Chapter 369 I Know What I’m Doing
Little did she know that Gardner Corporation had nearly turned upside down while she was away.
It wasn’t until she resumed work did she learn that the sketches they had submitted to Aimee International were subjected to plagiarism.
Whitney was caught off guard as well. Worst of all, she was the one who signed them off.
Gardner Corporation had intended to collaborate with Aimee International to help Ann expand overseas. But now, Aimee International wouldn’t compromise easily when the sketches were subjected to plagiarism.
Just as Whitney was overwhelmed by the issue, Nicole showed up.
“I’ve screwed up, Miss Nicole,” Whitney said through gritted teeth, seething with rage.
She never imagined that she’d be screwed up because of an insider job.
Nicole furrowed her brows in response. Whitney barely made any mistakes the entire time she worked under Nicole, doing her job efficiently and proportionately despite her boisterous, devil-may-care attitude and seemingly unreliable front.
“What did you do?” Nicole asked. She didn’t expect to be met with another problem as soon as she was done dealing with Benedict’s issues.
“The sketches that we collaborated with Aimee International are being suspected of plagiarism, and we allegedly copied from Aimee’s early designers’ work.” Whitney’s tone was laced with anxiety.
Her words stumped Nicole for a second, but the woman quickly realized what was going on. “Are these from Joanna?”
After some thinking, Whitney shook her head while saying through gritted teeth, “I’m not sure. I had my plate full after I took over your duties recently, so I had no time to check. Also, Joanna kept urging me, so I just skimmed through them. It was remiss of me not to notice the plagiarism.”
Whitney wasn’t afraid of taking on the responsibility, but the problem was that she had signed them on Nicole’s behalf.
She would never forgive herself for screwing Nicole up!
“Let me have a look at the sketches,” Nicole urged. Whitney would’ve been able to tell a thing or two when she had seen so many sketches while working under Nicole for years.
With that, Whitney pulled up the original sketches straight away, to which Nicole turned grave upon seeing them.
She patted Whitney’s shoulder and comforted her. “This isn’t your fault. Joanna did this on purpose.”
Whitney was taken aback. She kept thinking it was her remiss, but who’d have thought Joanna was the one behind it all?
When she saw Whitney’s bewilderment, Nicole then explained, “These are Aimee’s early sketches. No one but those who have worked in Aimee International or have seen these sketches by chance would know of their existence.”
Since they were early sketches, coupled with the fact that the style was rather undesirable to the public, they weren’t mass-produced and only sold in a small number of their retail stores. Hence, it was normal for Whitney not to have recognized them.
Meanwhile, Joanna had probably cross-checked every one of them before submitting the designs, for there was no way Whitney wouldn’t have realized if there were any designs that could be found online.
As such, there could only be one possibility left—Joanna had done it on purpose.
“No matter what, this all happened because of my mistake. Miss Nicole, you might have been the one to sign the contract, but I signed these designs off. If Aimee International intends to sue us, let me face them instead.”
Whitney had now accepted her fate, and she would not allow Nicole to take the blame for her mistake.
On the other hand, Nicole couldn’t help chuckling when she saw how grave Whitney looked. “Relax, I know what to do about this. You and I are going to be fine,” she said reassuringly.
Nicole’s affirmative look took Whitney back for a second, and she quickly reacted by asking, “Are you sure, Miss Nicole?”
