Alice saw Josie’s aloofness after hanging up and complimented her non-stop. “Jo, you’re. brilliant. You won Interior Design Awards’ first prize at only twenty-three years old! Do you know what this means?”
“My goodness. Why isn’t Laura here? I need to make her regret looking down on you!”
Winning the prize was an incredible achievement for a twenty-three-year-old woman. One should know that the youngest winner was twenty-eight before Josie broke the record.
As the winner, she would become the new standard in the design industry for the following year.
“Say something? Are you in shock?” Alice tugged Josie’s arm. Josie glanced at the anticipating crowd and said calmly, “Let’s continue with the meeting.”
“Huh..”
“D*mn, why is she acting like she’s better than everyone.”
Josie did not have the mind to care about the whisperings around her. Her mind was preoccupied with what the committee had told her on the phone. After telling her about her. winning, they added, “We have blacklisted.
Claire from the competition for life for committing slander and plagiarizing your work. The whole industry will soon boycott her, so don’t worry.”
Such swift action could only mean a certain someone had a hand in this.
Just now, Josie desperately wanted to scream that Claire was not the instigator. Instead, the real culprit was Laura, who won second prize.
However, she could not say it. After the meeting, Josie stopped Alice and asked, “Did Laura come to work recently?”
“I’ve never seen her even once. I thought both of you arranged to be late and skip work together. The design department is having some difficulty without its two key figures.”
Josie felt guilty upon hearing that. “Something happened recently. I won’t be late again.”
She had relied on wise sayings to sustain her for three years while her father was severely ill.
Men are unreliable, so one might as well depend on oneself. Moreover, one can afford to lose a man but not work.
Unfortunately, Dexter is my boss. He can fire me from my job whenever he wants. No wonder the company doesn’t allow office romance…
Josie could not help but feel afraid after his cruel words to her. She could not yet hand in the divorce agreement for her father’s sake.
After leaving the company, Josie hailed a taxi to bring her somewhere. She instructed the taxi driver to send her to the house Dexter had brought her to apologize to Laura. She believed it was the Brandel family’s home.
She never expected to visit there again on her own.
After getting out of the car, no servants came to greet her. Instead, she saw people moving all kinds of things from the house. It seemed something had happened.
Josie frowned and asked, “Sir, what are you doing?”
The man looked at her vigilantly. “What’s your relationship with the people in this house?”
Josie answered tentatively, “Employer.”
“What the heck? The Brandel family has gone bankrupt. How can they be an employer?” The man laughed mockingly and instructed people to move things from the house.
Bankrupt? Josie widened her eyes in shock.
She realized these people were creditors who came to demand payment.
The Brandel family was likely unable to pay, so they moved everything from the house as collateral.
Josie sensed something was wrong and hurried into the yard. She saw a broken and tired woman seated in the living room. The woman seemed to have given up and did nothing as people moved things past her.
Josie was shocked by the scene. She came to the woman and realized she was Laura. “Are you also here to demand money? I don’t have it.”
Laura did not even bother to look up.
“What’s going on here?” Josie asked coldly. Hearing her voice, Laura looked up at Josie blankly. “Why are you here? Did you come to mock me?”
It seemed Laura had suffered through scorn and contempt recently.
“Mock you? I don’t have time for that. Where’s your father?”
