Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 117: Rejected

"I appreciate the offer, but I don’t think I’ll be suitable to work with Sapphire Beauty."

A stunned look appeared on Vivian’s face.

She rejected them?

She actually rejected them.

Having turned down the offer, Anne no longer felt the need to linger, she walked around the car entering the company.

Vivian couldn’t believe it, she had been so sure Anne would agree. The surprise made her unable to even say anything as Anne walked away.

As for Anne, she wouldn’t deny the fact that it had been a hefty opportunity dumped right onto her lap, however she also knew what SB must be planning to have come for her. The new product SE would be launching was the problem and they wanted to somehow sabotage SE.

It wasn’t hidden to anyone that both companies were rivals even if SE was far larger and above SB in every rank, SB still held it’s unshakeable spot in the beauty industry.

Her leaving SE for Sapphire Beauty would undoubtedly be a betrayal only to chase fame. Why would she abandon the company she had started from for another.

Anne wasn’t that ungrateful, that was specifically why she’d rejected the offer.

The minute she walked into the company, all eyes were on her once more.

Sighing, she acknowledged that she might have gotten fame outside the company, but the kind she got within the company was certainly the negative type.

"Yeah she’s hot, I’d take her and build her up too." The voice came from a group of guys near the entrance who instantly started a conversation sighting her walk in.

"I agree, she’s about 38D heavy right? Something about them bouncing will get me weak I’d give her the world if she asked." Laughter followed and someone else said.

"Dude, how can you tell they’re 38D from here?"

"I can just tell the size by looking man, it’s a skill."

Those lewd whispers from guys in the company didn’t escape her ears, not that they tried to keep it low anyway. They spoke so freely, unabashedly looking at her without trying to hide the fact that she was the subject of their conversation.

Hearing the disgusting comments about her body, Anne felt a thrill of anger that almost pushed her to storm over to the group of guys and deliver a slap each on their cheeks, but then again doing that would be giving them the power to confront her. Right now they could talk openly, but not straight to her so she could ignore it, she could ignore it and walk away making them look like the disgusting pigs they were.

But despite ignoring them and choosing to walk by, they whistled as she passed by, someone even throwing out a comment about how much he’d need to give to take her somewhere private. That statement had made her blood boil and she only stopped walking for a second, almost experiencing a clouded judgement but she pushed on and continued walking.

Jasmine had been going on and on about how incredibly lucky she was to have gotten the chance, that many models fought tooth and nail to get, their faces on a billboard, she was sure Jasmine would swallow those words if she came to hear about what that small incident of replacing a model at the shoot had cost her right now.

People were openly laughing at and questioning her integrity. Which wasn’t something anyone would be happy about but she had to swallow it quietly because the moment she spoke up they would use every word she said to try to further confirm the fact that she was guilty.

Once again everyone filed out immediately she entered an elevator and no one entered with her. In all honesty she couldn’t say she disliked that, at least it was giving her a chance to be alone and not around the judgemental eyes.

She caught her own reflection in the glass inside the elevator and suddenly felt like there was something different about herself, she hadn’t noticed before but it felt as if her hair had become fuller and bouncier, she’d felt it when she washed and she could visibly see it now, not to mention the fact that she had a nagging feeling something was different about her body but she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what.

Entering the department she settled in her spot, she was very prepared for the snark remarks she began to hear among her co-workers.

"Must be nice being someone’s kept woman, you get your face plastered up for the whole world to see."

"Oh come on, as if it’s all glamour and sunshine, if a man will give you something he takes something, I’m pretty sure she barely gets a second’s rest at night, she’d have to use the rest of her life to pay for that billboard through constant nightly activities and putting on a seductive show for her customer, if you ask me, that’s miserable."

Giggles came after that.

Anne sighed audibly feeling the urge to throw something to shut someone up, but she clamped down the urge and focused on her work.

She wouldn’t say anything, if she said something now it would encourage them to come after her more, best to ignore. She told herself despite the burning irritation she was currently feeling inside.

Clara came out of her office, her strict eyes silencing the gossips and giggles.

"Anne, can you come over for a second?"

Anne followed her into her office. Clara, taking her seat behind her desk she settled a calm gaze on Anne.

"There has been some rumors going around the whole company, are you aware of that?"

Anne nodded solemnly. "Yes I am."

"Then why haven’t you said anything?"

"What’s there to say about it? The people who came up with that rumor will continue talking about it until they get tired, they’ll eventually let it go."

"Anne, this rumor is beginning to affect our work. Projects that should be ours are being given to team B by administration because they no longer trust my judgement, working with me is currently an employee who..." She trailed off as if the coming words were something she didn’t want to voice as they would seemingly hurt Anne.

"I... didn’t know it was that bad."

"It could get even worse, especially after what was released last night."

"Last night?" Anne asked bewildered.

"Last night someone posted a photo of you on the forum, you and...I don’t know who that is and none of us has the right to know because it’s your personal business, but the whole company saw it and it’s making the whole company blow up about this whole situation."

Before saying anything Anne decided to check what was released last night. Immediately she entered the company forum she saw a post pinned to the top, the picture suspiciously clear.

It showed her talking to butler Jones last night outside the company with the shiny black car in the background.

The comments were still rushing in on that particular post.

[So that’s her backer? He looks like someone who would have a daughter her age.]

[Women like her destroy the images of women all over the world, how could she date a man old enough to be her father just for money and fame?]

[Girls can do anything for money these days it’s disgusting.]

Anne stopped herself from reading the comments, she couldn’t believe they would just misunderstand someone this far without bothering to hear from her.

It felt as if she was being judged, sentenced and crucified without being given a chance to say a single word. And poor butler Jones was being dragged into it.

"Anne, I know you’re not that type of person and frankly I don’t like what people are saying about you on the forums, if I could I’ll take down those silly, childish posts and clear your name but I don’t have the kind of authority to order anything to be taken down from the forums."

Anne smiled appreciatively despite the exhaustion about the whole thing evidently shining in her eyes.

"Thank you for believing in me, I know how much this team means to you and how much you want to take it to greater heights and I really don’t want anything to affect that."

Clara stood up from her seat and crossed over to Anne holding both her hands in her own in a sisterly gesture.

"You don’t have to thank me for that, I’ve told you before that I liked you right? I know you’re a good person. I’ll help find a way to sort this out and..." Clara stopped mid sentence when she noticed the sudden change to Anne’s complexion.

"What’s wrong? You don’t look okay." Clara said in a voice dripping with worry.

"I’m fine I just...your perfume, it’s a little bit strong for me."

Hearing this Clara hurriedly stepped back, "Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll keep away."

She returned to her seat, however a mild suspicious frown drew her brows together before her expression turned back to normal.

"I might not be able to help with the whole forum thing but I know someone who can, if you can go talk to him and show him what people are saying about you on the forum, he’ll definitely get them to take it down."

Anne felt very appreciative of Clara’s kindness.

"Really? Who is that?"

"Brian, he works for administration. He can take down anything on the forum with just a few words, you can go look for him and tell him I sent you but you can’t go during work hours cuz he’s very strict during those times, preferably after work though, he’ll listen to you then."

Nodding Anne thanked her for her help before walking out of the office unaware that Clara’s lips had quirked up in a sly smirk.