Framed

"Mr. Damon, do not drink the coffee!! It's poisoned!!" A young man by the name George, shouted, causing everyone to turn their attention to him, including Mr. Damon who had his coffee in his hand, just few inches away from his lips.

While everyone turned to him, Mr. Damon dropped his cup of coffee. Not as a form of obedience to his orders, but a reflex of his surprise at the young man’s action.

"Who's this?" Ryan asked, irritation written all over his face as he turned to the receptionist.

"He... He's the cleaner, sir. I don't know what he wants. He just barged in unannounced,” she replied in fear, hoping she wouldn't lose her job.

"So what do I pay you for? You had just one job, stay at the door and tell people who came to see me or Mr. Damon that we couldn’t attend to them today. What sort of rubbish is this? Do you know the importance of this meeting that this fool interrupted just now?!" He shot at her, taking stern glances from her to me.

"I'm so sorry sir, but I stopped him. I told him you were in a meeting, but he wouldn't listen. He just rushed in thoughtlessly. I'm very sorry sir-"

"Young man, what do you want?" Mr. Damon inquired, finally gracing the room with his voice, for the first time since George had barged into the office.

"I came to..." he tried to catch his breath, before giving him a full reply.

"I came to tell you that your coffee is poisoned, Mr. Damon."

His statement was received with gasps of shock and murmurs from the rest of the board, including the secretary who stood beside him.

"Young man, you have certainly gone mad and have decided to display it here and in front of your boss. Do you think that we're here for some expensive entertainment?” Ryan questioned him, evidently vexed.

He turned to the secretary.

"Call the security and tell them to get rid of this man. Immediately!" He ordered.

The secretary took a frightened bow and attempted to head out of the building.

"Stop there!" Mr. Damon ordered her and she halted immediately.

"What's wrong boss?"

"Let's hear the guy out,” Mr. Damon replied.

"What? Why?" Ryan questioned but Mr. Damon didn't give him a reply, instead he turned to him.

"Did you say my coffee was poisoned?" He asked again.

"Y... Yes, sir,” he stuttered. He reply was certain, but from the way he was stuttering and shaking like a fish out of water, it didn't look like he was telling the truth.

"How did you come out with such an allegation? How did you know my coffee got poisoned? And do you know who poisoned my coffee?"

He took a deep breath before he continued.

"Yesterday, I was cleaning Mr. Ryan's toilet when he made a call. To Mr. Alex Slather, your opposing candidate. Mr. Ryan was and has been feeding him with information about you, and because Mr. Alex knew he did not stand a chance against you, he came to a conclusion to kill you. He was going to make Mr. Ryan here do it. They initially planned on assassinating you when you go out to visit the streets today but they finally came up with a plan to poison your coffee instead. Mr. Ryan was the person who poisoned your coffee, if you a take one sip of that coffee, you'd be dead within seconds,” he explained, managing not to break.

There was a look of utter shock registered on the faces of everyone present in the room, and soon the room got filled with murmurs.

Ryan on the other hand shot George a "so it was you" look, as he just realized that the noise that was made in the toilet while he was on that call, was not a ghost after all. It was George.

"Young man, I hope you realize that you're making serious allegations towards a trusted personnel of mine?" Mr. Damon questioned in a stern voice.

"I do sir, but I'm not lying. I mean every word that I just said. Mr. Ryan is not who you think he is. He's been the eyes and the ears of Mr. Alex Slather, feeding him with the information he's not supposed to have about you,” he said, standing his ground.

Mr. Damon sighed and turned to Mr. Ryan.

"Mr. Ryan, what do you have to have to say about this accusations?"

Mr. Ryan looked up from the glass table he'd been staring at and turned to Mr. Damon with a look of surprise.

"What do I have to say? Damon, do not tell me that you believe a word that this fool said. Don't tell me that you're buying this man's antics. You cannot be listening to someone who has his clothes worn inside out! I will be very disappointed if that is the case! This boy is obviously mentally deranged, if not fully mad or looking for a means to extort money from you!!" Mr. Ryan defended, punching his fist on the table. He suddenly jumped up in anger, like he was about to fight.

All of a sudden, George stared at his shirt, and found out that Ryan was actually right about how it was worn.

"I... I'm not mentally deranged! I was rushing to get here and save Mr. Damon from your evil plan, and that's why I did this silly mistake!" He spoke in his defense.

"Look, I have evidence. I took pictures of his chats with Mr. Alex Slather. I have everything on my phone,” he said and immediately brought it out.

He placed it before Mr. Damon, who picked it up at once. He put on his glasses and began going through it.

"In those messages, you'd see that Mr. Ryan has been conspiring with the enemy to bring you down, and has been feeding him with information about you,” he explained.

"All those could easily be fabricated by a 10 year old geek who doesn't have a life. You shouldn't listen to him or believe those pictures, boss. This is obviously a set-up to bring me down and turn you against me! I strongly suggest that you let me call the security to bundle this mad man out of here," he argued, his face red with rage.

Silence fell over the room as they waited on Mr. Damon to pick a side.

"He's right. These could be fabricated. We need more evidence,” he finally said and took off his glasses.

George opened his mouth to speak, but he realized he had nothing to say. He was running out of ideas!

Shit! He didn't think this through. Everything he feared was going to happen or, was happening. It was down to his words against that of Ryan.

Even Mr. Damon was siding him. Everyone stared at George in silence waiting for him to defend his allegations with a more vivid evidence. He was going to face great consequences if he didn't find another way to prove that Mr. Ryan was a snake.

"Let him drink it!" George immediately screamed.

"What did you say?"

"If it's not poisoned, then let him drink it,” he repeated, rephrasing his sentence so people would understand.

From the look on the faces of the others, they took it as a good idea.

"Mr. Ryan..."

"Boss, surely you're not following the instructions of this buffoon. Surely you're not expecting me to drink this!" He laughed nervously.

"I'm not following anyone's instructions. But just as he needs to prove that you poisoned my coffee, you need to prove to me that you didn't. There's nothing wrong with that. Just assume you're taking a normal cup of coffee - that is, if it wasn't poisoned."

"Boss, after all my years of working for you, you... You don't trust me?" He asked, his eyes filled with disappointment.

"Ryan, this is not about how many how long you've been working for me, it is about my well-being.”

"Then you shouldn't go on with the bullshit that is coming out of this boy's mouth! You should send him out of here and tell him never to come back!! You should-"

"This is how we're going to do this. Ryan, you're going to drink this cup for coffee. According to him, the poison kills within seconds. If nothing happens to you after you drink it, then George..." He turned to George.

"...You're going to lose your job, and you'll never show your face here again, for being a nuisance to this company. And if it was actually poisoned..." He turned back to Ryan.

"... You're going to die"

"But, boss-"

"Drink up, Ryan,” Mr. Damon ordered, from his eyes, everyone could tell that he was serious.

Silence fell over the room once more, as Ryan stared at the coffee. While plenty small beads of sweat formed on Ryan's head and dripped down his face to the table, George on the other hand was fidgeting vigorously, his fingers were so cold with nervousness and anxiety, that they were fast becoming numb.

All of sudden, Ryan grabbed the cup from the table and in a swift move, he downed it into his system. Everyone gasped in shock. They didn't believe that he would do that.

Despite the shock, everyone watched in silence, anticipating his response to the coffee. Everyone stared for almost a full minute, waiting to see if anything would happen to him, but...

"As you can see, George, nothing happened to Ryan, so that means you were just putting on a show,” Mr. Damon said.