Chapter 267

Chapter 267

Andrew made up his mind on the spot and stopped waiting to meet with Holden. He knew he had something more important to take care of right now.

Once he'd figured things out, he turned to leave, when his assistant's anxious voice suddenly called out from behind him.

"Mr. Anderson! We're so close to the finish line — isn't it a shame to walk away now?"

He had watched Andrew work his way through every step of the negotiations with Holden, and the Anderson family had put in a lot of effort along the way. Giving up at this point felt like a real waste.

"You think this is the finish line, but have you ever stopped to wonder — if everything was already settled, why would Holden suddenly change his attitude now?"

Andrew's eyes were dark and unreadable. He glanced toward the elevator without giving anything away. If his guess was right, Holden was upstairs watching their every move at this very moment.

That one comment seemed to click something into place for the assistant. Before he could even apologize, Andrew cut him off.

"Stay here with the legal team and keep an eye on things. Contact me right away if anything comes up. I'm heading back to Lantine Jewelry."

"Yes, sir."

The assistant knew he'd spoken out of turn. The moment he heard his instructions, he agreed without hesitation.

With that settled, Andrew got in his car and drove straight to Lantine Jewelry headquarters.

At that moment, the atmosphere in Lantine Jewelry's conference room was so heavy it was almost suffocating.

The entire management team was present, everyone seated according to their rank. Some had their heads down, others were staring off into space. Not a single person dared to speak.

At the head of the long table sat Olivia, dressed in all black, her expression stern and unsmiling. Her eyes carried a layer of frost. The issues that had surfaced over the past few days had finally come to a head at this all-hands meeting.

"Two months."

Olivia's voice was sharp and cutting, each word ringing through the dead-silent room with unmistakable force.

"Two months of customer complaints piling up at the stores. Substandard product quality. A complete breakdown in quality control across the board. The factory was openly lining their own pockets. Every single one of you holds a key position in this company — are you telling me not one person noticed anything? Not one person reported it or pushed for changes?"

"So what exactly have you all been doing with the salaries this company pays you and the authority that comes with your roles?"

"Covering for each other? Hiding things layer by layer?"

Olivia grew more heated as she spoke. Her gaze swept across the room full of bowed heads. She had no intention of letting this slide. Her voice was firm as she issued her orders.

"Starting today, every department, every member of management — you will all conduct a full internal review. Every ledger from the past six months will be thoroughly audited. Anyone found to have neglected their duties will be held accountable. No exceptions."

The entire room fell silent. No one dared to push back, and most didn't even have the nerve to look up at Olivia.

But beneath all that silence and bowed heads, resentment was quietly building. People were fuming on the inside.

The moment Olivia announced the meeting was over, everyone broke off into small clusters and filed out together.

Once they were out of earshot, hushed conversations broke out everywhere.

"What did Ms. Smith mean just now? We all have to go through a review?"

"Yes, top to bottom. She might as well find out what you had for lunch every day."

"That's ridiculous. This is clearly the factory and the stores' problem. What does it have to do with us?"

"Exactly. We didn't know anything about this. What's there to review?"

The decision sparked widespread frustration. And while the others grumbled, the managers responsible for the stores and the factory had their own grievances they couldn't voice. Only a handful of people had actually been involved, yet the whole system was now hanging its head in shame in front of the entire company.

Olivia walked back to her office alone, weighed down by exhaustion.

The sharp edge she'd carried in the conference room had completely fallen away. She had barely sunk into the couch when the office door was gently pushed open.

Andrew walked in, looking like he'd rushed the whole way back, the road still on him.

He saw Olivia curled up in the couch, the tiredness clear in her eyes, still trying to hold herself together. Something ached in his chest.

Andrew didn't say anything at first. He walked straight over to her and spoke in a gentler tone than she'd ever heard from him.

"I heard about the meeting. You did the right thing. Some things are rotten at the root — no matter how good everything looks on the surface, if the root is bad, it stays bad. The only way to really fix it is to pull the whole thing out."

He leaned forward, his eyes soft and steady on her, every word grounded and reassuring.

"As for the raw materials, don't worry. What Holden has is enough to get Lantine Jewelry through this. Things might not move as smoothly right now, but I'll get it sorted as soon as possible."

"Even if it goes over the original budget, that's fine. It's just a higher cost. I'll make sure we secure that entire batch of quality materials from him."

As he spoke, the outline of his next negotiation strategy was already taking shape in his mind. That gave him even more confidence, and the words he used to reassure Olivia carried real weight behind them.

"Everything right now is temporary. If money can fix it, it's not a real problem. Let's get the supply sorted first. As for the reputation — trust that people aren't blind. Lantine Jewelry's name will come back, in the hands of people who truly understand what it stands for."

Listening to Andrew, Olivia felt some of her worry ease. She knew that on top of rooting out the internal problems, she also needed to find replacement materials from outside.

"I'm fine. I just didn't expect things to get this bad."

She really hadn't expected there to be so many bad actors inside Lantine Jewelry. She must not have been keeping close enough watch.

"You mentioned just now that there's something to sort out with Holden — what happened?"

Olivia picked up on the issue in Andrew's words right away.

Andrew had been handling this project for two full weeks. Knowing how capable he was, two weeks should have been more than enough to be close to signing. Yet now it sounded like things with Holden needed to be reworked. Something must have happened.

It was just from knowing Andrew well that Olivia had pieced together that the negotiations with Holden weren't going smoothly.

"Just a minor issue. He wasn't happy with a few details in the contract. Caspian and the legal team are over there going through it right now."

Not wanting Olivia to worry, Andrew kept quiet about Holden deliberately making things difficult, letting her think it was nothing serious.