Chapter 126 A Childhood Trauma
Chapter 126 A Childhood Trauma
When Jacob returned to his office, he didn't see Emily in her desk. With a stern look on his face, he called Sam in.
"What has been keeping Emily so busy lately? Do you notice anything peculiar about her?" he asked Sam.
Jacob believed that Sam would know what Emily was up to since he had asked him to keep a watchful eye on the girl. The next moment, Jacob got the answer from Sam—"Everything was just as usual, Sir. But, recently, I saw Ms. Tina chatting with Ms. Emily, on more than one occasion."
"Tina?" Having guessed what was going on, Jacob frowned and hardened his look. He tapped his slender fingers on the table and said,"Keep an eye on them. We have to figure out what's going on."
'Something happened to Emily that I don't know about, ' Jacob thought, 'she looked at me peculiarly just now. And when I visited her yesterday, she was also in a state of shock as if she was hiding something from me... What the hell is wrong with her?'
Credit to his lack of patience, Jacob decided to figure it out by himself, because he knew that Emily would never bring herself to tell him the truth.
"I will do as you've said, Sir," Sam nodded at Jacob and walked off to run errands.
...
That afternoon, in an upscale café
Tina was sitting at a table, stirring a cup of coffee in a leisurely manner with an exquisite spoon between her slender fingers. There was a certain glow of happiness on her face. It was quite obvious that she was in a good mood. "I win this round. Emily had quite a reaction to that video," she chuckled, as she turned to the girl sitting beside her.
Jasmyn, who was sitting next to Tina, giggled and said,"Emily is so naive. How could she even compete with you? I'm sure she won't get the better of you again."
"You are right. With that video in my hand, she is absolutely under my control now. Tell you what, with that video, she will do whatever I ask her to do," basking under the light of her confidence, Tina smiled with pleasure because she finally managed to bring Emily to her knees. This is from NôvelDrama.Org.
According to everyone else, Emily was a confident girl who was neither overbearing nor self-effacing. However, Tina, who hated Emily's guts, only wanted to destroy her confidence and self-esteem one step at a time.
'I want to see what else Emily would do to keep Jacob's heart with her!' Tina thought as she gnashed her teeth in resentment.
Not too far away from Tina and Jasmyn, there was another lady who was sitting alone. It was Rose. She had kept herself away from the public eye for a long time, and her belly was much bigger than it was a few months ago. Although dressed rather flamboyantly, she was still nothing compared to Tina and Jasmyn; after all, the two girls were both from rich families.
So how could Rose sit here with the two princess-like girls? Because Rose was the mastermind all along. She was the one who asked Jasmyn to tell Tina about Emily's crippling fear of the dark. It was also through her that Mark was able to get the video about Emily's past.
At that moment, Rose found it difficult to keep silent any longer, so she suggested,"Ms. Tina, if you make that video public, Emily will totally freak out. Isn't it better than what you are doing now?"
"I don't need anyone else to tell me what is right or wrong," Tina glanced at Rose with the same disdainful eyes she looked at Emily with. The luxury dress Rose was wearing was vulgar in Tina's eyes.
Rose cursed in her mind, but dared not to say anything. In a cautious tone she uttered,"Never mind. It's just a suggestion."
Jasmyn interrupted them and whispered to Tina,"Come on, Tina. Rose played her role well in this game. Don't lower yourself to her level." After all, Jasmyn was the one who brought Rose to Tina, so she had to ease the awkward situation.
Tina scoffed,"Mark would have been able to discover that secret by himself, even without her help." However, in respect of her friend Jasmyn, Tina stopped offending Rose.
'She is right. Without me, Tina's brother may have taken a roundabout route, but he still would be able to find out the secret with just his outstanding interpersonal skills, ' Rose thought.
Jasmyn's eyes suddenly brightened upon hearing Mark's name. She nodded at Tina's words and said,"You are right. Your brother Mark is an excellent guy."
Since Jasmyn and Tina were good friends, they carried on talking about Mark for the rest of the time, completely ignoring Rose's presence.
It wasn't until they decided to go back home when Rose took the chance to speak up again,"Ms. Tina, can you send me a copy of that video? I hate Emily, you know, and I would be rather pleased if she had to suffer for the rest of her life."
Rose spoke from the heart; she really wanted to take a look at Emily's miserable past, and more importantly, to get a hold over Emily.
"I don't care whether you are pleased or not," said Tina. Although she was still sitting in her seat, she showed no kindness to the pregnant woman, and her aura made Rose cower as she continued,"I won't give you that video just because you hate her."
"What do you mean?" asked Rose. Rose believed that she had lowered herself to the bottom to curry favour with Tina, but she couldn't understand why Tina still didn't trust her enough to allow her to get a hold over Emily.
In truth, under the guidance of Mark, Tina had grown quite clever, so she saw right through Rose's facade and came to detest her even more. Tina glanced at Rose scornfully and said,"You were Emily's good friend. I can't trust people who betrays their own friend. Emily is mine to toy with now. You'd better not get smart with me or I will not spare you."
As a matter of fact, Tina was worried that, if Rose made the video public, she would lose her hold over Emily. Unlike Jasmyn, she wouldn't allow herself to be fooled by Rose.
Biting into her lip tightly and clenching her fists, Rose paused for a moment before she forced two words from her mouth,"I see."
"Now get lost," said Tina.
After Rose left, Tina took a sip from her cup of coffee and turned to Jasmyn. "Never bring anyone like that to me again. She spoiled my good mood," said Tina.
Since Jasmyn never deemed Rose as her close friend, she nodded at once at Tina's words to show her loyalty to Tina.
...
Meanwhile, Sam spent the afternoon investigating everything about Emily and reported it to Jacob without hesitation.
"Many of our employees saw the both of them spend time together. According to them, Ms. Tina was blackmailing Ms. Emily with a secret, and that's why Ms. Emily would do anything Ms. Tina would ask
of her," reported Sam.
Jacob frowned,"What's the secret?"
Hesitating for a moment, Sam continued,"I secretly hacked Ms. Tina's phone, and found a clip..."
As soon as he said that he handed the phone over to Jacob.
Jacob lowered his head and watched as the vague clip played on the screen.
"No! Go away!" The video showed a little girl who was screaming in great fear. Although the video was fuzzy, Jacob recognized Emily's voice right away.
It was an old video, and Jacob assumed that Emily was seven or eight years old in the video. In the beginning of the video, Emily was sitting in a dark room alone. However, several minutes later, the camera shook and a man went close to Emily. The man grabbed hold of her all of a sudden and kissed her face.
"Go away! Stay away from me!" Emily cried and struggled; her voice was full of despair and helplessness. "Let me go!" she screamed.
Soon, several policemen kicked the door open and burst into the room. They rushed quickly in and held the man down. That's where the clip ended.
The clip only lasted for a few seconds, but Jacob suddenly realized that it was the reason behind Emily's childhood trauma.
The clip afforded Jacob with great pain, as great fire had engulfed his heart from within. The next minute, he threw Sam's phone to the floor and stomped on it, causing the phone to break into many pieces.
Sam was speechless at what his boss was doing, as he cried in his heart.
'Sir, I just bought this IPhone 8 a few days ago...'
Nonetheless, Sam kept a professional look on his face and continued,"The news had shocked the entire city. That man was a pedophile. He kidnapped several little girls to..."
Sam suddenly paused in fear, when he noticed the discomfort on Jacob's face. Driven mad with fury, Jacob's long and narrow eyes reddened and his face turned grim, as if he was going to kill the next person he laid his eyes on.
After a long time in silence, Sam finally heard Jacob say,"Go on."