Chapter 128 Provoking Catherine? See Who's Embarrassed!
"What kind of things are not so good?"
Annie looked seriously at the road ahead, her hands steady on the steering wheel, her gaze firm.
"In my eyes, things that go against morals, laws, and ethics are all not so good."
Catherine laughed softly.
"I think so too."
Annie breathed a sigh of relief. Since Catherine thought the same way, she dared to tell her what she had discovered!
"One of the people playing cards with Esme has been getting a bit too close to her. I checked Esme's account, and recently the money in her account, besides what Lila transferred, came from that person - quite a large amount."
"But from their chat records, they just seem like normal senior and junior colleagues. At first I thought it was some relative from the Windsor family, but later found out it wasn't, so I paid more attention."
In Annie's view, anyone who would give large amounts of money for no reason definitely wasn't normal!
"The main thing is..." Annie bit her lip, as if finding it hard to say, and only after a long while said: "Esme calls him... dad..."
When she saw the chat records, Annie got goosebumps all over.
She thought she had seen something weird, but then discovered that the other person talked to Esme as if he really considered himself Esme's father.
Catherine nodded. Someone who could interact with Esme like this and give her large amounts of money was probably Esme's biological father.
If she remembered correctly, Lila publicly claimed that Esme was an orphan.
Now it seemed that might all be a cover-up.
"What's his identity?"
"He's also in business, but from the Hughes family side. It's not convenient for us to investigate further."
The Hughes family's influence in Imperia City was not to be underestimated either. Although they couldn't compare to the Howard family and the Windsor family, they still had a certain say. It really wasn't that simple to investigate people from the Hughes family.
Annie was right not to investigate deeply.
"I got it, thanks for driving me. Go back and get some good rest. We can talk about work after you've slept."
Catherine glanced at the dark circles under Annie's eyes. She clearly hadn't slept well, probably hadn't had it easy following Esme around these past few days.
Annie was so moved her eyes welled up with tears!
Catherine asked her to drive her just so she could go home and rest?
This was the best Catherine in the whole world!
Annie nodded and watched Catherine walk into the gallery, still reluctant to leave.
If only she could work for Catherine - at least then she could talk to Catherine every day. She really wanted to switch jobs.
Elijah stood at the entrance, respectfully waiting for Catherine.
"Ms. Windsor, several of the gallery's partners suddenly announced they're ending their cooperation with us. But we still have an exhibition, and the invitations have already been sent out. If we can't hold it as scheduled, both the gallery's reputation and economic benefits will be seriously damaged."
Elijah was almost in tears from anxiety.
Catherine walked into the gallery, her tone calm: "When is the exhibition?"
"Thursday, which is tomorrow. We've also invited many artists and media this time. It's too late to recall the invitations, but those suppliers suddenly won't cooperate with us anymore. Even when we asked them to pay the penalty fees, they said they won't cooperate."
Pushing open the office door, Catherine sat in her chair and glanced at the suppliers' information.
A coincidence?
They were basically all companies on Catherine's side, or companies related to Catherine in some way - generally speaking, all businesses that had developed by relying on Catherine.
"How many paintings are we still short?"
"One hundred and thirty paintings, and there's also one exhibition hall that hasn't been built yet. We can't order the materials right now - there's only one company in Imperia City that has them."
Seeing that the exhibition might not happen, Elijah was extremely anxious.
How could Catherine not be worried at all?
Could it be that she hadn't seen such a big scene before and was scared?
"Change the materials. Switch to a different plan for building the venue. I'll handle the paintings."
Change materials? How could it be that simple!
Elijah said carefully: "Ms. Windsor, our gallery's reputation in the industry is very good. We don't use those inferior materials, and they're also bad for the guests' health."
Catherine glanced at him coolly. "Use space frames for the overall structure, aluminum alloy for the main frame, change the venue to an oil painting style, based on Dominic's paintings as the fundamental tone."
"That's possible, but the space frame company..."
Didn't he already say that others weren't willing to cooperate?
If he could find a suitable space frame supplier, he wouldn't be this anxious!
Catherine picked up the phone and called Charles.
"Charles, I need a batch of space frames for the gallery tomorrow."
"Okay, I'll send them to you right away."
Elijah perked up immediately!
How could he forget - Catherine was from the Windsor family!
What materials couldn't the Windsor family find?
"But we don't have that many paintings either, let alone Dominic's oil paintings. Our entire gallery only has five."
"I have a way, don't worry."
Elijah wanted to say something more, but seeing Catherine's calm expression, he swallowed his words.
Fine, even if there weren't enough paintings, at least the venue would be built. They could make do with those mediocre paintings from the warehouse, though the gallery was destined to lose face!
Catherine glanced at Elijah. "I'll handle the paintings and guarantee the exhibition won't be worse than expected. But I want to know why these suppliers suddenly chose not to cooperate?"
Even facing hefty compensation fees, they still refused to cooperate with the gallery - this didn't make sense.
Moreover, these were companies they had worked with before, not first-time partners. This was basically destroying their own reputation and showing no sense of contract.
Elijah hesitated, stammering for a long time. "This... it's because these companies somehow heard something, saying that our gallery changed owners, so..."
Those company people were very shrewd. Before, seeing that the owner was Samuel, they didn't dare do anything and were all very respectful.
Now that the gallery had changed owners, they simply felt that Catherine, as a newcomer to the industry, hadn't taken the initiative to invite them to dinner or exchange pleasantries.
Now they were giving Catherine attitude, ultimately to make Catherine back down and learn the ways of the business world.
Catherine sneered.
"At their age with brains full of water, really thinking they're something special. Still at this position at this age - clearly just a bunch of idiots."
Although Elijah thought the same, he didn't dare say it out loud!
Catherine looked so gentle and soft, but she could be this sharp with her words!
"I bet they'll also come to the exhibition tomorrow to watch the fun, probably waiting for you to lose face and go beg them."
Catherine laughed softly and said coolly: "Lose face? Perfect, I quite enjoy watching others lose face."
Elijah, seeing her looking so confident and in control, suddenly got curious too.
Where would Catherine find so many paintings?
He really wanted to see those people lose face too!
"Ms. Windsor, I have some collectibles at home that could be used temporarily. Should I go home and bring them over?"
"No need, I have a way."