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“I know, Ella,” Denise tried to sound calm. “But I don’t want us to get ahead of ourselves. From the look on Lily’s face, I think she’s feeling miserable for talking to us. I know you wouldn’t want to deliberately put her in danger.”

“Oh, that’s true,” Ella inhaled and exhaled to calm her nerves. “I think we need to reassure her that we would never put her in trouble. I already feel like an awful person for making her speak against her wish.”

“Me too,” Denise sighed.

“By the way, isn’t she taking too long in that Ladies’ room?” Ella asked. “It has been...” she glanced at her wristwatch, “...over fifteen minutes since she entered there. We need to round up our plans on how we intend to reach out to everyone participating in the party before she leaves.”

“I’ll go check up on her.” Denise stood up and strolled towards the ladies. When she got close to the door, her ear picked up sniffing and sobbing sounds.

“Oh my goodness,” she places her hand on her chest in alarm.

Without giving it a second thought, she tiptoed back to Ella.

“Ella, you need to come hear this for yourself,” Denise whispered.

.....

“What?” Ella slowly got up to her feet and stared at Denise quizzically.

“I think Lily is crying her eyes out in the ladies’ room.”

“You don’t say!” Ella’s eyes widen as she quietly followed behind Denise.

When they both got to the ladies’ room door, Ella placed her ear on the door and listened quietly.

Indeed, just as Denise had said, she could hear lengthy sobbing and intermittent sniffing.

Feeling heartbroken by the state she had put Lily in, she gently tapped on the door.

“Lily, are you alright?” Ella called out softly.

“Yes, ma’am, I’m fine. I’ll be out shortly.” Lily did her best to sound calm as she quickly stood up and flushed the toilet. She hastily cleaned herself up and applied light makeup to brighten her look. Then she carried out a minor breathing exercise to regulate her heartbeat before stepping out of the convenience.

“Ah!”

Lily let out a yelp when she saw Denise and Ella standing by the ladies’ room door, wearing worried looks on their faces.

“I’m sorry for taking so much time.” Lily immediately apologized thinking one of them needed to use the convenience.

“Lily, you’re not alright. Your eyes are red and swollen from excessive crying. Even your messy makeup couldn’t conceal that. Please, no more lying.” Ella said sternly and led Lily to her seat like a big sister. She made Lily sit between herself and Denise, gently stroking her back to ease her heartache.

“We are sorry for making you feel this was, it was never our intention to force out words from you,” Denise spoke in a subtle voice.

The overwhelming attention showered on her by her boss’s wife and Tom’s fiancee broke Lily’s heart the more. Instead of feeling better, her gate of tears broke down again.

“I... I’m s...so s...sorry!” Lily’s distraught voice came out in hiccups. “I’m t... terrible at h... handling my emotions.”

Denise and Ella exchanged quick sad looks before Denise pulled Lily into her arms and comforted her like a sweet mother.

While Ella on the other hand refilled Lily’s glass with more juice and encourage her to drink it.

“Here...” Ella handed a saucer of cookies to Lily, “...try the chocolate cookies, they really taste nice and yummy.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Lily smiled as her tears gradually dried up.

“Don’t thank me yet, I want you to feel better,” Ella said in a soft voice while gently stroking Lily’s shoulders.

Lily found it impossible to believe what was happening to her. Two beautiful, wealthy, and influential ladies were busy attending to a nobody like her as though she was a little princess.

‘Where is this done?’ She thought hard to herself. This made her sigh inwardly when she remembered Miss Chu’s arrogance.

‘Surely, if Miss Chu was the current wife of Leon, heads will roll if anyone dare to challenge her authority.

Not wanting to exploit the generosity of the two beautiful ladies, Lily slowly lifted her head from Denise’s chest and thank them both for being amazing to her.

“I’m happy you’re feeling better.” Ella smiled. “Now, I want you to listen attentively. No matter how things turn out, you were never here. We never spoke in person except through Tom. You are free from any liability that might arise before, during, or after the surprise party.”

“Okay!” A ray of hope shone through Lily’s eyes as she nodded happily to Ella’s instructions.

“Don’t forget, you haven’t said anything to us.” Denise chipped in. “So, do not allow your conscience to beat you black and blue or accuse you of anything. Is that clear?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Ella slowly stood up and walked towards the floor-to-ceiling window. She stared down at the busy activities going on around the company and the bustling street of her neighborhood.

Judging from the way she had one hand crossing her chest and the other, resting under her chin, one could conclude that she was deep in thought.

The little drama that had just played out before her eyes confirmed her fears that Leon could be having an affair with Miss Chu. However, she needed solid evidence to prove this before confronting him.

She closed her eyes briefly to steady her erratically pounding heart and spoke up in a firm and determined tone while backing Lily and Denise.

“Lily, irrespective of what you might have seen or known about Miss Xia Chu and my husband, I’ll be inviting her to partake in the birthday surprise party. In that way, you won’t be held responsible for ruining anything. Instead, I’ll be grateful to you for giving me the heads up.

Feeling an unusual force of energy and boldness, Ella walk back to her seat and sat down, while holding Lily’s twitching gaze.

“As Dense rightly said, you haven’t told us anything substantial. Hence, do not ever blame yourself for anything in the future.”