Allison

"I think next time I would not like to be threatened like that," I said as I saw Dolores on my door. She just gave me a shrug before she settled down on the seat in front of me.

"But it worked or else I would have been cleaning up all the mess." She told before she set her tablet on the table. Moving it towards me she signed me to look. It was a nice photo of Noel and me. It was one of the laughing moments. He had apologized to me once again between the dinner and we had talked about work and food. If I could I would have written a whole page review for the marvelous food, they served in taste even though the portions were small. However, the taste was too good to ignore that. By the end of the night, I had a stomach full of delicious food.

"It looks good," I told Dolores, but she was busy staring at me.

"What were you talking about that had him laughing?" She asked with curiosity in her eyes.

"Just me begging for food and asking him not to kick me out," I replied generously but when I saw her smile I could see the lights in my head go up.

"Ms. Dolores, what are you thinking?" I asked as she took the tablet back and smiled once again.

"I think you would make a great couple." This time she hid behind her tablet but I knew she was smiling.

"No, we aren't a couple and we aren't going to be," I replied quickly, but she was just scrolling through the tablet and even humming a song, maybe.

"Really, Ms. Dolores. This was a one-time thing. Just a one time, single occurrence." I exaggerated on that point while Ms. Dolores just shrugged at my statement. I knew I shouldn't have gone there.

"I think you can help with this charade a little longer and knowing that he was dating someone who is a working woman, ambitious, and also works with him. The story could come together easily for a while and then we could surely say after a while that it did not work out." I stared at her with narrowed eyes.

"See the clear picture for me, Allyson. It was your idea," my eyes wide at her words.

"I gave the idea didn't ask you to push me under the bus." I interrupted her. Handling Noel for a day could work out for me but doing it on a daily occasion like that was a big no for me. I just really couldn't with the bad history we had.

Yes, I had said I understood him but seriously thinking about what had happened gave me goosebumps. I was just strong enough to not alter my life but what had happened was strong enough to make you dislike a person. If I was a weak woman, I knew I would have cried myself and never saw his face. His reasons might be enough for me but weren't enough for me to go on and date him. I worked for him and that was where I wanted to end the line.

"I wouldn't have if you hadn't handled Cheryl like that." Now here was the real reason behind it.

"I surely wouldn't have done that if I knew it would come to this," I stood from my seat and paced in my office.

I never should have been allured by food. It always got me in the biggest of messes, should have stuck with my ramen and pizza. I scolded myself.

"Well, whatever you did it had them back down from competing with us a bit. I got a call from their Public Relations that they won't interfere in our business until we did. They are backing down but they wanted us not to make any statement about what happened yesterday to anyone. If you ask me, it was the best thing that I had heard from their side from the past three years." Setting the tablet on the table she looked at her hands.

"Noel is to be blamed for this equivalently but now at least I'm sure I won't have to wait for some attack from their side. This war between both of us to end somewhere even though I know it won't end until the truth comes out." She sighed saying this. I saw her guard dropping and her words sounded as if someone has been carrying a lot of burdens around for so long.

"I don't expect you to do it just like that but Cheryl and Noel have history. Thye have deep-down history from when they were teenagers. Everything was fine but in the end, she became twisted and Noel had no one to support him. Betrayal makes you do crazy things." I understood the last words. Betrayal and deception made you the craziest of things. Lana and Erik had gone through it. However how deep could a betrayal and deception run to make Noel something like what he did to me.

"He told me a bit about it once," I spoke stopping having her eyes snap to me.

"He told you something?" she was surprised to know that.

"Don't get any ideas about us being close, Ms. Dolores." I wanted to clarify my position on this. No mis-interruptions were meant to be there.

"It was only because of Christa he had told me what had happened," I added only to have her look at me with eyes wide like saucers.

"You know Christa?" As I looked at her I realized maybe I had dwelled deeper into the territory of truths.

"She is my neighbor," I added.

"Is she alright?" She asked me, and this time I was the one who looked at her.

"She is," I told her but in the background, my mind was busy connecting the thoughts. Christa or Christine, Noel, Cheryl, Richard, and Adam were somewhere the main characters of this betrayal and enormous scandal that was being talked about. Somewhere in between, I had been dragged down to it and I didn't have any idea about it.

"I know someone had tried to put allegations on him of sexual harassment and misbehaving. " I was treading lightly and looking at her face. Now it was down to guesses and figure out what was happening. I didn't want to do this but the thoughts about what had happened were going to be on my mind. It was all because somewhere all the people I knew were somehow interconnected to this enormous scandal and I needed to know about it too.

"He was accused of raping someone," I knew I was going the right way as I saw Dolores face lose a bit of its color. She was the one who had rushed to close the door.

"I know that isn't the truth. He was framed." I added guessing which was true according to Noel's words.

"What we don't know is who and why?" I said, and I saw her take a sigh.

"If only we knew that I think everything could have been clear. However, with what had happened it was really hard to find out who it was." She looked away from me. "If it wasn't for Christa, I don't think Noel would have even been here. She was the only one who had denied anything to what had happened." There it was. Something had happened between both of them and both of them were paying the price of someone else's wicked plan. The way Noel had been protective of her I knew there was something but now it was clear.

"Cheryl only believed what she saw. She wasn't going to believe her own sister." That was new to me. Christa was Cheryl's sister. She had thought her to be a traitor. She was the one who was hit with the hardest. Her family left her alone, and it wasn't something a young girl should go through while being involved in such a delicate situation." Everything clicked, a picture forming.

"Noel was accused to rape Christa?" It came out as a question rather than a statement. It was hard to believe that. "But why would someone do that. Or why would someone believe that?" She looked at me as if she knew she had said too much. Sitting straighter she looked anywhere but at me.

"I think I should leave." She said before collecting her tablet. I didn't want her to leave. I just wanted a chance to unwind this. The accusations were big enough to destroy someone's life more than that it could destroy a girl's image. How could someone do that to her or him? Who could hate them both to this extent to do something like this? I needed to know it for the sake of Christa. She was suffering. Alone and had no one. She was a strong one but no one should suffer like that. Neither should Noel suffer like that. He didn't deserve to be humiliated like he was tried to be yesterday. He had done nothing wrong but was suffering. Christa had been a victim but was the one who had to pay the price. It didn't sit well with me.

"I will put up with the charade of dating Noel if you tell me all that you know about what happened between Cheryl, Noel, and Christa." My statement had her stopping at the door and looking at me wide-eyed. she was no longer leaving and looking at me that meant she was thinking which was far better than a straight no. Minutes passed as she stood there.

"Noel should never come to know that I was the one who had told you all this." She said, and I nodded. I could see it in her eyes that it was taking a leap of faith to do this. It wasn't easy for her.

"And you will do as I say. You have to promise to me in both of these things," She added, and I expected nothing less from her. She was risking telling a stranger a lot about things that weren't meant to be brought forward any longer but maybe if did this whole mess could be solved.

"I promise," I didn't care what I had to suffer because someone, a young woman, has suffered more than me and it wasn't right. Not when that woman was my friend now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Allyson is willing to do sacrifice herslef for the sake of knowing all the truth.

Would she able to unevil the whole truth?

Or end up getting burned or accused?

who do you think is behind all this?

Do you think Allyosn is doing right going into this situation?