The Ex-Wife They Begged To Keep - Chapter 100: Chapter 100

"If there's nothing on there, I'll apologize to you in front of everyone and quit the company. How about that?" Ashley had pushed things this far, and if Serena still refused, it would obviously look like she had something to hide.
The stares from everyone around her were filled with suspicion and hostility. Even Graham couldn't help but urge her, "Maybe you should just open the computer and show everyone. That's the only way to prove your innocence."
Serena stayed silent, which seemed like she was accepting what he said.
Ashley immediately pushed her aside and eagerly started up the computer. She found what she was looking for right on the desktop and clicked it open triumphantly to show everyone around them.
"Look at this. Here's the proof! I wasn't making false accusations against Serena. She really did it," Ashley shouted.
The room erupted in shocked murmurs as Graham stepped closer to see for himself. 'How is this possible?' he thought. During all the time he'd worked with Serena, he'd come to admire her skills and ambition. She would never do something this self-destructive.
But the evidence was right there in front of everyone.
Despite all the accusing stares, Serena stood her ground. "This file isn't mine. I never betrayed the company."
"We caught you red-handed and you're still making excuses." Ashley lunged forward to grab Serena, but suddenly, the room fell silent.
"Mr. Brannon," someone whispered.
Keith, who rarely showed up in the design department, had appeared once again.
When Ashley saw Keith, she didn't back down. Instead, a flash of triumph crossed her face. She dragged Serena over to him. "Mr. Brannon, this woman sold company secrets. The evidence is right here. You need to fire her!"
Keith met Serena's eyes briefly. Before she could even defend herself, he spoke in a calm voice, "Are you sure she's the one who betrayed the company?"
Everyone around them froze when they heard this, not quite understanding what Keith meant. But Serena seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as she looked at him gratefully.
Serena was worried Keith would doubt her like everyone else when he saw this so-called evidence, but she guessed she was wrong about him.
"It seems this designer isn't aware that every corner of this company has surveillance cameras installed, and every company computer has a monitoring subsystem," Keith said calmly. "If I want to see what happened, I can pull up the footage anytime."
Keith's tone was casual, but Ashley's face visibly paled.
His secretary received his signal and played last night's security footage from the design department on her phone. The video clearly showed Ashley returning alone after everyone had left and doing something to Serena's computer.
"So Ashley was the one framing Serena this whole time." People around them finally realized what had happened, and one by one, they all got angry.
Ashley had been playing the victim all along. She was the one who'd ruined all their hard work, yet she had the nerve to turn everyone against Serena and make them suspect her instead. That was absolutely vicious.
"According to criminal code section 219, theft of trade secrets, you could be facing jail time," Keith said coldly.
Ashley immediately collapsed into her chair, then suddenly scrambled toward Keith and Serena, trying to beg for mercy. But security arrived faster and quickly dragged her away.
After cleaning up this whole mess, Keith didn't stick around and left immediately. Everyone else in the design department looked shaken and relieved.
"I'm so sorry, Serena," said one of her colleagues who'd been friendly with her before.
The others nodded apologetically. "We shouldn't have believed Ashley so easily. We actually thought you'd betrayed us all."
This had been Ashley's elaborate setup from the beginning. The forged evidence had been right there in front of them, and if Serena hadn't known she was innocent, she probably would have believed it too.
Serena shook her head, looking completely normal, and actually comforted everyone else. "You don't need to apologize to me. Everything's been cleared up now. Nobody got wrongly accused, and the real culprit didn't get away with it. That's all that matters."
Seeing how understanding Serena was being, everyone felt even more guilty. They all mentally upgraded their opinion of her. 'Our new colleague is way too nice!' they thought, almost in tears.
But none of that could compete with the power of office gossip. Someone couldn't help but ask, "Serena, Mr. Brannon has already stuck his neck out for you twice now. Are you two..."
Serena quickly waved her hands in denial. She was incredibly grateful for everything Keith had done for her, but aside from being friends, there was nothing romantic between them. "I really appreciate Mr. Brannon's support, but outside of work, we're just friends."
'He did all that for you, and you were just friends?' The colleagues thought as they exchanged skeptical looks.
Before anyone could press further, Keith's secretary returned and walked up to Serena with a respectful tone. "Serena, Mr. Brannon would like to see you in his office."
Serena was a bit surprised but agreed, following the secretary up to the executive floor.
"You and Mr. Brannon can talk privately. I'll step out," the secretary said before leaving.
Serena walked into the office to find Keith sitting behind his desk with a stern expression. When he saw her, he only looked up briefly, his face unreadable and complicated.
"Mr. Brannon, is something wrong?" Serena asked. This was the first time she had ever seen Keith look like this, and she couldn't help feeling nervous.
Keith nodded and slid the photo in his hand across to Serena. She looked down at it with confusion and recognized the same photo Eliza had used to spread rumors about her.
"What's your relationship with the person in this picture?" Keith asked.
Serena hadn't expected Keith to ask about this, but since they'd known each other for so long, she didn't think he was questioning whether there was anything inappropriate going on.
"I grew up in an orphanage. The woman in this photo is the director there. She took care of me my whole life. She's like family to me," Serena said. She hesitated for a moment before asking, "Is there something wrong with that?"
Serena could sense that her words had a strong effect on Keith. He was clearly trying to suppress some kind of emotional reaction, which made her even more curious about what was going on.
Seeing the questioning look in her eyes, Keith closed his eyes briefly and shook his head. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it. Alyssa just misses you a bit, so I wanted to ask if you'd have time to join her for dinner tonight."
Serena felt a pang of guilt. She'd been so focused on work that she'd been neglecting Alyssa. "Of course. We can leave together after work."