Taming Mrs. Mafia

63 My World Does Not Revolve Around You

"Hi, Lily. It's actually Hana. My real name is Hana Figueroa. Apologies for the confusion but sometimes things happen."

"What? Hana?" Lily, the "timid" co-worker Hana had at MEGA UNIVERSE asked. "Wait, what are you even doing here? Are you stalking me?"

"Wow, that's high-level narcissism. Unfortunately for you, babe, my world does not revolve around you. I live here. This is my hometown and this is my company. Is everything making sense now?"

Lily was speechless and she felt like a headache was coming. The rest of the interns felt weird that the founder sounded so informal. Did they know each other beforehand? That explains why Lily focused more on brown-nosing her supervisors rather than finishing her tasks.

Hana and Ericka walked around and stopped right in front of Lily's desk. "For an intern, you came in late. Why? Feeling confident that this company won't last long?"

"W-what are you talking about?" Lily fidgeted and her eyes couldn't help but move shakily between Hana and her computer as she tried to guess what Hana's next move would be.

"You know what exactly I am talking about."

"No, I don't. What I know is that you are jealous of me so you always undermine my job and now you're doing it again."

Ericka couldn't help raising her eyebrows at Lily's statement. Hana, on the other hand, laughed so hard that her stomach began hurting.

"Hey, calm down will you?" Ericka scolded her.

"Okay, okay, I'm calm now," Hana said but she was still heaving.

Hana raised the folder she was holding all this time. "Do you know what this is?"

"A folder?"

"Wow, you could definitely participate in a game show and win the grand prize. I was talking about the contents, silly." She circled her hand over Lily's computer and said: "The contents of this? Is now consolidated in here." She then waved the folder in Lily's direction.

Lily's eyes widened in realization. She suddenly tried to grab the folder from Hana but the latter was quick to move it away from her.

"I think you now know what I was talking about. So, on to my agenda, I just want to know why you are doing this. Is it more rewarding to destroy other people's hard work?"

Lily just stayed muted, not knowing how to respond to a question she didn't know the answer to.

In life, people's treatment of you varies based on the way that you look. If you are timid, you will look innocent and gullible. If you look neat and respectable, people will treat you with high regard.

In Lily's case, she looked cute and innocent, and bad people liked to take advantage of that. They always approach her and present offers that she couldn't reject. That was why she ended up living this way. It's not like she wanted to be this way, people forced her.

"Everyone, may I have your attention, please? We're looking for Ms. Lily del Valle. Is she here?" Someone suddenly interrupted them.

Everyone looked at Lily and she turned around to see three uniformed officers blocking the only entrance to the room.

"Are you Miss del Valle?" One of the officers asked. Lily was paralyzed. This was the first time someone called the cops on her. The usual repercussions of the things she did was getting fired and blacklisted.

She had no choice but to nod her head.

"You are under suspicion for spreading malicious information about your workplace on the internet. The company decided to sue you. We need to take you in for questioning."

"What?" Lily looked back at Hana who just waved while smiling at her. "Good luck, babe. Don't worry, you can ask your friends for help."

Hana handed the folder containing a copy of the results of their internal investigations. The officers also packed up the computer used by Lily.

"Now that the rat has been removed, let's work on changing people's narrative online."

Hana, Carlos, and Ericka worked together to release a statement online. They presented all the evidence they had against the people who posted the wrong information and promised to file a case against all the owners of the IP addresses they gathered. They attached information about Lily and also clarified that the low-quality products were not theirs.

The negative posts stopped but it was now replaced by comments questioning the validity of their statement. Well, Hana does not care about that, they already did their part, presenting proof that they were being defamed and that they always made sure that their products were of good quality.

The result of Hana, Ericka, and Carlos' hard work showed when their sales went back on track and gradually increased. The exposure they had when they were bashed helped them earn publicity. The groundless negative feedbacks were pushed back when news of Lily's six years of imprisonment was publicized by vloggers who liked to do exposé on companies as their content.

As for the people who bribed Lily, they were from a company that offered almost the same services as Hana's company. They wanted to destroy their competitor's reputation first so they could boost theirs. Hana thought of retaliating but their names got dragged during Lily's case so there's no need for her to do anything. She let the police and the company lawyers deal with them.

In the blink of an eye, everything returned to how it was before.

"Miss Hana, where did you go after leaving your post as the CEO?"

"Did you spend your vacation on a beach?"

"Miss Hana, are you sure you're not returning as the CEO?"

Everyone was interested in chatting with Hana again after knowing she stepped up to solve the company's problem.

When the news about their company being insulted online spread among the employees, the majority of them thought of jumping ship. Everyone panicked and started looking for other jobs. Some were even hostile to Hana when they found out that she's back. But now that she was able to deal with the issue, they started seeing her as a good boss again.

Humans are fickle-minded and a very dangerous double-edged sword. Even though Hana had a bias for her own employees, she knew not to invest feelings into people who could betray her in instant. Their side comments never fazed her.

Hana did not answer any of her employees' questions and made a polite excuse to get away from them. Finally, the three of them were left alone.

"Are you really not coming back as the CEO? Based on this incident alone, I think it's better if you get reinstated," Carlos suggested.

"No way. I worked hard so I could eventually sit back in the shadows. This is it. This is the life that I wanted. No amount of convincing could change my mind, Carlos. If I didn't have an accident, this wouldn't have happened. Don't worry, I'll step up again when the need arises but as long as you guys can handle the things here, I'll gladly stay in my house and write. That reminds me, I still need to contact my editors. See you when I see you."

Carlos and Ericka gave up trying to make her stay.