The Billionaires Too (#2)

Exposure

Her Monday had started well so far; she had arrived at work in time to open the building even though she had to take a taxi since Anita was not around to pick her up from her apartment anymore.

After taking off without notice, Jorge and Anita had sent through an email informing Meryl that they were coming back today from Cape Town trip.

The day after dinner, Anita arrived to work wearing shades and she completely ignored Meryl. It was obvious that she had been crying, and that proved to Meryl that Anita did not leave her apartment because she had nothing to wear; she left Meryl’s apartment because she wanted to go home and cry alone.

Meryl had been trying to call her to tell her about her encounter with Javier that night and what she discovered, but her phone was off, and she was ignored her the entire day. When Jorge finally arrived, they left the office, and went on to work outside of town. She had not spoken to her since that night, and was looking forward to seeing her today; hopefully, she would agree to spend a week at Meryl's or invite her to stay at her place.

She was scared of what Javier Mendoza might do to her; she was always cautious. It had been a few weeks since her family dinner that left Meryl to sleep with one eye open. That same night, she locked her door and pushed the couch against it, and then she had to put in extra effort to get it out of the way on her way out. And then when she took a taxi the next morning, she kept waiting for the driver to take out a gun, turn in the wrong direction, or do something sinister.

But none of that came, and at least three weeks had passed since the restaurant accident.

Work was peaceful, especially since there was no boss to keep her on her toes; she could not believe she was ready to hand in her letter of resignation just a month ago.

Time passed and it was lunchtime. As usual, Meryl took out her phone and earphones to listen to music while waiting for the last fifteen minutes of her lunch break. However, her phone just froze out of the blue and the functions stopped working, and then it went blank. Meryl stared at the phone dumbfounded because she could not even switch it off.

Maybe taking out the battery would help, she thought.

She was about to turn her phone around when the screen flashed again, this time with a text message.

“Meryl Anderson is a fraud.”

Her face paled and she leaned against her desk to balance herself as she felt her legs wobble. This was the worst thing that could happen to her on a Monday afternoon.

Meryl panicked and thought of all the things that could happen if this information got out, and she wondered who could have possibly found out.

There was only one person who knew about this, and the only person who could help her. Her hand reached for the office phone and she dialled MJ’s numbers, but the phone was not working. Meryl slammed the phone down and looked up to check the lights, and they were all working.

Maybe it is my phone. She thought as she walked around her desk and went to the nearest office where the residents were still out for lunch. She tried the phone there, and it was not working. She tried every other phone she could think of in the office, but they were all not working.

She rushed to the elevators, but they were not working either.

She saw one of her colleagues walking back into the office, and she rushed to him. “Hi, could you please borrow me your phone? I need to make an urgent call.” She asked in a panicked voice.

“Sure.” The guy said and gave her the phone, which she took with shaky hands. 

She opened the dial pad and started typing in MJ’s numbers, but the phone went blank as she was about to dial. “No!” She shrieked and the guy gave her a weird look. “Lord, no.” She said, tears streaming down her face. She handed the phone back to the guy and muttered an inaudible thanks, and then she hurried back to her desk and turned on the computer. She opened Google Chrome and went to Gmail, and then she typed an email to MJ. MJ checked her emails after every hour, and hopefully she would see this one ASAP.