Chapter 53

Chapter 53

As soon as she finished speaking, a low murmur of discussion broke out in the conference room. Rainey's face darkened, and she glared at Daphne, grinding her teeth.

After all these years of fighting her way up to a supervisor position, she'd seen plenty of dirty tricks, but she never expected Daphne to be stupid enough to leak her own designer's work and then frame that same designer.

Daphne was such an idiot! Why target a designer under her own supervision? Was it jealousy? Jealousy of Isabella's design talent?

The panic in Daphne's eyes could no longer be hidden. Faced with such clear evidence, she immediately lost her composure. Without thinking, she grabbed the computer and shut off the screen projection, looking obviously guilty.

"What are you talking about, Ms. Taylor? I don't understand."

She frowned tightly, her tone carrying a cold edge as she tried to maintain her authority as a superior.

"No matter what excuses you make, Ms. Taylor, this is your fault. I'll have the PR department issue an apology in your voice. Stop making excuses, Ms. Taylor. Just admit your mistake. Only then will I put in a good word for you and prevent the company from pursuing legal action against you."

Daphne's voice trembled slightly, and her hands shook imperceptibly.

When she did all this yesterday, she had clearly deleted all records and traces of exported files. How could Isabella have seen it and recorded it?

No wonder Isabella hadn't called her once since this whole thing blew up. She'd been smugly thinking Isabella must be scared and too busy protecting herself to even make a call. Now it was clear that Isabella had seen through her scheme all along and was just waiting for her to walk into the trap.

"Ms. Taylor, I'm your supervisor, which technically makes me half your boss, but that doesn't mean I should take responsibility for your mistakes."

Even at this point, Daphne was still trying to act calm, determined to pin everything on Isabella no matter what. Before Isabella could say much, Rainey, who'd been watching from the side, couldn't take it anymore.

Rainey's eyes instantly turned cold. "Enough, Daphne. Are you really stupid enough to leak design drafts early? You actually thought of doing that?"

Daphne's smile stiffened, her face looking awful. Isabella straightened up, her expression returning to its usual coolness as she looked at Rainey.

"Ms. Ward, you can rest assured—this isn't the final version of the design."

This statement caused gasps throughout the conference room. Rainey looked surprised, too. "This isn't the final version?"

Isabella nodded.

When she noticed Daphne's suspicious behavior, she held something back. When uploading the final draft, she hadn't actually uploaded the real final version, but instead chose an earlier sketch that hadn't been significantly revised yet. Fortunately, Daphne had been so focused on sabotaging her that she hadn't noticed anything wrong with the design draft.

Turns out her instinct was right.

Without explaining her actions, Isabella reopened her computer, pulled up the final draft file, and pushed it in front of Rainey.

"This is the actual final version, Ms. Ward. Now you can proceed with the company's original plans."

Rainey grabbed onto this like a lifeline, sitting down on the chair without caring about appearances. She looked at the computer screen and compared it with the leaked design online, discovering major differences. She breathed a sigh of relief, a smile appearing on her face.

"Ms. Taylor, let's go with this as the final version. No need for any other changes. We'll handle the rest ourselves, including Daphne."

Her gaze fell on Daphne, a flash of coldness in her eyes. Then she stood up and apologized seriously.

"I'm truly sorry, Ms. Taylor. We blamed you without investigating properly. That was definitely wrong of us. Whatever compensation you want, just say it."

Daphne bit her lip, head slightly lowered, hiding the anger in her eyes.

She had underestimated Isabella. Isabella seemed like a calm, cool woman, but her mind was actually so calculating.

Isabella had probably seen through her suspicious behavior early on. Isabella had dug a pit and was just waiting for her to jump in.

Daphne clenched her teeth. Everyone in the conference room was staring at her with probing looks, and she could hear people whispering nearby.

"She was jealous of Isabella? She doesn't have Isabella's design talent, so she did something this disgusting?"

"How awful! For her own selfish reasons, she almost wasted three months of everyone's hard work!"

Isabella seemed not to hear, her gaze calm.

"I don't need any other compensation, but Rainey, I need to make this clear—our partnership ends here. Last time when I got caught up in a plagiarism controversy, I'm grateful for your help, but this incident has shown me we can't continue working together."

Rainey froze, her tone somewhat anxious.

"Ms. Taylor, this was our mistake, but we've all seen your design talent. If you continue working with us, it will definitely help your design career greatly. Don't worry, Ms. Taylor, I'll make Daphne give you a proper apology, and I'll explain the whole story to the public."

Isabella shook her head unhurriedly, her tone firm.

"I'm glad I could design this haute couture piece for GE, but there's no need to continue our partnership. I'm sorry, Ms. Ward."

She wasn't doing this to deliberately make things difficult for Rainey or to vent her anger. She just realized through this incident that GE really wasn't the right place for her to stay. This time, GE might be willing to fire Daphne for her sake, but what about the next Daphne?

Every design always brought controversy. Isabella was truly exhausted.

Naturally, Rainey couldn't agree so easily. She looked at Daphne, the hostility in her eyes deepening, and said through gritted teeth.

"Apologize right now!"

Daphne's smile stiffened. She took a deep breath and bowed slightly toward Isabella. "I'm sorry, Ms. Taylor. This was my fault. I hope Ms. Taylor can forgive me and continue working with GE. Please don't end the partnership because of what I did. If you're angry, take it out on me."

Isabella seemed not to hear. She smiled slightly at Rainey, picked up her bag, turned, and walked out. She gently closed the door behind her, and Rainey's furious voice came from inside.

"Daphne, you've got some nerve! Figure out how to fix this mess yourself!"

Along with Rainey's voice came the sound of shattering glass—Rainey was probably so angry that she threw a cup.