Married a Secret Billionaire

Chapter 18

The morning meeting was incredibly torturous.

Cordelia felt Jesse’s suggestive gaze lingering on her, as well as Karine’s hostile gaze stabbing her like a knife.

When the meeting ended, before Jesse could talk to her, she smiled politely and left the meeting room by making up an excuse.

Before she went far, she heard Karine’s enraged voice coming from inside.

“What’s gotten into you? Can’t see anything else once you meet that b*tch? Is that it? You’re incorrigible!”

Cordelia felt her heart thump.

She told Linda about it at noon, surprising the latter. Linda had not expected such a coincidence either. The company was very big, yet Cordelia had bumped into the two of them.

“Be careful now that you ran into them,” Linda said in a lower volume. “Cordelia, I’m not in sales, so it’s hard for me to put in a good word for you. And Karine’s uncle is a shareholder. She’s used to her ways… Basically, life won’t be too easy for you in the future. You’ve got to watch out!” Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“Mm, don’t worry.” Cordelia smiled. “As long as I don’t make any mistakes, Karine won’t be able to pick on me.”

Lo and behold, that very afternoon, Karine specifically gave her a task.

“There’s a tea party later. This is the guest list. They’re all important clients of our company. Get things ready properly.”

Cordelia nodded.

There were about a dozen people on the name list, and the tea party was not large scale-wise. Despite that, they had to do their best to satisfy the clients.

“Right, keep an eye out for Ms. Cloud from Morn-Glo Group.” Karine smirked. “That businesswoman is great at everything but she’s allergic to peanuts. No peanuts whatsoever when you prepare her food.”

“Okay, got it.”

Cordelia went out with the name list. Although this was only her first day at work, she was orderly and meticulous in everything she did. Soon, she had set up the tea party venue completely.

The guests came, and everything went on smoothly.

Cordelia breathed a faint sigh of relief while standing aside, only to suddenly hear a loud cry.

“Ms. Cloud fainted!”

Cordelia jolted and hurried over to check the situation. Ms. Cloud was down on the floor, her eyes were wide, and she obviously had difficulty breathing.

“What happened?” someone cried. “Ms. Cloud is allergic to peanuts! Why does this cake contain peanut butter?!”

Karine came over as well, raising her voice. “Who prepared the cake? I said it time and again—Ms. Cloud can’t have anything with peanuts. Why did a mistake like this still happen?!”

Cordelia sucked in a breath as she looked up and met Karine’s hostile eyes. Then, realization struck her. She had been framed…

“Cordelia, I remember assigning the task to you! Explain this!”

Cordelia bit her lip and stayed quiet.

“Stop arguing!” Ms. Cloud’s assistant was panicking. “Please call an ambulance! She’ll die otherwise!”

The scene was chaotic.

Cordelia composed herself and squeezed through the crowd to go over to Ms. Cloud. She calmly looked at her face and pulled a small medicine bottle from her bag.

“Here, give this to Ms. Cloud!”

“What’s this?”

“My younger brother’s also allergic to peanuts. I always have these meds in my bag!”

Cordelia pushed the pill into Ms. Cloud’s mouth and pressed down on her philtrum.

By the time the ambulance came, Ms. Cloud’s breathing had gradually calmed down and returned to normal. The hives on her skin seemed to have faded a little too.

She slowly opened her eyes to look at Cordelia and spoke with difficulty. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Cordelia wiped the sweat on her forehead in relief.

The ambulance came, and the others frantically took Ms. Cloud up to the vehicle. The venue slowly quieted down.

In spite of this, their director summoned Cordelia and Karine to his office with a glower shortly.

Cordelia stayed silent while Karine recounted the entire event animatedly.

“Cordelia...” Karine spoke up, crossing her arms with a victorious expression. “I emphasized this to you previously, and you turned a deaf ear? You are the one who prepared those cakes. Did you want to kill Ms. Cloud?!”

“I’ve got no grudge against her. Why would I want to harm her?” Cordelia was composed as she glanced at Karine. “I just don’t understand why someone would swap the cakes I prepared.”

“You—What do you mean?”

“Have a look, sir.” Cordelia had taken a piece of the cake that Ms. Cloud had eaten when she had left the venue. “This cake was served in a paper cup. It’s not what I prepared.”

The director’s brows were furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I bought the cakes served at the tea party from the bakery across the street. To tell apart those with peanut butter and those without, I reminded them to use foil cups for those without peanut butter. But the piece that Ms. Cloud had was in a paper cup.

“I also went around the venue just now, and none of the treats served were in foil cups, so I’m certain someone swapped them!”

Karine was appalled as she cried in discomfort, “How dare you accuse me?”

“Accuse you?” Cordelia chuckled. “Ms. Carmichael, I just said that someone swapped the cakes. I didn’t say it was you. Why are you so flustered?”

“You—” Karine glared daggers at her with her fists clenched.

“I did ask for the cakes to be in different cups,” Cordelia said clearly. “If you don’t believe me, sir, you can ask the bakery workers or check the surveillance footage. I’m new, but I’m not about to sit around and become a scapegoat! I request a thorough investigation!”

Who was in the right and who was in the wrong was clear at this point.

The director was scowling. The culprit was Karine, and Ms. Cloud was fine. However, it was unnecessary to offend the shareholder’s niece over a newbie who had just joined the company.

“Cordelia, I know what to do,” he told her perfunctorily. “Head out now. I have to talk to Ms. Carmichael.”

Cordelia nodded and left.

Karine was about to speak up when the director interrupted her sternly. “Enough!”

“What? You—”

“You think this is glorious? If Cordelia didn’t have the medication and something had happened, would you have been able to handle it?”

Karine fumed.

“Don’t think that you can do whatever you want just because your uncle’s a shareholder. I can take it for now, but I won’t tolerate it if you step over the line! You better think it through!”

Karine resented Cordelia even more when she failed to get her way and was warned by the director instead. It made her pick on Cordelia whenever she could.

As a result, Cordelia failed to close any sales despite being there for a month and naturally became a negative example during their regular meeting.