The accusations

"What if it's a misunderstanding?" Lou asked.

"Why now..." She yelled angrily at Lou, who shifted in shock. "What if they love each other so dearly? I remember Brother Hugo telling me about Pierre's taste in women. He was the one that shared with me the picture of Pierre's lady. And...And...what if they...when I called, she said Pierre is taking a quick shower. So, what...What if they had... What if they just finished...what if—"

"What if they what? Ama." Lou asked, confused at the psychotic character Ama is demonstrating right now.

"What if...What if they even...if...Goodness!" She screams as if losing it. She held her head as if in pain. "I can't even think about the kind of activities they had done." She said.

Lou looks at her in concern and immediately drags her to his chest, and starts petting her. "My dear Ama, you don't have to think about anything right now. You can cry as much as you want, Ama; I'm here for you," He pats her hair slowly.

He continued. "Don't forget that we left Paris to Burgundy to forget about all these that have happened. Okay?"

"O...Okay!" She added.

"Allow me to take you home, okay?" He said.

"Oka...Okay!" She hiccups.

—

The next day, Ama arrives at work, her eyes are all swollen, and she doesn't even wear her matching t-shirt for work. Everyone was staring at her because she seemed so off today.

Why are they looking at me so quarrelsomely? She thought.

In less than a second, Ama faced her system and went through mails requests from clients.

"Ms. Ama Temil!" The assisting manager, Franklin Moulin, called on Ama, making other workings to look at her path. "The executive, Mr. Alec Chauffer, called for you."

"Yes, Boss! Coming," She added, placing her dress correctly on her body before stepping away from her desk position down to the manager's office.

She knocks on the door. "Come in!" A voice was heard on the second knock.

She entered. "Mr. Chauffer. Did you call?" Ama sounds tired.

"Close the door." Mr. Chaugger said with a serious look on his face.

Mr. Alec Chauffer, a fifty-two year's old man. The owner of the fashion boutique. He has five famous boutiques in every city. He lost his wife to blood cancer with just one twenty-eight-year-old daughter who is now married to a famous actor. He now rolls with mistresses and so on—a strict, pump belly grey-haired man with sour expressions. He is putting on a black suit and black shoes, sitting at Mr. Moulin's chair as Mr. Moulin sat by the visitor's chair before he was excused to go out for a while.

Ama slowly closed the door.

"Now, take a seat!" He orders. Ama gave him a slight bow and did as told.

'Why is his face like this? Goodness Lord, I hope there is no severe issue at hand because his expression explains a lot,' She thought.

"Ms. Temil, how long have you been working in this fashion boutique?"

"Uh...ahm, about four months, Sir!" She stammers.

"Good." He said and continued. "I've read through the employee's chart and saw that you're one of her best employees. You've been remarkable about our clients, and that's a good thing. But..."

'But?' She thought as her mood changed.

"Did I by any chance do my job wrongly? Is it about Mrs. Dupout? I know that we employees can be a little misinterpreted sometimes, but I'm sorry about that-"

He stops the sentence midway to finish. "Ms. Temil, you are indeed a fine dark woman, and sometimes things happen. They might be times you can't avoid enticement. But everyone believes in the workers and also the best at the chart which you're a part of too!"

"I...I don't understand you, Sir. What have I done?" Ama asked, looking confused at the man.

He looked up at her with a stern look. "I heard from Mr. Moulin that you were the one that was assigned to choose the material for the new dress design. So, what happened?"

"But sir, I did select a good choice, and even Daphne went with me to the factory to make a choice, and that was the exact choice we both picked. Very well, I showed Mr. Moulin the design of the selected material. The day the product arrived from the factory, Mrs. Dupont came to try one out then; she was the one that even discovered that it was a Louis Vuitton product instead of the new edition of Givenchy designs." She continued.

"But according to my research, you called the factory to get the design changed. How do you explain that?" He frowns.

"What?" Ama yelled in shock. "That's a lie; how can I call to get the materials changed. I'm sure that someone is trying to frame me,"

He growls. "How do you explain this?" He slams a paper to the table.

Ama looked stunned at the picture that reflected Her and Tuoyo. 'How is this possible?' She thought.

"This is my cousin's brother from Nigeria, and he works herein Dijon District; we coincidentally collide, and we decided to eat together. What is there to explain? And why did someone take a picture of us? Did you send somebody to follow me?" She fumes.

"Ama, I know that you're related to this man, but did you know that he works for our manufacturers? He provided the two samples shown to you back at the factory because that's his business. He stocks and sells new edition materials. So, Tuoyo Edun is the material seller."

"What?" She flinched.

"And I heard from one of the workers in the sewing factory that you instructed them to use this Louis Vuitton design instead of the New edition Givenchy."

Ama angrily stood up, dropping the picture on the table. "Mr. Chauffer, I happened to meet my cousin that day at the mall. I didn't even know that he works with our manufacturer's residence. I didn't think he was the seller of the new edition materials that her used in this boutique,"

"Ama, I think that you're still new in this business, so, in that case, little things might entice you a bit. So, as long as you return the worker price money that was added to your and Daphne's salary, I'll let you go, and also, you have to resign from the boutique too. I can be tolerant and let you off this matter."

"What? Let me off? What are you even talking about? Mr. Chauffer, this has nothing to do with me. I did not conspire with my cousin on this. And by the way, I don't have any money at this time because I used my salary the next day for something important,"

"Ama...You have to think very carefully." He warns.

"I have thought carefully, so if you don't believe me, then you can go ahead and call the cops on me." She fumes in anger. She stands up. "Let the cops investigate this misunderstood matter,"

"Don't you think that I can call the cops on you, Ama? So, don't you test my patience and do what and do what you know is right for you!" He barks back at Ama.

"Whatever!" She walks away from the office and slams the door to see Mr. Moulin outside, waiting for them to finish.

"Ama?" He called.

"Mr. Moulin!"

He looked concerned at Ama. "What have you done, Ama? Did you know that you can visit jail for this act that was put up with?"

"Mr. Moulin, so you too? Do you think that I will do such a thing? I told you very well about the issue immediately. The quarrel arises between Madame Dupont and me, didn't I? Even when you showed me the difference between both materials on your phone, I told you that something was off. Didn't I? Mr. Moulin?"

She continued. "It's understandable if Mr. Chauffer doesn't trust me, but you... you're supposed to trust me!"

He frowns. "This is the same way you conned me into believing you before. just return the benefits money back or else, if this matter escalates, it will be a massive problem for you and your future,"

Ama fired back. "I conned you? How? Of what? Knowing you for these past months, I knew you never liked me; I've heard what you've said about my skin. You're a fucking lousy colorist. You are a racist. How can I be scared if I'm innocent? You all can go ahead and call the cops to investigate this matter because I did nothing wrong. I know nothing of what is going on!" She turns to walk away.

"Ama Temil!" He called calmly.

"Don't you dare call my name from that racist mouth of yours." she fired back with a death glare and walked away to her desk.

Everyone was murmuring, and she immediately told everything that was happening to Daphne, but she didn't say a word.

'It seems so fishy. Something is going on, and there is a feeling that Daphne knows what is going on. How can they bombard her, and it's the both of them that went for the selection of the materials?' she thought.

She picked up her things and carried her bag. She brought out the UK used phone that Lou purchased for her early this morning and decided to call her cousin's number.

She dialed it the first time and was not reachable. She tried it again, and this time, it was saying, 'The number doesn't exist,'

-

A few hours later, Ama arrives at the factory. It was too busy for any of their manufacturers to notice her presence. She went straight to the private room that no one could enter—the space where high limited edition materials are kept.

"Where are the artificial materials? Won't do they go?" She asked in shock, seeing only the new edition Givenchy material that she knew she selected with her bare hand.

Ama then remembered that she saw the same fake material downtown burgundy. Then, she decided to check it out. She exited the factory and held to the silent street to take a taxi at the main road since the factory was inside the town.

Suddenly, she tripped on a stone and nearly fell, but she held to her stance, but her phone fell. She sighed tiredly and bent down to pick up the phone, but instantly she was hit with a baseball bat on her head hardly then, all she could see was darkness.

—

"Son, are you okay?"The family maid asked as she heard the glass of fruit juice hit the floor aggressively.

"I'm...I'm okay; it's just that I had a bad feeling, and I felt a very sharp pain in my head." He turns to look at her. "Did Ama call home yesterday?"He asked.

"Not really. She hadn't called for almost a week now."

Immediately, the chauffeur walks in with a bag. "Young Sir, Ms. Ama has sent a package through the delivery service in Dijon, Burgundy!" Johnson Tufin, the Chauffeur, said.

"What?"

"It's started here 'Birthday present for Pierre Fitzgerald,' And I guess it will look good too!" He said.

Pierre immediately grabbed the box from Mr. Tufin and hastily tore it open. And there goes a perfect packaged white shoe with advanced birthday wishes.

"Oh my, the shoe looks so fine. It will surely fit you well, just the way you like them. Ms. Ama knows what you like," Mrs. Venice said with a bright smile.

Pierre was staring at the shoe with love mixed with shock when suddenly his phone rang. He picks it up. It was from Hugo.

"Hello, Leroy!" He said on the phone. "What?" Pierre's yelled in shock. He hangs up immediately.

Pierre was not putting on shoes, so he grabbed the shoes from the chauffeur and put them on in a hurry.

"What is the matter?" Mrs. Venice asked in a worried tone.

"Something terrible happened to Ama. I'm on my way to Dijon, burgundy. Don't let my parents know about it." He rushes out.