"W-what did you say?"

"Exactly! An absolutely ridiculous thing to even write," Heather continued to rant. I swallowed as dread filled me. My fingers fumbled over the links that appeared on the screen before clicking on the entertainment news and there it was as one of the top news for the day.

'Billionaire in love with an employee?'

I quickly opened more links.

'William Illston of Illston Tech is apparently not immune to love! He bought his lastest addition to his name, Dieter & Leona in early March and we thought it was simply a business move. Who knew it was all actually part of a ploy to rekindle old flames and make his feelings known to his ex girlfriend from college. When a billionaire decides to woo you, he certainly does it stylishly!'

-Debbie Maguire

My eyes widened seeing the name at the bottom of the post and I remembered the dinner with the girls. Why would she post this? Because she believed your lies. I texted her as fast as my fingers could type.

To:

Why did you post that online?!!!

Her reply came in seconds.

From:

Your love story? Cause it needed to be shared! I know I should have asked but I knew you'd be shy. I'm sorry!♡

I dropped my phone in defeat and let out a heavy breath then ran my hands through my hair. My gaze slowly went to William's door and I asked Heather, "where is he?"

"Inside and he is so angry Ophelia. I have never seen him this way before." She frowned and my heart beat even faster. I told one stupid lie and karma caught up with me this fast? Where was she when I desperately needed her in the past? The doors to William's office suddenly opened. He stood at the threshold and when his gaze met mine, I nearly shivered.

"Heather please go prepare for the meeting with the finance team. You, come in." He gritted out and turned back into his office.

"Okay sir," Heather replied and passed me a worried glance before moving, while I silently walked towards my doom.

"Care to explain?" William stood behind his desk, an angry scowl etched on his face.

"I–"

"Imagine my surprise," he cut me off, "getting to work and I'm attacked by reporters asking me who the mystery woman is. I finally check my phone and see a post made by Debbie fucking Maguire, who is a journalist by the way. I think, well we never did clear it up with her when we saw her that afternoon but then I remember, as cynical as she can be, she would never make up stories unless she was told something. So Ophelia, care to explain why I'm on the headlines for buying a company as a romantic gesture?" He moved to the front of the long desk.

"I–"

"You what Ophelia?"

"I lied okay! I told Debbie and the others that you bought the company I work at," I sighed, "and confirmed we were back together like Debbie still thought. They turned it into a romantic gesture but I never refuted it," my voice lowered.

"Why?" He sighed.

"I don't know." I muttered.

"You don't know?" He scoffed. "Talk to Debbie to take down her post and work with my support team to have other articles removed from as many websites as possible."

For the first time in years, I wondered again, why did he hate me so much?

"Is it- is it so bad to be associated with me?" I found myself asking. His immediate response was to stare at me like my head had doubled in size and number, then he moved closer till he was directly in front of me. His gaze softened.

"Do you want to be associated with me?" He asked. I stared at him grimly, not saying a word.

"Because I don't want you to be." His features changed; they were no longer soft. Yes, this was the William I was accustomed too. He continued, "and yes it is bad for you to be associated with me. If this ever happens again, I won't be so forgiving or understanding. I can have you arrested for defamation of character."

"You're a terrible person! I–"

The doors abruptly opened and in came Lilian, looking frazzled and wide eyed. "I just saw the stories circulating around. I don't know why they did that but I will–" she paused mid sentence as she noticed me for perhaps the first time. The next few seconds that ensued, seemingly played in slow motion and I watched the dots connect in her eyes. "You, did you do this?" She raised her tablet up, glaring vehemently at me. My lips trembled but I remained silent.

"She didn't. Leave now Lilian. We will talk later." William said and she stiffly nodded, glared at me again before leaving.

"I didn't mean for this to happen. Why would I even w-want to be associated with y-you." I heard myself murming.

"Dammit," William cursed and ran his palm down his face. "Don't cry."

Cry? Was I crying? My fingers traced my cheeks, feeling the tell tale wetness.

"I-I hate you, so much William," I mumbled, "so fucking much."

He stepped closer and held my face up. His appearance was a blur through my wet eyes. This was all my fault. I should have never lied. Why was it, nothing ever seemed to go in my favour?

"As you should," his thumbs gently wiped away the wetness. "You should hate me with all you've got." He continued to wipe the treacherous tears away. "Okay?" He asked then pulled me closer till I was in his embrace. The feeling of warmth only lasted five seconds as I pulled away.

"I am sorry and I will fix it." I roughly cleared my eyes then walked out of his office. When I opened the door, Lilian was pacing the space between Heather's and my desk while Heather was just returning to hers. I closed the door and walked towards my seat.

"A gut feeling told me you might have had something to do with this," Lilian started, "I knew it when I saw you. A thirsty, do permit me to say, bitch with nothing in her head except how she can trap the boss and get a permanent paycheck."

"Lilian, stop it! She is not like that! What are you saying?" Heather exclaimed, shock evident on her face.

"You did this, say the truth." Lilian moved closer. My resolve shook and my countenance fell. Lilian's bias was false but her words hurt me nonetheless.

"Yes, I did."

"What?" Heather's head whipped over to me and her face instantly fell. The intercom on her desk buzzed and she answered.

"Mr Illston said you should go in." She relayed to Lilian who glared at me one last time before entering his office. I exhaled tiredly.

What a way to start a new week.

***

"I still can't believe she really posted that online, I'm so sorry Ophelia." Demi frowned. We were currently in a restaurant waiting for Debbie to arrive. Demi had called a few hours ago, angry and shocked after seeing Debbie's post plus other entertainment headlines and prompted we all meet up during our lunch breaks. "This whole thing probably caused a lot of problems for you and Liam,"

"About that–"

"I'm here, sorry I'm late, traffic." Debbie announced as she slid into the chair next to me. She tilted her head to the side then asked, "why the long faces?"

"Like you don't know what you've done." Demi shook her head, "Posting that online, what were you thinking?"

"I only wanted to share their cute story with the world." Debbie rolled her eyes.

"Without their permission Debbie!" Demi glared at her.

"Well I didn't expect it to blow up this much."

"You didn't expect it to blow up this much? You forget William is basically a celebrity now, did you even think about the unwanted attention he'd get from all this? This is their privacy Debs. Thank God you didn't put Ophelia's details too, things would have totally gone to shit by now." Demi continued and I patted her hand across the table in a bid to calm her down.

"It's okay D," I said then faced Debbie and sighed, "Just tell me you can take it down."

"I can," she shrugged, "I will take down the story from my page but I can't control that of the other counterfeit bloggers who stole the story and spinned their own tales."

"You know how these bloggers are, why post it in the first place?" Demi grumbled.

"Your boyfriend didn't need to send me those lawsuits by the way." Debbie said ignoring Demi.

"What lawsuits?"

"Defamation of character suits," she hmphed.

"What did you expect, a thank you?" Demi scoffed.

"That would have been nice!" Debbie exclaimed sarcastically.

"You–"

"He's not my boyfriend. We're not together." I blurted out and they both immediately went silent. "The lawsuit was probably from his PA. Just take it down before you do get thrown in jail." Before we both get thrown in jail.

"What–" Demi started but Debbie's phone rang out at that moment.

"It's my boss, I can't stay for lunch, I need to get back to work right now." She grabbed her bag and stood. "Ophelia text me and together or not, you are both still invited to my wedding. No excuses." She waved then left almost as soon as she came.

"You and Liam aren't together?" Demi asked and I slowly shook my head.

"No we aren't, we never got back together. I work for him due to a series of unfortunate events." I chuckled dryly then leaned back in my chair. "I don't know why I even lied that we were. It was stupid and immature. I'm sorry."

"Girl I want to hear more of this story but Debbie wasted half of the time and we only have like five minutes left. We really need to meet on a weekend soon."

"Yeah, I agree." I smiled lightly. We parted ways shortly after and I returned to the office. Heather wasn't around and William and Lilian had left to Illston tech. I spent the next few hours with the support team as they worked on taking down the news especially from spam blog accounts.

I was waiting for the elevator on the sixth floor, to take me back up to mine when I saw Isabella and Joanne heading my way.

"Hola, how are you?"

"Fine, how are you guys? How was your trip home Joanne?"

"It was chilled. I already miss my mom's food." She pouted and I chuckled.

"And I'm fine too, great even. I'm moving into Rafael's next two weeks and my cousin, Ramos just finished building his club and is opening it in about three weeks, you have to come for the opening night."

"That's great, congrats to your cousin. I doubt I'll be busy then so why not." I shrugged.

"Perfecta." Isabella grinned.

"Tell Heather as well." Joanne added. "We forgot to ask her last time. But are you really okay? You seem a little tired."

"It has been a super long day." I blew a breath out.

"I bet, especially with everything this morning. You can draw from some of my strength." She laughed and pulled me in for a hug I didn't know I really, really needed.

***