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The conference room was filled with department heads and half of the board members. Wilford was standing at the front, speaking with a loud voice.
“Today I brought you all here to discuss a very urgent matter. Someone in our engineering department will be brought in here, they are accused of sexually assaulting one of our employees that of high importance.”
“He didn’t assault me, I literally agreed to do it with him!” Melanie clarified in the corner of the room with a loud voice, luring everyone’s attention to her.
“You weren’t invited to this meeting Melanie, therefore you don’t have the right to speak. I only let you sit in that corner because you’d break the walls if I didn’t. Everyone please ignore her.” Wilford signalled his head of security to bring in the accused as he spoke. Two people dressed in full black kicked open the door as soon as Roche gave the order, scaring everyone inside. Till and Osweiller shoved the guy in a chair, ridding the bag on his head.
“Bennett Knox, one of the three co-head engineers. Hired personally by Engineer Cavill as her first engineer assistant in 2014. As of today, he has three counts of the same criminal charge in our records, sexually assaulting the same person, Melanie Cavill.” He read the Wilford Industries employee record of Bennett, voice loud enough to cover Melanie’s multiple attempts to interrupt.
“I gave him consent! All three times, I agreed for him to do it!” Melanie was shouting her statement, but no one in the room even looked at her.
“I, Joseph Wilford, accuse him of fourth charge of sexual assault. As of protocol, he will be relieved of all duty within this company from now on. Does the accused have anything to say to the jury?”
“This isn’t a court, Joseph. It’s dictatorship!” Melanie was shouting in her corner stool.
“Melanie, the accused did not deny the charges. Therefore we’ll automatically assume guilty.” Wilford closed the giant folder of paper, containing all of Ben’s mistakes.
“His mouth is literally taped and gagged, how the hell is he gonna defend himself?” Despite with the bag removed from his head, Ben’s eyes and mouth were both tightly covered, ears clogged with a piece of cotton.
“Does the jury have any comments?” Wilford completely ignored her statement, as did everyone else in the room.
“Joseph if they’re the jury shouldn’t they be making decisions instead of you?!” Melanie looked like she was about to tip over in her stool, despite being literally duct taped to it.
“Well sir, as you said, the accused did not deny any accusations.” Ruth, as head of hospitality, always spoke first.
“Ruth, he literally can’t say anything!” Melanie tried to knock some sense into those people, but no one seemed to hear her.
“I saw him once, with a girl in the sub train one night. Both of them were stripped, we had to delay the schedule because of that.” Jakes declared in an unkind voice, and this time Melanie couldn’t think of a thing to say for that.
“Yes, I’ve got complaints from multiple janitors saying they found body fluid on walls and the floor in multiple cars.” Terence joined forces with Jakes, heating up the discussion even more.
“Exactly. Let’s just fire him and hire another, easy peasy.” Roche slapped Ben’s shoulder, almost terrorizing the man from the sudden contact. The entire table made furious eye contact with each and everyone, before one stood up and presented their final decision.
“The jury hereby pronounce Bennett Knox, guilty in 4 charges of sexual assault.” Ruth announced in an australian accent, trailed by claps from the rest.
And then Wilford woke up in his office chair groggily, still smiling from his accomplishment. He creaked an eye open, realized that Melanie standing right in front of him. Her frown and crossed arms made him sit up straight, facing her confused.
“Is Ben fired yet? Didn’t I duct tape you to a stool?” He asked. Melanie’s face immediately shifted into a ridiculous expression, giving him a scoff at his absurd statement.
“What? Did you forget to take your meds that control your villain complex? The Headwoods told you to take them once a day, or you'll be completely out of it. Anyway, I’m here to ask you about the…the body fluids in the engine.” Melanie internally and externally cringed as she spoke, but it only confused Wilford further.
“Yeah I know, it’s Ben. He’s accused of multiple charges and the jury pronounced-”
“Joseph, it’s you and Audrey. The janitors were playing around and did a DNA test with it. Do you feel like you need to check out your sanity before the Folgers come? You might need it.”