Chapter 112: Chapter 112: Maxine Rhodes, Get Out Here
### Chapter 112: Maxine Rhodes, Get the Hell Out Here!
For the next two days, the company operated in a peculiar sort of wartime state.
Without the restlessness that came with visiting investors, everyone settled down, focusing on product iteration and tackling technical challenges.
Maxine Rhodes led the charge, working alongside everyone to chew through the toughest technical hurdles and discuss the most minute details of the product logic.
Furthermore, at three o’clock every afternoon, the front desk would receive dozens of different exquisite afternoon tea sets from a top-tier private kitchen, with the pastries and flavors precisely matched to each person’s preferences.
Maxine Rhodes knew they were from Ethan Hawthorne.
He wouldn’t ask about her progress. This was his way of silently supporting her, reminding her to eat on time and to rest.
Sometimes, after she had been working for ten hours straight, an extremely simple, silly little pop-up game would suddenly appear on her computer, sent remotely. Maxine Rhodes knew it was from Ethan Hawthorne. By the time she finished playing, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, she would find that her tense mind had genuinely relaxed quite a bit.
There were many similar instances. Ethan Hawthorne’s support was like air—silent and intangible, yet omnipresent, holding her up so she could focus all her attention on her work.
「That evening, at Kingsland International Airport.」
Susan Miller dragged a suitcase behind her, sizing up the glamorous, polished surroundings and the hurried crowds, feeling both excited and a little intimidated.
Felix Rhodes followed behind her, his hands clasped behind his back, trying his best to straighten his habitually stooped posture to appear as though he were a man of the world.
Hugo Rhodes, wearing a pair of flashy sunglasses and chewing gum, urged impatiently, "Mom, hurry up! Ben said he’s waiting for us at the exit!"
At the exit, Benjamin Sterling stood waiting, looking dashing in a well-tailored trench coat.
"Benjamin! Oh my, we’ve troubled you so much, coming to pick us up yourself!" Susan Miller immediately plastered an exaggerated smile on her face and rushed to greet him.
"Auntie, Uncle, Hugo, it must have been a long journey."
Benjamin Sterling smiled warmly, took the suitcase from Susan Miller’s hand, and led them toward a spacious sedan in the parking lot.
In the car, Susan Miller started complaining again. "Oh, Benjamin, what do you think is up with that damn girl Maxine? She won’t answer her phone, won’t reply to messages... Does she really want to cut ties with us? How can she be so cruel?"
Benjamin Sterling sighed as he drove steadily. "Maxine used to be so obedient. Ever since she met that man, she’s completely changed. I’ve seen plenty of men like him. They have no real skills of their own, but they’re experts at sweet-talking women. He’s just a freeloader, trying to climb the ladder using Maxine’s company and resources!"
He successfully painted Ethan Hawthorne as a con artist and a freeloader, and Maxine Rhodes as a foolish woman duped by a low-class swindler.
Felix Rhodes’s face turned ashen. "Something like that is happening?! Did all that schooling make Maxine stupid? She can’t even tell what kind of trash he is?!"
Hugo Rhodes scoffed. "Is my sister blind or something? She turns down a successful, distinguished guy like you, Ben, and for what? Some pretty boy who lives off women?"
This contrast was exactly what Benjamin Sterling wanted. He feigned a touch of deep affection. "Hugo, don’t talk about your sister like that. She’s probably just confused for the moment, blinded by that man’s slick words."
He turned to Susan Miller and Felix Rhodes. "Auntie, Uncle, it seems just calling and texting is useless. Maxine is dead set on drawing a line between us. Why is she so afraid of us? Isn’t it because she’s scared you’ll go to her company and expose her true colors in front of her employees and clients? Only when she’s utterly humiliated in front of everyone will she learn to be afraid and come back to her senses!"
Susan Miller’s fury was completely ignited. "You’re right! Where is her company? Tell us! We’ll go find her tomorrow!"
Benjamin Sterling put on a troubled expression. He hesitated for a moment before saying reluctantly, "Auntie, please don’t get worked up... I can give you the address, but when you go, you must talk to her nicely. Don’t start a conflict. I just hope she’ll see the error of her ways and come back."
As he spoke, he immediately sent Stellar Tech’s detailed address to Hugo Rhodes’s phone.
That night, Benjamin Sterling arranged for them to stay at an ordinary budget hotel. He didn’t linger, but left them some cash, saying he was worried it might be inconvenient for them since they had just arrived.
Clutching the stack of cash, Susan Miller became even more convinced that Benjamin Sterling was a good man who was loyal, valued relationships, and truly had her family’s best interests at heart.
She resolved to cause a huge scene and make her daughter apologize to her golden catch!
「The next morning, the thin mist had not yet completely dispersed.」
Bubbles, dark circles under their eyes, burst excitedly into Maxine Rhodes’s office. "Maxine! We solved it! The dynamic perception latency issue, the one that wowed Mr. Quincy back then—we found a better algorithmic path! The test data shows an 8% improvement over the previous version! This is a blessing in disguise!"
A small cheer erupted from the team. This was a tangible, praiseworthy leap forward in their technology.
Maxine Rhodes gazed at the beautiful data curve on the screen and let out a long sigh of relief. The exhaustion from the past few days seemed to wash away in the face of this accomplishment.
A young woman who had just joined the company whispered to a colleague next to her, "This is great... If we’d had this data during the last funding round, maybe..."
Before she could finish, the colleague beside her gave her a gentle nudge with an elbow.
Maxine Rhodes’s expression remained unchanged. Just as she was about to say something to the team...
A shrill voice suddenly shattered all the joy.
"Maxine Rhodes! Get the hell out here!"*****
