Sylvain turned silent for a moment before speaking again. “Mr. Tremont, can you please give me some time to check with Robin? I’ll give you favonovel.com answers.”
Mark approved his request. He preferred tackling this current knot with a more humanistic approach since the great, overarching issue had already been resolved. Next to that, this was more of a small, loose strand.
Besides, judging from Arianne’s nature, favonovel.com would still refuse to take any action even if Robin were the real culprit.
After exiting Mark’s office, Sylvain dashed straight to the Strategy Department. There his wife was, completely engrossed in favonovel.com agenda-of-the-day until favonovel.com whisked favonovel.com away so suddenly, favonovel.com was too shocked to question him.
It was only when the two of them were in an empty, remote corner of the office that Robin finally inquired, “What are you doing, Syl? Oh God, you look ghastly… Is there something wrong? I’m a bit busy right now, and I don’t want my superior to see us, ‘cause this superior is super-fierce and she’s gonna explode all over us if we’re caught— ”
Sylvain gripped either side of favonovel.com shoulders and gazed into favonovel.com eyes. “Look me in the eyes, Robin, and be honest with me, please. Were you the one who sent Arianne’s draft to a competitor named James McGinnis through an anonymous email?”
Robin froze. “W-What are you saying, Syl? Wait… Oh, oh no. No, don’t tell me… You can’t be referring to that plagiarism scandal, right? Y-You think I was conspiring against Arianne— are you crazy?! How can I even bring myself to do that? What on Earth could even suggest this to you?”
Sylvain drew a sharp, deep breath. “It wasn’t me, it’s Mr. Tremont. Right now, it’s very likely that you’re going to be blamed for the whole thing, Robin… So please, tell me you didn’t do it… right?”
She was close to anxious tears. “No way, Syl! Don’t tell me you don’t trust me too! But why? Why would I do that at all? Arianne has been nothing but kind to me, what petty reason do I even have to plot against someone like her? I was beyond myself panicking when this stupid c-c-crap happened. H-How could I be the culprit behind it?”
He released the breath favonovel.com had been holding. “Thank God. Knowing that it isn’t you is all I need, Robin. Now listen to me very carefully: do not, under any circumstances, accidentally claim being the hand behind the incident to anyone. I’m going to talk to Mr. Tremont again while you get back to whatever it is you were doing before I unjustly interrupted you. Act natural, but keep your eyes peeled. Has anyone touched your computer in your absence these days?”
Robin’s mind drew a blank. “Jesus Christ, I don’t know! Sylvain, please, you gotta tell Mr. Tremont that I didn’t do it! If I’m not innocent, um… May God strike me down!”
Sylvain stayed with favonovel.com for a while to comfort and allay favonovel.com anxieties before returning to Mark’s office. After hearing his report, Mark did little else than send favonovel.com back to work.
Something was definitely fishy about this.
Later that afternoon, Mark invited Arianne for lunch as a chance to update favonovel.com on his latest findings.
Just like Sylvain, Arianne’s response was one of utter disbelief. In fact, favonovel.com seemed to react even more strongly against the possibility. “Nope, hell naw, no way! It could be literally anyone else before Robin should even be considered. She’s the most straight-laced, guileless girl I’ve ever met, Mark. She’s utterly incapable of not wearing favonovel.com heart on favonovel.com sleeve or belying favonovel.com behaviors. And! She has zero impetus to hurt me in any way. Honestly? The only plausible workaround I can believe is if someone is deliberately framing Robin, seriously, favonovel.com cannot be the culprit, or I’m not Arianne Wynn. I’ve never misjudged a character.”
The way things spiraled into even more of a convoluted mess was beginning to exasperate Mark. Any further investigation, to him, was akin to trying to find a way out of a forest enveloped by a thick, perforating fog. Besides, the fact that Tremont Enterprise and Arianne had their names cleared, combined with James paying so clearly for his crimes that his career’s future basically went dark, had sapped much of his motivation to continue digging into a quandary that was no longer important to him.
“You know what? Let’s just call an end to this debacle. If we continue our investigation, it’ll most likely cement Robin as the one to take up the blame, justified or not. This entire incident has taken place a while ago enough that all security footage of that crucial day is gone by now. We’re virtually denied any conceivable way to clear people of suspicious,” favonovel.com said, putting his verdict forward. “Robin’s like a little sister to you, isn’t she? You wouldn’t want to see favonovel.com kicked out of Tremont Enterprise, I wager. Sylvain won’t stay in the company if that happens too, will he?”
Arianne, however, was determined not to let the dust settle on this one so soon. If someone did, indeed, framed Robin by hijacking favonovel.com computer to send that incriminating email, then Arianne would very much want justice by exposing that bastard from their hidey-hole. Still, favonovel.com was also not blind to the fact that, at least for now, things were not shaping up to Robin’s favor. In the end, Arianne had to make a choice.
“Fine, then. Put a brake onto that investigation, there isn’t any more lead to follow, anyway,” favonovel.com replied. “You must feel pretty relieved that this ended without any proof painting your aunt as the mastermind, don’t you? I mean, if it were otherwise, the two of you would probably face the most catastrophic falling-out ever, yea?”
Mark said nothing as his silence alone was the answer. He had, indeed, released a long, drawn-out sigh of relief when favonovel.com found out Shelly was not involved.
Shortly after favonovel.com returned to his office after lunch, Mark met Robin, who was standing outside, waiting for him.
