Chapter 176: Chapter 176: How Am I a Scumbag?
Asher Keating pinched her cheek. "Ethan and the guys will be there, and so will Sheila."
Leah Sinclair nodded. She grabbed her phone to check the time and realized it was already six-thirty. She quickly gathered her things and followed Asher Keating out the door.
The offices on the 68th floor had already quieted down. Only one office still had its light on. As Asher Keating walked by, he glanced inside and stopped. "Why haven’t you gone home yet?"
Leah looked inside and saw it was Tiana Vaughn. The moment Tiana saw them, she shot to her feet. "Third Bro... oh, no, President Keating. I just have a bit more work to finish."
Asher Keating nodded, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Finish up and head home soon. Don’t stay too late."
"Alright. Goodbye, President Keating."
Tiana’s eyes curved into crescents as she gazed at him. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Leah Sinclair beside Asher and couldn’t help but scoff inwardly. ’I knew it. Asher treats me differently.’
’That woman just got back. Asher hasn’t seen her in ages, so he’s just a little curious for now. But,’ Tiana believed, ’I’m younger than her, and I’ve been interacting with Asher for so long.’
’Give it some time, and Asher will definitely get tired of Leah. When that happens, I’ll be the only one by his side. Then won’t he be mine for the taking?’
Leah watched the two of them, her hand tightening on her purse. She silently followed Asher into the elevator.
Inside the elevator, Asher pressed the button for the first basement level. Noticing her sullen mood, he took her hand. "Still upset?"
"..."
Leah didn’t say a word, which made him chuckle again. "Tiana’s actually a decent person. She’s just very straightforward and not particularly adaptable."
"...Does she... always call you ’Third Bro’?"
"Not every time. Why?"
Asher idly fiddled with the fingers of his other hand, then turned back to her. "Does it bother you that she calls me ’Third Bro’?"
"...I just feel it’s a little inappropriate, especially at the office."
Leah’s voice was listless. ’Even when she and Asher had been... like that, she had never called him ’Third Bro’ in front of others at the company, with the sole exception of that one time she was held hostage.’
"But no one else was around. If it bothers you, I’ll tell her to stop calling me that from now on."
As he spoke, Asher took out his phone, ready to message Tiana. Seeing the slight frown on his face, Leah suddenly felt a pang of sadness and pulled her hand away.
"You don’t have to. It’s nothing."
Asher froze for a moment. He looked back to see Leah with her head lowered. Sheila Hughes had just texted asking if they had left yet, and she was in the middle of replying.
Leah didn’t say another word all the way to the restaurant, and neither did Asher. When they got out of the car, Sheila Hughes was waiting for them at the entrance. The moment she saw Leah, she waved excitedly.
Leah walked straight toward her. Sheila found it a bit odd that she didn’t wait for Asher, but she didn’t dwell on it, simply linking arms with Leah. When Asher caught up, Sheila greeted him. Asher shot a glance at Leah, who wasn’t looking at him, and then walked inside.
Sheila watched Asher’s back as he walked away, then turned to Leah with a puzzled expression. "What’s with you two? I’m getting... a weird vibe."
"I... It’s him... Tiana Vaughn keeps calling him ’Third Bro’, and it just doesn’t sit right with me." Watching Asher’s retreating figure, Leah felt even more agitated.
"Damn it, that white lotus... I swear..."
Just as Sheila was about to vent to her, her phone buzzed. She picked it up, glanced at the screen, and immediately swore.
"What is it?"
"See for yourself!"
Sheila indignantly shoved the phone at Leah. It was a message from Zion Sawyer in their three-person private group chat, which Leah hadn’t seen since her phone was in her bag. The message was some gossip Zion had heard from Linda in the President’s Office: apparently, someone saw Tiana Vaughn kneeling to Leah in the stairwell that afternoon, crying her eyes out and looking utterly pitiful.
Furthermore, Tiana had supposedly "accidentally" let it slip that even though her salary was docked, Asher had privately reimbursed her for the lost pay. She was professing how incredibly grateful she was and declaring her undying loyalty, acting as if she were ready to die for the Keating Group and for Asher himself.
Both women stopped in their tracks. Leah’s lips thinned into a hard line, and then she let out a cold laugh. "I’ve lost my appetite."
"Good. I’ve lost mine too." Sheila was also fuming. She grabbed Leah and started walking back toward the main entrance.
When Asher Keating entered the private room, Ethan Shaw and Riley Sterling were already there. Seeing him alone, they looked confused. "Third Bro, where are Sheila and Leah?"
"They’re lagging behind, talking."
Asher said nonchalantly. But after waiting for quite a while, the two still hadn’t shown up. A baffled Ethan Shaw called Sheila, who told him, "You guys eat without us. Leah and I are going for drinks."
"What’s going on? Where are you headed!?"
"None of your business, you scumbag!"
Sheila hung up right after her outburst. Ethan, who had been innocently dragged into this, stared blankly at his phone. He looked up at Asher. "Third Bro, did you and Leah have a fight? Sheila said they’re skipping dinner to go drinking, and she called me a scumbag. What did I do to get called a scumbag?"
"..."
Speechless, Asher picked up his phone to call Leah, only to find she had turned it off. He clicked his tongue in annoyance and told Ethan to try calling Sheila again, but she had turned her phone off too. The three men in the room lapsed into silence.
"Where does Sheila usually go to drink?" Asher finally asked after a while.
"There’s no one spot, but she usually goes with Zion Sawyer."
Asher called Sean Yates and told him to get Zion Sawyer’s number and find out where she was. A few minutes later, Sean called back. Zion was at home; she hadn’t gone with Leah and Sheila and had no idea where the two of them went drinking.
With a dark expression, Asher tossed his phone onto the table. Ethan and Riley exchanged a look, both thinking the same thing. ’Have those two completely lost it?’
"Third Bro, what on earth happened? Didn’t Sheila say you two were perfectly fine at lunch?"
"She saw Tiana Vaughn. It probably rubbed her the wrong way."
Asher lit a cigarette. Leah hadn’t said a word since they left the office, and he’d been trying to figure out how to talk to her about it when they got home. And now, she’d just run off.
"Send me a list of all the places Sheila has been to before. Start searching."
「Riverside Bar」
A bar that had just opened this year, rumored to have many handsome male hosts. After Zion had gossiped about it, she and Sheila had always wanted to check it out.
But for all their bold talk and love of handsome men, when it came down to it, they always chickened out. They had never actually dared to come, especially Sheila, who was afraid Ethan would kill her.
But today, fired up by what had happened with Leah, Sheila threw caution to the wind and dragged her friend there. Leah ordered a mountain of drinks, and after they sat down, neither said a word. They each started by silently downing a whole bottle.
"I am so, so pissed! Leah, I was too busy this afternoon to tell you, but that Tiana Vaughn... that Tiana Vaughn! I could spend all night listing her ’white lotus’ exploits."
Sheila was truly incensed. On the way over, Leah had already filled her in on the afternoon’s incident with Tiana.
With that, Sheila launched into a tirade about Tiana. Tiana had been personally scouted by Asher right after graduation and had been working as a junior assistant in the President’s Office ever since. In Sheila’s words, she was a classic bully—preying on the weak and sucking up to the powerful, a total hypocrite who wanted to have it both ways.
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