Middle Child Syndrome - Chapter 271

Chapter 271: Ch 271: A disappointing answer
It was blissful. Rika could not hear anything except her alpha’s purring over the phone. It made her body relax, and she almost fell asleep when Rika pulled herself out of the hole she had fallen into and looked at her phone.

Emily was calming down as well, but the alpha’s expression did not look as happy as Emily thought it would look.

“Do you feel alright, Emily? You called me out of the blue for this. Did anything happen on your side?”

Rika asked in a worried voice. She wanted to ensure Emily was alright before going to sleep, or this would continue to haunt her forever.

“I am fine! What about you? Don’t bother answering it. I already know what happened to you at the Goodwill Corporation. It makes my blood boil just thinking about it.”

Emily’s voice was filled with unrestricted anger, making Rika feel awkward.

She did not think anyone would be this angry over what happened. Especially Moreso for her.

“It’s okay! Nothing happened to me since my senses were not that sharp. It also justified us to conduct an office-wide search and weed out its harmful parts. Overall, it was a net positive.”

Rika bullshitted her way through this, but even she knew that she was not making sense.

Emily did not reply to Rika’s apparent ridiculousness and just looked at the omega with her sincere expression.

It made Rika look away, knowing she could not keep doing this. Rika needed to change the topic as soon as possible.

‘I need to change the topic now. I can feel how awkward it got in the last few seconds.’

Rika had something she needed to ask Emily anyway, and she knew that the mood would change the second she brought that topic up.

But Rika thought the risk was worth asking what she wanted to do as Emily.

“Emily, Damian will return before the Union conference as the new head, right? Are you going to attend it this year?”

Rika asked the alpha the question she wanted to ask for a long time.

Emily looked taken aback by Rika’s question before smiling professionally. The second that happened, Rika could tell that Emily would avoid answering her question.

“Ah, that thing? You don’t need to worry about it. Let Dami and I take care of it. He will be back a day before the conference as well. Do you want to hang out after the conference? We all can go out and eat.”

As usual, Emily quickly turned Rika down without letting her know.

Or, that was what she tried to do anyway. But Rika saw through Emily’s facade and knew that Emily would not invite her.

Rika doubted Damian would call her either since he usually followed Emily’s leads during these times.

‘Ah, it looks like I do not have a choice but to go with Andrew. I want to know what this conference is like before I leave this world.’

Rika wanted to sigh and curse at Emily. But she also knew it would be useless even if she did that.

After all, words only worked against those who knew they had done something wrong. But Emily was convinced that keeping Rika away was the right thing to do.

Rika quickly ended the call after that, but she had decided.

She sent Andrew B Tweten a single message, but little did she know that it would soon become a catalyst for something bigger.

[I’ll go with you. Tell me what you want me to wear and where you want to meet me.]

…

The office had a different vibe when Rika entered it the following day.

Everyone seemed to avoid looking at her, and Rika was sure the rumors about what Mark said were already spreading around the cooperation building.

“I am here for the check-in.”

Rika held her ID out to get scanned, and the front-desk lady flinched.

She likely remembered how hard of a time she had given Rika, and her face paled even more.

“H-Hey, you are not mad at me, right? I never harmed you, and I never insulted you either. We did get off the wrong foot, but I am sure we can bridge the gap, right?”

The front desk lady quickly spoke to Rika, and she sounded desperate for Rika’s acknowledgment.

Rika did not know what was happening but only gave a half-hearted nod toward the worker before entering her section.

She could instantly tell that something had gone wrong in this department.

No one was in that wing, and Rika felt terrible about what had happened here.

‘I am sure Mark will not do something as foolish as firing everyone off before we even cleared the air. I mean, who will handle all the work in this department? Mark is careless, but not ‘that’ careless.’

Rika tried to assure herself while waiting for people to come to this department.

But an hour passed, and no one showed up. Not even the section chief came to check what was happening.

Rika felt her head throb and knew she needed to get to the bottom of this.

That was why she quickly stood up and walked out of the room. She needed to talk to Mark about what was happening.

“I need to see Mark! Right now!”

Rika demanded from her brother’s secretary as soon as she saw the beta.

The poor guy looked taken aback by the intensity of Rika’s annoyance and quickly opened the door for her.

He breathed a sigh of relief once Rika disappeared behind the door, but he had a weird feeling that he had unleashed a beast on Young Master Mark.

‘Oh well! That man will reap what he had sown. I should not worry about unnecessary things. I am sure he will be fine…hopefully.’

The secretary was quick to make his escape after what happened. He felt he did not want to witness whatever was going to happen here.

‘Let’s make a run for it. Should I take the other half of the day off? Maybe a short vacation might suit me well as well.’

After all, he was new and did not want to be replaced on his first day at this job.