Chapter 10
903words
If the proposal was accepted, it meant that he would be put in charge of this project. The company would be set to profit from it, and if things went the way he expected, it would give him a massive head start in his career!
"Yes, Mr. Rosewood! I won't deny that there may be some errors in my calculations, but it was all because we were in such a rush last night that we didn't manage to double-check the figures."
While explaining, Derrick kept glancing at Winter in the back, silently asking her to back him up.
After all, she was Mr. Rosewood's daughter. If she said something in his favor, his name would be cleared, and he could pretend that none of this ever happened.
Winter saw Derrick glancing at her for help, but she didn't say a thing. Instead, she shifted in her seat, found a more comfortable position, and crossed her arms on her chest, waiting to watch more drama unfold.
Derrick looked confused. Why wasn't Winter saying anything to support him?
A moment later, Winter finally spoke, just as Derrick hoped. However, she looked at him coldly and chuckled as she said, "But didn't you and the rest of the trainee team get off work early yesterday evening to celebrate my birthday with me?
"Oh, but wait, I think two of them weren't there."
The entire conference room fell silent. Derrick's face turned whiter than a sheet.
He couldn't believe what Winter was saying. He didn't know if Winter was doing this to him on purpose or if she was just clueless.
After all, he had conspired with the whole trainee team about it, but he never told Winter the truth.
Just as Derrick was struggling to make sense of it all, a tall figure stood up and said, "I know where the error is. On the final slide of the deck, the total of the budget suddenly increased tenfold. I was the one who put it there."
Felix said everything slowly and steadily in a confident voice. He didn't look the least bit intimidated.
In fact, it felt as though he had been waiting for this moment to expose Derrick by taking over the meeting.
"W-What?"
"That's impossible!"
I could hear loud whispering from all behind me. It was obvious that none of them had expected this.
Even more surprisingly, Mr. Rosewood then asked, "What's going on, Foxy?"
Foxy? Was he referring to Felix?
But didn't Felix grow up poor like me? How could the chairman of the company know him personally?
Could they possibly be related? Or, had Mr. Rosewood acknowledged him in the past?
Felix didn't flinch. He chuckled coldly and marched right up to the front of the room, completely ignoring Derrick, and started presenting the proposal all over again, but going into minute details this time.
After explaining the final slide, Felix skipped back to the first slide of the deck and clicked on the "Show Previous Versions" button.
Derrick's name immediately disappeared, and both my name and Felix's appeared in the space instead.
That was the end of his presentation.
"Look at you, Derrick Hemsworth. You could have picked anyone else to mess with, but you ended up messing with my brother. And to think that it was with such despicable methods too!"
Winter stood up after that. Seeing that it was time for a revelation, she slowly turned to address the rest of the room. "Felix is my younger brother. We have the same parents. Understand?"
"But… But his last name is Kingston—"
"I took my dad's last name, and he took my mom's last name. Fair and square. Do you get it now?"
Then, she turned to Mr. Rosewood and said with a pout, "Dad, I've finally seen the true colors of that gold-digging brat. I hadn't believed Foxy when he told me about him, but now, I do!"
My mind went completely blank. It was too much information for me to handle at once.
As it turned out, the person I had spent the entire night drafting the proposal deck with was none other than Mr. Rosewood's son.
Soon after, it was announced that Mr. Dawson, Derrick, and all the other trainees who were involved in the incident were fired from the company. None of them was spared. They would be blacklisted as well.
That announcement caused a widespread panic among the perpetrators as they cried and begged for mercy.
This company was one of the leading companies in the business industry, and the people here had gone through multiple rounds of tests and screening before being hired.
If they were fired, they would never be able to find an equally high-paying job elsewhere. Even worse, if they got blacklisted, they would probably be turned down and boycotted by other similar companies!
The entire trainee team office was in a mess, and yet, my mind was still a blur.
When I stepped out of the conference room, I didn't look where I was going and accidentally bumped into Mr. Rosewood, who was right next to me.
I quickly apologized to him, but he just waved me off kindly.
Suddenly, a dazzling glint of light reflected in my eyes. It was from the feather-shaped brooch he was wearing on his coat.
