Chapter 245: Heel on the Dirty Rat

MARITA

The next morning

I sat at the small desk Lucius had set up for me right inside his office, trying my best to look like I belonged here. The big glass windows showed the entire city skyline, but I couldn’t focus on the view. My eyes kept darting to Cassandra at her desk just outside the glass wall.

She was typing so fast on her computer, fingers flying like magic. Every time she answered the phone, her voice was smooth and professional. She made everything look so easy.

I hated how small she made me feel.

"Salope arrogante”, I thought in my head, biting the inside of my cheek. Acting like she own the place just because she can type fast.

Lucius had asked me to help organize some confidential files, physical ones that couldn’t go through the normal system. I was good at organizing. Back at the orphanage, I used to sort medicine, clothes, and school books for all the children without any computer. So I worked quietly, making neat piles and labeling everything carefully in my best handwriting.

Every time I had to bring something to Cassandra for checking, she would give me that sweet-but-mean smile.

“Oh, sweetie, you wrote the dates in the wrong format again,” she said politely, sliding the paper back to me. “We use DD/MM/YYYY here, not the island way. It’s okay, you’ll learn… eventually.”

I smiled back, even though I wanted to pour coconut oil on her perfect hair.

“Tank you, Cassandra. Mi will fix it.”

Inside my head I was cursing in Bislama and French at the same time.

But I kept working. Anything Lucius asked me to do, I did it well and fast. When he came out of a meeting and saw the neat stacks on my desk, he gave me that small, rare smile and said, “Good work, little bird.”

That was enough for me.

Later in the afternoon, Cassandra called me over with that same fake-sweet voice.

“Marita, darling, could you take these contracts up to the 28th floor? Legal needs them signed today. The elevator is just down the hall.”

I nodded, taking the thick folder. “Okay. Mi go now.”

As I walked to the elevator, I could feel her eyes on my back. I straightened my sundress and held my head high.

The elevator was already full when I stepped in. I smiled politely at the people inside and moved to the corner, holding the folder against my chest. Some staff smiled back at me, they were starting to recognize me as “Lucius’s girl.”

Then I noticed him.

A man in a suit, standing right behind a young female staff member. His phone was in his hand, but not up where normal people look at phones. It was down low, angled under the woman’s short skirt. He had a creepy little smile on his face as he recorded.

My blood boiled instantly.

In Vanuatu we called men like this man blong pipia, trash men. Dirty, sneaky, worthless.

The girls in front were chatting and laughing, completely unaware.

The elevator dinged on the 18th floor. People started filing out. The creep waited until almost everyone was gone, still smiling like he had won something.

As he stepped out, I stuck my leg out at the last second.

THUD.

He tripped hard, face-planting between the elevator and the hallway floor. His phone flew out of his hand and skidded across the tiles.

I stepped forward calmly and brought my heel down on the phone.

CRACK.

The screen shattered under my foot.

He looked up at me, stunned and furious. “You bitch! What the fuck?!”

People turned to stare and he scrambled up, face red with anger, phone shattered in his hand.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” he shouted, stepping toward me.

I didn’t flinch.

I slapped him hard across the face with the thick folder I was carrying. The sound echoed down the hallway.

“Yu wan dirty creep!” I snapped in Bislama, then switched to English so everyone could understand. “Filming under woman skirt like dirty rat. Yu no shame? Yu mother no teach yu respect?”

The girls in the elevator gasped. One of them covered her mouth in horror.

“You crazy whore..!”

He swung at me.

I dodged easily, years of running around the orphanage chasing naughty children had made me quick. I turned fast and kicked him hard in the back of his knee. He staggered forward and fell again.

Girls around us were gasping, some cheering.

Before he could get up, a deep, cold voice cut through the hallway like ice.

“What’s going on here?”

I turned.

Lucius stood at the end of the hallway, tall, dark, and terrifyingly composed. His eyes locked on the man on the floor, then slowly moved to me.

The creep froze.

I straightened my dress, breathing hard, still holding the folder like a weapon.

Lucius walked forward slowly, his presence making the entire floor go silent.

“Marita,” he said, voice low but carrying. “Are you alright?”

I nodded, still breathing hard with anger. “Yes. This man was filming under a woman’s skirt in the elevator. Mi no let am.”

Lucius looked at the creep like he was something stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

“Security,” he said calmly. “Take him.”

Two guards appeared almost instantly. The man started shouting as they dragged him away.

Lucius turned back to me. His eyes softened just a fraction as he looked me up and down, checking if I was hurt. Then he reached out and gently brushed a curl behind my ear.

“You handled that well, little bird,” he murmured, only for me to hear.

I smiled up at him, still a little fired up.

“Mi no like dirty men,” I whispered back.

Lucius’s lips twitched almost a smile.

“Come back to the office,” he said, placing a hand on my lower back. “I think you’ve had enough excitement for one morning.”

As we walked away, I could feel everyone staring.

And for the first time since I started working here, I didn’t feel small.

I felt powerful.