Charis smiled coldly.She had to admit that Tiffany was one hard nut to crack..She couldn’t push too hard, or she would risk exposing her true purpose.
Charis pursed her lips and tried for a casual tone.
“It would be best if she proved herself innocent, of course.” She cast a pointed look at Tiffany, letting it linger for a couple of seconds.
Then she gathered the documents she on the table and stood up.
“Well, that’s it for today’s meeting. Thank you for your time, everyone.” Tiffany couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief as she watched Charis strut out of the conference room.
Natalie didn’t go home as she was told.
Instead, she had been in Tiffany’s office ever since her return from the show.
When she had first stepped into their department earlier, she heard her colleagues discussing her plagiarism scandal.
Apparently, the issue had prompted the senior executives to hold several meetings, all on short notice.
Tiffany soon went back to her office.
She closed the door behind her and let out a long breath, as though she had just survived a fierce battle.
“Now, that was horrible,” she said, pulling out a packet of tissues from her desk drawer.
She proceeded to dab at the sweat beading on her forehead.
“Charis wants to fire you, even though we haven’t gotten to the bottom of this issue yet. It looks like she wants you to be the sacrificial lamb in her bid to save the company’s reputation.”
And from what both women gathered, it appeared that the senior executives were already on board.
Natalie was outraged.She jumped to her feet, her voice raised.
“Didn’t they say anything about conducting an investigation?” Tiffany rubbed her temples.
She could feel a headache coming.
“She agreed to look into it.Don’t worry for now. Just go home and get some rest. Try to steer clear of the new. They’ll only cause you unnecessary stress.” Natalie’s lips stretched into a tight smile.
How could she possibly be expected to relax in such a situation? After a whirlwind of a day, Natalie was understandably exhausted by the time she got home.
Despite Tiffany’s warning, she couldn’t resist logging on to Twitter.
As expected, the scandal was already among the trending topics.
Natalie spiraled into an endless loop of anxiety, she could barely sleep a wink.
She desperately wanted to talk to Sebastian, but he hadn’t been around since her return.
It seemed like he was very busy today, too; she hadn’t heard from him except for that one phone call.
Frustrated, she dragged herself out of bed to get a glass of water from the kitchen.
She was still a little miffed when she stomped back to her room.
Her career was practically blowing up in her face, yet her husband wasn’t even around to comfort her.
The fact that she had never seen him this busy in a long time didn’t help, either.
Needless to say, Natalie still felt horrible when she woke up the next day.
No amount of make-up could rectify the dark circles under her eyes, or the pallid color of her face.
As she walked across the lobby, she overheard yet another delightful conversation among her colleagues.
“Natalie is done for this time.I heard that the General Manager of Klein Silk Fabric is coming today!” “Really? He’s here?”
“Yes, his limo is parked at the gates as we speak.A group of senior executives went out to greet him when he arrived.” This was a surprise to Natalie.
She hadn’t expected Ritchie to show up so soon.She hurried to her desk, out many stopped her just as she arrived at the Design Department.
“Quinn. The General Manager of Klein Silk Fabric is here, probably to discuss the matter of the plagiarism issue.Come with me.” Tiffany was just as bewildered by this development as Natalie was.She knew they had no choice, though.
They might as well deal with the circumstances and be done with it.
Ritchie was already in the meeting room when the two women walked in.
His lips immediately curled in disdain when he saw them.
“That woman plagiarized the work of my designer,” he thundered.
“When are you going to apologize and make amends for her actions?” He looked Natalie up and down with disgust.
“Don’t tell me she is still working here? How can you tolerate having a deceitful little bitch in your reputable company?”
Natalie clenched her fists and said through gritted teeth, “It hasn’t been proven yet.I have a clear conscience.I’ll never admit to it, nor will I apologize.”
Ritchie narrowed his eyes at her and fiddled with the ring on his thumb.
“We’re giving you one last chance. If you don’t admit to it and apologize, we’ll sue you. Things will only get worse for you.” Natalie pursed her lips and didn’t say anything.She couldn’t confront Ritchie head on.
Seeing that Natalie had fallen silent, Ritchie didn’t say anything more.He stood up and walked past her, muttering.
“Just you wait and see, little bitch.”
Before Natalie could respond, he left.
Tiffany patted Natalie on the shoulder reassuringly.
“Don’t mind him.Let’s go back.If Klein Silk Fabric had to threaten us, it means they’re not a hundred percent sure they’ll win in court. The ball’s in our court.We just need to see how the company will deal with it first.” Natalie nodded wordlessly.
She knew that Ritchie was just trying to scare her Because the boss of Klein Silk Fabric himself had come to the Larson Group to question Natalie, rumors about the plagiarism spread all over the building like wildfire.
Natalie didn’t want to listen to them, but no matter where she went, she couldn’t escape those discussions.
On her way back to her desk at the design department, she heard colleagues whispering, “Why hasn’t she been fired yet?”
“Klein Silk Fabric and the Larson Group have always been enemies.But I never thought this would happen.Because Natalie plagiarized some other person’s designs, she has ruined the company’s reputation.She should’ve left!”
Many employees in Larson Group felt humiliated and complained about Natalie.
Biting her lower lip, Natalie glanced at the gossipers and returned to the design department with her head down.
However, as soon as she reached her desk, a staff from human resources department approached her.
“Quinn, can we talk in the meeting room?” the staff asked with a smile.
But her smile was not warm.
Natalie looked at her warily and said, “Okay.”
In the meeting room.
The staff of human resources department continued to smile unsettlingly.
“Quinn, I’m sure you’ve heard the news lately.It’s indeed a questionable thing for a designer to produce work that resembles another person’s work.This matter also has a great impact on our company.If you leave now, it would be good for both you and the Larson Group.” Natalie looked at her coldly and said, “I can’t resign now. You’re trying to tell me to leave the company before I’ve even had the chance to find out the truth.I simply can’t do that.”
The staff’s smile stiffened somewhat.She didn’t expect that a fragile-looking woman like Natalie would be so difficult to deal with “We only make decisions based on the current situation,” the staff continued awkwardly.
She attended yesterday’s meeting and realized that Charis wanted Natalie fired, so she wanted to help her succeed.
It’d be beneficial to her if she could please Charis.
