THE ROMANTIC OFFICE SAGA: PART 74

THE ROMANTIC OFFICE SAGA: PART 74

THE AUDIT REPORT!!

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I felt the urge to completely undress and devour the virgin that was right in front of me.

“Tony, I am afraid.” Cynthia told me but I did not reply. I was in mental turmoil and was burning from inside.

I kept wondering, how could Sally do that to me? The more I thought about it, the more the temptation to deflower Cynthia came over me until I was overwhelmed.

There was a mixture of anger, disappointment, confusion, vengeance and feeling of conquest and freedom as I undressed and went full throttle into Cynthia.

She cried, she grinded her teeth, she clawed my back with her finger nails and fought to have me stop but I just continued. It was difficult penetrating her initially but I finally managed.

I did not last long as I felt myself losing control and went even faster into her until she surrendered herself to me while she kept saying, “I hate you, I love you, I hate you, I love you…” until I felt myself exploding into her with a lot of force but as I was about to, I pulled out against my will and spilled everything outside, some falling on her abdomen as the rest splashed her thighs.

But as I was climaxing, I called out Sally’s name!!

“Show me your bathroom please!” Cynthia said and rushed towards the bathroom immediately, taking her cloth to wrap herself. She stayed for some time from the bathroom and then emerged, somehow smiling.

She sat down and dressed slowly as I did the same too. 

She looked keenly at me and asked, “Tony, you called me Sally when you were….” She paused, looked at me and continued, “What does that mean?” 

I did not answer her. She pressed on boldly. “It seems you love Sally more. Otherwise why would you call out her name when fucking me?” 

“That should not worry you.” I tried to tell her.

She continued to argue for some time and finally stood up.

“Thank you for what you have done to me; now escort me. I want to go away from you!” She told me. She was angry.

“Cynthia, you don’t understand…” I told her.

“I don’t need to understand, go back to your Sally, I am nobody to you!” She said and walked towards the door furiously. She paused and looked at me, “Are you escorting me or I just go away alone?” She asked angrily.

I gave her escort up to the main gate of the estate and she got a ride from a motor bike to take her home. But what surprised me, as she rode away, she turned and blew a kiss towards me in the air, smiled and turned to face ahead. It was puzzling.

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That night, I did not sleep. I felt guilty the entire night. Despite all, I felt I should not have done that. Why did I let my body to control me? I kept asking myself. But I was even more confused with Sally. I tried calling her but she as not picking my calls.

As I was falling asleep, I felt like I was in a war zone and breaking Cynthia’s virginity was just collateral damage. But I felt this madness had gone too far.

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The following day at work, I drafted a resignation letter and handed it over to my boss. She did not seem surprised. As per our company protocols, one would give a 2 months’ notice to allow the company to reorganize itself in order to fill that position as they tried to negotiate with someone resigning as to see if it would be possible to reverse the particular employee decision. 

However, I did not tell anyone that I had forwarded my resignation letter.

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Weeks passed and finally the day for Sally to present her report arrived. 4 Directors came,2 male and 2 females, Derrick also came, the boss was present and all employees were present.

Irene was all giggly that morning while Sally was engaging her in a lighthearted conversation. Sally had come armed with her laptop, files and 2 flash disks. As per the look of things, Irene expected a positive report and to be vindicated. 2 Plain cloth policemen were also with us but not in the conference room, but what I understood, they were hired body guards for one of our directors who moved around with body guards.

We settled in the conference hall. I set up the projectors, speakers and everything necessary for the address. Delilah also ensured that we should get served with all snacks and foods as necessary. Collins of all days, that day he wore a nice suit; the first time ever I saw him a suit. Everybody else was dressed so officially.

As it was the norm of the company, I was the one to lead in the meeting.

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“Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I take this opportunity to welcome all of you in our today’s meeting. As we all know, our meeting today is a special meeting of its kind. Madam Sally is going to present an audit report dated up to 3 years back from today, and the report is supposed to help the directors clarify some issues that came about at the beginning of this year and possibly help the company plot the way forward. I urge all of you to be patient, as the report is a long one, a detailed one, and please be ready to ask any questions for clarifications.” I began the meeting after each one of us greeted the members. Carol was the secretary of the meeting. She looked bored and disinterested.

The director who was the founder of the company rose to address us.

“I will go direct to the point. A lot of questions arose as to how the company funds have been used over the last 3 years. The company has not been making any substantial progress despite our dedicated effort to raise funds for the company. We had a goal that the company should be an international company, if not regional within 3 years but as of now, we are still within Nairobi. 

There were allegations raised by a one Luke who unfortunately is not with us here. He claimed that Irene, who is in charge of the accounts, a department now under Sally the Finance Manager. We once had Alex who even after a thorough audit report, demonstrated that there were no financial losses from the company. However, we felt there was a need to redo the audit and when Sally was hired, her first assignment was to redo the audit. So today, she is supposed to present the report as we chart the way forward for the company. Thank you. Sally, you are welcome to continue.”

Sally rose and went with her flash disk to present her report. I could feel the suspense in the room. Derrick was giving her a hard stare like a judge about to pass some death sentence.

I felt thirsty that particular morning and I had drank all my mineral water before the meeting even got halfway. There was pity in Carol’s face, but I could not really tell why.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as we know that my first assignment was to do a complete financial audit, I have worked very hard to get an accurate report and I must say, all employees have been very cooperative up to the end. Special thanks go to Irene and Madam Angeline who have been very cooperative with the entire process.” Sally said. My heart raced and I was dying of anxiety. 

Sally went through how she conducted the audit trail, the methodology of the process and expected outcome based on simulated scenarios. 

“I know my report might disappoint some of us, vindicate some of us and to some of us, it might make us happy; all that is expected. So, all I just wish is for us to expect any outcome from the report.” Sally said that and as she said so, Irene smiled and winked at her; no one else say that except me.

Sally went into the financial details of the first year to be audited, gave out the financial analysis of the entire financial year making reference to cashbooks, cheques deposited, purchases records, income and expenditure, trade, profit and loss accounts reports until all was satisfactory with an error margin of just 1% which was expected as the saying goes, nothing is 100% in this world. One of the directors who had an accounting background kept nodding in agreement and it was obvious he was getting convinced with the accuracy, verifiability and credibility of the report as all documents were available for scrutiny. Each minute that passed, the realization that Irene was winning continued to sink, and the end result of it was for Sally to lose her job. Since I had resigned and was just waiting for 2 months to elapse, I did not feel any problem with that. 

Derrick remained motionless in his chair with his eyes never leaving Sally. There were no emotions on his face as his composure remained the same all through. Our boss was smiling softly, and I could see the joy in Irene’s expression as they kept exchanging knowing glances with Sally, and Sally was suppressing a smile all through.

Carol continued to write the minutes of the meeting and Delilah would occasionally attend to our needs depending on if you wanted more water. Collins had drunk almost 5 bottles of half liter of water by the time we went for tea break.

During tea break, Carol came to sit with me while Irene and Sally sat together discussing something in a low tone. 

“Tony, this is the end. I know what you are feeling. I wish I could help but, life has to go on.” Carol told me.

“I still love Sally, but I don’t know what became of her. I miss the old Sally, Irene is a total witch. I know believe in witchcraft.” I told Carol. 

“But let us wait for the other reports, perhaps she will make some revelations. Can I tell you something?” Carol asked.

“Feel free!” I told Carol.

“I had a dream, in my dream you got married to Sally and went for a honey moon in Lake Turkana.” She told me. I was surprised. 

“Lake Turkana of all places? Why would I even go to such a place for honey moon?” I asked her.

“I don’t know. Maybe it is because I really care about your welfare. I would not want your heart broken. I love you for real but my love for you is beyond romantic love. Sally might lose a very nice man in you.” Carol told me. I did not answer but I kept thinking about her strange dream. 

When we resumed, Sally said, “I will be fast since I have to complete my report before today evening. So, bear with me if I seem to be rushing.”

“No problem, at your own pace madam.” The director who had done accounts told her. Irene nodded in agreement.

She went even into finer details than the first year for the second year, but by the time she was through the second year, it was there was no money that was misappropriated from the company except that the report had an error margin of 3%.

“How does the error margin keep on increasing?” Derrick shot a question without a warning. 

Before Sally answered, the director who had done accounts said, “In statistical scenarios, we have confidence intervals ranging up to 10%, or 15% to the extreme so in my opinion, the difference is not substantial.”

“But let us assume the loss of 3% in Kshs 30 million that will be 0.9 million! That is a lot of money.” Derrick insisted. I felt he had a point.

Irene raised up her hand.

“I can explain, the money can be accounted for from the IFMIS, it is just that we could not get the financial statement, they got misplaced but Tony can help us to view the record from the financial system.” I was startled by her reference to me.

I looked into the discrepancy in the system and true to her words, there was no loss in that particular month of reference.

“So, in short such a discrepancy can be explained.” The director said before moving on to tell Sally to continue. 

Sally continued up to the end and got to the third year. She explained each detail making a lot of reference to the documents she was supplied by Irene and in the end, the particular year that was the last to be scrutinized, it had an error margin of 0%! That meant 100% accuracy. 

The director was smiling from ear to ear. I could not believe my ears. 

“Any questions are welcome.” Sally said.

Questions began flowing and she was answering each question as it came, so smartly, clearly and accurately. Her eloquence was like I had never heard from her.

I felt hopeless with her. I even wondered how she managed to keep smiling all through the entire presentation. That was too much for me to bear and my stomach began rumbling like I was about to get a bout of diarrhea. 

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“So, Sally, tell us in one clear statement. Is Irene Innocent or guilty.” The director demanded.

Sally scanned the room as if studying our expressions and weighing her answer. I scanned the room too.

Delilah sat and had a very serious face on her. She looked like she was out of place and did not even understand what was going on. 

Collins had already unbuttoned his shirt a little and left his coat open and his tie was loose on his neck and it was obvious he was not used to wearing ties, suits and other official office wear. He looked like someone about to break someone’s neck. He just looked at me and when our eyes met, he looked away.

Carol sat holding a pen with her right-hand staring at me, as if sympathizing with me. Her eyes were reddish and I could not tell whether she was just tired from staring at the projection screen or she wanted to cry. 

Madam boss was smiling, a wide joyous smile and she sat on her chair so comfortably. She was holding her I phone with one hand looking at the time occasionally while at the same time looking at Sally as if wanting to tell her, “Girl, you have made me proud today.”

Celestine, who was still new to the company and the cleaner, just sat there also as if she was not really aware of what was going on. But she managed to keep smiling and it was obvious that was her way of coping with tension and being at ease with what was not making sense to her. Having had no much formal education, I understood her.

I was however burning with anxiety and anticipation. I felt like someone about to be struck by thunder. Despite all, I tried so much to hold myself at ease but deep down I was burning to know what answer Sally would give; but as per the entire report, it was obvious that Irene was about to be vindicated and declared innocent. That would mean Luke was one hypocrite deserving hell, if at all such a place even existed. But I was confused, Zuhura had told me that Irene was stealing in her name from the cafeteria budget then how would she be innocent? How comes no one captured that in the report? Or was it read and it passed me since the financial terminologies which were being used in the meeting were complicated to me? 

Sally held everyone in suspense, anxiety and anticipation. The silence in the room was overwhelming you could drop a pin and it would be heard, an ant perhaps would pass and we perhaps would feel its footsteps. The fact that the conference room in our office blocks was sound proof meant no sound was coming from outside and the room was air conditioned so as to allow absolute silence for maximum concentration. Even the air filters felt silent that day unlike the usual humming voice they produced as if it was a vehicle at a very far distance. 

We all held our breath as Sally breathed in so gently about to pronounce her statement for all of us to hear, and it was obvious she wanted all of us to hear. We all spell bound and Sally was the witch who had cast a spell towards us. There was no escape for any of us as she seemed to tower above us as we all sat down on our chairs facing her.

She finally spoke.

“I believe in absolute integrity, honesty and adherence to the rule of law. What I am about to say is in accordance to my life guiding principles since I was a young girl up to the age that I am now. Truth must be upheld and it is upon the recipients of the truth to bear with it and make a decision.” Sally said, paused and continued talking.

“So, in accordance to all the documents that were furnished to me by Madam Irene and Madam Angeline our boss: IRENE IS INNOCENT!” She declared. 

I was horrified and I felt like it was a bad dream. My stomach began rumbling. I was confused beyond belief. 

However, Irene ululated, a prolonged ululation of victory before saying, “Thank you God! My Jehovah you are El-Shaddai, you are a mighty God, God I give glory and honor to you!”

She stood up with joy and began hugging my boss. She then went to hug Sally and they hugged a tight hug before looking into each other’s faces like they wanted to kiss, but did not. Tears of joy were streaming down Irene’s cheeks. 

There was mixed reaction in the room but joy rent the air between Irene, Madam boss and Sally.

I looked at Derrick and he was smiling too.

I knew that was the end. Sally had just nailed the last coffin to her career in that company, and I was also damn sure I was going to resign too.

>>>To be continued>>>

As narrated by Dr. Love, Kerry