Chapter 35

Dawn was shocked by what Dorris just did, images of Olivia slapping her came to her mind and she didn't know why.

"Ma'am," She heard Eric shouting as he came out of the driver's seat towards them, it seemed he had seen it through the car window. 

The car was tinted so it was hard to tell if anyone was watching from inside.

Eric didn't waste anytime in slapping Dorris so hard, she fell to the ground with her hands to her cheek as tears lingered in her eyes.

Dorris didn't have any plans to do what she did but Elizabeth kept telling her to stand her ground and not let anyone control her especially this lady.

Elizabeth had succeeded in poisoning her mind, in the little time they spent together eating during lunch break. Dorris and Elizabeth were good friends and office colleagues before Elizabeth got fired.

They both had a thing for Stephan but Elizabeth had gotten a upper hand because she was Stephan's secretary but after she got fired Dorris took over her position.

Dorris was trying to recover from what Eric had just done to her, he seemed occupied checking Dawn to be sure she was okay and not hurt or injured.

"Are you okay Ma'am?"

"Am fine." Dawn smiled at him, she was pleased that he was not just her driver but he was also more like a bodyguard. She had wanted to retaliate but Eric slap was ten times her slap. 

It didn't only leave a mark on her face, it caught her unaware as she found herself on the ground.

Eric opened the back door for her and motioned her in, when Dawn got in she nearly shivered in fright as she stared at Stephan.

How did he get here? Did he just witness what happened? Was that why Eric reacted the way he did.

Eric entered immediately and started the engines.

"You..are..here," Dawn stuttered.

"I don't want you going out to get food alone," Stephan replied adjusting his tie down. He was done with his meeting when he decided to come to where Dawn was.

He couldn't believe Dorris would coup up with Elizabeth to do such nonsense, well good riddance to her life because Stephan was going to definitely make sure she didn't have any other means of getting employed anywhere.

Dorris didn't only disrespect Dawn, they went ahead to try to harm her.

"It was just Dorris, I can get my...."

"Do not disobey me Dawn."

Dawn didn't say anything more, she reached out to the seat next to Eric and place the take away.

"I got you something to eat," Dawn said dropping it.

"It's not necessary Ma."

"I insist." 

"Ain't we going back to the office?" Dawn asked when she noticed they weren't passing the usual route to his office. Was he that mad at her and the whole situation that he didn't want her to work in his office anymore.

"Matteo and Sarah is waiting for us in the house," Stephan said. "I am not firing you on the first day, Sarah is just keen on seeing you."

They remained quiet during the ride, Dawn was happy that Matteo and Sarah were back, the case of Jerome's death was coming to an end as the murderer being Scar was sentence to life in prisonment with parole just as Travis had told them.

Finally Matteo could walk freely without fear of being arrested.

When they got home, Dawn hadn't even entered fully when she received a tight hug from Sarah. It was the most pleasing thing ever, a warm hug from someone she took like her sister. 

She hugged her back and for a moment, Dawn could have bet she wanted to cry. The last time they spoke, it was about Matteo's ex girlfriend. Dawn didn't know if they had settled the issue already or if Matteo was still refusing to inform Sarah about his love life.

While Dawn hugged Sarah, she nodded her head to Matteo who was sitting on the couch. He nodded back too, Dawn and Matteo barely talked and while he was away they never communicated. So she really didn't know how to go about Matteo but luckily for her, Matteo was an easy going person.

Sarah held her by the wrist and dragged her inside.

"I have so much to tell you," Sarah muttered to her as they headed inside her room. Sarah had been so pleased to hear they could come back home, she didn't know why but she missed Dawn and Stephan a lot.

She was still having some issues with Matteo about her insecurities, and things weren't going smoothly as it should. 

"How was your trip?" Dawn asked as they entered into Sarah's room, she noticed a pregnant lady arranging their luggages.

"My trip was fine, this is Ivy, Scar's wife." 

"Oh," Dawn knew Scar had a pregnant wife but she didn't know that she would be staying with them. Was she really staying with them?

"She is almost due, so we are just going to keep her close by for delivery sake," Sarah explained seeing Dawn's awkward look, there was a time when Dawn didn't want to be with Stephan but look at her now. Protecting the house from Intruders.

"It's nice to meet you," Ivy stretched her hand forward as Dawn shook it with a grin. Ivy had never found herself in a more annoying situation as this, she had always thought Scar would be different but he was nothing but a liar. 

She never knew he was also a kidnapper, she had gotten married to this man with a hopes of starting a family that she never had. They didn't have much but they loved each other and when they got married Ivy wanted to have a child so bad.

Scar was always against it, he said they should wait but she insisted. Ivy wondered if she was the cause of him venturing into the business he was into.

When she got pregnant finally, he became more busy with work. He would come home late and most days he won't come for weeks even months.

They would always argue a lot over the phone, and their was a strain in their relationship.

Until recently he started coming home early and with a lot of money.

She had asked him on many occasions how he was able to gather so much money to pay all their bills and even admitted her into one of the top hospital in town.

Now that she thought about it, all his answers to her questions were nothing but lies.

First he said he got a loan, then he got promoted, then he got a new job. The lies kept piling up for every situation.

Even when he moved them from their one room apartment into a three bedroom apartment and even bought a car, he told her his new work place gave it to him on loan.

She must have been overwhelmed by the money and his lies that she didn't believe when they carried her to the hospital to see her husband that was nearly dead.

She had wept bitterly for days, she felt ashamed of herself. After all the boosting she had done in her area, she was now tagged the wife of a murderer.

When he had gotten better, they barely spoke and when they did she felt irritated by his presence and even regretted getting pregnant for him.

'I regret getting pregnant for you, how could you do this to me,' she had asked him when they finally kicked her out of the three bedroom apartment and they had to go back to a room.

Scar wasn't able to meet up with payment anymore.

àI will make things right, please Ivy trust 1.'

'Trust?' could she ever trust this man again, she couldn't no matter what he said, she could never see him like that way again.

In a way she was grateful to Stephan for trying to help her even thou she knew it was in order for Scar to stay put and not break his promise to her.

"Who slapped you?" Sarah had just noticed the palm print on her face.

*********

Matteo and Stephan stared at each other for some while, when Sarah had dragged Dawn out. Matteo rushed to Stephan and gave him a quick hug, it was so quick but they both knew they had missed each other.

They sat down and discussed about business and how Matteo had been handling it over there.

Stephan informed him Dawn had now been employed as his new personal assistant.

"Did you hit her?"

"Are you mad?" Stephan would never lay his hands on a woman, much less Dawn for that matter.

Matteo had seen a palm print on Dawn's face when she stepped in, he knew Stephan couldn't do something like that but he just had to ask just to be sure.

He wondered what happened to her and there seemed to be some tension between them.

The same tension that clouded him and Sarah since Anna came into their life.

Not only had she ruined their dinner, she had proceed to call his number during the night time.

The worst was when she turned up in their apartment, she was so desperate. She figured her way to their home, till today he hadn't figured out who she paid to give her that vital information.

"And what is this stuff with you and Anna, Dawn won't let me rest with the topic."

"I will handle it."

"I don't want you to hurt Sarah, if you can't be with her. You can confide in me." Sarah was like a little sister to Stephan, he did find her attractive at some point but she was too young for him. She looked older and matured but she wasn't at all.

"Yes boss, I heard Olivia and Travis are dating have you told Dawn?" Matteo was shocked when Travis told him, he was trying to find out the relationship between Stephan and Olivia.

"It's of no importance to her, " Stephan knew that Dawn wasn't interested in anything that had to do with Olivia and recently Eric told him she met Damien.

He wondered why she didn't mention it to him, he had to be mindful of Damien.

He didn't know Dawn's feeling towards him, if it was still there. His intuition was telling him that she wasn't interested in Damien anymore but women were very unpredictable.

He was mad at Dawn and he shouldn't have been but his day had been quite stressful and watching Dorris hit her, it took a lot for him not to get out of the car and blow her brains out.

He had texted his team to tender her resignation letter immediately and make sure she was not allowed into the building, all her loads should be placed in the receptionist desk.

He could never take such nonsense, much less the woman he was dating.

He had told Eric to tell her to request for anything but being stubborn she decided to go get it herself, she could have avoided all that had happened earlier if she had just listened to him.

"Here is Dawn's evaluation so far," Stephan said handing over a file to Matteo, when he was done he came to his office to pick up the file work and heard Dawn was out to eat.

"She really did all this?" Matteo asked going through each page, the mistakes were written out and reasons for it being a mistake was well explained beside it.

She also gave her own ideas as well and even the budget list, she was able to fish out the errors as well. Works like this would take two days or more for his personal assistant but Dawn had done it successfully in some hours.

Anyway she was a hacker, if she could get into their database, this was definitely nothing to her. 

Stephan was a lucky man to find such a lady that wasn't just pretty but smart as well.