3.

It took exactly an hour for her to fix mistakes from previous business plan that was written by her team under their boss' supervision. As expected, saying it was a mess was understatement. Although Layla said she 'fixed the mistakes', it would be more appropriate to say that she rewrote and reconstructed the plan. If it wasn't enough, she did that with limited source—she fully depended on her instinct and abstract creativity.

Did she satisfied with the result? Yes.

But regarding whether it is good enough to meet the CEO's standard and appease his rage or not, she dared not guess.

Layla sighed, turned off her tablet's screen and stretched he body a little bit. She could still feel the residue from her adrenaline rush few minutes ago. It had been a while since she used the maximum capacity of her brain, and she should admitted that she didn't hate it. At least now she knew that she wasn't as useless as her team mate and boss forced her to believe.

Now all that left is to write this general plan into a simple yet effective proposal. That would be the hardest part, but at the moment, Layla felt more than capable to do that. She just needed to take her laptop which unluckily was left on her cubicle's table. Talking about bad luck.

She frowned as she walked to Marketing Office, seeing two familiar face that blocked her from entering the office.

"Miss Cyril?" asked one of them. If Layla remembered correctly, that person was from Human Resource Department that specialized on hiring and firing someone.

A bit late, Layla nodded.

"Mr. Henry asked us to inform you that for now, you are to finish the task given from him in the executive floor. This is the key for the room that you can use during your work," she handed her a key card with platinum gold color that looked very expensive it could buy Layla's liver. "You don't have to worry about the facilities there. As per Mr. Henry's instruction, you are free to use pretty much everything in this room."

Layla was stunned. She never had chance to see what it was in the executive floor, but the rumors were all over the company. It was told to be 'more VVIP Hotel than just office'.

"I think… I prefer to do this in my cubicle."

And instead of thrilled, Layla was scared to the bone. She didn't do anything that deserved such treatment and remembering the weird behavior along with their eerie conversation yesterday, Layla would be the stupidest human being in the world if she air headedly agree. The executive floor was the same floor as Steve Henry the CEO's office. Yesterday's experience was totally disturbing for her, though she was too pragmatist and practical to be affected by that. But that didn't mean she was okay after such daunting experience. She just chose to ignore it.

And now they want her to remember and face that every day?

The other person, a guy in his mid-thirties suddenly smiled, fixing his glasses in a typical gesture. "I am afraid you do not have a say in this matter, Miss." The way he spoke was weirder than the CEO. Layla couldn't point out the strangeness in his utterance—it just sounded too stiff and ancient in Layla's ears. "It is not up to you or us; it is entirely decided by Mr. Henry."

Shit.

Screw the bureaucracy, caste and all social partition!

Layla shoot a blinding smile that successfully made both staffs looked uncomfortable.

"Sure. If that is what the CEO wants, then I shall comply." She could feel that those staffs were instructed to make sure Layla did not come to her office. And connecting the dots, she also could guess what was happening currently in her department. Steve Henry was indeed lived up his name as he conducted immediate investigation towards possible misconducts under his authority. "I just need to take my bag. I will be very quick."

"You don't have to, Ma'am," the female staff squeeze a stiff smile. Her broad shoulders was dominating her overall features along with her tall height. However, in a closer look, she was quite pretty. "I have brought your personal belonging and put them in that room."

The only thing that Layla could not decipher was, why they—especially The Great Mr. Steve Henry—felt she needed to be separated from her colleague.

Did they think Layla would be biased and disrupt the internal investigators' flow while questioning her colleagues?

Well, as noble as she wanted, she would never do such kind acts toward those clowns. If possible, Layla wanted to watch their downfall with a bowl of caramel popcorn and some coke.

However, she did not show her wicket thoughts and just left to the lift. The executive floor was in the 50th floor, and the trip from 15th floor where her department was located, was very boring. It only took less than 11 minutes, yet Layla felt drowsy. She had to finish this damn task before lunch if she did not wat to work over time.

Why, you asked?

Well, because with this kind of arrangement, surely the monster who worked in the 50th floor wanted to know the follow up of her 'bold and presumptuous suggestions'. Layla snorted when she entered the room. It was the conference room that very wide yet empty, just like the CEO's room. Upon longer observation, she realized that place wasn't as empty as she thought. There were several wide screens that showed nonstop update of stocks flow in form of graphics. A tall shelf filled with books was also there, though perhaps it most likely had decorative purpose instead of as resource. What made Layla snorted was the existence of pantry, which filled with coffee, tea, hot and cold water, snacks and instant food. Besides, two refrigerators filled with ice cream, jellies and puddings were also there.

Is this really an office? Why it's so much different with the floors below?

Anyway, whilst she got permission to use everything inside this room, Layla did not has the luxury to enjoy it. As soon as she made herself a tall glass of ice Americano, she hectically opened up her files in her laptop. She connected her laptop with one of the big screen there and started to write proposal.

As she flipped every documents and sources, the whole company was turned upside down by the iron lady, who rigorously peeled off every layer of lies and scandals that connected with the current Marketing Leader. Layla never had any idea.

All that she witnessed was bunch of police lines that sealed every door on that floor.