Chapter 41 Chapter 41
Violet
It took me a minute to figure out who he was referring to. He had only called one person a bastard with such a distasteful voice.
Elijah.
“None of your business.”
It seemed that he wanted to talk more but I heard Nicole’s voice from the other end.
“Nate, where the hell did you keep my Chanel bag? It was right here!”
“Coming babe!” Nate shouted and warned me.
“Sort out the mess if you don't want me to forward that video to Dane.”
No way was I stepping in the pack again.
“Tell me what you want and I will give you all the information right away.”
Nate sounded surprised by those words.
“You can’t. There are hundreds of things that need to be reworked and missing files, pending progress reports…”
He began but I cut him off.
“The tax treaties are saved in my desk computer’s folder named ‘Tax Q1’, you will also find the previous quarters soft copies in adjacent folders, there was just one trade policy to be renewed with a southern pack and that has been sitting in your inbox since last Tuesday. What more? Aah, the physical copies of all the files are also placed in the left most drawer of my desk, the entire section to be specific. Need anything else?”
For a second, Nate didn’t reply so I wondered if the line got disconnected.
“Hello? You there?”
“You…you remember all of that? Just off the top of your head?”
“Yeah? I was working on it for years.”
Nate sounded confused. “But I thought we had renewed all trade policies…”
I nodded. “We had. The last one was pending and you were supposed to sign it that day…”
I wanted to say ‘when you threw me out’ but instead said, “...well doesn’t matter. Do you need anything else?”
Again Nate fumbled while I could hear Nicole shouting in the background again, this time fussing over some expensive sandals and a couture dress.
“Shit Violet, I…thought Derek was doing everything.”
Was he amazed that I had really been working and not sleeping around like he readily believed?
I couldn’t stop my laughter.
“Your beta and you were busy traveling to other packs most of the time so no wonder you both know anything.”
“But then how did you manage it all, Violet? I…”
His tone softened for the first time but I was in no mood to talk to him longer than necessary.
“I guess that's all you needed. And the next time you try to dangle that video threat in front of me, I might as well declare it in front of Dane or whoever you are signing a deal with that you know nothing about your pack’s business so I hope we never talk or see each other ever again.”
“No, Violet, just…”
I disconnected sharply, and could feel the anger still bubbling inside of me.
My phone rang and I received it angrily. “Listen Violet, there is this upcoming meeting where I need the data of the last five…”
“Everything is in your mails, I used to send you weekly, monthly progress reports on all ongoing tasks. Did you ever bother to check it?”
Irritation bristled through me. He had never bothered to check whatever I was doing, never looked deep into any processes and yet accused me of sleeping around.
“I…” Nate turned speechless for a second and part of me wanted to continue talking more but realized there was no point in doing so.
“If you keep calling me, I will change my number again.” I warned and almost threw the phone on the wall in front of me.
He was not a part of my life anymore. And my heart had no business getting so worked up about past stuff.
But even a small part of my logical thinking couldn’t help but realize just how much I did without so much as receiving a thanks.
‘Focus on your future career’ I reminded myself and took a few calming breaths.
I feared he would give me a call again or try to trick me into doing something but thankfully, the phone didn’t ring.
Deciding to take that as a sign that he would stop blackmailing me, I went to the bathroom to splash some cool water on my face.
With renewed vigor, I sat in front of my laptop and started researching the latest designs and trends in the jewellery industry.
Dane wanted something original but not weird or tacky. While researching, I noticed all jewellers followed similar designs, patterns and stone work.
A few tried launching a small collection now and then but those in high demand were the regular designs just with costlier diamonds and metals.
I sighed. Pulling out the sketch both Dane and Mr Stratford had liked, I stared at it for a long time, wondering what drew their attention to it.
And then grabbed a pencil to start sketching. I had no specific idea in mind but somehow my fingers found a mind of their own.
Instead of the usual necklaces, my fingers started to draw an intricate headpiece that could be worn as a tiara and had small chains that looped in curls towards the back of the head.
Next, I chose to draw a delicate bracelet with wings, a necklace with a wolf face etc. I wasn’t even sure where I was drawing hte inspiration from but for hours, I kept sketching one thing after the other.
A few hours later, there was a knock on the door and I shouted “Come in”
The door opened and the maid walked in with the food mom had promised to cook for me. My stomach rumbled and I thanked her before hungrily starting to gobble down everything.
I rubbed a hand over my belly in satisfaction and resumed working. Even though my hands hurt, my imagination was flowing.
Sometime later, mom knocked on the door.
“Violet, are you awake?”
“Yeah, mom I didn’t doze off even after a full stomach.”
Mom entered my room and smiled. “Good, I just wanted to check if my daughter wasn’t sulking alone and….”
She stopped abruptly upon seeing the pages lying all around.
Mom stepped closer and picked one of the sketches I had drawn. I was beaming at her.
“How does it look? Great right? I will also create digital mockups later though I am not very good at it.”
However, Mom kept staring at the sketch and then browsed through all the others lying on my desk.
“How…how did you come up with these designs?”
I shrugged. “It just came to me. My imagination is just overflowing right now.”
However, Mom immediately closed the door and windows.
And then without any warning, set the sketches on fire.
“Mom!!”
I shrieked and jumped forward to rescue my hard work but she grabbed me by the shoulders and wouldn’t let me go near the burning mess.
Only when the papers were burnt to crisp and the smoke made my eyes watery did she open the windows and door to let the smoke out.
“Why did you do that?” I asked, coughing violently.
“For your safety.”