Erena's story

"You will be surprised to know that there was no such position as second assistant to team leader until a year ago." 

Elliot raised an eyebrow, his face showing signs of curiosity. He took the coffee mug from Max to refill while Max continued the story.

 

"Erena's father was homophobic, that's why she used to live in a secluded area with her parents. Her mother died a few years back and sadly her father contracted some terminal illness and gave in to his life last year. Since her father was homophobic and greatly possessive of his daughter, she  was home schooled since the beginning and rarely had any contact with other people making her a little antisocial. After her father died, and with no relatives to turn to she was all alone and in need of money."

"Coincidentally Mr. Han Jun, the director of our company met an accident near her home when he was out with his family and their lives were saved by her. So, when director Jun showed his gratitude and told her to go to him whenever she needed help, she asked for a job. She said she was happy with even the post of a janitor. But the director felt that she was a bit overqualified for that job and  given the fact that she saved the life of his entire family, he wanted to repay her with kindness. So, he offered her to be a second assistant to one of the team leaders."

"When fatso… I mean Mr. Blake learnt of this, he did not like the fact that one of the other team leaders will have two assistants while he only had one. So, he demanded Erena to be his second assistant. As a team leader of team one, director could not refuse him. At last, Erena was stationed to our team. And before you ask, yes, we were aware of her for a few months as team one was the core team of Vision and we could not accept a total stranger to our team and that too of her qualifications, especially when she came in through Mr. Blake. But she won us over with her hard work and loyalty. Now I think that there would not be a better person than her for this position." Max had a smile on her face as he reminisces about the past. 

 

"It was lucky for Miss. Erena that she met director Jun back then" Elliot said, bringing Max out of his stupor while he handed Max his coffee mug which he just refilled.

 

"You can say that. They both got lucky. However, Erena is good at learning things. A few months of more training and she can compete with any assistant in the company. Now go and help her and don't question her qualification again" Max sad taking the coffee mug from Elliot and left the room.

 

As soon as Max left, the entire aura around Elliot changed and his brows furrowed. It was just like it was written in the report that Jay, his subordinate from that day sent him. All the records and evidence proved that it was true, but he still doubted Rain. There was something about her that just did not match the reports he got or the story he heard about her. His interest in her increasing as the mystery around her thickens. Thus, he decided to pay close attention to her during this investigation.

 

Soon Elliot and Rain headed for their investigation. As the town was small there were not many shops to visit but the stubborn nature of the shop owners and their unwillingness to co-operate made things difficult for them.

  While team one was dealing with the after maths of the attack to their company,  Rain and Elliot were busy visiting the stores one by one. It was clear that the owners did not want to involve themselves with these matters, so they had to resort to approach their workers for any information that they knew. 

 

Three days passed and they finally managed to gather some clues that can lead them to the culprit. It appeared someone from the company helped the instigator as things would not have escalated to such extent if not for someone from the inside tipping them about the minute fault with their product.  They used to leave the office after lunch and investigate the whole day. But when Rain told Andrea of her findings, Andrea at once asked her to stop coming to office until she completed her investigation lest that mole find out about it and try to destroy all the evidences along with the trail that he left. Rain complied.

 

Next day, early in the morning Elliot arrived at Rain's apartment complex where she had shifted to after she joined the Vision as it would not be convenient for her to commute from her old home which was in a far, less populated area. He drove a car provided by Andrea for the investigation and waited for Rain below the complex. 

These past days along with the investigation, Elliot was also keeping a close eye on Rain. He would ask asked her random questions and try to observe her behaviour to find any signs of her lying but would always end-up getting lost in her eyes which was frustrating to him. Just last night he got a report of his reinvestigation on her, and he found official records of her and her family which proved that the story everyone knew about her was true, but he could not believe it. He didn't know why but he felt that she was hiding something. Something that was far more than he was imagining. But all he could do now was to stay closer to her to observe her.

 

He would never admit that it was his heart who was craving to stay closer to her and not his suspicions.

 

Just as he was thinking about these things, Rain arrived, and once again his attention was pulled off from the world and shifted entirely onto her. She was the only person visible to him right now.

 

Rain had noticed him waiting for her from far away and waved at him politely before rushing to take the shotgun seat beside him, "I am sorry for being late. Something popped up at the last moment" she said as she buckled her seatbelt.

 

Her words managed to pull Elliot out of his unbridled attention to her as he coughed with red ears, "It's alright. It wasn't long". He then pressed on the accelerator as they headed towards their next witness's home.