Chapter 52 I’ll Fight Myself
When Daisy received the message, she was sitting in the lab's break room, spacing out.
Her phone suddenly lit up. She picked it up and looked at it—just a few short lines, but she stared at them for a long time.
Free authorization, withdrawal from the competition—given the current situation, this was indeed the biggest concession Vincent could offer.
Nano-robots were a completely new product. To give up such a promising market would mean letting go of tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of dollars in pure profit.
This didn't seem like something Vincent would do at all.
And the condition he set was just to apologize to Vanessa... that's all.
Daisy's hand clenched tight.
She clearly knew that woman was the culprit, and instead of slapping her a few more times, she had to apologize to her!
That woman had manipulated her daughter into stealing, taking away her hard work, and now she had to apologize?
Just thinking about that scene made her shake with anger. She wanted to call her right now and yell at her, to throw every nasty word in her face.
But doing that would be completely pointless.
On one hand was hundreds of millions in profit, the only way to make up for the losses she had caused. On the other hand was her pride, dignity, and whether she could swallow this humiliation.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
Ethan's company had already invested a huge amount of money in this project. If she didn't agree to Vincent's terms, that money would all go down the drain.
Ethan trusted and supported her. She couldn't let him lose money.
When she opened her eyes again, the anger had been pushed down, leaving only calm.
She replied: [When?]
Vincent's message came after a while: [Whenever you have time. Anytime works.]
[I'll come over right now.]
Daisy stood in the lobby of the Black Group again.
The receptionist didn't dare stop her this time, just glanced at her carefully and lowered her head.
Taking the elevator up, she looked at herself in the mirror.
She was pale and haggard, with two big dark circles under her eyes and her lips pressed into a straight line.
She tried to make herself smile, but the face in the mirror looked like a prisoner being led to an execution. Even if she smiled, it looked like she was about to bomb Gotham the next second.
The elevator doors opened. She let out a heavy breath and walked out.
Vanessa's department was on the seventeenth floor. As soon as Daisy walked in, the entire office area went quiet. Everyone looked up at her, their eyes filled with curiosity and schadenfreude.
She ignored their stares and went straight to Vanessa's office door, knocking.
"Come in."
Pushing the door open, Vanessa was sitting behind her desk. Half her face was still slightly swollen, but she'd put medicine on it, so it didn't look that bad.
Seeing Daisy, she froze for a moment, then stood up: "Ms. Hart? What, have you thought of some new accusation to pin on me?"
Daisy looked at her silently, unable to understand how this woman could smile with half her face swollen.
Looking at this scheming, fake face, she felt her stomach churn.
"I'm here to apologize."
Vanessa blinked, looking surprised: "Apologize?"
Daisy took a deep breath and said word by word: "What happened this morning was my fault. I shouldn't have hit you."
Vanessa looked at her and slowly sat down. Her expression was strange—like she was wronged, like she was challenging her, and maybe a bit smug too.
It was hard to imagine such a complex expression appearing on one person's face.
Then Vanessa spoke: "Ms. Hart, I know you've never liked me, but I never wanted to compete with you for anything. Whether it's men or children, they favor me because I'm capable and I'm willing to treat them well."
"Ms. Hart, instead of hating me, maybe you should look for the reason within yourself. Don't you think?"
Daisy pressed her lips together and shook her head: "You're wrong. I don't hate you."
"If that's the case, why did you hit me in front of so many people? And say those things? Do you know my employees are all gossiping about me? You've caused me so much harm—can it really be cleared with just a light apology?"
Vanessa said, her voice trembling: "I've been at this company for so many years, I've never been humiliated like this..."
Daisy's hand clenched tight.
She wanted to say, you deserve it.
Wanted to say it was you who manipulated Luna into stealing my work, you brought all this on yourself!
But she said nothing.
She just looked at Vanessa and slowly said: "What do you want me to do to make up for it?"
Vanessa wiped her tears: "Make up for it?"
"Yes." Daisy's face was calm as water, her voice very steady: "I'm here to apologize. Whatever compensation you want, I can accept it."
Vanessa sighed softly: "Ms. Hart, I don't want your compensation. I just feel wronged... You hit me in front of so many people. How can I continue working at this company?"
Daisy took a breath and closed her eyes: "I understand what you mean."
She wanted to vent but didn't want to be the bad guy. Just saying she felt wronged while throwing the problem back.
She wanted her to take the initiative, to show an attitude that would satisfy her.
Daisy directly opened the office door, letting everyone at the desks outside clearly see what was happening inside.
Then she said loudly: "Miss Vanessa, Director Drake, I formally apologize for what happened this morning. Please forgive me."
After speaking, she slapped herself hard across the face.
A sharp crack—quite a few people looked over.
Vanessa smiled. She said with a smile: "Oh my, Ms. Hart, what are you doing! Please don't do this."
Daisy knew she wasn't satisfied yet.
So she raised her hand again and slapped herself once more—crack, crack, crack—several times in a row, making people's skin crawl.
"Is that enough?" Her eyes were cold. Even though she was the one being hit, she seemed to feel no pain at all.
Vanessa shook her head: "Ms. Hart, please don't do this. I don't think this solves the problem."
One side of Daisy's face was already red and swollen, with a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth.
She wouldn't take these slaps for nothing. One day, she would make Vanessa pay them back double!
Just as the next slap was about to fall, a hand suddenly appeared, gripping her wrist tightly.
Vanessa's eyes widened slightly. Daisy also turned around in shock.
Vincent stood behind her, staring at her with heavy eyes, his hand gripping tightly.
Daisy could only say: "Mr. Black, I came to apologize, please don't..."
"Enough," he said. "That's enough."
"Come with me. I'll handle the paperwork for you."
When Daisy returned to Reed Corporation, it was almost dark. She went straight to Ethan's office and placed the free authorization contract on his desk.
Ethan was looking down at some documents. He looked up at the sound.
The moment he saw her, he froze completely. "What happened to your face?"