Suddenly, it dawned on Natalie what she had just said and she kept her mouth shut.
Leaning her body against the car window, Natalie’s mind was in chaos.
Even if her suspicions say it was Ritchie, what on earth could she do about it? If she was really framed, how could Luna be able to upload her design drafts-online a year ago? Everything was beyond her and she couldn’t figure it out.
While she was mulling it over in her head, her phone buzzed with a notification.
Sebastian was calling her.
Just outside the meeting room of the Larson Group.
Because of the plagiarism matter, the Larson Group’s stock price took a turn for the worse.
Sebastian was just discussing this matter with several senior leaders.
After coming back to his office, he gave Natalie a call.
“I’ve already seen the news on the Internet.I believe you have nothing to do with this. Think it over carefully, Natalie, is there anything to prove that those designs are truly yours?”
When she heard Sebastian’s voice, Natalie immediately burst into tears.
She felt wronged and sobbed for a long time before managing to say something.
“Sebastian, you have to believe me.I didn’t do it.” Hearing her wretched sobs, Sebastian’s voice became softer.
“I didn’t think you stole those designs right from the very beginning.” With a dry smile on her face, Natalie asked in a tired voice, “Will I really have another chance after this? Ms.Fisher, the organizers have decided to remove my designs from the show.Doesn’t this mean that every one of them thinks that I’m a plagiarist? Now everyone believes that I was plagiarizing.I know you used to be a designer, so you should know better than me that the label of plagiarism will follow me everywhere I go now.Every single item of clothes I design from now on will be under suspicion of plagiarism.”
Tiffany fell silent.She was fully aware of that.
After something like this, Natalie was fated to never be respected again in the industry The only mode of escape would be for her to leave the industry entirely and change her occupation.
But Tiffany could clearly see that Natalie loved designing deeply.
She happened to treasure each piece of her designs.
How could she let go of this, something she clearly loved?
“Someone must be orchestrating things behind the scenes.” Suddenly, Natalie grabbed Tiffany’s hand and said, “Ritchie Klein must be behind this! Sebastian and I have offended him once and now he wants to do everything in his power to destroy my career!”
Tiffany had no clue what Natalie was talking about.
How could the Klein family actually have anything to do with this matter?
“Be careful with what you say, Natalie.We can’t afford to offend a family like the Kleins,” Tiffany thought to remind her in a hushed voice.
She checked around her surroundings vigilantly and hailed a cab.
“There just so happens to be many designers from the Klein Silk Fabric.It’s best if you’re careful. Well, don’t overthink things. You go home and rest.I’ll head back to the company first and talk to our superiors.” Tiffany helped Natalie into the car.
Suddenly, it dawned on Natalie what she had just said and she kept her mouth shut.
Leaning her body against the car window, Natalie’s mind was in chaos.
Even if her suspicions say it was Ritchie, what on earth could she do about it? If she was really framed, how could Luna be able to upload her design drafts online a year ago? Everything was beyond her and she couldn’t figure it out.
While she was mulling it over in her head, her phone buzzed with a notification.
Sebastian was calling her.
Just outside the meeting room of the Larson Group.
Because of the plagiarism matter, the Larson Group’s stock price took a turn for the worse.
Sebastian was just discussing this matter with several senior leaders.
After coming back to his office, he gave Natalie a call.
“I’ve already seen the news on the Internet.I believe you have nothing to do with this. Think it over carefully, Natalie, is there anything to prove that those designs are truly yours?”
When she heard Sebastian’s voice, Natalie immediately burst into tears.She felt wronged and sobbed for a long time before managing to say something.
“Sebastian, you have to believe me.I didn’t do it.” Hearing her wretched sobs, Sebastian’s voice became softer.
“I didn’t think you stole those designs right from the very beginning.” He had seen it with his own eyes how hard Natalie had worked on those designs.
After hanging up the phone call, Sebastian’s eyes darkened noticeably.
As Brandon Larson, the CEO of the Larson Group, taking care of this matter would be an easy task.
However, he was now Sebastian Klein to Natalie and he couldn’t deal with this matter for her.
Otherwise, she would have doubts about him.
The plagiarism matter happened all of a sudden with no warning, so Sebastian had to investigate this on the down-low.
Seeing that the news of the plagiarism had spread in a short amount of time, Charis grabbed her chance to hold a meeting with several senior executives and employees of the HR department.
She criticized herself at that day’s meeting and said, “I chose her work but had no idea she actually plagiarized someone else’s designs.My poor decisions have affected the entire company in a negative way.After the meeting, I promise I will apologize to everyone online about this matter.”
As soon as Tiffany got back to the office, she heard that Charis had gathered some senior executives and the staff of the human resources department for a meeting.She rushed there immediately.
When she reached the door, she overheard what Charis had said just now.
“Miss Turner, I think we should investigate it further.” Tiffany pushed the door open, out of breath.
When she saw Tiffany come in, Charis smiled kindly.
“Miss Fisher, you’re back! We were just talking about Natalie Quinn.Since you’re her direct supervisor, we’d like to hear your opinion on this plagiarism thing.” Tiffany nodded and sat down at the meeting table, her eyes flashing with determination.
“Thank you for asking, Miss Turner.I firmly believe that Natalie would never plagiarize anyone else’s works.” Charis sighed helplessly.
“It doesn’t matter what we think. What matters is that the public doesn’t believe her.Now that this news has spread across the industry, the Larson Group’s reputation has been affected.”
Charis turned to the crowd and continued, ” Everyone, now’s the time to share your ideas.”
Several staff from the HR Department were present.
They immediately understood what Charis meant and exchanged hesitant glances.
Finally, one of them spoke up.
“We need to put the interests of the company first. What Natalie did has affected our image.Should we consider firing her? Plagiarizing is a big deal and it’s enough for us to dismiss her.”
Everyone nodded in agreement with him.
After all, the news had spread like wildfire online.
The whole world was discussing it.
After pondering over it for a while, Charis clicked her tongue in frustration.
“It seems you’re right.For the sake of the Larson Group’s reputation, we have no choice but to let Natalie go. What a pity! I always thought that Natalie was a very talented designer, which was why I decided to help her get her designs into the Fashion Week.” Tiffany couldn’t help but frown.She didn’t expect that the company would fire Natalie without even investigating the matter thoroughly.She refused to give up so soon.She stood up from her seat and addressed Charis sternly.
“Miss Turner, don’t you think we should investigate it first? It’s only been half a day and we don’t even know if Natalie really plagiarized someone else’s work.
We shouldn’t jump to conclusions so soon.” Charis tapped a pen on the table and looked at Tiffany sympathetically.
“Unfortunately, the company’s stock price plummeted because of this incident.If we don’t do anything about it now, things will only get worse.”
“Please, Miss Turner.Don’t fire her so soon.As her supervisor, I’m responsible for her.I want to investigate the matter before we do anything drastic.Please give her some time, maybe she can prove her innocence.”
Tiffany was usually a calm person, but what with Charis’s enthusiasm to fire Natalie, she couldn’t help but grow agitated.
