Chapter 17

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"Is she really going to do it? Is it true that she's really suing Randoil and the chairman?"

It was the same subject over and over again. Somehow, every staff at Everyday news never lost interest in starting a gossip about her situation every day. It was barely noon yet and there they were, in the middle of preparing for a live broadcast, talking about it again.

"I guess so, I mean there was a statement. I even heard that Rafael Okonkwo would be in charge of the case, against his father." The second woman told the rest of them as they listened to her attentively.

"I don't understand, I thought she had an affair with his son? Is she really making him go against his father? Is he really going to fight his father and throw him in jail because of a woman?" One of them responded, with a sound of disgust in her voice.

"I thought the apapa case happened a long time ago, and they already found the culprit?"

"Hmm, apparently, the man they threw in jail isn't the real culprit."

"Are you saying the chairman framed someone else and made him spend 17 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit?"

"I doubt that he didn't commit it." The first woman said. "Come on, we've seen how the chairman is with people, he has saved hundreds of lives and sponsored the treatment of several sick people single-handedly. We all know how much of a giver he is, do we really think he's capable of doing something so terrible?" She bit her lip and leaned closer to the small circle of women. "I think this is an intentional ploy to bring the Okonkwos down, to bring the chairman down, manipulation."

"Bring him down?" The second lady asked with concern all over her face. "Why would she do that? Isn't she engaged to his son? Rafael? The rich lawyer?"

"I heard a rumor from someone I know whose cousin works at the Okonkwo mansion, I heard that the chairman was never in support of her relationship with his son. I'm guessing that is why she's trying so hard to turn his son against him. Apparently, Rafael is head over heels for her and would do anything she asks him to."

"Are you sure it's not juju?" One of them said. "Are you guys sure she doesn't have him under some spell? What's that word again, that thing those women sell online.....kayamata? Spells for men."

"You think she's using kayamata on Rafael Okonkwo?"

"Of course!" The first said with certainty in her voice. "I mean, look at all the sacrifices he's making for her, even went as far as buying her the company because she asked for it, and he is even playing the role of a father to her daughter. Why else would he be doing all of this? It makes no sense, why would he turn against his father and want to put him in jail if he wasn't under her spell?"

One of the women gasped and snapped her fingers at the realization that there might have been some truth in what the lady had said.

"Oh my goodness, you're right! I heard these charms work so well. I know someone that is using it on this business man, he got her a house recently. I heard that women use it these days to put men under their control, make them do whatever it is they want. Oh my god, you think the director is someone who would do something like that?"

"That's the only reasonable explanation. I don't think any man in his right senses would be so madly in love to choose a single mother over his own family, especially a man as diligent as Rafael Okonkwo. Maybe she's doing all these things to punish the chairman or turn his son against him."

The women gasped and placed their hands over their mouth in shock.

"Oh my goodness, this is even more scary than I thought. Do things like this really happen? Are there really wicked women like this?"

"Who would have thought? I always knew she was pretentious. I knew she had some sort of evil under all that timidness and quietness. It's always the quiet ones."

"Aren't we all jumping into conclusions?" The last woman asked. "We are really not sure that any of these assumptions are the case. For all we know, there was also a statement released about her suing him for the murder of her parents."

Scoff.

"Her parents? Why would the chairman want to kill her parents?"

"Her mother used to work at Randoil. According to what I heard, she and the chairman had gotten really close, I even heard she was sleeping with him."

One of the women gasped.

"Her mother had an affair with the chairman?"

The lady nodded.

"A friend who works at Randoil told me. It happened a long time ago, there were even photos of them leaving hotels back then. I heard that she wanted the chairman to take her in as a second wife, or divorce his wife for her and he refused so she threatened him, she said she would tell the world about the secrets of Randoil and on her way to the press, she got into an accident."

The women gasped.

"Oh my goodness, really?"

"Yes, and now, she's trying to blame Randoil and the chairman for it with these ridiculous claims."

"Oh my goodness, so her mother was that kind of a person? The kind to want to break up a happy home?"

"I always wondered why she never got married for so long, or in a relationship." She gasped and clapped her hands. "That's right! Wasn't she once married into that family? The one where she was accused of killing her husband?"

"You mean the Andrews? I thought the brother killed him?"

"At this point, we don't even know anything anymore. Nothing makes sense, she has a lot of drama around her and somehow, she ends up destroying all the families she goes into. I'm so scared for the Okonkwos,
they really looked like a great family, too bad that she's about to ruin their lives too."

"Mnn Mnn." The ladies heard someone clear their throat behind them and it made them turn quickly in fright, and got even more frightened when they saw Olivia standing right there, beside the acting director who had his hands behind his back, staring at them weakly.

They knew better than to stand there during prep hours, gossiping about their literal employer. It would be a lie if Olivia said she was shocked by the few things she had heard by the time she got there. It was useless making a fuss out of it too when they were just saying the exact same things everyone else thought, including the director. She just let her eyes stay on them while they tried so hard to make sure they didn't make any eye contact with her. She could sense their fear and how embarrassed they were that they had been caught.

"I am sure you all were not paid to just stand around and engage in cheap gossips." The chubby man finally told them. "Why are you chit chatting instead of prepping for the broadcast!" He raised his voice so loudly that even Olivia shook in fright a bit, the ladies too.

"We are terribly sorry sir," one of them said

"Well if you're sorry, you'd do more working than talking, get to your posts immediately."

Olivia watched how the women scurried away from them as fast as they could. She watched how each of them rushed to the rest of the crew, letting out a weak sigh. The man beside her forced a laughter as he slowly turned to her, trying to be as friendly as possible.

"Don't pay any attention to them madam." He told her, being as respectful as he could even though he was the acting director of the company. "You know how women are with gossiping, but believe me, I would make sure they get punished for what they-"

"You don't have to." Olivia said.

"Ehn?"

She slowly turned to him and stared at him, her eyes were dull and she had a lot to think about other than some silly gossip.

"Is it okay if I take the rest of the afternoon, and tomorrow off?" She asked him.

"Ehn?"
She smiled nervously.

"It's my daughter's birthday tomorrow and I promised her that we could have a small celebration with family-"

"Oh," he said. "Of course." Like she really had to ask. "Take as much time as you need."

Olivia looked away and nodded slowly while he chuckled nervously. He had something to say, he made it so obvious that he did, but didn't know how to say it. He tapped his feet nervously on the ground.

"Did you consider it?" He asked her. "Did you consider my request?"

She slowly turned to him.

What request was he talking about? Was it the one where he wanted her to be on screen? Anchoring the evening broadcasts? She wasn't sure. Olivia didn't think she was ready to be on camera and it didn't matter how many times he tried to persuade her into doing it, she just didn't like the sound of it. She already had a lot of attention on her at the moment and anchoring the news was another kind of attention that she didn't want to bring to herself.

She knew how much fame everyday News had gotten since the trial case had started. Since everyone was suddenly interested in her life again, and she was refusing all demands for interviews and what nots. The public was monitoring her every move to make assumptions for themselves, and that included even her work place.

She had barely started working at the station for a year, as far as she knew, she was just an intern and wasn't so good at covering live broadcasts yet so she didn't know why the board were so adamant to put her on screen even when they only let the professionals take the broadcasts. But she knew one thing for a fact, and it was that anchoring the news was going to sky rocket the views of the station. Everyone, every blogger and news media were looking forward to her saying or doing something that was going to give credit and value to all the silly stories they had come up with about the situation, and the board of directors were dying to feed into that crack, and opportunity to increase the popularity of the company. Especially after she was specifically advised not to by her legal team, she knew the impact of saying anything that could ruin her chances in court.

"I know how you feel about this subject and I hate to be the one to keep roping you into it, but the station has been struggling lately, and this whole situation with you, ever since it started, has gotten us the most patronage from viewers it has ever had in years, within the last four months. Our competitions are hungry to take our spot and I just think anchoring the company's anniversary live broadcast with Salome on Tuesday would be good for everyone. The board has even agreed to let you have ten percent of all the streaming revenues if you agree to it."

Olivia sighed

"You don't have to say anything that you don't want to, if you'd like, we could have the script handed to you so you could go over it just to make sure that nothing about you or your personal life was included."

A live broadcast, she wasn't entirely sure she could.

"We would specifically make sure that everything goes well and you wouldn't be at the risk of giving out any information that you do not want to. I could have the bullet points and briefings drafted up and sent to your mail before that."

But she knew one thing for sure, she had to leave and if she didn't give him an answer that he wanted at that point, he wasn't going to stop bothering her about it.

Her phone beeped and she slowly lowered her head to Tony's message that had popped up on her screen. He had promised to come pick her up from work so they could grab a cake for Grace's birthday since Amy wasn't available to.

Tony had been extremely reliable and there for her and Grace the last four months. What she didn't know was that most of the reasons he also cared to always be there for her and Grace was so he could also spend some time with Amy too, and it was okay.

"I would give it some thought." She said in a hurry. She didn't want to keep Tony waiting and she knew she was going to have to if she didn't give him some sort of a satisfactory reply.

She turned quickly and started to make for the door.

"Thank you!" The man said from behind her, a huge smile covering his whole of his face.


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