Veronica's POV:
I knocked on the door lightly before I was instructed to come in. I greeted her with a welcoming smile, enough to soften her up before making my claim to her. "I have something very concerning to discuss with you," I tell her while making my way in to sit down. The one thing I've noticed when I've first met the manager of this organization is she was tough. There's no doubt she had a barrier and a wall built around her so nothing could phase her one bit. I've also noticed she had a thing for empowerment, as she looked like the woman that would be an advocate for fair power, equal rights and respect. If you ask me, I think she's the excellent candidate to run this company, and the right person to take away Michael's job.
"Is everything alright?" She said looking up from her work station and giving me her full attention. "How are you finding your first weeks here?"
"It's great. I'm honestly grateful you've given me this position, I know there have must been many other qualified applicants and I'm lucky enough to step foot in an organization like this," I said. She smiled as she listened to my words of appreciation.
"I'm glad to hear that. How has your training been going? I'm sure you and Michael have been cooperating during the process."
I sat there in silence for a second, making sure she observed my sudden mood change. "That's what I wanted to speak to you about."
"Is there a problem with the training?" She looked at me confused.
"There's a problem with Michael. He never started the training and he's been harassing me ever since I've stepped foot into this building."
She looked flustered at my response. "Michael? He's the best employee we have in this department. How has he harassed you in a way?"
"I don't know if you know this but Michael and I had a past. As much as I respect him, he has an issue with boundaries. He's made a move on me a while ago but knowing he was married I would never give into his needs," I kept a straight face. "He was a married man of course. I've recently found out his wife divorced him and he thinks there's still an opportunity for him to be with me."
She chuckled out of nowhere, "Woah! Hold on. This doesn't sound like the Michael I know one bit. He's a well respected guy even towards women. I've worked with him closely for years, I would've recognized his inappropriate misbehaviors."
"With all due respect, the way he acts here is entirely different from the person he is outside of work. I'm telling you this because he won't leave me alone. Before coming to this job, you've specifically said it's an environment that guarantees safety and comfort. I don't feel safe nor comfortable around Michael."
"What has he done specifically that makes you uncomfortable?"
I shifted around in my seat, "Well...."
Michael's POV:
I start making various of calls during my office hours. There isn't hardly any work needed to be done considering the fact, most of the tasks I need to do here is either already done the day before or is expected to be done at the end of the week.
My first call was made to the bank I'm currently under, the same bank where I kept most of my funds including the emergency funds that Sierra and I were currently withholding. Also the same funds Veronica has been stealing from us these past weeks. I was put on hold for nearly ten minutes, I hated talking to any customer service representative. They're always slow with their service, even when you request an emergency.
Once I got a hold of a representative, I asked for a clear detail of my bank summary, making sure if she still had access to my account or not. They've informed me that I had to confirm my identity by giving the changed security code I've recently placed in. After I told them multiple times I have no idea what code they were talking about and there's been a form of identity theft being dealt with, they insisted to personally come down to the bank and have this conversation all over again with the same useless representative. I knew if I didn't cancel the card now, Veronica would drain me out of my money fast. So I have no other choice but to go down there. The only problem with canceling with the card is, half of Sierra's money is also in the account. I can't cancel it without getting a word from her too.
My second call was made to Lance, the police officer who I've been working closely with to gather more information about Veronica. He told me to call back today because he found some former documentations of the last place Veronica was staying at before coming to this city. According to him, Veronica's last location was Washington. In her time being there, there were various street cameras that picked off her face and she made one purchase at a thrift shop for a watch under a different name instead of her own. She spent approximately 2 months before fleeing away from the state. The street cameras also picked off several images of her in a car with multiple men. One guy showed up more frequently than others, the officer explained. There were several cases being made of people missing during her stay in Washington. The most intriguing part of it all is, her half brother she claims to have, Andy, was convicted of several charges that linked to those disappearances. So from the looks of it, every attempted crime that's possibly been done by her, her brother takes the blame for. It adds up. The car is owned by her brother, the house she's living in is signed off by her brother and there's no doubt she uses his credit card either. That's probably the reason why they move a lot. He has a long list of charges and criminal records, he's most likely on the run constantly.
I recall from the last encounter I had with him. I ran into him at the engagement dinner Sierra's father put together. In the bathroom, I remember him telling me that he was sick of covering for her and letting her get away with it, so there's a fact she's the one who actually committed the murder of these several men. He also said something about a pattern and how this is all a game to her. I didn't know what exactly he meant when he said pattern. Perhaps, she has specific targets or a preference before choosing her target. The only person that knows more about her than anyone else is obviously him. There's no way in hell that he wants to talk to me even if I ask.
Unless there's a bargain involved that benefits him.
"We need to talk to the brother, he's the most useful person as of right now." I told Lance. There was a slight laugh from the other end, already indicating what I'm asking is a stupid idea.
"The guy is a criminal himself, he's only going to protect her, it's his sister for god sake," he responded. "He's not going to tell neither of us anything."
"He's definitely going to talk if we promise him something that he wants, he even himself said he was tired of the things Veronica does, he knows more than we do."
"I can't talk to him, not when he sees a badge and some handcuffs. If you can get something out of him then go for it but I am not responsible so any threats he makes towards you. You're going to waste your time I'm telling you."
"He's going to talk, trust me. Also can you send me a copy of the documentations you just recited over the phone, I need to look at it closely," I said.
"Be careful Michael." He said before hanging up.
**
I had thirty minutes to spare during my lunch break. I'd figured I should go downstairs and talk to Louis over the new information I just got over the phone. Plus I need a drink to ease all this stress and congested thoughts. There's a nearby only three minutes from here and since he insisted on drinking this morning, it would be only right to invite him with me.
The elevator took me down to the main floor of the building. People were coming in and out of their offices. Normally around this time, it's the busiest. There are several projects that needed to be closed off of and almost every deadline landed on the same day.
"How are you doing," I greeted the receptionist who usually greets me with a smile back or a simple 'I'm good, and I hope you're doing the same.' However, she gave me an unpleasant look, a look of disgust with no response at all. Maybe she was having a rough day or something. I brushed it off thinking nothing of it. I looked for Louis who would usually be sitting at his station desk near the far end corner by the entrance door. I spotted him from afar, but before approaching him, I went to clock out for my lunch break, I scanned my badge at the usual place that was required. The badge wouldn't go through the first time, so I scanned it again hoping it would work but it didn't. Louis got this badge for me just a couple weeks ago, how did it stop working suddenly.
I went over to Louis' station, hoping he'd fix the problem for me. "Hey man, my badge isn't working again." I said sliding it over on his desk. He looked up at me with a blank facial expression. "Do you mind if we grab a few drinks before my lunch break is over, I really need it."
"I can't fix your badge," he then responded. I looked at me confusingly.
"How else am I going to clock out?"
"You have some nerve coming up to my desk, find someone else to go drink with," he said looking annoyed, giving me the same look as the receptionist. Did I miss something here?
"What's wrong with you? Why are you acting like this?" I asked.
"You lied to me Michael. In this friendship, I expect you to tell me the full truth," he spat. I was even more confused. He looked angry as if I did something horrible and deceiving to him.
"Lied about what? I don't know what you're talking about," I said getting impatient with him. "Can you tell me what I've done to make you so angry?"
"Michael!" I heard someone call from behind me. I turned around to see Reese, my manager, walking towards me quickly. "I need to speak to you immediately."
"We're not done here, I'll be back." I said to Louis before walking towards Reese.
"We need to go in my office now!" She demanded. Without questioning, I walked with her to her office. We went on the elevator which took us to the top floor. Once we got to her door, Veronica was already in the room, sitting down with tears flowing down from her face. Reese told me to take the seat beside her. I wasn't sure what's going on but something tells me it's something about me and I don't think it's good one bit.
Veronica continued to cry and whimper in her seat. "What's going on?" I asked. "I'm on my lunch break."
"Are you aware of the rules and regulations we follow in this company? And the respect we have to give to our coworkers and employees?" She furrowed her brow, not looking pleased one bit.
"Yes I'm very much so. Why am I here? Did I do something?"
"I'm sorry I really don't want to be in here, can I just wait outside?" Veronica spoke, wiping her tears.
"No, it'll be fine," she said to Veronica in a calming voice. Then she turned towards me, looking frustrated. "I don't think you're aware of our rules Michael and if you were you wouldn't be in this position right now. Veronica came to me earlier about an issue she had. I promised her this workplace would be safe the first time I hired her, and I've given you the responsibility of helping her adapt to this environment. Not only did you skip on the training, you harassed her too," she explained.
"What?" I took in all her words before snapping my head over to Veronica who obviously accused me of derogatory behavior I haven't even done. "I didn't assault her," I quickly defended myself. "The only reason why I haven't been training her is because she took on this job to stalk me! She's not who she says she is."
"Please, save your excuses. She's already told me what's been going on. She asked you once to leave her alone and I guess you can't take no for an answer. You should be highly ashamed of yourself," she argued back. "I didn't expect something like this from you. And to sit here and lie to me about it," she scoffed.
"I'm not lying! Whatever she told you is obviously false. She's the one who's been following me and stalking me all this time," I yelled. "You can ask her for yourself!"
"You groped me!" Veronica suddenly spoke up. "I told you I wasn't interested in you and you keep pushing yourself onto me. You raped me! I didn't give you consent to touch me but you forced yourself on me. Then you come and assault me at work for trying to confront you."
"What the fuck are you talking about? I didn't rape you," I felt my hands shaking in place and my nerves kicking in. "You have no fucking right to excuse me of something so vile. I know my boundaries and limits I would never do something like that to any female!" I then turned to Reese. "You can't possibly believe her?!"
She bit her lips and turned her attention to somewhere else rather than looking at me in the eyes. Right then I've realized she was refusing to believe any words coming from my mouth. I sighed in defeat. "I didn't rape her! Why would I do that? I'm not that type of person. You've known me for so long!"
"We've got you assaulting her on the security video. Whatever words you say now, it's only going to make it worse so please stop," she said in monotone. "I don't know if it's the fact that you're having your own personal issues but—"
"I didn't fucking rape her!" I slammed my fist on the desk, which made them both flinch. "Fine I admit it we had sex, but there was consent from both ends. Tell her the truth. You're only doing this to make me miserable even more. Did you know that she ruined my marriage and she's probably telling you this to ruin my job."
"I never gave you permission to touch me. The least you can do is own up to your wrong doings," Veronica's fake tears continued. She looked me in the eyes, she wasn't expressing it but she was laughing at me, taunting me on the inside.
"Why are you ruining my fucking life! Why!" I screamed in her face. Reese got up in defense. "I wanna see the fucking video she's talking about," I said to her.
She then pulled out footage on a small screen. I was seen in the video pushing Veronica by the wall and gripping her wrist. There isn't a sound to the video, just me yelling in her face repeatedly. The conversation was from this morning, the same time I've made those threats towards her but her threats were even worse but the thing was, her threats weren't shown in the video, so it just made me look like the horrible person in the situation. My guess is, she got to the video before everyone and edited it so I could look guilty and as always she'd be the victim. I clenched my jaw trying to think of a way to explain why I've placed my hand on her and if I tell my manager if it's because my sudden burst of anger she wouldn't even believe me and would make me look ten times as bad.
"I know what it looks like but I wasn't intentionally hurting her, it was an argument."
"I told him what he's done to me would eventually come out and I guess that's what drove him to physically assault me."
"She's lying to you, this is her plan. She's trying to make my life a living hell."
"You know most woman don't speak up about certain situations like this because of this exact same reason. Why would I lie about being raped?" She said.
"Because you're fucking psychotic and pathetic!" I yelled.
"Enough! I'm utterly disgusted by the behavior you're exhibiting right now and I want you to leave. A young innocent woman had the courage to come to my office and tell me you forced yourself on her and on top of that assaulted her. That's a huge fucking civil lawsuit on your end, we don't condone unwelcome sexual advances being made to any of our employees and we don't protect people like you at all. You're fired! Now you either get out of this office and take your belongings or I call the police." She crossed her arms.
"You can't possibly get rid of me for a false accusation made by her and the video is obviously trimmed, it don't even have a sound!" I said defensively. "You would've heard the things she said to me."
"Michael, I'm going to call security."
"I didn't rape her!" I repeated. I got up from my seat and kicked the chair. "You have to believe me."
Eventually two security guards, one of them being Louis, barged into the office. They both stood behind me. I looked around the room noticing I was made the target. I briefly looked at Reese, who had a look of disappointment, then at Veronica, who's smirk was forming on the side of her face and then at Louis who's now seen me as a whole different character from what I am. "You believe me right? I wouldn't do anything like that to anyone. I didn't force myself on her...she's only doing this because she's afraid I'm going to expose her for who she is," I spat. "Aren't you? You're afraid I'm going to tell them the truth? So you go and get me fired?" Before I knew it, I charged towards her and I was immediately pinned down on the ground. My arms were twisted to my back and a pair of handcuffs were put in place. "I didn't fucking rape you!" I kept yelling towards her, I was pushed out the room afterwards. Louis insisted I calm down before he'd have to make the call to the police. I felt pain and defeat. I'm now painted out to be a person I'm not. Everyone will eventually talk about it and words will travel fast. As hopeless it was to yell out the truth endless times, it was her words against mine.
—————
yikes, things are getting chaotic quickly.
VOTE OR COMMENT 🧡
please keep in mind, some of the writing in this story isn't promoting or condoning wrong unfavorable sexual advances/assault or claims. im entirely AGAINST any sexual misconduct. ALWAYS ASK FOR CONSENT