"You're the one I'm dismissing, Willow." Yardley's voice was cold as stone, and it made Willow's veins run cold."But Yardley …" Willow bit her lower lip, her eyes large with disbelief. "I haven't briefed you on the proposal yet!"Annoyance crept across his brow as he glared at her. "Just leave it.""But Roland insisted that I explain everything in detail to you …" Her fists clenched hard while her heart pounded in full swing. She simultaneously thought, "How could Yardley kick me out of his office in front of Celia? There's no way I can live this down. And why would Yardley do this to me? Granted, he's always been a little cold, but he never would've told me to leave like he's doing now! It's Celia's fault. It has to be! Ever since she moved into the Hughes residence, things between me and Yardley had changed completely! What's worse? Yardley refuses to look at me and is even forcing me to leave! This is all Celia's doing!"Seeing Willow's mouth slam shut to hold back her raw rese
Celia cleared her throat and smiled confidently. "Now, allow me to share Lady Couture's recent developments and overall situation with you."With a marker in hand, she drew out a flow chart illustrating the entire project on the whiteboard while explaining it fully. Her words were enunciated clearly, and the people in the room understood everything on the board at a glance.Sabrina looked at her in disbelief. Her fingernails dug hard into her palm, but she felt nothing. She only snapped back to reality after a long while.How could this be? How could Celia deliver the presentation so perfectly without any prep whatsoever? How could the flow chart be drawn out so beautifully? There must have been a leak somewhere that led to Celia knowing about this meeting beforehand so that she could prepare for it. Sabrina had intended for Celia to embarrass herself, but she had instead handed her a golden opportunity to flaunt her skills.Celia just had to wait! One day, Sabrina would get her ki
The week passed quickly. It was surprisingly peaceful.Willow no longer appeared in Hughes Inc, and curiously enough, Sabrina was leaving Celia alone.However, Celia knew that things were not as simple as they looked. This was the calm before the storm.This was the day that Bruce, the president of Lady Couture’s main company in Festras, came to visit Hughes Inc.As the person in charge of Lady Couture’s project, Celia was sent to the airport to pick him up. Before leaving, Celia checked the documents needed for the meeting with Lady Couture in the afternoon. Once she was sure that everything was there, she got up to leave for the airport.She went to the elevator, and its doors were sliding shut. She ran over at once and yelled, "Wait! Hold up!"Right when the doors were about to close, a tall figure appeared. He extended his foot toward the doors, blocking them."Thank you." Then, when she saw who it was, she was stunned. It was Yardley. Why was he here? And why had he helped
Misplacing the designs and replacing them with a few sheets of blank paper were horrendous mistakes. Yardley did not think that Celia would do something like that. He wanted to hear her out.However, Celia did not plan on explaining herself. Calmly, she said, "Let’s not talk about that for now." She looked at Shirley and asked, "Is there a backup for this?"A look of disdain flashed across her face. She replied, "Ms. Stanton, you know that our jewelry designs are all made by hand. How could there be a backup? Don’t you know that?"Celia nodded in understanding. "How long would it take to draw it again?"Shirley replied at once, "Two days at least.""What do you mean by this, Ms. Stanton?" Sabrina glared at her and sneered, "Are you planning to delay the meeting and get the designers to make a new draft? Are you going to let Bruce, who came from so far away, waste two days of his time correcting your mistakes?""I only need an hour." Celia was calm."An hour? Impossible! Didn’t y
"What is it?" Sabrina and Shirley stopped at the same time. Choking down their hatred for Celia, they looked at her in confusion.Celia held up the folder that was used to hold the sheets of blank paper. "Let’s talk about this."Seeing the blank papers in Celia’s hand, Sabrina’s eyes flickered. "What do you want to talk about?"Celia walked toward Yardley and handed it to him. "A perfectly designed draft magically turned into a normal piece of paper. Don’t you think it’s suspicious, Mr. Hughes?"Yardley took the paper and put it on the table. His fingers drummed the table, creating an oppressive feeling in the room.The drafts obviously had not turned into blank papers by themselves. Someone must have replaced them. There were only a handful of people who had access to the designs, and Celia was always careful about things like these. She would not misplace the drafts.There were only two possibilities. The first was that someone had swapped the designs to spite Celia and embarra
"Yes, Mr. Hughes," Yannis respectfully answered. Soon, he obtained a copy of the surveillance from before Celia went to the airport and until she returned this morning. After that, Yannis returned to the meeting room."Mr. Hughes, I've got it." Yannis gave him the USB drive. Yardley took it, leaned back on his chair, and narrowed his eyes, thinking, what could the surveillance capture?"Start playing it." Yardley placed the USB drive on the table with a cold expression. "Yes." Yannis turned on the laptop, started the projector, and played the surveillance video. On the side, Sabrina secretly wiped away the sweat on her forehead, comforting herself, "So what if they got the surveillance? I wasn't the one who changed the design papers." Sabrina felt that her plan was perfect, and the blame wouldn't fall on her. A while later, the video started with Celia arranging the files. Then, she took out the design papers and carefully checked them over. From the surveillance footage, it was
Ms. Wade took out the recording pen, pressed a button, and the voices of two people having a conversation could be heard."Ms. Wade, I’ve wired 250,000 dollars to your account and I’ll give you another 250,000 when it’s over. You can use this money to treat your son’s illness. You wish for your son to grow healthily, right?" Sabrina’s voice resounded from the pen.Ms. Wade sounded nervous and excited. "That’s a lot of money … What do you want me to do?""It's simple. I just need you to change Ms. Stanton’s documents," Sabrina explained."But … what if I get found out … " Ms. Wade hesitated."Don’t worry. You can pretend to clean when there’s no one around. No one will notice you then."Sabrina chuckled. "Moreover, you only make three thousand dollars as a cleaner, how long do you think it'll take for you to save five hundred thousand dollars? And afterward, resign and lay low in your hometown. Then, find a new job once this is over. Isn't this a win-win situation?""Alright, I'l
Celia followed Yardley into his office and asked, "What do you need me for?"Yardley sat on the sofa and crossed his legs. He pointed with his long finger to the seat next to his and commanded, "Sit."Celia couldn’t understand why she was called, but she still sat next to Yardley, "So, Yardley, what’s the matter?"Yardley’s lips parted slightly before he asked in his deep rich voice, "You’re the instigator behind today’s event, am I right?""Instigator? Is he angry? Is he going to complain that I shouldn’t have publicly exposed Sabrina? Is he reluctant to let go of her? Is he going to criticize me?" such thoughts were passing through Celia’s mind as she tried to think of a proper response.Celia tilted her head and watched the man next to her warily, "Huh? Yardley, what do you mean?"He returned her stare with a calm and clear gaze.His eyes were like vortexes, sucking her into the abyss.He nodded and sat closer to her, "You knew that Sabrina would exchange the sketches early