Chapter 80 The Audacity
ANNA'S POV
I stepped out of my parents’ room and gently shut the door behind me.
For the first time since yesterday, my chest felt lighter. Clearing the air with them was something I didn’t know I needed this badly until it happened. At least now, there was no tension hanging between us, no unspoken doubts sitting in their eyes whenever they looked at me. That alone meant a lot.
Now that that was settled, I could finally focus on my work today.
My work required full concentration. One tiny mistake could lead to bigger problems, and right now, I can't afford distractions. I had already let too many things get into my head lately, and I wasn’t going to allow that to continue.
I walked back to my room and pushed the door open.
I barely took a few steps inside when I heard my phone buzz softly from the coffee table beside the couch. I glanced in that direction and felt my mood shift immediately.
I already knew who it was before I even picked it up.
James.
I walked over slowly, picked up my phone, and stared at the screen. Seeing his name this early in the morning irritated me more than it should have.
Seriously, this early?
Didn’t this man know how to take a hint?
I unlocked the screen and opened his message.
‘Hey, I’ve been texting you all day yesterday but you didn’t reply, and I saw you were reading the messages. Why are you leaving me on read?’
My fingers tightened around the phone.
The audacity.
Even now, he was still acting like an entitled brat, like replying to him was something I owed him. Like I didn’t have a life of my own, like my time revolved around his convenience.
For a brief second, I considered ignoring the message completely.
But I knew better.
As annoying as he was, this was still part of my plan. I couldn’t afford to mess it up now, not when everything was slowly aligning the way I wanted it to.
I let out a slow breath and scrolled down, continuing to read.
‘Anyways, I’d like to see you again today. I haven’t seen you in over two days and it’s killing me. I get the fact that I can’t come over to your place and you can’t come over to mine, so I’d like us to meet at a place where we can both be comfortable talking. My lab at my company. No one enters unless I give permission. We can talk better there because I really need to discuss something very important with you today.’
I stared at the screen for a few seconds.
Then, slowly, a small smirk appeared on my lips.
I opened the chat box and typed out a reply.
‘I would be there in one hour.’
I hit send, switched off my screen, and placed the phone back on the table.
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
Just moments ago, I had been thinking about speeding up my plans, about how I would eventually be the one to suggest going to his lab. I had even been trying to figure out how to bring it up without looking suspicious.
And now, out of nowhere, he was the one suggesting it himself.
I shook my head slightly.
He probably thought he was being smart.
He probably believed this was him slowly pulling the strings, luring me into his territory under the excuse of wanting to talk privately. In his head, inviting me to his lab must have felt like a genius move.
But no.
I wasn’t an idiot.
If he truly wanted us to talk, there were countless other places he could have suggested. Restaurants. Cafés. Quiet lounges. Even a simple walk somewhere public. But the only place he could think of was his lab.
That alone told me everything I needed to know.
He wasn’t inviting me there to talk.
He was inviting me there because he needed me.
More specifically, he needed my brain.
His real goal had nothing to do with missing me or wanting to see my face. He wanted to convince me to help him fix the drug formula issue that had been slowly destroying his credibility.
What he didn’t know was that the re-engineered chronic eczema drug formula I worked on a few days ago was already complete. Fully ready. Perfected.
I had held back on releasing it for one simple reason.
Timing.
If I released it now, it would ruin everything I was working towards.
I didn’t just want James to fall.
I wanted him to admit it.
I wanted him to use his own mouth to say he was sorry for taking credit for a formula I created. I wanted him to beg me to help him fix his mess. And when he did, I wanted every single word recorded.
Something deep down told me that today, in his lab, he might do exactly that.
And when that moment came, I would be ready.
Once I had the confession, I wouldn’t hesitate. I would release both the recording and the new drug formula at the same time. One would expose his character, the other would expose his incompetence.
That combination would destroy him in ways he wouldn’t be able to recover from.
The only part of this entire plan that made me uncomfortable was the location.
Greenleaf Med.
The same company I once worked for.
The same company where James humiliated me.
The same walls that watched me give my all, only to have my work stolen and my name erased like it never mattered.
I hated the thought of stepping back into that building.
Sure, not all the workers from five years ago were still there. People come and go. Time moves on. Even my only and closest friend there, Clara, was no longer around. I heard she moved out of the country a few years ago.
Still, the memories were attached to that place.
Walking back into Greenleaf Med didn’t sit right with me at all.
But whether it felt right or not didn’t matter.
I was going to do it anyway.
I walked over to the side of my bed and sat down slowly. The mattress dipped under my weight as I stared ahead, my thoughts drifting despite my effort to stay focused.
Out of everyone in that company, Clara was the only true friend I ever had.
She was there before everything went wrong. Before James betrayed me. Before I lost my child. Before my life spiraled into something I never saw coming.
After everything happened, things moved too fast. One problem led to another, pain stacked on top of pain, and before I knew it, I had cut off communication with almost everyone from that part of my life.
Including her.
We hadn’t spoken in over five years.
And honestly, I missed her presence more than I cared to admit.
Clara was the kind of person who listened without judging, who supported without asking for anything in return. Losing her friendship wasn’t intentional, but it was one of the many silent casualties of that period of my life.
I shook my head slightly and stood up.
There was no point dwelling on the past now. Today had a purpose, and I wasn’t going to let old memories slow me down.
I walked over to my wardrobe and began getting ready, my movements calm and deliberate. Whatever James thought was about to happen today, he was wrong.