Tina skimmed through Sonia’s proposal, but the more she read, the worse she looked. She might be inept in business, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t appraise a proposal. After she took a look, she knew Sonia’s proposal was a top-tier one. In fact, it was loads better than the one she handed in. She couldn’t believe Sonia could come up with such a great proposal after taking over Paradigm Co. for a mere two months.
No. She couldn’t have come up with this. She must have hired someone to do this. I bet she did. Tina brushed her jealousy aside and insisted that Sonia couldn’t have come up with that brilliant proposal on her own. But either way, she couldn’t deny the fact that Toby could very possibly go with Sonia’s proposal. The fact that Sonia might get a spot while her family didn’t was unacceptable for Tina.
“I can’t let this happen.” Tina bit her lip. And all of a sudden, a plan struck her. She put both Sonia’s and her proposal on the table, then she unclipped them and swapped the proposals. Since the name tag was only there on the file, Sonia’s and Titus’ proposals were successfully swapped. After she did all that, Tina smiled smugly.
Suddenly, she heard sounds of footsteps coming closer. Tina knew it must be Tom, so she panicked. She quickly closed the files and put them back in their original positions. After that, she went back to the sofa and pretended to scroll through her phone.
As expected, Tom came in a moment later. “Sorry for the wait, Miss Gray.”
“Not at all,” Tina answered politely.
Tom didn’t notice anything wrong with the room, and he put the cup of coffee in front of Tina.
She was just about to take a sip, but then her phone rang. “Sorry. I’ll need to take this.” She smiled apologetically while taking her phone out. “Hello? Cynthia? You’re out?” Surprise colored Tina’s face.
Tom arched his eyebrow at her. Cynthia’s out?
“Okay, I’ll be right there.” After she put her phone down, Tina looked at Tom. “Please tell Toby I won’t be seeing him, Mr. Brown.” She wanted to see Cynthia. Even though she only thought of Cynthia as a disposable lackey instead of her friend, she had to keep Cynthia by her side, since Cynthia had been loyal to her. And I can use her to defend me if something were to happen. Can’t cut our “friendship” off just yet.
“I’ll pass the message to him, Miss Gray. You go ahead and do your thing.” Tom nodded, smiling.
After Tina was gone, Tom went to the top floor with the stack of documents in hand. He then knocked on Toby’s office’s door.
“Enter.” Toby’s cool, magnetic voice sounded from within.
Tom went into the office. “President Fuller, these are the proposals everyone handed in.”
Toby stopped writing and looked at the stack of documents. “Everyone?”
“Yes.” Tom nodded.
Toby’s eyes glinted. “Where’s Sonia’s?” He regretted it the moment he asked Tom, since Tom might think he was caring about Sonia too much. After all, he only asked for her proposal. He didn’t know why he cared about her proposal so much though.
But when he noticed that Tom wasn’t surprised about his question, he calmed down. Maybe Tom doesn’t think I’m caring about Sonia.
However, unbeknownst to Toby, Tom wasn’t surprised because he knew Toby still liked Sonia. In that case, he wasn’t surprised when Toby asked for Sonia’s proposal. “Here.” He handed Toby Sonia’s proposal.
Toby opened the proposal, curious and excited. However, he frowned the moment he saw the proposal, and his excitement was gone with the wind. Bad. This is just bad. This proposal is too general. There’s nothing exciting here. It’s not competitive at all. How can she even hand in something like this? Toby pursed his lips, and his disappointment showed on his face.
Tom noticed it too. “Is something wrong with her proposal, President Fuller?” He pushed his glasses up.
“Have a look for yourself.” Toby tossed the file to Tom.
Tom caught it and skimmed through it, but after he was done, the corner of his lips twitched. “This… Maybe it’s Miss Reed’s first time getting involved in alternative energy technology, and she probably doesn’t know much about it, so she ended up with this proposal…”
Tom’s defense made sense to Toby, and his frown unraveled. “Leave her proposal here. Filter the rest and bin the bad ones. I’ll look through the remaining proposals and pick the best one.”
“Understood.” Tom nodded and left with the remaining files, but he glanced at Sonia’s proposal before he left.
President Fuller told me to bin the bad ones. In that case, Miss Reed’s proposal should be binned as well, but he singled her proposal out. Ah, so he wants to give her a chance. And here I thought this would be a fair competition. Tom rolled his eyes. So President Fuller does have double standards too.
After Tom was gone, Toby flipped through Sonia’s file again. He picked up his fountain pen and started writing down suggestions on the parts he thought that could be improved.
But Sonia didn’t know anything about that. While Toby was writing his suggestions down, she had already arrived at the Reed Residence.
Her parents bought it more than two decades ago right before they were married. She grew up in this place, and it contained a lot of memories. But after her mother passed away twenty years ago, everything changed. Her father remarried and had a daughter with his second wife. The Reed Residence was no longer her place of refuge. Since then, it was just a common inn for her. Nay, an inn had more warmth than this shell of a home.
Six years ago, her dad passed away as well. After that, her stepmother and stepsister ran away with his money, leaving only this villa behind. Since then, Sonia sealed this place down and never came back. Until this day, it was still the same villa, but everything had changed over the years. She sighed and was about to unlock the gates, but then she remembered something. A frown creased her forehead, and she took out the key Rose gave her.
“Odd.” She stared down at the keys. One of them was given to her by Rose, while the other one was her own. Rose told her it was the key to the Reed Residence when she gave it to her. But my key also unlocks the residence as well. Hmm, both of them are different though.
When she took the key Rose gave her, she didn’t realize she had the Reed Residence’s key as well, so she didn’t notice that Rose’s key was different from the one she already had.
The only reason she brought her own key here was because the access card was attached to the keychain. I guess Grandma’s key is more than meets the eye. Either the villa’s lock has been changed, or this key unlocks some other door.
Sonia glanced at the front door for a moment. When she tried to unlock it, she realized it was still the same lock. So Grandma’s key unlocks another door, but I have no idea which door it is. “Guess I should take a look,” Sonia mumbled as she unlocked the front door, then she went inside.
There was nothing in the villa. Her stepmother and stepsister sold everything valuable in this place, leaving nothing but a sheet of thick dust behind. Every step Sonia took left a footprint on the ground.
