Chapter 36-His father had a hand in the scandal
Jonathan's POV...
"Where is he?" I asked, lifting my eyes from the laptop screen.
We were in my office. I had instructed Richard to bring in my fashion brand manager, the same man who supposedly drugged Audrey and me. I needed some answers from him.
Richard cleared his throat. "Um... he hasn't reported to the office in over a week."
My fingers stilled over the keyboard.
"He hasn't reported?" I repeated slowly.
Richard nodded. "No sir. No prior notice. No official leave request. He's been unreachable."
"And why has nothing been done about it?" I raised a brow at him. "A meeting should have been held to discuss matters on appointing a new manager. But nothing yet, and I pay all of you,"
He bowed his head slowly. "We're sorry sir,"
"I don't need apologies, I want you to do something about it" I said tapping my fingers on the table. "This is an organisation and not some playground or something, where someone can do as they please,"
"We'll do just as you said, sir," he said, his head still hanging low. "But there's something else sir," he raised his head.
"Mr Cavendish was here earlier today,"
Oh great. "What did he say?"
"He's inviting you and Ms Willows for dinner," he said. "By eight"
I nodded. "You can go"
I chuckled as soon as Richard left. He had to come all the way here just to say that.
My phone buzzed beside my hands on the table. I reached for it and my face lit up with a smile. I reclined on my seat as I connected it.
"Hey," her voice rang through as soon as I connected the call.
Silence. I didn't know how to refer to her as. What do I call her?
"What's up?" I said and my hand immediately flew to my mouth as I covered it.
"Sorry, that came out wrong,"
"There's something you need to see," she said with urgency.
I sat up. "What's that?"
"It's something vital to discovering why your manager drugged us,"
"Okay. I'll meet you soon," I said and she disconnected the call.
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. It seemed to be adding up now. First, he drugged us and now, probably for fear of being found out, he stopped reporting to work.
Let's see what Audrey found.
"This is the security footage covering everything that happened from evening until ten o'clock on the night we first met." Audrey said, raising a flash drive in front of me.
We were settled on the couch, side by side that there was little space between us. The laptop sat open on the coffee table, as she tapped lightly on it.
"This should answer all our questions," she said and inserted the flash drive.
I didn't bother asking how she came about it. Knowing her, she was capable of getting it by just pulling a few strings.
The screen lit up and revealed that night at the hotel.
I removed my gaze from her and directed it to the screen.
She slowly reached to fast forward the clip to the time we wanted. She hesitated.
"I'm feeling a little bit unsure," she said as she looked at me. "If he actually did that, why and who asked him to do it?"
My hand reached forward and held her hand. "It's okay. At least we'll know who's behind all this and what to do next. Most importantly... I'm here"
She nodded as she looked at me. She let out a sigh and her shoulders relaxed.
I held her other hand as she dragged the cursor across the video duration to the exact time we wanted.
8:07:51.
She drew her fingers away from the keyboard and placed her hand on the table.
In the footage, Audrey had just walked into the hotel. My manager pulled out a seat for her. Everything played out with nothing suspicious happening until I arrived.
I drew my head in and paid attention to the screen in front of me. This must be when he must have drugged the wine. The living room was dead silent and the light from the laptop screen painted out faces blue.
I squinted my eyes as I watched him. I paid closer attention to him. Everything happened really fast. I let out a sigh when Audrey and I clinked glasses.
"It can't be," Audrey said as she paused the footage.
She turned to face me, our shoulders brushing. "Nothing out of the ordinary," she shook her head.
"He wasn't suspicious at all," I said. My eyes flickered to the screen once again and my gaze found him by the counter holding the bottle of wine.
My eyes widened. "Wait... there's something we're missing," I said. I rewound the footage and took it a few minutes back, before Audrey came in.
There, he was standing by the counter. It seemed he was picking a wine.
"I said it," Audrey said. I looked at her and smiled. She returned the smile before focusing back on the screen.
"But, why is he holding another bottle of wine? That wasn't..." she trailed off when she saw him making a call.
He shifted away from the counter and made a call. When he returned, he changed the wine to the one we had.
Audrey glanced at me, I didn't look at her. It seemed to be making sense now. My fingers reached to the keyboard and I zoomed in and took the footage back again.
The first wine he was holding was from St. Claire Réserve... but the one he swapped it for was the Crimson Veil.
I don't drink anything from St Claire Réserve because of my allergies.
I lowered my head and scoffed as I thought of possible reasons he did that. He didn't know about my allergy so...
"Why did he change that wine after receiving that phone call?" Audrey asked. "Maybe that was the person who sent him," she added.
I raised my head and at that moment, he was standing by the end of the counter. The way he looked around was very suspicious. I opened my mouth to say something and just then, he brought out a small black bag from his pocket and took out a little syringe.
My breath caught in my throat. Audrey's fingers tightened around mine. "No..." she whispered.
Even though before now, I already suspected him after what Audrey said, seeing him doing it made me utterly speechless. I couldn't believe he would do that.
He looked up and was looking at us. He must have seen the surveillance camera because he turned his back fully at the camera. That must be when he spiked the wine.
He cleared everything and handed the wine over to the bartender to keep and returned to his seat. Just then, Audrey walked in.
"So he spiked the wine even before we got there and gave it to the bartender so it wouldn't seem suspicious," I said, my voice low.
"What was that he placed on the counter?" Audrey took the footage back.
Before he took out the syringe, he kept something on the counter. It was an accessory and it had a pendant on it.
"Can you zoom into that pendant?" I asked, my eyes focused on the jewelry.
She zoomed in more and I let out a gasp when I saw the item clearly.
"What's that?" She asked, looking at me.
My hands trembled as I dragged them through my hair. A hollow laugh escaped me. Of all the things to see on that screen... that was the one I wasn't prepared for.
I looked at her. "That pendant," I pointed at the screen. "Belongs to my father,"
Her brows knit together in surprise. "What?"
"That was my mother's gift to him the first day they met,"
I faced the screen as I looked at the activities playing out. What was my manager doing with my father's pendant?
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