“This is what you get for plagiarizing the Hay Group’s design! Speaking of which, didn’t you draw a portrait for Director Hart? Why didn’t he speak up for you in front of the Hay Group?” Elsie sneered, buzzing with the anticipation of throwing Myra out of the Chase Group.
Myra, however, merely smirked in response. With a cold gleam in her eyes, she marched straight into Mr. Xavier’s office.
“Trouble-seeking w*nch!” Elsie cursed aloud, her eyes flashing wickedly. She stood outside the door, waiting to see what Myra was getting up to.
It wasn’t long after Myra went in when the door to Mr. Xavier’s office opened again.
This time, it was Mr. Xavier himself who stood in the doorway. Fury belied his thunderous face. He had thrown open the door in a fit of rage and everyone in the design department jumped as the door swung back and forth on its hinges, banging loudly against the wall.
A pleased look passed over Elsie’s face. With the way things were going, Myra might end up leaving Bradfort City altogether!
However, just as Elsie was indulging in the thought of never having to see Myra again, Mr. Xavier marched up to her. Surprised, she wondered if the design director would let her take over Myra’s job so she quickly stepped forward.
He came up before her, suppressing the rage that he’d been feeling since hearing the voice recording, and said coldly, “Miss Foster, please come with me to Director Chase’s office immediately.”
Upon hearing this, Elsie nodded hastily and traipsed after him. As she did so, she did not forget to throw a triumphant glance over her shoulder at Myra, who had already emerged from Mr. Xavier’s office.
Meanwhile, Tilly sauntered over with a frown etched onto her face. “Myra…”
Myra turned to address her with a placid smile. “Don’t worry; Director Hart found out that Lily from the Hay Group was the one who plagiarized my design.” Now that she had seen how Elsie was treated, she deduced that the Hay Group had sold Elsie out in order to save themselves and receive a lighter punishment.
Tilly blinked at Myra’s explanation, then broke into a wide grin after it dawned on her. “I knew you were innocent, Myra! I knew my dreamboat wouldn’t let us down!” she squealed excitedly, then cast a curious gaze at the elevator doors not too far away. “But what about Elsie?”
Myra’s lips pressed into a thin line as she eyed the elevators with a raised brow. “She would probably end up losing her job in the Chase Group.”
“Well, good riddance!” Tilly huffed indignantly. “I heard that Director Chase is now looking into this whole debacle too, which means he obviously believes your side of the story. I can’t wait to see how this plays out!”
Myra was taken aback to hear that Sean was looking into the matter of the design plagiarism as well, but as she recomposed herself, she frowned.
It was just as Myra had predicted. Elsie had only been in Sean’s office for less than twenty minutes before everyone in the company found out that she was the traitor who had stolen Myra’s design and given it to the Hay Group.
The Hay Group had clearly sold her out, and they managed to blame everything on her while covering their own tracks. They claimed that Elsie was the one who had stolen the drawing, but gave it to them under the pretense that she was the designer, thereby misleading them into thinking that she was doing them a favor. In short, they didn’t know the truth when they accused Myra of plagiarism.
Now that the truth was out, the Chase Group pressed charges against Elsie for stealing company trade secrets, and she was brought away by several police officers. She didn’t even come back to the design department.
There were employees who said they had seen Elsie causing a scene downstairs, insisting that Myra was out to get her. However, in light of the warnings issued by the Hay and the Hart Groups respectively, as well as the former’s public apology to the Chase Group and Myra, the evidence weighed heavily against Elsie. In the end, the police brought her away without further delay.
Meanwhile, the colleagues who had wrongfully accused Myra before were now coming up to her to apologize.
Myra never took any of their accusations personally in the first place. Mr. Xavier, on the other hand, approached her and spent some time consoling her.
“Myra, your performance this time earned everybody’s praise in the board meeting. The company has decided to reward you with an incentive—you will receive five percent of the project profits.”
“Thank you, Mr. Xavier,” she answered without much enthusiasm. She had never wanted any incentive in the first place, only a chance to clear her name.
“Myra, I’m sorry to have accused you before. To be fair, everyone fell victim to Elsie’s lies. I promise this won’t happen again!” he continued earnestly. Mr. Xavier gained a new perspective of Myra after Director Chase made him look into this matter.
However, Myra appeared nonchalant as she said, “Don’t worry about it.”
Then she thought about the man who had helped clear her name, and glanced down at her phone pensively. She felt bad for not apologizing to him when she was at the Hart Group earlier today. She had wanted to give him a call after everything was settled, but after all that had happened—and even after scrolling through her contacts several times to look for his number—she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Her instincts told her to stay away from Tony, because she didn’t think he would help her out for nothing. While he’d told her last night that all she had to do was to follow him back to the Hart Residence, she still had a strange feeling about it.
But at the end of the day, he was the one who had helped her.
Snapping out of her thoughts, she decided that she must thank him properly.
With that in mind, she made the call, but there was no answer on the other line. She let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding and stored her phone away. She did not call him a second time.
Meanwhile on the other side, Tony had already seen Myra’s incoming call. Instead of picking it up, he held the phone in his hand thoughtfully, wondering what she could be calling him for.
It didn’t take long before the ringing stopped. He waited for what seemed like a long time but she did not follow up with a second call.
The smile slipped off his face. What an impatient kitten indeed, he mused inwardly. He’d done her a huge favor and now she couldn’t even bother to thank him. She didn’t even try calling him again after he did not pick up the first time.
He swiped his phone to unlock it. He was just about to call her back when he heard a knock on the door and Leo entered his office. “Director Hart, the next meeting is starting soon. Here are the data and statistics.”
Tony’s finger hovered above the phone. He stood up and kept his phone without much expression, then took over the documents from Leo before walking out of his office.
There wasn’t much for Myra to do, seeing as she would be going over to Hart Group tomorrow to sign a contract. As such, she got off work earlier than usual and began to make her way home.
Upon reaching the Chase Residence, she saw that the lights were on in the house.
Meanwhile, Eve heard the front door opening and hurriedly asked Greta to bring out the dishes to the dining table, then happily made her way over to the foyer to greet Myra.
She had heard about what happened at the company. It turned out that Myra was the one who had come up with the design that impressed the Hart Group, thus proving that she was innocent all along. More importantly, Myra was heading over to Hart Group the next day for the contract signing—she really was the lucky star in the Chase Family! After Eve had caught wind of the good news, she asked Greta to cook up a storm so that they could properly celebrate Myra’s achievement.
“Myra, you’re home at last!”
This Eve was different compared to the one last night. She looked happier today and there was a bright smile plastered on her face.
Unsurprised, Myra merely nodded and hummed in response.
Upon seeing that Myra was less enthusiastic than she had hoped, Eve thought that perhaps the former was still mad about the hurtful things she’d said last night. She reached out and took Myra’s hand, guilt flashing in her eyes as she placated, “Myra, are you still angry at me? I only said those things last night out of anger, but I’ve never once doubted you. I was only worried that the Hay Group would go after you, so I panicked. Please don’t hold this against me.”
Eve sounded so genuinely sorry that Myra couldn’t help but soften. She paused, then clasped her fingers around Eve’s as she said, “I’m not angry at you, Mom, but I have to admit I was pretty upset yesterday.”
