have any proof we can counter-check?"

Ella shifted on her seat, her face gradually darkening.

 "Proof? How can I have proof for that?”,

"But you made the accusation," Dickson pointed out.

 "Surely, you must have proof regarding the matter?"

"Look, everybody at school knew about it. It was a common knowledge", she claimed.

"So you mean that it was hearsay"

"No, l..people wouldn't have been talking about it, if it wasn't true!"

Dickson’s face darkened as his brows pulled together and he fixed a stern look at Ella. 

"Ms Ella, you must understand that you cannot judge a person's character based on hearsay. It would be very improper if you made such accusations against Ms Luciano, based on what you heard from others. It's even more concerning that you used that to deny her a position that she deserved."

Ella opened her mouth as if to say something, but no words came out. I felt myself relaxing. It was evident that the vice president was not biassed against me and was determined to find the truth of the matter. 

Ella should have to come up with fresh, better lies if she still hoped to lock me out of employment at the Edwards Group.

"Also" Dickson said, still focusing on Ella,

 "it's to my knowledge that you gave Ms Luciano the senior examination paper, instead of the one prepared for fresh junior applicants. By doing so, you went against the company's rules. Explain why you did So".