The Billionaire's Pretend Wife (Isabella)

Chapter 33 Thirty Three

As the week wore on, Isabelle realised that the man she should be worried about avoiding was not

Jacob. Everything at home had gone back to normal, as if her drunken antics had never happened. It

was a big relief, because she had no idea how she would have reacted had he brought it up again.

Instead, the man she needed to avoid at all costs was unfortunately one who was around her all day

long–her department director, Mr Grayson. After he had called her to his office on Monday morning to

offer his help, he had been more and more direct with his advances towards her. He showed her way

too much attention in the guise of work, but he never passed up a chance to make hints about what his

true intentions were.

She took every precaution she could to avoid running into him, but there was only so much hiding she

could do when she worked under him. If only there was a way to put his advances to an end once and

for all, she would not hesitate to do it.

One day, while she was in the bathroom at work, she found out that the situation had escalated way

beyond her grasp. Two women were talking outside, and the moment her name came up, she became

alert and started paying attention to their conversation.

“Have you heard about the new girl and Mr Grayson?” one asked the other.

“About how she is hooking up with him? Yeah.”

“She doesn’t look like the kind, but it’s the innocent-looking ones who are the worst.”

“I know, right? You would think she is classy with the way she carries herself.”

“Some women have no shame. She hasn’t even been here for a month and yet she’s already sleeping

with her senior. That’s probably how she got the job in the first place.”

Isabelle kept quiet and didn’t leave her stall until after the two women left. That was how she found out

that rumours were swirling around the office about her and Mr Grayson. It didn’t take long to figure out

where they were coming from–Claudia.

She didn’t confront her right away, instead biding her time for the perfect chance to shut her up once

and for all.

A chance presented itself soon enough when a few days later, she walked into the break room to find

Claudia in the company of two of their coworkers, talking about her. Staying out of sight outside the

door, she listened to what she was saying.

“Are you sure she was with the director last night?” one of the women asked.

Claudia nodded. “I saw them with my own eyes going into the hotel. Haven’t you heard? She had the

same behaviour of seducing men in college, including her professors. Who knows who else she is

sleeping with besides Mr Grayson?”

Isabelle inhaled deeply to calm herself. It seemed that the woman was hell-bent on creating rumours

about her the same way Ann had. But in the same way she had shut down Ann, she was going to

make sure this one thought twice before creating more rumours about her.

Leaving her hiding spot, she marched into the room, her phone in hand. The group that was gossiping

about her broke up the moment they saw her, acting like they weren’t just talking about her. But she

wasn’t about to let them get away with it.

Making her way to Claudia, she stopped in front of her and showed her the phone she held. “I have

recorded everything you just said about me, and I’ll not think twice about reporting you to the police if

you don’t stop slandering me.”

Her voice was loud enough and everybody in the room heard her, including those in the office. Claudia

looked at her phone and then at her, and then crossed her arms across her chest. “I haven’t said

anything that was not true,” she claimed arrogantly. She had probably figured that if Isabelle had

recorded her, there was no need to deny doing so. Instead, she could act like she hadn’t spread fake

rumours about her.

“Oh, really? Were you with me in the same college to see me seducing my professors?” she

demanded.

“People talk,” Claudia claimed. “It’s common knowledge, everybody knows.”

“Everybody knows? From where, your mouth? You didn’t even know me before I started working here,

yet here you are, talking about me to everyone as if you’ve known me all my life. Can you show us the

proof of everything you are saying I’ve done?”

Claudia huffed. “Proof? I saw you go to the hotel with Mr Grayson, and that’s all the proof I need.”

“With Mr Grayson, you say? Okay, we’ll see about that. But first, let’s see what my schoolmate from

college has to say about your claims of the kind of person I was in college. Since we went to the same

school as me, he should know better than you, right?” Taking her phone out, she sent Seth a message,

asking him to come to her department.

Claudia scoffed and looked around, trying to influence the others who were watching. “We are not

going to wait around for your little witness to get here, we have work to do.”

Isabelle looked up at her and gave her a flat smile. “Don’t worry, he works here too. He’ll be here in a

minute.”

Claudia’s smug expression fell at Isabelle’s announcement, while a murmur rose among the onlookers.

It was the moment of truth–everything was about to be revealed, and Isabelle had no intention to back

off until Claudia was put in her place.

Claudia attempted to regain the upper hand. “If he is your friend, he is probably going to lie to help you.

Who knows, maybe he is one of the men you seduced while in college.”

“Why don’t we wait until he gets here and hear what he has to say?” Isabelle told her. She was

confident that once Seth vouched for her, nobody would believe Claudia anymore. Seth was popular in

the company, and everybody respected him. Nobody would doubt a man of his character.

Besides, Seth was not the only one she was looking to clear her name. It was time to kill two birds with Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

the same stone–silence Claudia and get Mr Grayson to back off.

Stuffing her phone in her pocket, she reached for Claudia’s arm and tugged her towards the door. “Let’s

go and meet the department director and you can tell us about exactly where you saw us two together.”

“What?” Claudia shrieked, trying to release her arm from her grip. “Let me go!”

“You keep saying that you saw us, so why don’t we go and ask him about his whereabouts last night?

See if your stories match.”

The murmurs around them had turned into excited chatter as their colleagues watched them. Isabelle

was not fazed. Clearly, this was the only way to make a statement. It was also the most effective way to

shut down whatever rumours Claudia had started. In the same way the rumours about her had spread

quickly throughout the company, so would the truth.

Claudia looked around, hoping for someone to step forward and stop Isabelle, but nobody did. Instead,

everybody was looking on as the woman dragged her towards the director’s office. She never could

have expected her to make such a scene in public. She couldn’t let her get her way!