My Four Miraculous Treasures

What a dirty thing to say.

Willow turned to see who that remark had come from. It was Deborah Salt, from the Janitorial Department. Around thirty years of age, she was the second-youngest in the department. She'd taken good care of herself: her skin complexion was flawless. She'd done a good job maintaining her figure, as well... with a nice, plump butt.

Lots of guys in the Security Department had the hots for her, but she was too good for a lowly security guard, and so she never spared any of them so much as a second look.

No... what she wanted was cleaning duty on the top floor. A chance to make the acquaintance of Jasper Hughes.

From the very first day that Willow had started working here, Deborah had decided that they wouldn't be able to get along. She'd even raised the issue with Mr. Fawcett, over why Willow was the one who was being assigned to the top floor.

Only the elite deserved to step onto that floor, and that included the janitors. It broadened one's horizons. Jasper Hughes was there.

Deborah's dearest dreams awaited her there, on the top floor of the Hughes Corporation headquarters... but the head janitor had inexplicably granted this honor to Willow Nason, instead.

Oh, Deborah Salt had things to say about that Willow Nason...

Willow didn't like the things that Deborah had just said about her. She was about to defend herself, when everyone in the lift decided to join in the fun:

"Some people will do anything to get ahead. Looks like we've got all sorts coming in here, recently."

"She's good at putting on that pure and innocent sort of image, I'll give her that. Turns out though, it's only one of her two faces. Poor thing, that Ms. Price... a hapless victim of someone else's political maneuvering..."

"What puzzles me is... by now, everyone knows that she's the one behind those rumors-including Mr. Hughes himself, I imagine. So why hasn't he gotten rid of her, yet?"

Eyes glinting fiercely with malice, Deborah seized the reins of this dialogue: "She got this job using a false identity-but even after she was found out, she still kept her job. Maybe there's actually some truth in those rumors? She's probably got no small amount of womanly wiles, if she's already managed to worm her way into Mr. Hughes' heart."

The lift had suddenly become a whole nest of hissing vipers. Willow felt trapped.noveldrama

Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. Losing grip of her patience all at once, she chuckled and said, "Sheep blindly follow the herd. Ask yourselves if that's not exactly what you're doing right now... is everyone in here a part of the blind flock?"

Willow didn't bother to plead her innocence here. Few people had ever experienced what she was going through, right now. Few people would even try to understand.

The only thing to be done here, in a situation like this, was to give them a taste of their own medicine, so that they'd shut up!

At the moment, she had no way to prove her innocence... but she knew where she could find the evidence she needed! And then, once she'd gotten her hands on it... she'd rub it in every one of their smug faces!

Everyone exchanged looks nervously, scared of being called out for being sheep. No one liked the idea of suddenly being on the receiving end of the attacks, here.

It occurred to them that they actually had believed those rumors blindly.

And just like that, Willow successfully silenced the entire crowd in the lift. When they reached the tenth floor, Willow and Deborah both stepped out.

Deborah shot her a nasty look, then headed towards the Janitorial Department.

Willow stood there a while, staring daggers into the other woman's back.

She'd long been aware of Deborah's enmity towards her. No surprise that she'd leap on this chance to make her look bad.

Deborah punched in her card, and went off to get started with work. Willow punched in too, after her.

She brought her cleaning

implements into the lift, and pushed the button for the highest floor. She needed to talk to Jasper as soon as possible, get him to sift through those camera recordings, and set the record straight!

She headed straight for Jasper's office, and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" But it wasn't Jasper's voice; it was Edith, his secretary.

Willow entered the office, and found Edith standing beside Jasper's desk, sorting through some documents. However, Jasper himself was not in his chair, nor anywhere to be seen.

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Willow turned back around and walked right out again.