 Recap Â
   Ms Jones had read out his schedules for the day, he gave her some notes and other files to finish before he attends the meeting. Lee and Ben walked in with some files.
   Ms Jones asked, “Sir, there was a resignation from an employee without notice, should we file charges?”
Henry scrunched his eyebrows and asked “Who’s that?”
“Ms Juliet Rozana”
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   Ben and Lee froze in their spot. Henry could not believe it, so he got the papers to re-check, his mind went blank.
“What the hell is happening?”
Henry lost his cool,
“I just want to know WHYYY?” He screamed pushing away all the files from his table.
“Call Mr Smith immediately”
Mr Smith came in next few minutes. Henry’s table was a mess, it’s so unusual thought Mr Smith.
Henry gave the resignation paper to Smith.
“First I want to know, did she get drunk in the party?”
“Yes, Mr Kingston. I noticed when she was walking unsteadily so I have asked Mason to inform you and drop her”
“Call Mason” Henry said in a stern voice.
   When Mason came in, “What happened when you dropped her that night?” Henry’s voice was very angry.
Mason looked at Ben in confusion and mouthed ‘who’.
He whispered ‘Julie’.
“She answered a phone call from a person named Chels that she was going back home and will call tomorrow”
“Chels?” Henry asked.
“Chelsea, her colleagues here” Mr Smith clarified.
Henry looked at Mason to continue.
“She asked me how long have I been working for you and I said more than a decade, she asked whether I like working for you, I said yes, and in turn I asked about her job, she said she love this job and it’s an honour to be an employee here and when she said this, her face turned sad”
Henry was intently listening to every detail, he said.
“Seems like she did not like quitting this job” Ben stated.
“Exactly” Henry said.
Lee quickly checked his phone.
Ben asked, “what’s up?”
“I think I have seen Ms Rozana’s name on visitors registry in Kingston’s Manor on Saturday, I’ll have to confirm with the footage” Lee said.
“Bring it up” Henry motioned him to give the phone. He clicked the entrance camera footage and gave it to Henry.
By noon, it was Julie who entered the mansion like a feared rabbit, in next 30 minutes, she dejectedly came out and exited the mansion.
“So it was Him after all? Wasn’t He?” Henry said the obvious, so the others stood there silently.
Henry’s anger knew no bounds, he lifted the heavy vase and thrown it on his glass table which had broken into million pieces and shattered all around.
Mr Smith wanted to pacify him, but did not know how. They all know that he was hurt and felt betrayed yet they were all helpless. He pushed the files cabinet to the floor, got into his personal room and locked it.
   It was almost noon, when Ben called Smith, “he did not come out yet, shall we call Ryan to talk to him?”
“I was worried all morning, we shall not wait anymore, I will call him now”
In next one hour, Ryan came to the office, he knocked on his door, no response.
“Henry, Ryan here, open the door” the door lock clicked open.
Ryan was surprised, he entered his room. Ben was relieved that Henry was physically not hurt.
   “Henry, You are in bad shape, what’s up?”
He told him all that happened from the party till her resignation.
“Why did she do this to me?” Henry broke into tears. Ryan let him express his anguish and vent out all his emotions.
“What is Sr Kingston’s motive behind this? why did he want her out?” Ryan asked.
“What so ever, I don’t care about anything at all, all I need to know is why didn’t she come to me when she had a problem?
Why didn’t she feel safe with me?
Am I not worthy of her trust?
Did I not give her the comfort of sharing?
Did she think I am not capable of solving her issues?
Have I ever let her down?
Did I fail to protect her?” Henry was broken. He took some time, he cannot control his anger, he roared, “why did she run away from me? Did she have no faith in me?
“Henry, listen, we may not know the reasons until we hear her side of the story” he sighed.
   There was a knock at the door, both of them came back to his office, which was cleaned and replaced with a new table.
Miss Jones brought a small envelope and handed it to Henry.
   He opened and found a pen-drive with a note, “huge price has been paid for this video, keep it safe”
There was no senders name. He played it on the laptop and it was his first birthday video with his parents’ Beautiful message.
Ryan had a smile watching it. He took the note and asked,
“Huge price for this video? Who would pay for Your video?”
“Julie had this pen-drive at the party, I saw her take it out of her clutch” he pointed to the pearl clutch.
“From whom did she get this?” Ryan asked in confusion.
Henry found the missing puzzle piece,
“Of course, from none other than the great, Philip Kingston, my grandfather”
Henry banged his table in aggression.
   “Now I understand why you like her so much, she gave up her job for this? How can she be so selfless?” Ryan said in surprise.
   Henry took the clutch and carried away in Julie’s thoughts.
“Why are you having her clutch?” questioned Ryan.
“She left it in my car that night, I was going to give it to her in the office today, but a lot has happened behind my back”
He opened the clutch and found a small gift box with “To Mr Kingston” and a butterfly drawn below that similar to the one on the note with Soda on the party.
   Henry became curious, so he opened it quickly. He was stunned at the beautifully lying bracelet, he took it out and observed it carefully. Ryan said, ” the stone texture looks different”
“It’s the lava stones that has medicinal and spiritual value, she must have got it from the camp” Henry guessed.
“Look at the charm, a crown for
Mr ‘King‘ston” Ryan emphasised the King in his name.
Henry smiled for the first time since morning.
   Henry remembered Julie’s words, “I will get you a meaningful gift, look forward to it” but why didn’t she give it to me that day,he thought. They both met in the Private lounge, she could have given it to me, why did she take it back with her? He then looked at his diamond bracelet, now he realised the meaning behind Julie’s elusive look at the lounge, she did notice his bracelet for quite a few seconds that day.
   She always had this inferiority complex and lack of self-esteem so she draw a line for herself and consider that she is not worthy of him. That must be the reason that she decided to quit, she always wanted to stand in the crowd and watch him from afar, when will she realise her self worth that she has the most beautiful soul, one of the richest personalities and the kindest of hearts, which makes her the most desirable woman in this world.
   He took off his bracelet immediately and slide it on the table. Ryan got it and raised his eyebrows in surprise, “the rare Flawless(FL) diamonds??
“Yes, gifted by the Wilsons” Henry said nonchalantly.
   “So what are you going to do?” Ryan asked seriously.
“Nothing” Henry replied at once.
Ryan thrown his hands up in the air at his unexpected response.
“The ball is not in MY court” Henry shrugged.
“I know you’re hurt but ego does not build any good relationship Henry” Ryan reasoned with him.
“Seriously Ryan? It was not MY decision to quit or go away”
“Also i have been kept in dark about this, Do you think it’s acceptable? Tell me, Whats my fault in this?”
   Ryan knew that Henry had a point however he also doesnt want his friend to suffer. Just then he received a message, “Oh,I got to go, I will call you when I come back from shoot” Ryan left then, allowing him some time would make the ripples settle so that he would think straight and come to a conclusion,Ryan believed.
   Henry placed the bracelet back in the box, put it in his jacket and walked out of his office. It was already dark, he got down to the finance department which was dimly lit with no one around. He walked past each cabin and stopped at Julie’s cabin, every thing was in place, the stationeries, notepad, files, some finance magazines and a Quote….
Henry stood still reading the quote, he pulled out the bracelet box and thought for a while. He looked back at the quote once again and left with a faint smile.
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Notes
*Last chapter had good response, I am so gratefulâ£ï¸thank you each one of you who had given votes and commented. I got to see many silent readers🤗
*You can expect the next update by July 6ðŸ‘ðŸ»
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