The meeting turned serious fast.
Ivy’s new designs impressed the room overall, but the boldness of the concept and the unconventional choices drew immediate pushback from the deputy director.
Chloe, unwilling to sit this one out, leaned in.
“Director Hart, your work used to be so polished, so refined.
What happened to make you go this rough, this unpolished, all of a sudden?”
“The composition’s too stripped down, the palette’s flat, and some of these details are frankly reckless.” Gregory frowned over the sketches.
“Ivy, are you chasing something quick here at the expense of the standard you used to hold yourself to?”
Most of the design department came from serious training, sharp instincts, real vision, and a genuine eye for the craft.
The downside of that kind of pedigree showed up here, though: work this polished sometimes drifted too far from what actually sold.
Ivy looked around at a room full of people bristling at her new direction and said simply, “This is the design that won Sebastian Barrow over.”
The room went quiet with disbelief.
Barrow Group had signed off on something this raw, this unlike anything they’d wanted in past seasons?
Chloe scanned the room and smiled.
“Well since Mr.
Barrow’s already approved it, and she’s clearly made up for her mistake, maybe we let this go.
No more bringing up the leaked files.”
Gregory looked at Ivy.
“Director, if the Barrow deal’s genuinely back on track, we can leave the rest in the past”
Ivy cut him off before he finished.
“Why would we leave it there?”
The room froze.
Had she lost all sense of proportion?
The deputy director had just tried to give her an out.
She kept going.
“Where exactly did I go wrong here?
Those files got stolen because someone inside this room handed them over.
That debt is still owed.”
“A mole?
Who?” Everyone in that room had worked side by side for months.
Nobody wanted to believe the traitor sat two desks down except, notably, Chloe.
The room erupted instantly.
Hazel shot to her feet, pointing straight at Chloe.
“It has to be her.
If she hadn’t deliberately destroyed the director’s original mockups, none of this”
“We stayed up rebuilding the whole thing from scratch after that, and everything that happened afterward traces straight back to that.”
Chloe’s face crumpled with wounded outrage.
“Hazel, I understand you’re loyal to the director, but you can’t just slander someone new like this.
Didn’t the security footage show what happened?
The deputy director was the one who bumped into me.
That’s the only reason the coffee spilled.”
Gregory had been part of this department for over a decade, a composed, well-liked man in his thirties who never had to raise his voice to earn loyalty.
Half the room defended him without being asked.
“We were all there.
Chloe went into the director’s office uninvited first, and Gregory only followed because he was concerned.
Everyone in this room watched exactly how those mockups got destroyed.”
“And the original design was Gregory’s work in the first place.
He’s been mentoring her since she joined this company.
Why would he ever want to sabotage her?”
“Don’t think just because you’ve got the president wrapped around your finger, you can run wild through this department.
Isn’t the secretary’s office enough of a playground for you?” Hazel added, unfiltered.
Chloe’s eyes went red with fury.
She slammed a hand on the table and stood.
“You’re all ganging up on me!
Director Hart, is this what you wanted too?”
“That’s enough.” Ivy’s voice stayed level.
“Everyone’s been at this since this morning without eating.
Let’s break for lunch.
This afternoon, Hazel and Professor Shaw are coming with me to Barrow Group…”
Chloe cut in immediately.
“I want to come too.”
Before Ivy could respond, Gregory’s expression turned cold.
“Secretary Bennett works out of the president’s office.
What business does she have tagging along with a room full of designers who don’t know the first thing about flattering the boss?”
The implication landed clearly: she wasn’t welcome.
Nobody in the room had ever liked Chloe much, and the line drew visible satisfaction.
Everyone assumed Gregory was needling the mistress on his student’s behalf.
Chloe, leaning on the weight of Nathaniel’s name, pressed anyway.
“Director, Nathaniel asked me to learn from you personally.
Is that such a crime?”
Sickeningly sweet, every word of it.
She knows exactly what she’s doing, and she still gets to play the victim.
The room waited for Ivy the legal wife, technically still to shut this down.
Instead, Ivy just nodded.
“If you want to come, come.”
The room went still with shock.
Hazel muttered under her breath, “Director, didn’t you already kick her out of this department?
Why bring the trouble back in?”
“That’s Nathaniel’s call, not mine.” Ivy was the first out of the conference room, heading straight for the staff cafeteria.
Her pregnancy was still fragile.
She needed her medication and regular meals, and she had zero appetite left for anything extra today.
The cafeteria at Wolfe Jewels was surprisingly refined, complete with private dining rooms.
Ivy pulled out the medication her doctor had prescribed and had just taken a sip of water when Hazel knocked and let herself in.
Catching sight of the pill bottle, she asked, worried, “Director, are you feeling okay?”
Ivy tucked the bottle away, calm.
“Just running on no sleep.
Taking something to keep my energy up.
Did you need me for something?”
“You’re way too thin.
Eat more.” Hazel darted off and came back with a fresh bowl of soup, unable to hold back her curiosity any longer.
“Director, Chloe’s gotten so bold.
Do you have some kind of plan for dealing with her?”
Ivy didn’t deny it.
“Don’t waste energy on her.”
Then, gently, “She’s someone Nathaniel’s interested in.
Why pick a fight over that?”
Hazel found that hard to believe.
Since starting here, all she’d heard about was the great romance between Nathaniel and his wife the perfect couple everyone envied.
She’d never actually seen them show affection at the office, but they’d always at least carried themselves like they respected each other.
Nathaniel had never been the type to entertain other women.
Everyone assumed they were the model marriage, quietly resented for it behind closed doors.
And now the mistress was walking all over Ivy in broad daylight, and given how she usually operated
She doesn’t tolerate a single flaw in anyone.
She should have had Chloe on her knees apologizing by now.
So why does she look like none of this touches her at all?
“Director, you and Nathaniel…”
Are you two already finished?
“Ugh” Ivy’s stomach turned suddenly, and with tears pricking her eyes, she clapped a hand over her mouth and bolted for the bathroom.
The soup sat there on the table, still steaming.
“Director!” Hazel scrambled after her, alarmed.
“Was it the soup?
You look awful, let me get you to a doctor!”
It took Ivy a long moment to get the nausea back under control.
“I’m fine.
Just haven’t been sleeping well.”
Worried Hazel would start reading too far into it, and with no appetite left anyway, she simply headed for the door.
Hazel trailed after her, anxious.
“Director, if the medication isn’t working, we really should see someone oh.
Nathaniel?”
She startled, spotting him stepping out of the room next door.
The company president had his own private dining space and never once ate in the staff cafeteria.
What was he doing here today?
And behind him Chloe, standing close enough that no one could mistake the arrangement.
Shameless doesn’t begin to cover it.
Ivy hadn’t expected to run into him here at all.
Watching the two of them, inseparable, barely registered as a surprise anymore.
She offered a light nod.
“Hazel, let’s go.”
Hazel’s eyes went wide.
“They’re here!”
“What are you taking?” Nathaniel’s gaze caught on her pale face, concerned, slipping through despite himself.
Ivy answered flatly, professionally.
“I just didn’t sleep well.
Appreciate the concern, President Wolfe.”
The detachment in her voice landed harder than open hostility would have.
Something flickered behind his eyes Marcus’s comment from the night before, that she probably hated him now, resurfacing uninvited and before he’d fully decided to, he said, “Wait.”