Chapter 50 A Heavy Slap
Who could have stolen her materials?
It was so late that night that even the servants didn't know she'd come home, and her bag had been in the bedroom the whole time.
Could it be...
As soon as this thought emerged, cold sweat soaked through Daisy's back.
No, it couldn't be. Luna was only six years old. She didn't understand anything, and besides, there was so much data, almost all stored on the USB drive. Even if Luna wanted to copy it, she wouldn't know how.
But if it wasn't Luna, then who could it be?
Ethan watched her expression change repeatedly and couldn't help asking, "Do you have any leads?"
Daisy snapped back to reality, first startled, then gave a bitter smile. "You don't suspect me?"
"After all, I'm the only one who could have done this. Even I'm starting to doubt myself. You still believe me?"
"I believe you." Ethan said it almost immediately, without a moment's hesitation.
This actually stunned Daisy. In her confusion, she instinctively asked, "Why?"
Ethan looked at her, his gaze serious and calm.
"Because I've worked with you before. I know what kind of person you are."
He paused, then continued, "And six years ago, when you left the research team, our advisor told me something about you."
"Back then you were just a poor student. Someone offered you five million dollars to leak the team's research data. You didn't hesitate for even a second—the moment that person left, you immediately reported it to our advisor."
"You refused even then, let alone now. Besides, you'd gain nothing from this."
Daisy's eyes slowly reddened. She lowered her head as scalding tears dropped one by one onto her pants.
"Thank you... thank you for believing me."
Ethan sighed. "Forget it. There's no point overthinking this. Go home and get some rest. You've been exhausted lately."
Daisy bit her lip and left.
This couldn't just end here! She had to get justice!
--
Black Group headquarters.
Daisy was stopped by the receptionist as soon as she entered.
"Hello, ma'am. Do you have an appointment?"
The receptionist was new and hadn't seen Daisy before. Daisy didn't blame her and said directly, "I need to see Vincent."
The young receptionist replied politely, "I'm very sorry, but without an appointment..."
"Call his assistant and tell them Mrs. Black is here and wants him to come down immediately!" Daisy said, word by word.
The receptionist froze, looking her up and down. She didn't seem entirely convinced but remained polite. "Alright, please wait over here."
She picked up the phone and was about to dial when laughter suddenly came from behind.
"Oh, isn't this Mrs. Black? What a rare sight."
Daisy turned to see several women in business attire approaching.
The one who spoke looked about thirty, with perfect makeup, and was looking at her with a half-smile.
She recognized her—one of Vanessa's colleagues from the same department who'd been at that birthday party.
People were funny that way. Though she'd barely seen Vincent, she inexplicably identified with Vanessa, mentally treating her as the real Mrs. Black.
"Manager Hayes." Daisy nodded coolly.
Mindy Hayes walked over, looking her up and down with a smile. "What brings Mrs. Black to the company today? Didn't we hear you opened a lab?"
"What's wrong, can't keep the lab running anymore? Want to come back and be a full-time housewife again?"
The other women laughed along.
Daisy said nothing.
Mindy leaned closer, lowering her voice but deliberately letting everyone nearby hear.
"If you ask me, you should just divorce Mr. Black already."
"Everyone in the company knows about your little situation. Sleeping your way to the top, taking up space—don't you feel ashamed sitting in Mrs. Black's position?"
Daisy's fingers clenched tight.
Mindy continued, "Think about it—does Mr. Black even care about you? The only one he cares about is our Nessa. If you had any self-awareness, you'd get out of the Black family and stop embarrassing yourself here."
The other women chimed in agreement.
Daisy took a deep breath, about to speak, when footsteps suddenly sounded behind her.
Everyone instantly fell silent.
Daisy turned to see Vincent stepping out of the elevator.
His face was expressionless as his gaze swept over the women. They immediately lowered their heads, not daring to breathe.
"What's going on here?"
Mindy quickly said, "Mr. Black, it's nothing. We just saw Mrs. Black and were chatting with her."
Vincent ignored her and looked at Daisy.
"What are you doing here?"
Daisy didn't care about the earlier mockery. She stared at Vincent and got straight to the point. "Why did you steal my research results?"
Vincent's brow furrowed.
"What are you talking about?"
"I said you stole my work!" The anger in Daisy's heart exploded, her voice rising.
"My patent, my research results—you registered them first! Do you know that's my life's work? Do you know how many all-nighters I pulled for it?"
"You took it without a word. Have you no shame?"
Vincent was completely thrown by the accusation, his brow creasing. "What are you babbling about?"
Still denying it?
Daisy pulled two documents from her bag and slapped them on the reception desk.
"See for yourself!"
Vincent picked them up and glanced at them, his frown deepening.
They were two patent applications—one from his company with the company seal, the other from Daisy with her lab's seal.
The technical parameters inside were identical.
Vincent only looked for a moment before his expression darkened.
"Calm down. I really don't know about this."
Daisy was shaking with anger. "A patent your company applied for, and you say you don't know?"
"Fine, I'll assume you're so busy you can't keep track of every patent application. But look at this seal—you must know who's in charge of this project, right?"
Vincent paused, then turned to the receptionist. "Call Director Drake down."
The receptionist quickly made the call.
A few minutes later, Vanessa stepped out of the elevator.
Director Drake was Vanessa?
Daisy's eyelid twitched. The possibility she'd been most afraid to consider slowly emerged from her heart.
Her heart raced as if a knife had suddenly stabbed into it, slowly twisting.
"Vince, what's wrong?"
Vincent handed her the documents. "What's this about?"
Vanessa took it and glanced at it, surprise showing on her face.
"This is a new patent our company registered. What about it?"
Vincent looked at her. "Who worked on this patent?"
Vanessa smiled gently. "It was done by people in my department. They researched it for months and finally got results, so I helped them file the application."
The moment Vanessa finished speaking, Daisy raised her hand and slapped her hard across the face.