Chloe Austin played her part perfectly, acting as if she had no connection to the company at all.
“There’s no need to be so formal,” Zara Miller said with a forced smile, looking around at the rest of the office.
“Just call me by my name from now on.
I’m just an ordinary employee, same as all of you.”
Zara only said this because of what she had overheard the other interns saying in the pantry earlier today.
“Zara Miller is so lucky.
She just said one sentence and was directly promoted to team leader.
If she’s already a team leader, is she far from becoming a full-time employee?
Some people are just born lucky.”
“Yeah.
If we had spoken up for Chloe Austin back then, maybe we’d be sitting in that position right now instead of slaving away, working our fingers to the bone just to pass probation.”
“Zara’s skills aren’t bad either.
Her educational background is higher than ours, after all.
I’ve seen her resume; she’s interned at quite a few well-known brands.”
Everyone had gossiped about Zara as if they were watching a sideshow, with only a rare few speaking up to defend her.
Because of this, Zara’s humble words in the office were just a way to convince everyone that she was acting out of goodwill, not scheming for a promotion.
When it was time to get off work, Chloe decisively took the subway and left the company.
The rest of the people in the office chose to stay and work overtime, as they still hadn’t submitted their design drafts.
“Where are your drafts?
The brand representatives will be here first thing tomorrow morning!
If you can’t hand them over, what is our product department supposed to use to interface with them?”
“Do you think rushing us is going to solve the design issue?
We can’t just magically produce designs just because you’re hounding us!”
“Then that means your design department is incompetent!
Why should our product department be delayed because of you?”
Employees from both departments began complaining, which soon escalated into trading vicious insults.
Zara didn’t know how to resolve the situation.
She was trembling with fear, unable to utter a single word.
“If the design department can’t produce the drafts, doesn’t the product department know how to follow formal procedures?” Chloe’s voice rang out.
She had returned to the company because she had left her phone behind.
“Instead of wasting time arguing here, people from both departments would be better off finishing the work they already have on hand.”
“President Austin Jr., the people from the design department clearly cursed at us first…” an employee from the product department voiced their dissatisfaction.
Chloe shot the employee a sharp look.
“I am Chloe Austin, not ‘President Austin Jr.’ There is only the elder President Austin, President Austin, and President Hayes in this company.
Where did ‘President Austin Jr.’ come from?”
“Right, right, my mistake, Chloe.”
For the first time, Chloe felt that her name sounded awful coming from someone else’s mouth.
She furrowed her brows.
“Chloe, so far only your design draft has been submitted.
Everyone else is unable to hand theirs in…” Zara started.
“Then hand in my design draft.
If it gets rejected, I’ll just redesign it.
That is the company’s procedure.
Is anyone here still unclear about that?” Chloe didn’t understand why Zara was being so timid and cowering.
She tossed her own design draft right into the arms of the product department employee.
Chloe left the company once again.
As soon as she arrived home, she received a call from Winona Hayes.
“Mommy, when are you coming back?” Chloe whined playfully.
“I’m hungry.
I want to eat the chicken wings you make.”
She acted spoiled with Winona, but her mother’s tone sounded anxious.
This was the first time Winona had ever ignored her playful whining.
“Chloe, put eating aside for a moment.
Has your design draft been handled by anyone else?”
“Yes, why do you ask, Mommy?” Chloe’s heart leaped into her throat as a strong sense of unease enveloped her.
“The people at Tess Company are now claiming that we committed plagiarism.
They’ve already had their legal department contact us.
I believe you, but I have to give the company an explanation.”
“Mom, I have the original sketches to prove it, but regarding the plagiarism…” Chloe furrowed her brows.
Suddenly, her body started to feel unwell.
“Chloe, don’t worry.
I trust you, but Tess Company’s legal team isn’t easy to deal with.
I’ll handle the rest.
You just focus on taking care of your health.”
Winona gave Chloe a few more instructions before hanging up.
Confident that there would be news about this online, Chloe searched the keywords and indeed found a few fragmented articles.
“It’s you again, Vivian Sullivan!” Chloe gritted her teeth, a chilling glint appearing in her eyes.
Chloe grabbed her phone and dialed Caden Sterling’s number.
“You still haven’t signed the divorce agreement.
Are you worried about something?”
“Chloe Austin, you want me to let you go, but I won’t let you get your wish so easily,” Caden replied, his tone incredibly punchable.
“Beg me.”
Chloe was so furious she had to take deep breaths.
“Chloe, you may be the heiress of the Austin Family, but as long as I don’t agree to the divorce, you’ll still have to beg me.”
“Your attitude is still as disgusting and obnoxious as ever.
Caden Sterling, there will come a day when you’re kneeling on the ground begging me.” Chloe hung up the phone.
She immediately felt a discomfort in her stomach and decisively went to take the medication her doctor had prescribed.
Caden sent Chloe a text message telling her that he had founded a design brand for Vivian Sullivan, entirely at Vivian’s request.
Chloe let out a cold scoff, not taking them seriously at all.
After sitting on the sofa to rest for a while, Chloe opened her laptop again and began investigating Vivian’s brand.
Vivian’s brand was called Amore.
The name was genuinely tacky and awful-sounding, much like her own name.
Amore had only been established for a few days, yet they had submitted a design draft to Tess Company ahead of schedule.
Rumor had it that their draft was even more exquisite than the one submitted by Austin Corp.
Although Amore was not publicly linked to Vivian at the moment, Chloe still managed to find traces connecting the brand back to her.
She knew very well that she hadn’t plagiarized.
So who had leaked her design drafts to Vivian?
The elements Chloe used were clouds, angels, and the letter A.
She had only drawn this inspiration recently due to her pregnancy.
Every designer had their own unique way of handling elements, but Chloe’s method was simply to follow her heart without overthinking it.
“Is this the security department?
I want to check the surveillance footage from the design department after three o’clock this afternoon.
I want every angle, from every single camera.”
“Understood, President Austin Jr.
I’ll organize the files and send them to you right away.”
Looking at the design draft Amore had submitted on her laptop, Chloe suddenly realized that it was a collaborative piece blending the work of several different designers.
“To think she’d hire multiple designers just to target me.
She really went through so much trouble.”
The reason Chloe could tell it was the work of multiple designers was because the sketches revealed too many distinct design habits.
These habits were impossible to hide or change.
Vivian was quite skilled at headhunting, too—she had even managed to recruit several master-level designers.