Chapter 263

Chapter 263

Andrew immediately looked away and glanced straight at Olivia, gesturing for her to get in the car.

His reason sounded too formal. Olivia frowned slightly, pulled open the passenger door, and got in.

Having successfully sent Michael off and gotten Olivia into his car, Andrew felt a quiet rush of satisfaction.

He hadn't found a single moment alone with Olivia the entire dinner, and now he finally had his chance.

After the car pulled away, neither of them said a word. The cabin was completely quiet, with the evening breeze slipping in through the window gaps. Andrew's mind was racing, trying to figure out what to bring up first.

But during that silence, Olivia had already figured out exactly what she needed to go over. Her expression turned composed and all business, serious from head to toe.

She turned toward him, eyes steady, voice cool and professional — not a trace of the casual teasing she sometimes used.

"Since we have time on the way, let me walk you through the raw material procurement process for Holden from the top. Listen carefully. Holden's a seasoned operator, and you need to keep all of this in your head."

Before Andrew could even react, she launched straight in, clear and organized — covering everything from material selection standards to the bottom line for negotiations with Holden, laying it all out in detail.

Andrew: "……"

As Olivia's tone grew more and more focused, Andrew's expression froze on his face.

All that excitement he'd been feeling got doused like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over his head, and he snapped back to reality.

Even so, he didn't dare let his attention slip for a second. He kept his eyes on the road and his ears on Olivia, giving it everything he had, tracking her every word while staying on top of the traffic.

What made it even harder was that Olivia would randomly stop and quiz him.

Every question hit exactly the most critical points, leaving no room for vague answers.

Andrew kept a calm, composed look on his face, but inside he was screaming.

The one-on-one time he'd worked so hard to steal from Michael had turned into a one-on-one training session.

As frustrated as he was, he'd asked for this himself, so he had no choice but to swallow it down and push through.

He finally made it to the end of Olivia's review, and the car fell quiet again.

Andrew let out a long breath, relieved that part was over, and started pulling himself together to bring up something personal.

He had just opened his mouth — hadn't even gotten a sound out — when Olivia's phone rang. A work call.

The sharp ringtone broke the silence all over again.

Olivia picked up almost instantly. The relaxed look on her face shifted as she heard the voice on the other end, and she listened intently to the warehouse manager's report, her expression turning serious.

Within seconds, a small frown crossed her face.

She hung up, and now that she knew the full picture, her frown deepened. She turned to Andrew.

"Take me to the Lantine Jewelry warehouse nearby."

Andrew blinked, and without thinking said,

"Something wrong?"

"The warehouse flagged a problem with one of the shipments. I need to go see what's going on."

Things seemed to be getting serious. Andrew looked at Olivia, completely locked in on work, and quietly let go of the last bit of hope he'd been holding onto. Without a word, he turned the wheel and headed toward the warehouse.

Andrew's plan had completely fallen apart. He never imagined the night would end with overtime.

The car came to a smooth stop outside the Lantine Jewelry warehouse. The sky had gone fully dark, and across the large storage complex, only a handful of lights were still on. The whole place was unusually quiet.

Olivia pushed the door open and walked in quickly, not wasting a second. Andrew followed right behind, matching her pace, the two of them entering the warehouse one after the other.

On the way over, they'd both assumed it was a minor quality control slip — a small issue with a few items being slightly off. Something easy to sort out.

But when they walked deeper into the warehouse and got a clear look at the shelves, both of their expressions dropped at the same time.

The warehouse held the goods that were supposed to ship out to stores in the next few days. A full third of them had obvious defects — nowhere near the strict quality standards Lantine Jewelry had always held.

The warehouse manager had already put together a list of the problem items. He walked up to the two of them, face pale, and gave his report.

"Ms. Smith, it's not just the warehouse stock. This batch was already distributed to the stores, and part of it has been sold. We started getting back-to-back customer complaints, and after tracing it through the whole chain, we found the issue goes back to the raw materials from the factory for this production run."

The problem was far worse than either of them had expected. It was already touching Lantine Jewelry's reputation — that caught Olivia off guard.

The warehouse manager looked just as puzzled, his voice full of disbelief. He'd never run into anything like this in all his years on the job.

"Ms. Smith, this is our own production line. Quality has always been solid — we've never had a problem on this scale before. Why would a full third of this one batch come out defective?"

Everyone in the room was asking the same question. The more they thought about it, the more something felt off.

A factory that had run smoothly for years suddenly turning out defective goods — this wasn't a simple mistake. Someone had done this on purpose.

Olivia looked down at the defect list in her hand, then walked over to where the batch was stored. She ran her fingertips across the surface of one of the flawed pieces, and something clicked. Her eyes sharpened as everything fell into place.

Right now, the most urgent things were not just tracing the warehouse issue, but also going to the factory to check the production line — cutting off any chance of this happening again — and figuring out how to protect the stores' reputation.

"Looks like I need to go to the factory. The production line records and the outgoing quality inspection logs are key. Pick a few people who know the products well and come with me."

The investigation at the factory was going to be detailed and repetitive. On her own, Olivia had no idea how long it would take. Since the problem had started here at this warehouse, using their people made sense — no training needed, they could hit the ground running and cut the time down significantly.

The warehouse manager quickly rounded up a few young, able-bodied men.

"They all work in logistics. They handle so much stock every day, they can tell just by touch if something's off."

There was certainty in his eyes as he said it, and if you looked closely, a hint of pride too — these were guys he'd trained himself.

Andrew understood how serious this was. He stepped forward right away, eyes on Olivia, and said without hesitation, "I'm coming with you."