Tom was passing by the bridal section as he was returning to his office when he saw Amber in arguments with Charles. He walked into the room to ask what was happening when he heard her demanding for an apology.

“I am demanding for an apology from you right now” she yelled at his face

“What is going on right now? What do you think you are doing?” he asked looking at her

“He was touching me appropriately, he was groping me” she explained

“Why would I do that? I only dropped the cup of water by mistake and she was cleaning it up before she suddenly started yelling at my face to apologize” Charles said innocently and she scoffed

“It was true that his cup shattered but while I was cleaning it up, he suddenly groped me from behind and it was twice at that” she insisted

“Is there any proof that he did that? You shouldn’t make false accusations” Tom said and her shoulder dropped in shock.

She has been working with him for close to three years and he could still think she made things like this up? She was so disappointed in him and angry at him at the same time. She closed her eyes to beat back the tears that were welling up in her eyes for a while.

“I don’t have any CCTV to prove it here” she said with her head down

“I sincerely want you to prove it now, I feel wronged for being accused of something I didn’t do” Charles remarked and she could not believe her ears

“I am sorry for the misunderstanding caused, I hope you will let it go quietly” Tom apologized to him but he slammed his hand on the sofa’s arm

“Why should I let it go quietly when she’s accusing me of sexually harassing her! Do you know me? Do you know how great I am? Were you trying to squeeze money out of me by making up some foolish stories like this? I can file a petition against this company and that will be over for you all and even your boss standing here” Charles threatened and she couldn’t even speak because she was rendered speechless by his sudden boldness

“Once again we are sorry, CEO Charles” Tom apologized

“I don’t want your own apology, I want her to apologize since she was the one that accused me” Charles remarked and that was the end of the drama for Amber

“I will never apologize since you are the one that was in the wrong. You groped me and still want me to apologize to you?” she stated with pain mixed with anger

“As from tomorrow, don’t come to work anymore Miss Amber” Tom commanded and bowed in apology to Charles when a text dropped on Amber’s phone

“You should balance up for this week or we will stop the treatment” the nurse from the hospital texted her and she sighed

Everything in her wanted her to slap him and walk out of the company too but her piling debts would not just allow her to do anything. She bent her head forward towards Charles and apologized

“I am sorry for accusing you wrongly” she said and they wondered why she changed her mind

“I guess you losing your job brought you back to your senses” Charles chuckled and rested his back on the sofa

“I don’t want an half-ass apology like this, you should apologize properly by going on your knees” Charles declared and Tom turned to face him, surprised at his request

“I know something happened between you two but going on her knees will be too extreme” Tom said and Charles picked up his phone

“With one phone call I can make all your stocks become dust in an instant. Do you still think you can risk it because of one employee?” Charles said with a smirk and Tom didn’t know what to do

He was still thinking of ways to handle it when Amber went on her knees and apologized to Charles. She knelt down in front of him while trying to hold back her tears.

“I am sorry for accusing you wrongly once again” she apologized with her head bowed

“You will make me the bad person at this rate” Charles said and motioned for her to stand up but she could not find the strength to do that.

Tom walked to her side and helped her up but she flung his hand away and glared at him for a bit before managing to stand up on her own and stomped out of the room. Joy came out after trying out the clothes and picked the one she liked.

“You can send that to my house” she said to the employee that followed her in and they bowed to her before leaving the room with the clothes she picked

“How was it? Did you find the one you like?” Charles asked with a smile

“They were all so beautiful that I wanted to pick all but I had to restrain myself” she answered with a smile

“Where is Secretary Amber?” she asked looking around

“She went to take care of an urgent matter” Tom quickly covered up for her

“That’s sad, I wanted to thank her for her help” she pouted

“You can do that next time. Let’s go now because I have a meeting in the next thirty minutes” Charles said standing up and they left the room.

Tom escorted them to the car and bid them goodbye before returning to his office where he saw that she was absent from her seat.

She had gone to the restroom to bawl her eyes out because she couldn’t bottle up the pain and embarrassment inside anymore. She felt so wronged that she was the victim and she was the one that also apologized. The more she thought about, the more her anger rose and she felt like kicking them both in the face.

She finally finished crying and fixed her makeup before going back to the office. She entered the office and locked eyes with Tom through the window blinds and glared at him for some seconds before marching to her seat.

Not more than two minutes, he called her to his office and requested for a file. She brought it to him and handed it over to him when he addressed her.

“If you don’t know when to draw the line between being professional and stubborn, you might end up losing all you have” he said flipping through the pages

She wanted to argue but stopped since it was a futile effort and the damage was done already so she just turned to take her leave while he continued his work.

She finished up for the day and went to the hospital to settle the bill and also see her mother who was admitted there. She pulled the door opened to see her staring into the bright lights coming from the city’s buildings.

“Isn’t this night so beautiful? There is moonlight also” her mother said to her as she turned to look at her

“I know right. They are shining so bright with nothing being able to restrict them, I hope I can shine like them someday because I am so jealous of them right now” she poured out

“Did something happen at work? You look so down and your voice is sad too” her mother asked as she came nearer to her

“Well there is never a smooth day at work. I am just tired that is why my voice is like this” she told her mother

“If you are holding on because of me and being disrespected then you should quit. You shouldn’t go through hard times because of me” her mother advised and she chuckled

“Who is being disrespected? Your daughter is the secretary of the CEO! I am one of the high ranking employee in the company so you should be proud because it is a bragging right” she stated and they both laughed

“I just feel bad seeing you put all your money into my hospital bills, you should be doing other things with your money” her mother muttered with a sad voice

“That is why you should get better soon so we can many things together. I have a long list of what to do with you” she said, helping her to adjust her scarf around her neck

“I promise to then” her mother said firmly and they both hugged each other.

Her mother have been suffering from kidney disease for the past six months and the dialysis treatment have been consuming a lot on her paycheck but she was not complaining as long as her mother is able to hold on till they find a donor.

She sat by her mother’s side as they played their favorite song, Winter Bear by V while enjoying the scenery of the night.

“Imagine your face say hello to me, then all the bad days are nothing to me. That line is really comforting” she muttered and quickly clean the tears dropping from her eyes before her mother sees it and get worried.

She finally bid goodbye and left the hospital when a car pulled up and it turned out to be Eddy

“Hello beautiful lady? Are you going somewhere? Do you want to go on a ride with me?” Eddy shouted with a wave and she burst into a broad smile

“I guess I will not be sleeping angry this night” she said to herself as she ran to enter the car

“I have been dialing your number all day but you didn’t pick up so I went to check you out at the office and I was told you left already. I figured out that this will be the place you are then” he said as soon as she got into the car

“You really know everything about me” she remarked fixing her seatbelt

“Of course, it’s been more than two years” he said proudly

“Since I am here, should I just greet her? It’s been a while I came here” he suggested

“It’s way past visitation time and she’s resting too so we can come back another time” she responded and he nodded in agreement before igniting the car and zoomed off.

He parked the car at a distance so they could walk a little bit to her house and discuss things

“How is work going? You seems to be busy these days” she asked holding his hand

“There have been so many requests coming in these days so it’s natural to be busy” he responded holding unto her hand in return

“How about you? How is work?” he asked looking at her and she lost all expression on her face because she was not sure whether to tell him what was going on at work or not.

Knowing his temper, he might make the incident bigger than usual if she reveals what Charles did to her and also if she tells him about the contract, he might misunderstand so she shook her head and kicked against it.

“Everything is going on well at work” she lied and he nodded

“You are a professional at what you do after all” he remarked

“I stopped working at the club. I won’t do that anymore” she told him and he stood still for a while

“Although I really didn’t like the idea of you being a stripper at a club, I was able to understand since it was because of your financial status and since I didn’t have much to offer from my end, I couldn’t stop you. Will it be too selfish of me to say that I am happy you quitted?” he carefully stated and she smiled

“No, you are not selfish at all. Thank you for your support all these while, thank you for the understanding too. I think life pitied me a little and made my love life a good one at least” she remarked and he drew her closer to himself

“Life doesn’t have a choice but to be fair to us in one aspect or the other. Let’s enjoy this fairness till the end” he commented and leaned in for a kiss.

It was slightly getting deeper when they heard someone cough from behind and they turned to see Emily standing there

“Should I just leave the house for both of you tonight? You seems to want to burn in the moment” Emily remarked and they laughed

“You should have a good night sweetheart” Eddy said to her and waved her bye before leaving for his car while she entered with Emily

“You are one fearless lady” Emily teased her as they went inside the room.

She thought about everything that happened that day while showering but after letting water flow through her hair into her head and wash away everything, she was refreshed.

She scrolled through her favorite artist’s posts and wondered why he haven’t updated any painting for quite some time

“I wish Umbra can upload something nice soon” she sighed before throwing her bed to her side

“At least, there is peace at this side of my life” she muttered as she stepped out of the shower and went to bed.

Emily left the house very early the next morning after telling Amber that she has an early morning test. Amber dressed up and went to work also with a better mood than that of the previous day since Eddy made her feel better the last night.

She got to the office and saw the text from Tom saying he would be coming in late to the office so she attend the meeting with the head of teams in his stead.

“Whatever” she mouthed as she read the text and removed her long coat to start the day’s work.

When it was time for the meeting, she picked up her coat and left for the conference room in the far end of the left side at the top floor of the building. She was shown respect to as the secretary to the CEO as she entered and sighed

“At least, I still have some respect left to my name” she thought and had her seat

“The CEO will not be joining us today because he has something urgent to attend to so we will start the meeting without him. What do we have on ground?” she asked and one of the team leaders tendered her report.

“The sales for this month shot up because of the many conglomerates wedding that will be taking place soon and luckily for us, all of them are buying their wedding items from us” the team leader reported

“With this sudden increase in orders, make sure that the employees doesn’t mix up orders like the last time because we don’t have any money to settle queries and also make sure that all their goods are sent to them in the best condition. Of course, make sure to package them well too and include a congratulatory gift for them” she directed and the team leader replied that she would do exactly what she said.

They discussed other things with the rest of the team leaders and after three hours, the meeting ended and she returned to the office to finish up what she was previously doing before Tom finally came to the office.

***

Emily finished her test and was walking around the corridor while chatting seriously with someone when her friends sneaked in on her.

“Who are you texting this ferociously? You don’t have a boyfriend if I can remember” Jessica said staring at her

“You have been texting a lot these days, who is the lucky guy? Are you going to hide him from us forever?” Mark added and she hid her phone

“I was discussing about my tuition fees with my dad, nothing more” she lied and Jessica tilted her head

“From what I know, your tuition for this session is settled because I was there when you paid so why are you discussing another one already when the first semester is not even over?” Jessica questioned

“That’s how I and my father do our thing. Stop bothering me, it’s a father and daughter talk so why are you poking your nose in?” she raised her voice and Jessica was startled

“There is no need to shout, I was only joking but I guess it went wrong” Jessica stuttered

“Are you sure nothing is wrong? You are so defensive today” Mark stated and she shook her head

“I was just pissed that she didn’t believe me” she said and patted Jessica’s shoulder to apologize

“I’m sorry”

“It’s okay” Jessica said with a shrug

“How about we hang out today? We are off the hook of test for a while” she suggested

“That would be nice!” Mark growled and they giggled before deciding where exactly to hang out.

****

Amber tendered the reports of the meeting to Tom and also explained some other things that were discussed in the meeting.

“Thank you for doing a wonderful job” he complimented her and she went back to her seat.

She was planning to clock out when Tom’s call came through

“We have somewhere to be today” he said and she almost cursed at him because she had already planned to go out of work as soon as possible.

They went to the same place where they went to the last time and she helped her carried some boxes he put in the car’s trunk inside the house.

“You can arrange them in the fridge” he said and disappeared through a door in the room leaving her to do what he ordered.

She opened the cartons one by one to find different snacks, fruits, drinks and lots of bottled water

“Is he planning to live here now? How come he’s buying this much?” she muttered as she filled the enter fridge with it.

She finished arranging them and waited for him to come out but seeing how he didn’t come out after a while, she decided to go to him instead. She walked in through the door she saw him walk through and found herself in a corner with two rooms there. She slowly walked to the right one and tried opening it when it opened by itself to reveal Tom coming out of the room and that made her startled a bit.

“I am done with the arrangement” she quickly said

“That’s good but let me make one thing clear, your work is only in the large room. On no account should you wander around or go into the room aimlessly” he warned and she nodded

They went back to the large room and he told her to have her seat while he also sat opposite to her.

“I know you must have been wondering why we signed a contract, what exactly I want from you and how long this will last. I will iron out all everything right now and you listening to me talk means that there is no turning back no matter what because you have become my own” he stated clearly

“From now henceforth, you will be revealed as the artist UMBRA” he revealed and she was confused about what he was saying

“Artist Umbra? What is that?” she asked raising her brows

“Umbra means shadow in Latin and that is my name in the painting world. I don’t know if you have ever heard of Painter Umbra, which is me sitting in front of you” he explained and she covered her mouth in shock before she started laughing

“I know that you are very boring but there is no need to try hard to make me laugh, I am already used to your cold atmosphere” she chuckled loudly but when she saw that he was not smiling and dead serious, the chuckle began to fade away slowly.

“Wait! Are you serious right now? You are the artist Umbra? The same Umbra? The anonymous artist? You are the one?” she asked with a serious face and tone this time around

“I know you do not believe me but that is not a problem because I wouldn’t too if I were in your shoes but I will prove it to you” he said and grabbed a large piece of white paper from the desk with a mini purse containing several pencils.

Before she could even grasp what was going on, he already sketched her face and showed it to her

“What the hell? You are really the one” she blurt out and he marched to the desk to bring out a big carton at the down slot of the shelf sitting there.

He brought out some watercolor palettes and started painting on the sketch while she waited patiently even though she was so curious about what the outcome would be. He was done after forty five minutes and he turned the paper to her so she could check it out.

She gasped in awe and stood up to find her way to the desk where she collected it to see it more closely.

“This is so beautiful, how can this be so perfect?” she marveled as she raised the paper to her face

“Do you believe now?” he asked with a hint of pride

“Of course! I have been a fan of Umbra for two years and I can recognize any of his work. This is really Umbra’s stroke” she gushed

“Should we resume our contract negotiations then?” he said standing up.

****

Amber finished the negotiation with Tom around eight in the evening and quickly flagged down the taxi to take her to Eddy’s house since that day was his birthday. She initially planned to leave the office and go straight to his house but since she had to fulfil her contract with Tom, she texted him that she will be late that night.

She wanted to use the elevator in the building but the wait was so long so she decided to just use the stairs instead since Eddy’s room was on the first floor. Just as she opened the door to the stairs, a lady in all black passed by her with a black cap on her head. She was scared for a bit but since the lady passed by in a flash, she just ignored it and went on her way.

TWO MONTHS AGO

“Elaine, how is the search for small artists going? Have you found anyone yet?” Phoebe asked as she entered the office in her small black gown barely covering half of her tights

“The search is going well but can you just put on some skin hose at least? How will you be comfortable in that?” Elaine remarked shaking her head

“You are an artist and you are still this judgmental? Don’t you know that one of the beauty of arts is ability to express it freely and lovingly? I am a work of art so why are you restraining me from expressing myself freely and lovingly?” Phoebe countered

“You can as well go naked then since you want to display your body art badly” Elaine stated and resumed clicking on the arts in front of her while Phoebe looked at it with her until it got to a particular art.

“Stop! Stop!!” Phoebe screamed making Elaine jump

“Who painted this?” she asked bending over a little

“This was painted by someone we don’t know. There is nothing about the person except that they goes by the name umbra” Elaine replied

“Umbra? Makes sense” Phoebe remarked with a satisfied tone

“What do you mean by that?” Elaine asked turning to her

“Search up the name for me, I want to see their other works” Phoebe instructed and Elaine searched him out within seconds.

They went through his account for some minutes and Phoebe was very impressed with his work. Although he haven’t posted many works, the few he had were very impressive to her.

“I can see why the person is named Umbra” Phoebe muttered

“Why?”

“If you look carefully, there is always a shadow over the painting. It is very light but evident. This means that the person is trying to hide a bright light behind a darkness that in turn casts a shadow” Phoebe explained and Lawrence came in at that moment

“Good morning” he shouted with continuous snapping of his fingers as he danced to the music playing on his earphones

“Good morning sir” they both greeted and he smiled at them before walking to his office

“I think we might have found the gem you are looking for” Phoebe said to him and he stopped immediately

“You found one? Let me see, I hope it is a wonderful gem this time” he said walking over to the computer where Phoebe showed him the works she was talking about

“Yesssssssss this is it! This is what I have been talking about. This is the aura I have been picturing. Just like you have said, this is the gem” he almost screamed and Phoebe smiled in satisfaction

“What should we do with the artist?” Elaine asked looking at him

“What do you mean what? You should get in talking with them immediately! The works of this artist must be featured in this exhibition and of course as the highlight” He stated with all seriousness

“But he doesn’t have anything except for his name, how will I contact him?” Elaine complained

“That’s up to you Miss Elaine” he shrugged and went to his office

“Seems like you will be busy for the next few days” Phoebe muttered to her and patted her back before going to her own seat.

She spent all day asking around in the artists’ communities if anyone knows the identity behind Umbra but no one seems to know the artist. For ten days, she kept searching frantically, sending messages to his inbox and comment section on the app but she didn’t get any response.

She was about to give up after trying for the last time on the fifteenth day when a response suddenly came through from him.

“Oh my God! He responded!” she screamed and Phoebe was taken aback at the suddenness

“He did? What did he say?” Phoebe asked running over to check his reply

“I am sorry for not replying sooner, I have been extremely busy but I will think about your offer and get back to you since Lawrence Manon have been an artist I admired for a long time so I will consider this offer as a honor” Umbra replied

“I hope he gets back soon and with a positive reply at that, it seems we will have a peaceful exhibition this time around” Phoebe sighed and went back to her seat.

****

Tom finished showering that night when he picked up his phone and logged into his account that he couldn’t visit for the past fifteen days due to hectic works at the office. He saw the messages and comments of the offer and wanted to accept right away but he stopped for a while to think over it once again.

He sent a reply that he would think about it and then placed a condition that he would only work with them if he will not be revealing himself but they declined and said the main point of the exhibition is to broadcast both the art and the entity behind it.

He was torn between turning down a rare opportunity from his favorite artist that he had been looking up to for decades and accepting the offer which means him revealing his face. He couldn’t arrive at a conclusion about how to go about it until the instant Amber begged desperately for her job in front of him.

“I will do anything you want” she pleaded with desperation in her eyes and the thought of making her Umbra in his stead dropped in his head.

He decided to reveal her as Umbra for the exhibition and display his art which was his only true dream. He didn’t want to cause any frenzy to the company so he chose to stay anonymous but as fate would have it, his works spoke for itself.

“I know you must have been wondering why we signed a contract, what exactly I want from you and how long this will last. I will iron out all everything right now and you listening to me talk means that there is no turning back no matter what because you have become my own” he stated clearly

“From now henceforth, you will be revealed as the artist UMBRA” he revealed and she was confused about what he was saying.

After painting her face to convince her that he was indeed the one, he proceeded to negotiate about their contract terms and what she would have to do.

“You will only have to come out as Umbra and take on the project. It is very simple because you will not be required to draw anything new. The already done works will be what will be displayed at the exhibition so you just need to show up at the exhibition and do the needful which is answering questions and briefing them about the inspiration behind the arts” he explained to her and she went mute for several seconds.

“Answering questions and briefing them? I don’t know anything about art itself and also I don’t know what your works represent so how can I speak on your behalf? Also what if I am asked a question that I cannot answer?” she asked in fear

“That is why you will have to study on art since the exhibition is three months away and also we will be discussing everything about me when we meet here. The questions that will be asked during the exhibition will also be sent to me for revision and practice so you don’t have to worry about that” he narrated and she sighed

“This seems like an easy task that is not easy, I don’t think I can do this. It is wrong to deceive people! On no account should you do that! Why don’t you want to go public? It will be great for you and your company so why are you hiding the fact that you are the one behind the works? This is me deceiving myself, my family, your fans and the one holding the exhibition in general so I don’t think it is right” she said standing up to leave

“Well we have no choice then, I guess our contracts end here and you know what that means” he said standing up too and she went quiet for a while.

Even if it meant ending her job, she felt it was better than deceiving people because it would surely come back to bite her sooner or later so she didn’t let the threat faze her but she also had many things to take care of so she couldn’t just throw away her job right at that instant.

“Can you give me some time to think about it then?” she asked and he nodded

“Sure! You have a week to do that” he said and she sighed before leaving the house since she had somewhere to go.

As she was going to Eddy’s house to celebrate his birthday with him, she couldn’t stop thinking about the offer and she was tempted to tell Eddy about it and ask for his opinion but seeing the situation on ground, Tom doesn’t want anyone to know about it. She was murmuring to herself about what would be the best option when someone ran past her on the staircase and she paused for a while but since the face was covered with a cap and he doesn’t look familiar, she just went on her way to Eddy’s room.