She became awkward after hearing his jeer. After all, her original intention was to see Nicole being embarrassed.
On the other hand, Mason retracted his gaze after saying that and lowered his head to look at Nicole. Following that, his eyes brightened upon observing Nicole’s features.
“Wow, so it’s a beautiful chick. Pretty Lady, why don’t you leave a lousy entity like Gardner Corporation and join my company? I can guarantee my company is friendlier.”
Nicole had no desire to continue staying here, so she bowed slightly to Mason with her head lowered and said, “Thank you for today. I still have some matters to attend to back at home. See you.”
Thereafter, Nicole quickly turned around to leave as she did not even want to stay on for a second more in this hotbed of dispute.
However, not long after she left the private room, Mason caught up with her.
“Hey, Pretty Lady, is this how you treat someone who got you out of a pickle?” he yelled as he watched her leaving in a hurry.
Nicole stopped and turned to look toward Mason. Earlier in the room, she did not clearly observe his look. It was only now that they had come out from the room to a brighter corridor did she realize that he was actually a handsome man.
Besides the rascal-like smile on his face, there was a tinge of brazenness in his alluring eyes. Holding the cigarette between his fingers and the bright-red hair, he gave the first impression of a good-looking gangster.
“Thanks for helping me out today, President Schumacher,” Nicole said politely.
Nicole reckoned Mason must be some respectable person since even Shaun, the Human Resource Department manager of Gardner Corporation behaved in a servile manner toward him. As such, she knew she did not have to go too far to thank him with money.
“Just call me Mason. Only outsiders will address me as President Schumacher.” Taking a step forward, Mason approached Nicole and sized her up from head to toe.
Unlike the other women in the lounge, she did not wear any makeup today. There was an innocent demeanor on her delicate face, which made her look totally out of place in this venue and it actually gave one a pleasant feeling.
“Sure, Mr. Schumacher,” Nicole called out strangely after she took a step back.
Mason smiled and didn’t really mind. “By the way, what’s your name, Pretty Lady? Who knows we might meet again?”
“I’m Nicole Anderson.”
“Nicole Anderson,” Mason repeated after Nicole. Then, he nodded and praised, “That’s a sweet name. I’ll remember you from now on.”
After getting her name, he did not ask her to continue staying. Instead, he waved her goodbye. “Miss Anderson, it’s better to stay away from places like this in the future. It does not suit you.”
Then, he paused for a moment and winked at Nicole with a smile. “After all, you won’t always be this lucky to bump into a handsome man who swears by justice like me.”
Nicole remained silent for a moment. Despite Mason’s rascal-like appearance, at least he was polite and did not behave in any way that crossed the line.
“Thank you.” With that, she thanked him and left.
It was already past 10 o’clock by the time she arrived home. Hayden had already gone upstairs to sleep, so there was only Zachary sitting in the living room.
Seeing Nicole’s return, Zachary lifted his head to glance at her. “Hey Nicole.”
Perceiving his weary look, a concerned Nicole asked, “Did something happen?”
With downcast eyes, Zachary’s sturdy body was drained with exhaustion. Rubbing his brows, he still talked in a gentle way despite his weariness.
“Yeah, there’s indeed something.”
After that, she did not continue asking since she had known him for almost 4 years. Besides being a superior and subordinate, they were also friends too. Nevertheless, Nicole had never crossed the line and asked Zachary about his family affairs.
When he noticed Nicole’s silence, Zachary shifted her gaze toward her and said honestly, “Someone wants to acquire F&M Apparel.”
A stunned Nicole lifted her head to look at him with her dark eyes tinged with shock. “Acquire F&M Apparel?”
F&M Apparel was one of the leading enterprises in the fashion industry worldwide. The business had been thriving over these few years, so the price to acquire the business was definitely a huge amount too. As such, an ordinary person would not be able to afford it.
“Yeah. It’s my father,” Zachary bitterly said.
In fact, this was the reason for his hustle over the past few days.
Nicole kind of understood the situation. He came from a wealthy family to begin with. Although she had no idea what career Zachary’s father had pursued, she could tell he must be extremely wealthy.
Few years ago, she had briefly heard from Harvey Mann that the initial plan was to allow Zachary run the family business, but Zachary was capable and eventually made his way to become the president of F&M Apparel. As such, he had no intention of taking over the family business.
Zachary lowered his head to look at the silent Nicole and sighed softly. “Don’t worry, Nicole. I won’t let anything happen to F&M Apparel.”
After making sure that Nicole was safe from harm, Zachary went for his overseas trip once again. It seemed as though it would be difficult to save themselves from the messy situation.
When Nicole arrived at the company the next day, she couldn’t help but notice how oddly quiet the office was. She could almost feel the weight of the silence.
The other employees who had noticed her arrival immediately lowered their heads. Still, nobody said a word.
She took a walk around, and her eyebrows soon crinkled when she noticed Joanna wasn’t at her usual place. She couldn’t help feeling weird about it – something must have happened.
By the time Nicole had arrived at the office, Scarlett was following right behind her with a worried expression.
After shutting the door behind her, she glumly said to Nicole, “President Gardner fired Shaun Geller from the Human Resource
Department this morning.”
Nicole raised her head to look at the other woman, and it took her a while to react. If her memory served her right, Shaun Geller was the man who pressured her into drinking alcohol last night.
Seeing that Nicole was staring at her in surprise, Scarlett continued, “I’m not sure who President Gardner had heard from this morning, but as soon as he found out that Shaun tried to get you in trouble last night, he fired Shaun without even giving him the time to explain himself. Everyone working here is now holding themselves back so that they don’t offend you in some way.”
It was only then did Nicole understand why the Design Department was especially quiet when she arrived.
Even though she detested workplace politics, she never had the intention to take revenge on anyone. She could only let out a helpless smile as she nodded with a sigh. “I got it.”
“Also, President Gardner has asked Director Schmidt to meet him at his office,” Scarlett muttered while gingerly looking at Nicole.
So, that is the reason for the somber mood in the Design Department just now, Nicole thought. While massaging the incoming headache, she said, “I’ll have a talk with President Gardner in a while. Can you please tell everyone to be more at ease?”
At that, Scarlett looked at Nicole and nodded. “Alright,” she replied shortly thereafter.
Scarlett was a new intern at the Design Department, which was why she didn’t have the chance to attend an event like yesterday’s one. She had only learned about Shaun from the Human Resource Department and the man had forced Nicole to drink from the mouths of her colleagues when she arrived at the office earlier that morning.
For Nicole to get both Sabrina and Shaun in trouble soon after she started working there, it was only natural for the other colleagues to fear being further involved with her. They would be the next ones to go if they were to pull a wrong move.
However, as someone who had been working alongside Nicole, Scarlett knew that Nicole was not someone who would find fault with others over trifles. The two who were fired probably deserved their punishment.
…
Colton, who was in the President’s office of Gardner Corporation, was dressed in a custom-made black suit that perfectly accentuated the muscular curves of his fit body.
He had a dark expression on his face as he leaned back into his seat. His almond-shaped eyes were cold as he peered at the woman in front of him.
“Gardner Corporation is in a collaboration with Lisa. She does not work under you.”
Standing only meters away from him was Joanna, whose eyes were lowered.
“What happened was due to my negligence. I didn’t think Shaun would be daring enough to do something like that. I apologize for not stopping him in time.”
The corners of Colton’s lips only lifted into a sneer after he heard Joanna’s words, but his pitch black eyes continued to drill holes in her. He was well aware of the fight for power within the office. The only reason why he had never mentioned any of it was because he had better things to do.
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