Toxic Truth

24

ZELLA

I wake up to strings of missed calls and messages from Sydney.

What the hell?

Rubbing my eyes, I sit up on the bed and try to figure out what the hell is going on.

By the time I'm done thinking about all the possibilities of what went wrong, my heart is racing rapidly.

I'm about to call her when I spot a link in the messages she sent me, between all the notifications. Forcing myself to stay calm, I click on the link.

As soon as it opens, dread fills me. It's an article about Liam and me.

Now if it was just an article about us dating I would be fine with it, but it is something completely else. It's talking about how Liam and I had a contract that we breached, and failed to maintain professionalism.

Overall, it's mostly throwing shade on me, how I approached him with a motive and started working with him just to get him to like me and date me. It also says ridiculous things like I'm after his money.

I scoff at that.

While articles and comments made by people against me is something I'm used to, this is a completely different thing. It's about me and Liam.

I don't want them invading our fucking privacy and start shitty ass rumours about us. How does Liam feel about this? He has probably seen it by now too.

Another call from Sydney comes in and I accept it with shaking hands.

"Hi," I croak.

I hear her sighing out of relief. "Oh my God Zella, why haven't you been picking up my calls?"

"I was asleep, I just woke up.."

"Did you see the article?" She asks.

I close my eyes and rest my back against the headboard. "Yeah, I did. I'm just stunned over the whole thing, breaching contract? Going after his money? Really? That's what they could come up with? And I feel like the whole thing was mainly about how I'm wrong."

"It was." She agrees, "But don't worry about it now, it's already taken down. I doubt anyone has seen it because it was taken down a few minutes after it was uploaded. Could it be Liam's team?"

I purse my lips. "Could be, I need to talk to him too."

"You do that, I'll be waiting for you at work."

"I'll try to come early, bye and thank you."

"Of course, I'll see you soon. Goodbye."

Ending the call, I'm about to dial Liam's number when my door bell rings.

I pause. Could that be Liam?

Scrambling out of the bed, I hurry over to the door. When I open the it, I come to a halt.

"Dina?"

I furrow my eyebrows as I watch her look at me with a cold look. I try not to think about how she knows where I live.

"Can I come in?" She asks before I can say anything.

"Uhh sure," I open the door wider and let her in.

She walks into my living room and I finally talk. "Not to be rude, but what are you doing here? How do you even know where I live?"

She places her bag on the table and crosses her arms over her chest. "That's not important. What is important is why I'm here."

"And that is....?"

"I know about the article."

I scrunch up my face. What does she have to do with anything? I can just talk to Liam about it, I'm not obligated to talk to her.

"Okay, and?"

"That was very irresponsible from your side." She snaps and I'm taken aback by her reaction.

"Excuse me?"

"Dating the person you're supposed to work with, really? You couldn't wait until the contract was over? You should've known what people would say about this."

"Whatever Liam and I do is none of your business, and Liam has a part in this too. Why are you saying all this stuff to me? He's your boss, go talk to him."

Her jaw clenches as if she's controlling her anger. "It is my business when the reputation of my boss and his company is at stake."

Fair enough, but that still doesn't justify how she came to my house unannounced and took out all her anger on me.

"Look, the article is taken down. You don't have to worry about that now."

Her eyes flash at that and I'm confused over what's she's mad at.

"The article is taken down for now, but you both staying together will spark up new rumours. This will put a damage on your reputation and his too."

"What do you want me to do Dina?"

"End the contract."

I step back. "What?"

"You heard me. End the contract. It will be beneficial for both of you. The six months are about to be over, you can just end it now and stop working with Liam."

Even though I don't understand why that is so important now that the article is taken down, I get her point, so I nod.

"Alright, I'll talk to Liam about it."

"You won't talk to him."

"And why is that?" I raise a daring eyebrow.

"You need to break up with him."

I laugh half heartedly at the ridiculous statement. "What?"

She smiles coldly at my reaction and repeats herself. "I said, you need to break up with him."

"And I'm not doing that." I take a step forward, towards her. "I've had enough of this, you can't come to my house unannounced and then dictate me what to do. I don't fucking listen to you."

"You will listen to me. This is going to ruin Liam's reputation just because of you. Stop being selfish and break things off with him."

I'm done with this shit.

"Listen, we're done here. You need to leave now, I'm going to talk to Liam about the whole thing."

I move my hand to grab my phone which is on the table but her hand shoots out to stop me.

"You can't call him."

I scoff. "Why?"

"He sent me here."

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