Chapter 116
These past few days have been absolutely brutal.
The flagship product launch got busted for plagiarism. The entire company's staff put in tons of time and energy into this jewelry piece. And they had already announced this big news last month - the whole industry was super excited about the visual feast the Morgan Group was bringing them. Fashion influencers everywhere had their wallets ready to snag the first batch.
Now with this mess, they had to tell everyone the launch event was canceled, and the celebration dinner was canceled too.
What credibility would the Morgan Group have left in the industry?
In such a short time, they had to find an unreleased design from within the company to replace it. The best option was the championship-winning piece from the recent competition - that bracelet designed by Ava.
Even though they were fighting right now, William had to admit that only Ava could save his ass.
After psyching himself up for ages, he dialed that number.
Thinking about how to say it without losing his authority while getting that woman to come back on her own.
He put the phone to his ear. The dial tone rang forever. He waited anxiously. Suddenly, the dial tone cut off, and a robotic voice came through.
Ha! She actually hung up on him!
William threw his phone onto the desk with a sharp crack.
James, standing nearby, couldn't help but wince, feeling bad for that phone.
The last phone got water damaged, and this one had been bought less than a week ago, only to be treated so violently by its owner.
William closed his eyes and rested for a bit, then told James,
"Get Abigail from HR to come over."
Abigail got the summons and came quickly. In her eight years at the Morgan Group's HR department, she'd been to the CEO's office five times total, four of which happened after Mrs. Ava Morgan joined the company. Usually, William's special assistant handled things with her.
William suddenly called for her - she couldn't quite figure out why. Seeing James outside the CEO's office looking somewhat troubled, she decided to feel things out first.
"James, do you know what Mr. Morgan wants with me?"
James lowered his voice, "Personnel matters. Be careful what you say, Mr. Morgan's in a bad mood."
Abigail got it, making an 'OK' gesture. She communicated with all kinds of people daily - reading the room was her specialty. To make it to manager in HR, naturally, she was good at dealing with people.
The two whispered outside the door for a bit before going in together.
"Mr. Morgan, you wanted to see me?"
In front of William sat a laptop, the screen showing the resignation email Ava had sent him.
"Every Morgan Group employee, whether joining or leaving, needs approval from the HR manager. Someone's been absent without leave for three days now - are you managing this or not?"
Abigail went on high alert. She hadn't expected Mr. Morgan to be holding her accountable. If what he said was true - someone absent for three days without being caught - that was her failure as HR manager. She'd need to check the attendance records when she got back.
First, she had to get through this. She searched her mind but couldn't think of which gutsy employee would dare be absent for three days. The Morgan Group clearly stated that employees couldn't be absent without a valid reason. If anyone were absent for more than 5 workdays, the company had the right to unilaterally terminate the contract without compensation.
Who would dare pull something like this?
"Mr. Morgan, which department is the absent employee from?"
William's eyes swept over the sender's name on that email, slowly saying,
"Design department. Ava Davis."
Abigail was confused, "Isn't that Mrs. Morgan?"
William's fingers tapped lightly on the desk, displeasure obvious in his eyes,
"In a work setting, use her name."
Abigail immediately said, "ok." Her attitude of admitting fault was excellent.
She figured William's ugly expression probably meant he'd had a fight with Mrs. Ava Morgan. Her mind working quickly, thinking back on the conversation, she immediately realized Mrs. Ava Morgan had probably run away from home, and William was using her as HR manager as a way to get Mrs. Ava Morgan back.
Got it - Mr. Morgan was too proud to ask someone back himself, so she'd do the dirty work!
"Mr. Morgan, don't worry. I'll call Ava right away and ask why she's been absent."
Shadow City.
Ava was tending to flowers and plants in the villa's yard. The yard here was well-maintained - fresh vegetables and fruits, even the flowers bloomed beautifully.
Her phone rang. At first, she thought it was William calling again and didn't want to deal with it. But the caller was Abigail, so she wiped her hands and answered,
"Ava, you haven't come to the company for three days and haven't requested leave. Please, within one day..."
Abigail said this much when she saw Mr. Morgan give her a sharp look, and immediately changed her words,
"Please come to the company within one hour to explain."
Ava, holding a freshly picked tomato, was totally confused,
"Abigail, I already resigned."
A flash of surprise crossed Abigail's eyes. She made eye contact with William and immediately caught on,
"Ava, all company personnel matters are managed by HR. I haven't received your resignation letter - resigning to someone else doesn't count. Plus, even if you resign, there's a process. After submitting your resignation to your supervisor, there's a one-month handover period where you need to fully transfer your projects to other colleagues before you can leave."
Ava was stunned on the other end. She hadn't noticed the company had such rules. Wanting to quit required waiting a whole month?
"Abigail, I'm not in Emerald City right now. Even if I left now, I couldn't get to the company in an hour."
Abigail cleared her throat, "Anyway, come back as soon as possible. I'm just following company policy, hope you understand."
The subtext being, she was being forced, too - company policy was William's policy.
Abigail didn't dare speak too harshly either. After all, the person on the phone was Mrs. Ava Morgan. If the couple made up later and she'd been the bad guy, what if Mrs. Ava Morgan made things difficult for her?
"Okay, sorry for the trouble."
The call ended. Abigail felt relieved having completed her task. She looked at William - his expression was a bit better than before. She thought to herself, calling Mrs. Ava Morgan back counted as an achievement for her, right? Might there be a chance for a raise?
Her heart held small hopes.
"Mr. Morgan, should we still check Mrs. Ava Morgan's attendance?"
Saying this, she wasn't really asking about attendance. She was hinting to the boss that Mrs. Ava Morgan had agreed to come back - she'd done a great service.
William closed the email on his computer, saying flatly,
"No need to check. You did well, go back to work."
Abigail felt disappointed. Just 'you did well'?
At least the immediate problem was solved.
William instructed James, "How's the progress at the factory?"
James: "Mr. Morgan, the factory's already rushing production as we ordered. They'll definitely finish before the press conference."
William nodded, "Have a dress custom-made to Ava's measurements and sent over before the celebration dinner."
James noted this down. Seeing that he still wasn't leaving, William asked again,
"Something else?"
"Mr. Morgan, the Brown Group's stock has been really strange lately. No good news, but it keeps skyrocketing. The stock price has already doubled."
William looked at the Brown Group's stock price for a while and said,
"Don't worry about it."
Just wait and watch the show.