Chapter 69

Chapter 69

The workers' unhappy eyes all landed on Isabella.

She hadn't said a word, yet Willie's deliberate manipulation and the cutting remarks from his crew had already turned the workers against her.

"I haven't even said anything, and you're already rushing to pin the blame on me."

Isabella slowly stood up. Her heavy gaze fixed on Willie, her voice cold as ice.

Something was off about Willie. He might be the one behind the missing materials.

Sure, he was now aggressively demanding to know who stole them, but the cunning and calculation in his eyes were impossible to hide.

But why would Willie steal the materials in the first place?

The answer came to Isabella instantly — Martin.

So his visit wasn't for nothing after all. When the direct approach failed, he started pulling strings from behind the scenes.

He was smart about it, too. Without those key materials, the project would grind to a halt.

Once the deadline got pushed back, the Taylor Group's plan to turn things around with this project would fall apart completely.

A clever scheme that killed two birds with one stone.

Isabella closed her eyes, took a breath to calm herself, then spoke.

"Keep working. The key materials are gone, but I'll get replacements delivered as fast as possible. The rest of you, keep going."

She opened her eyes and stared directly at Willie.

Whether it was guilt or not, Willie's eyes shifted away before he puffed himself back up with arrogance.

"Ms. Taylor, that's easy for you to say. What if we do all this work and you don't pay us? Without those key materials, I don't see how this job gets done."

He spread his hands wide with a smug look that said, what are you going to do about it? His words nudged the workers into eyeing Isabella with even more suspicion.

They'd been grinding away under the blazing sun for their wages. With that no longer guaranteed, how could they stay calm?

Briar was shaking with rage.

"When have we ever stiffed you on pay? Do the work right, and you'll get paid — just do what Ms. Taylor says and keep going!"

"We hired you to work, not to be waited on hand and foot!"

But Willie had already pulled the workers back to his side with just a few words. In their eyes, anything Isabella or Briar said now had zero credibility.

There was no way they'd quietly go back to work.

"Briar, we can't take your word for it. What if we finish everything and you don't pay up?"

The workers refused to budge. Briar was so furious her eyes had gone red, and she was about to let loose when Isabella gently grabbed her hand.

Isabella leaned close to her ear and spoke softly — calm and steady, smoothing out the anger boiling inside Briar.

"Don't panic. I have a way to handle this. Pushing them harder won't work — it'll just set them off. Let me take care of it."

Isabella stepped forward, meeting the workers' hostile stares, and spoke slowly.

"I know you probably don't trust me right now, and I'm not upset about that. I get it — you've been working hard out here in this heat, and at the end of the day, it's about getting paid."

"How about this — I'll advance part of your wages right now. That way you'll know we're serious."

The moment she finished, even Briar was stunned, let alone Willie standing nearby.

Briar stepped forward quickly and lowered her voice.

"Ms. Taylor, we can't do that. Mr. Taylor won't agree to early payment. If we can't cover it later, we'll be in an even worse spot."

A calm, easy smile crossed Isabella's face.

"It'll be fine. I'll sort it out. Right now, the most important thing is to settle these workers down before Willie turns them against us completely."

"Willie needs to be dealt with, too."

Maybe it was Isabella's offer that actually did it — the workers looked at each other, then quietly drifted back to their stations and got back to work.

Only Willie stood frozen, his face cycling between pale and flushed, wanting to leave but not daring to.

He had a nagging feeling Isabella had seen right through him.

Isabella gave him a brief, indifferent glance and said nothing.

The site looked like it was running normally again, but underneath the surface, everything was churning.

Briar called the building materials factory. The moment they heard it was a reorder, they turned her down without a second thought.

"Briar, you're asking a lot here. These materials take a full month from production to delivery."

"There's no way I can get them to your site in a day. That's just not realistic."

Briar pressed her lips together and tried to keep the conversation going.

"Do you have any used ones? Secondhand is fine — as long as they work, we'll pay full price. You can count on that."

She'd already lowered the bar as far as it could go. Surely that would be enough.

But the answer was still a letdown.

"Sorry, Briar. We don't have any spares either."

He hung up cleanly. When Isabella saw the disappointment on Briar's face, she knew how the call had gone.

Her brow furrowed slightly.

This was the only factory that made these materials. Getting them shipped from elsewhere would take nearly two weeks, and the project deadline was right around the corner. There was no time to wait.

A car pulled up outside the site. Briar's heart jumped.

"Please don't tell me Martin's back."

Isabella looked over and recognized William's car right away. The tension in her chest eased a little.

William put on a hard hat. Somehow, the goofy helmet looked perfectly natural on him, adding a quiet solidity to his sharp features.

"What's going on? You look worried."

His voice was low and steady, landing gently on Isabella's heart.

Briar looked at him like he was a lifesaver.

"Mr. Wright, something's gone wrong at the site again!"

William raised an eyebrow, walked over to Isabella, and cut straight to the point. "What happened? Tell me."

Isabella didn't beat around the bush. Things were serious, and she needed those materials urgently.

She wasn't counting on William to actually fix it — but she figured it was worth a shot.

What if he actually could?

William's expression stayed calm as she explained everything. He nodded.

"I'll take care of it. Should be there within three hours." His tone was flat, like he was talking about something completely trivial.

But what he brushed off so casually had nearly driven Briar to the edge.

"You can pull that off? The factory said they're out of stock. Getting it shipped from somewhere else would take at least two weeks. You're sure it can be here in three hours?"

Isabella couldn't hide her surprise. She kept pushing. "Really?"