THE OUTBURST

Two days gone pass, and Troye had collected enough proof to clear the name of his boss, just as what he had assured to the reporters two days ago. It took him a lot of measures to prepare for it. And finally, he stood outside of the Dixon building with documents in the folder, where—in a few moments—reporters will be bustling over for his statements.

“So, how are you going to resolve that? You promised to the reporters two days ago, didn’t you?” upon waiting, a voice emerged from behind, where Hailey is walking to his direction with her arms crossed.

Troye just looked at her with no intention of spoiling the details. To be frank, it was not hard for Troye to end the allegations about Hailey despite her fame. However, there is just one thing that Hailey has to do—something that is out of her character. And that itself would end and clear everything thoroughly.

“Ma’am, hypothetically, if I were to ask you to do something, would you do it?” He asked her instead. Hailey’s one brow raised at him.

“Well, it depends on—”

Troye cut her off, having her glaring at him. “Yes or no?”

Silence occurred, while Hailey is thinking about her answer. But familiar cars are starting to approach the building and stopped right in front of them where the reporters are emerging from, allowing Hailey to divert her attention and not answering him.

“There he is!”

“Mr. Troye, care to share with us your knowledge about the case of your girlfriend?” Hailey couldn’t hide her expression, but to flinch at it.

“What do you mean by the proof you said two days ago, Mr. Troye?”

Troye, the man of the day, cleared his throat, before answering the questions thrown at him.

“It’s time to put an end to these meaningless allegations towards my girlfriend,” Troye started and pulled Hailey closer to him by grabbing her waist, which shocked the woman big time. She felt her heart suddenly beating so loud, and just stood frozen and surprise.

That gesture of him urged the reporters to take more photos of them together.

“We are all aware of the fact that Naomi’s last moments before dying inside her apartment, happened in this very building, aren’t we?” Troye dashed his gazes to the structure and returned them to the front. “And with the attitude of my girlfriend, Hailey, everyone assumed that it was her entire fault that drove her to death. In which you got wrong. You are journalists but all you have gathered were just baseless facts and hearsays.”

Some reporters turned down their cameras, never missed to catch on his statement.

“During my investigation, I stumbled upon a thing that everyone—including the police—failed to notice…” and the attention sparks on him once again.

To put it simply, Troye found a broken pendant in the evidence section where evidences from Naomi’s case were kept. Though, getting in there was tough, but worth it. Little did everyone know that the pendant contained with a photo of her and her boyfriend who actually broke up on the day she died as he was caught cheating by her. It led Troye to another idea of her motive to kill herself.

Upon investigating further, at the same day, Hailey threw a mood on Naomi, which had the latter shaken by it. But it happened before catching her boyfriend cheating. Thus, the conclusion of this case is, Naomi killed herself as she couldn’t accept her boyfriend cheating on her, with a bit of contribution of Hailey’s mood on her.

In short, she’s partly at fault.

“…And that is why I brought my girlfriend with me to this as she means to apologize to her and her relatives.” Hailey couldn’t be more surprised at the statement that she just heard from his bodyguard whose hand still wrapped around her.

She and Troye locked their eyes to each other, which is just a few inches away that they can hear each other’s breath and heartbeat. Troye urged him to do it by nodding, while she’s giving her death glare. Then his question struck to her mind. So, this must be what he meant, huh? Clever. I should’ve expected that, she thought.

“But we heard from a reliable source that she was hospitalized for days.” One of the reporters said, making Troye frown. But before his statements goes on fire, Hailey began to heave a deep breath, and mustered all her courage to say those words. Words that usually gets stuck in her throat.

“To everyone, especially Naomi and her family… you have my deepest apology in regards to my attitude towards you. I’m sorry if someone has to die partly because of my insolence. I’m so sorry, Naomi. I’m sorry, everyone. I will do all my might to change my behavior and be as gentle as possible.” Hailey remarked and teared up, which surprised Troye a bit.

“You’ve heard it. That’s all.” Troye said while noticing the reporter, who opened up a statement a few minutes ago, just standing among the crowd of other reporters. They had a second of eye contact, before Troye lead Hailey inside the building.

“Did you mean it?” Troye asked when the reporters are finally gone, and they have successfully entered the building.

Hailey slightly pushed him away and stepped backward to make a distance between them before making her response. “Did you think I was petty enough for that?” she replied, and Troye frowned at her.

“Everyone, including Naomi, earned for that ‘attitude’ of mine,” she continued, quoting Troye, which bewildered him even more. “Everyone, all of you.” She added.

“Your existence in my life is you, yourselves, have earned. And you got to bear with it.” She remarked and turned her back to walk away.

But what greeted behind her is a lady who seemed to be rushing to get in here.

“I’ve been waiting for your arrival, mother.” Hailey greeted her mom with a smirk on her face.

“Where’s Troye?” the mother asked with restraining anger.

But then, she eventually caught a glimpse of a man behind her daughter. She immediately walked towards him and without having second thoughts, she fired her palm directly on his face.

“You… dared… to announce my daughter as your girlfriend in public… How shameful and disgusting you could be.”