Page 71 of Return on Love

“You mean the funds your ex-boyfriend, or shall I say secret boyfriend, raised illegally?”

“There was nothing illegal in what he did. If anyone’s, it was Bernard’s fault. Don’t you know Bernard told James to go ahead with the app? Richard only used it to raise some funds for his business.”

“His business? Was his business glossing over CashCross financials?”

Priscilla’s eyes widened as she stood still for a moment. She stepped closer to me. “You think you’re too smart, don’t you? You and Bernard, both. I’m sorry, Eva. But it seems I can’t help you after all.” She smirks a little. “Your client has said some interesting things about you. Would you like to see them?”

She’s walking back to her desk. I have to stop her. “Ryan! He’d never say or do anything to hurt me. He’s not Bob. Not your puppy.”

She stops in her tracks and turns around, giving a cheeky smile. “Oh my, my. I didn’t know this. If I had known you have feelings for him, I’d have tried harder to make him fall on my feet. But I thought you hated him and that’s why I made Weber give the deal to you. Ah, silly me. Does he match your level of boredom in bed, or are you not there yet? I could give him a taste of LA if you like.” She licks her lips. “I won’t mind riding that stallion.”

I don’t know what gets into me, but before I know what’s happening, my palm is flying towards her face and I somehow stop it just before it makes contact with her cheek. “How dare you? You’re not even worth his fingernail. And trust me, he’s far from boring in bed and every part of his body can put Bob or Richard to shame. Trust me, I know.”

“Hah! Defending him like a loyal dog while he is ready to sell you off, just like Bob did. You’re nothing to him. You’re nothing to anybody. Just a pathetic loser. You couldn’t even say a word when you found out Bob was cheating on you. Neither could you say anything when you knew Weber was giving you a terrible deal. Y’know what? I have anything to worry about from a person who can’t even speak up for herself. No wonder Bob and now Ryan are ready to push you off the cliff.”

“You’re just sad, Priscilla. I don’t need you or anyone else to show me my worth. I don’t need some rich Strathams to get me my promotions. And as for Ryan, I know he will never hurt me.” I grit my teeth and bring my face within inches of hers. “He’ll walk through burning fire to help me and support me. So don’t get too smug.”

Priscilla stares at me for some moments and I match her gaze. That’s when I sense a shift in force and in my peripheral vision, I see Ryan. So, he’s got what he wanted.

I break my eye-contact with Priscilla.

“Time for my meeting, Eva. Get ready to be kicked out with your friend Bernard. And just so you know, I’ll make sure there’s not a firm in the country that’ll hire you after today.”

She steps back to her desk, shuts her system and lifts it up, while I open the door and walk outside. Shit! Is the call to Ryan still on? I check and thankfully he’s already disconnected the call. What a save!

He walks up to me. “Priscilla’s presentation is about to begin. You’ve emailed your deck to the partners?”

I shake my head. “I’ve got a better idea. Did you get the proof we need?”

Ryan nods. “I have the screenshot. It’s saved on Priscilla’s system for now, but I still have access to it and can send it to you if required.”

“No need for that. Let’s get this going.”

Ryan has set up his system in the same meeting room as before. He has switched on the camera on Priscilla’s laptop.

“Won’t she notice the light on the camera?”

“Unlikely. Once she starts her presentation, I don’t think she’ll be looking at her screen anymore.”

In a matter of moments, we have Priscilla’s laptop screen visible on Ryan’s laptop, and also the camera feed. “This is done. What about your presentation? How will you get it to the partners?”

“We need to freeze her display screen for a moment. You can do that, right?”

Priscilla is introducing herself and telling everyone how she started her investigation into Bernard. This is the perfect time to do my thing. I email my presentation to her.

Ryan freezes the screen and I hope she doesn’t move anywhere from the first slide for some time. I download my presentation quickly and delete the email. Then I add the screenshot Ryan has taken onto the presentation and copy my entire presentation onto hers, after the second slide. Next, we reopen the presentation, unfreeze the screen, and await the fun.

As expected, after a long-drawn speech, Priscilla finally starts with the slideshow. The second slide shows Bernard and his amazing career so far.

“Yet, this man, with such a stellar career so far, has unfortunately let us all down. I’ll show you how,” says Priscilla as she clicks to move to the next slide.

There, instead of her false claims, are screenshots of her email to James. She is taken aback for a second, but begins saying how Bernard sent that email to James asking him to send further communication to some private email id. As she moves to the next slide, it shows her email id (highlighted) with the OTP for the email id she claimed to be Bernard’s.

She hastens to the next slide. And there is CashCross balance sheet, highlighted with the newest investor, Richard King. A tense laugh escapes her lips as she tries to close the presentation, citing some error. But Ryan takes over control and blanks out her laptop screen.

“How did you do that?” I ask, awed.

But Ryan’s focus is on the presentation now. With no sound, he points the mouse pointer at the relevant parts, then onto the next screen, which shows Richard as Priscilla’s boyfriend. Through the camera, I see the partners gasping and staring at the screen.

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