76. A Set-up
The employees were in a frenzy, most of them shaking in fear of what the woman was about to do.
“Madam, please calm down,” Heidi called out to her. “Killing yourself will only worsen matters. We are doing our best to find your husband.”
“It’s a lie!” The woman yelled. “You are doing nothing. Aren’t you also a worker in this company? You’re all a bunch of hypocrites! There must be a reason why you decided to shut my husband up by getting rid of him. He knows all your dirty secrets, which you don’t want the people to know.”
Heidi’s eyes darted across the wide area.
Phone cameras were up, and the employees watched with bated breaths.
“Ms. Olsen, you said before that the finance department’s manager’s wife was trying to play a game, It doesn’t seem so, I guess,” Isla said in a crestfallen tone, sympathizing with the woman.
“Don’t conclude yet, Isla,” Heidi’s narrowed eyes were fixed on the middle -aged woman. “Something fishy is going on.”
The woman’s cries filled the whole area, and she gripped the railing. “You are all bad people. My husband went missing the moment that new CEO arrived. Wherever she is, you must tell her that she won’t get away with killing my husband! Once I turn into a ghost, I’ll haunt her forever!”
Confusion flashed in Isla’s eyes. She stepped close to Heidi and whispered, ” This is strange. She doesn’t seem to know that you’re the new CEO,” “I know, right?” Heidi nodded, staring at the woman.
“Well, whether she knows or she doesn’t, we must stop her from jumping. This brand’s future is at stake, Ms. Olsen.”
The other employees kept yelling out to her to come down.
Heidi tapped her chin, her scrutinizing eyes studying each of the woman’s actions. Her hands were shaking as she gripped the railings, and beads of sweat trickled down her neck.
The woman also looked deadly pale.
“We don’t need to tell her to come down. She might do that on her own,” Heidi said, an almost invisible smile forming on her lips.
“What do you mean, Ms. Olsen?” Isla frowned.
The other employees standing next to them also looked confused. No one dared to step close to the crazy woman, afraid that it would frighten her to jump.
Heidi, however, stepped forward.
“Ms. Olsen! No!” Isla gasped.
The other employees covered their mouths, watching with widened eyes and bated breaths.
“Y-You, what do you want to do?” Seeing Heidi approaching, the woman shifted uncomfortably on the fence.
“I just want to borrow your phone.” While speaking, Heidi grabbed the phone sitting beside the woman, not giving her a chance to react.
On the phone’s screen was an ongoing video call with two familiar faces.
“Ah, no! Give it back!” Wailing loudly, the woman jumped down from the rooftop, trying to grab the phone.
Heidi paused the video call. She held the phone out of her reach, showing the screen to everyone. “I have to say, you are a great actress.”
All her facade vanished. The woman lost her demeanor, her expression paler than before.
“Well, isn’t that the manager of the finance department on the screen?” One employee exclaimed.
“The husband she has been searching wide and far for.”
“Did this woman just fool us?”
“It seems while she was causing a drama, her husband has been watching.”
“What is going on?”
“Isn’t Ms. Lilian Olsen also on the video call?”
“Wait, this isn’t a setup, right?”
The employees’ words weren’t whispers, they were loud and clear, exposing all the woman’s intentions.
Heidi shook her head, handing the phone back. “So Lilian ordered you to do this.”
“N-No. Y-You didn’t see anything.” The woman fiddled with her hands, avoiding everyone’s gaze.
“How could you say that? We have recorded everything,” yelled one of the employees. “The authorities will surely enjoy dealing with criminals like you.”
The woman lowered her head in shame.
“You know, I already had an inkling before that you were up to no good. So Lilian set you up for this.”
The police arrived while Heidi continued speaking. “How disappointing. I wanted us to talk this out rationally, but you were too impatient, taking this huge risk. How much did Lilian pay you?”
Heidi didn’t expect the woman to act again so soon and in this way. She’d thought she might only come again and make a ruckus just like the other times.
“Officers, please take her away.”
The police came forward and handcuffed the woman.
The once loud woman whose screams could reach the sky now appeared mute.
She lowered her head in shame while the police pulled her out of the place.
The employees gathered around Heidi.
“Ms. Olsen, that was brave. That woman almost fooled us.”
“She even had the guts to bring hooligans here last time.”
“So it’s all a setup.”
“A setup for what though?” Most of the employees were confused.
Heidi stepped out of the crowd, her hands folded behind her back. “While we work hard to revive StriveStyle Co., other people’s mission is to tarnish its reputation.”
“If the news got out that a woman attempted to jump from the rooftop because her husband was working here and got missing, StriveStyle Co. would never find a place to hide its head,” Isla mumbled. “It seems those people don’t want to back down, Ms. Olsen.”
Isla looked devastated, thinking how those same people had once worked for the brand.
“Well now that we have the evidence, the situation will turn around in our favor,” a male employee spoke up.
“I will publish this on the internet immediately! Ha, those hypocrites will soon meet their downfalls.”
In a few hours, the news spread out on the internet.
There were many shocked comments as well as angry comments online.
“So StriveStyle Co. isn’t going down because the brand is fake. There are traitors in that company.”
“Such a small brand had to face so much backlash. People are wicked, aren’t they?”
“Greedy people will stop at nothing to achieve their aims. I hope the authorities deal with them.”
“StriveStyle Co. isn’t that bad. I heard that its former CEO looted money and ran away.”
“The new CEO seems to be a hard- working person. Who is she?”
“I don’t know who she is, but what I know is that the criminals shouldn’t go unpunished.”
“They must all be arrested for trying to defame the brand in such a cruel way.”
“Way to go, StriveStyle Co.! You must kick the enemies in their butts.”
