Chapter Eighteen
**Trigger Warning: Mentions of SA/Rape**
Clint’s POV
I let Amber take over the conversation as my lawyer, I knew she was going to crush them.
As one of my very close friends, I knew she was going to make them regret it!
These vile creatures were going to fucking pay.
The no fraternizing policy was there to deter people from wanting to seek out partnership with someone within the office.
I didn’t want people dating, breaking up, and things getting weird.
I didn’t pay much attention to the office gossip mill, but it was hard to miss when you heard it at the company party.
I was so against it, that I decided to make the policy stricter than any other company’s, because my last partner cheated on me.
I had walked into his office one afternoon, the one in our penthouse, files in my hand for the new deal he was working on, and saw it.
A live show for about twenty seconds, until I dropped the files and they both froze.
He and I had been together since college.
I thought we’d make it. We’d been together over a decade!
Then I’d started having suspicions about him.
This went on for months, with no answers about what was going on.
He was getting more and more distant from me.
It was to the point that I’d been asking questions and begging him to talk to me!
I didn’t care! I just wanted to know what was happening with him, with us.
The harder I tried to get him to talk, to work on us, the harder he pulled away. And gaslit me.
I didn’t notice the gaslighting at first. But when I did? When I started putting the pieces together, talking to Amber and anonymously asking that online forum everyone went to about their problems?
It clicked.
And that just pissed me off.
So, I hired a PI.
Before they could get back to me with the results, I’d gone home to our penthouse on my lunch break one day. I caught him mid-thrust with one of his coworkers he’d been ‘hanging out’ with.
I understood what that meant to him now.
I picked up the files, and walked back out of the penthouse.
Waiting for the elevator, a thought occurred to me.
I walked back to the door, not bothering to open it all the way, and shouted, “Don’t stop on my account!
But, Alex, you will need your shit out of here by the time I get off work today. We’re done.”
I slammed the door shut after that and walked away. I sold the penthouse and bought a new one closer to my office building. I completely abandoned the penthouse, the company I tried to start with him, everything.
And now I was a man with my own company, my own place, and no drama.
I tried to stay out of that, and office gossip, as much as humanly possible.
I wasn’t someone who liked nor wanted that kind of thing anywhere near me.
I preferred to stay as far away as possible so when I’d heard rumors going around with some of the employees, talking about the closeness, and how it seemed a little too close, between these two cheaters sitting in front of me, I was hopeful that it wasn’t true.
I’d heard the gossip since the last batch of people were hired barely three months ago.
I’d been keeping an eye on things from the shadows.
The gossip mill ran wild because everyone knew Caleb was married.
Not just married, but newly married. They should have still been in the honeymoon stage of the marriage.
I’d been watching how Caleb interacted with all of them, and to me it seemed like he was just training and making nice with the newbies.
After a while, when Caleb would go hang out, he seemed to pay closer attention to the girl, Becky.
But it still wasn’t inappropriate. Then he started to put a lot of distance between the two of them.
I’d been paying even closer attention to these rumors and their actions. I didn’t need whatever this was to tarnish the company's reputation, open us up for a lawsuit, or anything that could negatively affect us.
By the time the Christmas party came around, I was hopeful that Caleb’s wife, Devin, knew he was stepping out or at least had the same suspicions as I did.
I looked around the ballroom for her since I remembered her from last year’s party.
She was incredibly sweet, always happily talking to everyone and never saying a bad word about anyone.
Even the people who really deserved it, like Karen in accounting or Brenden from reception.
Sade said that one of the newer associates came up to her and let them know she was passing by the balcony and heard what sounded like a very enthusiastic couple.
We headed there immediately, and what we saw still makes me sick to my stomach. She didn’t deserve this, any of this. It was a low blow and I couldn’t help it. I did something I’d never done before.
I intervened.
Caleb cleared his throat like he had a nervous twitch and that would get it out.
I watched as Amber laid out all the evidence on the table before these two morons.
The surveillance footage stills, the text messages from both of them to each other during office hours.
The final damning piece was the Instagram message from Becky’s personal account admitting the baby she’s pregnant with was Caleb’s.
His eyes bugged out of his head, staring at that photo like it was the first time he’d seen it.
He stared at it so long I thought he was in a staring contest with the face in the photo.
When he finally looked at her, he was white.
Ghostly, ghastly, white. The shock quickly wore off, replaced by fury and rage towards the woman sitting next to him. His whole face went dark.
“We had sex for the first time Saturday,” His voice was hard, stating facts to us, but burning his glare right through her, “There’s no fucking way you’re pregnant with my kid.
” We looked from him to her, all four of us, like we were at a tennis match watching them lob jabs and information back and forth.
I wish I had popcorn.
She smiled at him like he hung the stars, reaching out to touch his face.
He backed away before her hand could touch him, looking horrified, most likely at how calm she was being.
Like she was something foul he wanted nowhere near him.
She was so calm, so serene, that when she spoke that I almost felt on edge.
Almost.
“Caleb, honey. We hooked up weeks ago-” She tried to smooth-talk him, her voice trying to be softer than she looked.
“No! No! Saturday night was the first and only time between us, Becky!” His eyes were ablaze with denial, shock, worry, and anger. It was like he was trying to do the math to make sure. He spun to face the four of us, declaring to each of us, locking eyes down the line as he went.
“There’s no way that is mine! I’ve never slept with her before Saturday at the Christmas party!
Honest to God! I was weak and we might have kissed and made out a few times, but I never slept with her before Saturday.
She sucked my dick in the supply closet while I was waiting in line for drinks when they called last call before dinner. ”
“Actually…” she drawled out, looking from us to Caleb, biting her lip. Probably thought she looked cute or something. Kid didn’t even know she looked fucking stupid. Definitely a ‘pick me’ girl.
Eww. She just sat there, trying to look as sad as possible. And she was selling it. She looked like she was actually getting under some skin.
Until she opened her mouth and started talking.
“Well, I helped you to the bathroom when we were out for drinks one night. Team building and all that. And, I kind of took you to the bathroom at the back of the bar. You were so drunk that you thought you were going to be sick. So, at first, it was just trying to take care of you. But you thought I was your wife and you wanted to…you know.” She blushed like it was a fond memory, while Caleb looked like he was going to be sick all over the room.
“I tried to stop you, but you told me not to fight it. That you wanted me. So, I helped you take your pants off and let you fuck me against like, every surface in there.”
Watching Caleb as she talked, his face drained of color, confusion written all over his face. He got quiet for a moment, something akin to realization dawning on him before asking in a trembling voice.
“Wait. I know what night you’re talking about.
I genuinely thought that Devin was there.
That I slept with my wife. Are you telling me that you took advantage of me?
While I was drunk and thought you were someone else?
That I thought you were my wife?! You fucked me in that state?
!” His voice had raised to a shouting level.
My aide sent the message to security to come in.
They were standing outside to wait to escort them both out of the building.
They weren’t expecting this, but this is what they were getting.
“I didn’t take advantage of you,” her tone dripping in denial and defensiveness, “You wanted to have sex. You told me to stop playing so hard to get! So, we did.”
His jaw dropped, arms crossed as he sarcastically, indignantly, huffed out a response.
“I apparently wanted to fuck my wife! I don’t remember much that night!”
She smirked. Wait.
“Just that we drank. I had sex with Devin, and passed out. That’s what I thought happened!”
“You drank a lot,” she shrugged one shoulder, looking away like she wanted to change the subject.
Security came in, breaking the tension. They stood in front of the doors as they closed them and waited.
Caleb looked at her, then like he was trying too hard to remember that night.
I knew. I knew that poor fucker would never recall those memories. Not with her behavior.
The tits on this one. I swear. Thank fuck it’s all been recorded.
“The last thing I remember is you coming back to the table with a tray of shots. Mine was the first one you passed out. It wasn’t something I usually drank so I wanted to trade it…and…you stopped me,” his face turned serious, then back to shock, then confusion again.
He’s going to burn out his brain in one day.
I looked at Amber and she looked furious.
She nodded at Sade and she stepped out. She looked at me to make sure I knew what was going on.
I did; I nodded. This turned dark, quick, and it needed to be handled.
Now. Especially because this happened on a night out with coworkers, one called ‘team building’.
Son of a bitch.
We needed statements from all of the people there that night, and footage from the restaurant if it was still there. Thankfully we had pictures that Devin sent Amber and me.
This was going to be a hell of an update for them later.