26th Floor – Executive floor of Quinn Group headquarters.
The clicking sound of stiletto heels echoed “clack clack” on the marble floor.
The three administrative secretaries outside the reception desk of the CEO’s office all coincidentally raised their heads to look at the person who just stepped out of the private elevator.
Upon clearly recognizing that person’s haughty face, personal assistant Jill hurriedly stood up: “Hello, Ms.
Quinn.” “Mhm…” Madison jerked her chin up, sluggishly waving her hand with the demeanor of a spoiled lady.
“Ms.
Quinn, how about I press the intercom to report your arrival first?
I am not sure if the CEO is currently busy with a video conference meeting with the board of directors or not.” Jill quickly stepped out, using her body to block the only mandatory pathway to enter the boss’s office in a very professional manner, her tone extremely tactful.
“Get out of the way, it’s unnecessary.” Madison frowned, clearly revealing a bossy, impatient look, reaching out to forcefully push Jill’s shoulder aside in an extremely rude and impolite manner.
A flash of awkwardness and frustration crossed Jill’s face, but as a wage earner, she could only stand there helplessly watching Lady Madison, who lacked even the basic politeness to knock, push the double doors wide open and walk right in.
“Jill…” An intern sitting nearby whispered softly, looking worriedly at the head assistant.
“It is nothing.” Jill took a deep breath to compose herself, shook her head slightly to instruct, then pulled her chair and sat down to continue typing on the keyboard.
As soon as Madison stepped into the powerful office, she immediately saw the back of the man standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass window, looking down at the panoramic view of Manhattan.
His hair was neatly combed, his side profile sharp and resolute.
The sleeves of his expensive shirt were slightly rolled up to reveal a Rolex watch, wearing AirPods in his ears, occasionally dropping a few precise English financial terms.
Even though she was his cousin, Madison had to admit that this Alpha male was indeed incredibly captivating.
No wonder that fake sister-in-law of hers clung tightly to this gold mine without letting go.
If she herself caught such a top-tier, wealthy husband, she would probably use every trick to chain him to her belt too!
Julian, evidently through the reflection on the glass, had noticed Madison’s intrusion, but he completely ignored it, having no intention of paying attention to Madison, remaining highly focused on discussing strategies with the shareholders on the other end of the line.
Madison stood waiting, feeling incredibly bored, only able to curiously touch this and admire that inside the extravagant office.
Come to think of it, she did not frequently wander into Julian’s territory.
The few times she occasionally dropped by to beg for favors, less than a few minutes after finishing her presentation, she would be directly escorted out by security.
Rarely getting to linger here for this long today, Madison guiltily shot a glance at the man in front of the window.
Seeing that Julian was still busy with his back turned to her, she tiptoed over to the massive walnut desk.
Oh, a silver photo frame, this is a picture of…
Madison felt as if she had just discovered an earth-shattering secret…
“What are you doing coming in here without permission?” Julian’s cold, deep voice suddenly rang out from behind her back…
Madison’s body stiffened as if paralyzed.
She awkwardly and somewhat stiffly turned around, immediately meeting Julian’s sharp gaze as he frowned and stared intently at Madison.
“Just a small matter I need a favor for…” Madison felt a chill down her spine, lacking the confidence to speak clearly.
Julian coldly walked around Madison, went over to sit down on the leather chair behind the desk, his sharp gray eyes unconsciously darting a glance over the photo frame that Madison had just secretly peeked at, before apathetically uttering a single commanding word: “Speak.” “The thing is…” Madison lowered her head, her finger nervously drawing circles on the expensive desk surface: “Next week I am participating in a Runway show.
It is an event belonging to the international-scale New York Fashion Week, which is very important for my career advancement!” “Get to the point!” Julian snapped lightly, clearly showing his impatience.
“It is…
could you do me a favor and put in a good word with Chloe…
sister-in-law, to have the GY brand sign a cross-sponsorship jewelry contract with the Grossi brand?
They highly value GY’s coverage and have a very high regard for her company’s marketing strategy.” Madison appeared quite eager to persuade: “Furthermore, Grossi is after all considered an international mid-tier Brand.
Compared to GY’s current customer segment, this collaboration is a total win-win and cannot be considered a loss!
If the two sides can truly close the contract, and they know I am the cousin of the Quinn Group CEO as well as the sister-in-law of GY’s Co-Founder, they might even show favoritism and arrange for me to wear a few First Face outfits!” The more Madison laid out the scenario, the more excited she became, feeling that a brilliant future of becoming a Supermodel was not far away and was waving at her!
“No.” Julian’s expression did not change in the slightest, ruthlessly and decisively refusing.
“By then I will get on the magazine cover…” Before Madison could digest the refusal, she belatedly let out a shrill scream: “Why?!
You…
you are my older cousin, yet you won’t even help me with this tiny little hassle?
It is not like it is some illegal deal.
Besides, this is a Fashion Week event, their jewelry brand inherently sells accessories and can collaborate for coverage with many major international fashion brands.
Tagging along the Grossi name is also adding a portion to increase brand recognition!” Madison’s narrow-minded thinking was very naive; with that pile of benefits, if Chloe did not agree to sign the contract, Chloe would truly be a CEO with mental issues.
“If they want to negotiate a collaboration, just follow the proper procedure, directly using the company email’s name to send a collaboration invitation Proposal to GY’s mailbox.” After Julian finished speaking, he pulled out a fountain pen to sign, lowering his head to begin focusing on reviewing the financial report, his attitude clearly refusing to waste any more time on this useless topic.
“You…” Madison’s heavily powdered face was filled with a pitiful pleading look: “Sister-in-law normally plays the gentle wife and obeys you the most.
If you take the trouble to open your mouth and give a single directive, sister-in-law will definitely obediently agree.” Speaking to this point, Madison also felt incredibly aggrieved in her heart.
If she hadn’t previously let it slip and boasted about having a close relationship to secure the sponsorship with the CEO of Grossi when they flew to New York this time, why would a lady like Madison bother to lower herself to plead here!
Fortunately, this guy was her cousin Julian, so Madison did not have to stand on ceremony for the sake of pride.
If Madison had to lower herself to beg Chloe, that humiliating feeling would truly be called a fate worse than death.
“Madison Quinn!” Julian’s voice was not loud at all, but his volume and attitude exuded an unfriendly threat: “I always respect all of my wife’s independent business decisions.” The warning implication was that Julian would absolutely not interfere or force Chloe to do anything because of personal matters.
Having said that, he immediately pressed the internal intercom: “Jill, come in here and escort Miss Madison out.” Madison aggrievedly stomped her high heel.
Seeing that Julian was cold and had no intention of changing his decision, she finally pouted resentfully and walked out of the office with secretary Jill, her face sullen with anger.
Absolute silence was restored in the director’s office.
Julian raised his hand to loosen a shirt button at his collar, tiredly relaxing his body and leaning against the back of the soft leather chair, his deep, lingering gaze glued tightly to the photo frame on the desk.
The photo captured a woman with her hair in an elegant high bun, wearing a simple diamond-encrusted tiara, a white tulle wedding veil cascading down her back.
On the bride’s cheek was a funny little smudge of wedding cake frosting.
She smiled brightly, revealing perfect pristine white teeth, her sparkling blue eyes clearly displaying complete happiness; her entire being shining radiantly under the chandelier light—that was precisely Chloe.
This was clearly not a posed studio picture but a candid, natural shot; the moment captured was exactly at the reception following their extravagant wedding ceremony.
Julian traced his finger lightly over the glass surface, admiring it endlessly, his cold expression gradually becoming pensive and hard to grasp.
Throughout the two years after getting married, Julian had never once seen Chloe smile so naturally, radiantly, and genuinely like that again.
Perhaps deep down inside, Chloe truly felt suffocated and not happy at all?
…
For several long days in a row, Julian went on business trips and did not return to the Penthouse.
It wasn’t that Chloe did not feel surprised.
Calculating carefully based on the schedule, since they got married until now, the number of times CEO Julian did not come home to stay the night was pitifully sparse.
Normally, even if there was a crisis and the company was incredibly busy needing him to resolve it, by dawn when the sky was almost bright, Julian would still drag himself home to shower, change clothes, and show his face for a bit.
Such an unusual disappearance situation, yet Chloe completely lacked any spare state of mind to sit and analyze the cause, simply because…
her current workload was truly overloaded!!!
The number of emails from fashion brands sending proposals for collaboration intentions and Directors personally coming to the showroom office to visit and negotiate was truly much higher than what Chloe and Harper had estimated!
Moreover, the majority came from top-tier international luxury brands flying in from Paris.
For no overly complicated reason, the core lay in the fact that Chloe had previously delicately gifted the wife of her former academic advisor a limited edition design of GY’s new season product.
As for Chloe’s professor, there was no need to debate much about his reputation; in the international jewelry design circle, he was revered as a legendary tycoon.
His wife’s recognition in Paris high society was also almost as powerful as his; her friends in the circle were all high-class ladies, senior designers, and powerful editors-in-chief working in the fashion industry…
Because Chloe was her husband’s outstanding star student, and the gift carried the sincerity of a talented junior she dearly loved, furthermore, the design was incredibly exquisite, artistic, and ornate, the professor’s wife was very willing to wear it to parties for promotion, helping Chloe polish her name.
But the media effect exploded far beyond everyone’s calculated expectations.
Not only did the GY brand name more or less leave a deep impression in the minds of many influential figures in the industry, but there were even several billionaires who, through the professor’s wife, expressed their intention to order Private Custom pieces for some of GY’s limited models.
This time, when a series of international fashion brand giants landed in New York to participate in Fashion Week, the priority collaboration targets they searched for on Google first would naturally aim at New York’s high-end local brands.
Thanks to this, GY naturally became the biggest winner, raking in countless lucrative contracts.
“Cheers!
Wishing our collaboration project a brilliant success!” The foreign man with romantic golden blonde hair and deep blue eyes, around 28 or 29 years old, in front of Chloe extended his large hand politely.
On his handsome face bearing strong European features bloomed a charming, gentle smile.
This man had a very tall stature, at the very least around one meter ninety.
Every time they conversed facing each other, Chloe, despite wearing high heels, still had to tilt her neck up to look at Hector.
He held an incredibly powerful status – precisely the strategic partner that GY strictly selected this time, the person in charge of creative direction at Fashion Week for the renowned top-tier luxury brand JJ from France, Mr.
Hector.
The reason Chloe and Harper discussed and chose JJ as the exclusive collaboration partner this time was, firstly, because since their student days, both had highly idolized and loved the style of this brand; secondly, the positioning class of this brand was high enough to elevate GY; and thirdly, the target customer demographics of JJ and GY matched perfectly.
“Certainly.” Chloe gave a commercial smile, extending her soft, small hand to shake hands socially with the other party.
“I truly hope that during my short business trip in New York, we can frequently arrange coffee dates to meet and exchange ideas.” Hector carried the gallantry, romance, and enthusiasm characteristic of French men, not hesitating to shoot a flirtatious, meaningful wink at Chloe.
“Certainly, this Fashion Week will definitely be incredibly spectacular and worth anticipating; I will absolutely not miss the peak runway shows.” Chloe chatted using an elegant English tone while holding the door to see Hector out of the office’s showroom area.
“Then, hope to see you again soon, milady.” Hector, along with the assistant walking beside him, waved and smiled meaningfully, then stepped into the elevator.