CEO's Personal Secretary

Bipolar Atticus

"Did you mail the invitations to everyone mentioned on the guest list, Miss Wilson?" Mr. Atticus asked me when I brought his lunch with me.

I placed his lunch down as I nodded my head, looking at him. I am very good at my work, Mr. Atticus. I won't give you a chance to remove me from my job or to cut my wages, dear Boss.

"Of course, I mailed the invitations to all your guests, Mr. Atticus."

"And did you contact the event management company for the decoration of the Atticus Ball Night, Miss Wilson?" He asked me as he opened his food parcel and the aroma of delicious food filled my nose.

I swallowed the hunger that bounced inside me when Mr. Atticus opened his own food parcel. He rose the spoon closer to his mouth but stopped when I didn't answer him and he looked up at me with his eyebrows shot up.

"I'm seriously troubled with your lack of communication skills, Miss Wilson. You sure you're not hearing impaired?" He asked me and I blinked at his words. What? No! Like seriously, what?

"I can assure you, Mr. Atticus. My ears function just fine. My mind was just diverted." I gritted out and and he looked at me like I had shot him with a rifle.

"Your mind was diverted? I don't pay you for......"

"Diverting my mind, I know, Mr. Atticus. I am sorry. Can you please repeat what you just asked me?" I asked him with a tight lipped smile and he sighed.

"Did you call the event management company for the decorations of the Ball Night?" He asked me again and I narrowed my eyes at him.

"But you didn't tell me to contact them, Mr. Atticus. I thought you wanted to make sure nothing goes wrong by yourself." I said and he glared at me, placing his spoon down and I tried not to look at his food. I was hungry.

"I don't even know why I have kept you in this office, Miss Wilson?" He murmured in irritation and fire blazed inside me at his words and I scowled down at the man in front of me. Was he for real?

"To get attacked by your personal guests, what else?" I answered back angrily and his eyes flared in rage and I realised what I just said. Not that I regret it. But I now know that Mr. Atticus isn't just a normal man. He has his connections in the illegal world.

"Pardon me?"

"Don't act all innocent now, Mr. Atticus. You purposely made me stay back and watch your encounter with that woman. It was definitely not a professional meeting but a very private one. Yet you made me stay back and watch every bit of it. She even f*****g attacked me. And yet you didn't send me out."

His grip on the edges of his desk increased as his anger was also increasing and I knew I'd regret every bit of this conversation later. But that would be a matter to think for later.

"I must give it to you, Miss Wilson. You're brave. Stupidly brave but brave. But don't keep forgetting whom you are talking to, Miss Wilson. Tone your voice down." He said to me, his midnight eyes glaring daggers right in my eyes and a shiver passed down my body under his intense gaze.

He stood up from his chair and walked closer to me and my breathing turned erratic. With every step he took, I only increased the distance by taking one step back. But I couldn't escape him when I was stopped by a wall behind me. His lips curled up in a predatory smile and his sharp canines made me shudder.

Great way to die, Bellarosa Wilson!

"Not so brave now, Miss Wilson?" He asked me, softly. His midnight eyes staring at me like I was his next prey and my heart was beating crazily inside my chest.

His presence was enough to make me feel lightheaded. He was so close to me that I could smell his cologne and it was nothing like I had smelled before. It was soothing but dark, all at the same time.

"This is against work ethics, Mr. Atticus. You can't corner me like this." I murmured, my voice coming out as mere breaths and he snorted, tilting his head.

"You still think I care about work ethics? Get one thing very clear in your head, Miss Wilson, whatever happened inside this office with Mrs. Ford shouldn't go out of this cabin. If it goes out, you can say goodbye to your normal life."

"Are you threatening me?" I asked him bravely and he smiled, shaking his head.

"I don't threaten, Miss Wilson. I warn people. It's their foolishness that they take my warnings as mere threats and end up getting in the ditch. Hm?" He said and I gulped, nodding my head.

"I'll call the event management company right away." I said, clenching my jaw and he pulled himself away from me, letting me breathe again.

"Better."

"Anything else, Mr. Atticus?" I asked him, sarcastically and he turned around to look at me as if reminding me to change my tone but I simply smiled at him.

"Actually, I have some work you." With that he pulled out his drawers and pulled out some accounts file and handed it to me, making me narrow my eyes at him. This was not even my work! Accounts isn't my work. We have a seperate department for it.

"Tally them, will you? And once you're done with these, check what's the progress of the Berlin's project. I don't want any mistakes when I am presenting it in front of my clients. Get me the progress report of it on my table by four in the evening. And when I say four, Miss Wilson, I mean four. No later than it." I bit my lips to keep my curses inside.

I didn't even had my lunch yet.

"Of course, Sir. Aren't you forgetting an important change in the schedule of the staffs?" I asked him sweetly and he narrowed his eyes at me, looking at me suspiciously.

"What, Miss Wilson?"

"Removing the lunch break from the schedule of your staffs? It's not like they need food or anything. Work is priority, a person can survive solely on dinner also not without work." I said and he opened his mouth to speak something but before he could've said anything, I rushed out of his office.

~~~~~~

"Wow, Bella. You have a bruise forming on your neck." Floral, my colleague commented when I walked in the third floor to collect the files.

I froze at her words and rushed to the mirror nearby. My eyes widened when I saw a purple bruise forming around my neck as if someone had tried to strangle me. Fear coursed down my body when I lightly touched my skin and flinched back at how sensitive my skin had turned out to be.

I didn't even feel the pain before. Not until now.

And if Tobias saw this mark on my neck, he'd go crazy. He'll hunt Mrs. Ford down and literally kill her for hurting me. And I can't risk him going to jail again. No, that's not even an option. I need to cover up my bruise as soon as possible. But for that I need to buy some products.

"Bella? Is someone harassing you? See if this is the case, we can always go and talk to Mr. Atticus. He's a kind man." She said and my eyes widened at her words. Kind man? All these happened in front of the kind man only, Flora.

"It happened when I had gone out to get coffee for Mr. Atticus. Don't worry, I filed a complaint against them. I'm safe." I said with a forced smile and she placed her hands on my shoulders, squeezing them to give me some support. I don't need it. Not now. Not ever.

"Be strong, my girl."

"I am. Can I have the reports now?" I asked her and she nodded her head, handing me the print outs and I thanked her, leaving for my cabin.

When I reached my cabin, I pulled the hair tie out of my hair and let my hair to fall freely around my shoulders to cover up the bruises around my neck. How will I keep this from the rest of the company? They'll think of scenerios that never happened.

I removed my own lunch box and unpacked two sandwiches and few diced vegetables and was about to eat them when the door of my cabin was slammed open and Mr. Atticus barged in, making me take a deep breath in. Here goes my food and hunger.

"Why aren't you replying to my e-mails and calls, Miss Wilson? And..... are you eating now?" He asked me and I sighed, looking at the clock. It read five in the evening.

"I had to run to the third floor to collect the files to make the reports on. What were you calling me for?" I asked him, closing my lunch box and he shook his head, his gaze on my food.

"I needed you to go through these manuscripts but you can do that after you're done with you lunch. Report in my office once you're done eating, I want you to go through them and tell me in short what's there in the papers. Okay?"

I nodded my head, feeling a bit awkward to have Mr. Atticus being nice to me. He was about to leave my cabin but he froze as his eyes fell on my neck and I knew what it did. It gained his attention. At least, you know now what your personal guest did to me.

"Holy Christ!" He said, rushing to my side as he pushed the hair out of my neck, letting my purple bruise to display.

I shifted uncomfortably, reaching out to cover my bruises but his fingers gripped my wrist before I could've covered the handprint of Mrs. Ford with my hair. My eyes snapped to his midnight ones and I saw some rare emotions flashing in his usually cold and steely ones. .

"I didn't knew it would form a bruise. This dark." He said, gently, very gently brushing his fingers against my bruise and my eyes closed at the light feathery touch of Mr. Atticus.

This was wrong. He was simply looking out for my bruised neck. But I didn't like this proximity amid us.

"My... My skin is sensitive. Don't worry about it. I'll cover it up on my way home. I'll come to your cabin after having my food." I said, trying to get out of his grip but he shook his head.

"Stay here."

With that he walked out my cabin, only to come with an ointment again and my lips parted at how he was behaving so different than how he usually behaved all day. Is this man even alright?