Chapter 88: Chapter 88: Beware of a Cornered Mad Dog
###Chapter 88: Beware the Cornered Dog
Maxine Rhodes stopped at the doorway, not looking back.
"No, thank you, President Sterling." Her voice was clear, leaving no room for argument. "I have plans tonight."
She pulled open the door and walked out. The sunlight outside was dazzling, illuminating her straight, unyielding back.
Inside, the gentle mask Benjamin Sterling maintained instantly shattered. He slammed a fist on his desk, knocking over a teacup and sending tea spilling everywhere.
Once again, he felt the woman slipping from his grasp, and he hated the feeling.
Only then did Lydia Thorne dare to speak, her voice dripping with venom. "President Sterling, you’re just going to let her walk away like that? She’s so ungrateful..."
"Shut up!"
Benjamin Sterling snapped his head around to glare at her, his eyes filled with undisguised displaced anger and irritation. "This is all your fault! You’re more trouble than you’re worth! Get out!"
’Huh?’
It was the first time Benjamin Sterling had ever used such a tone with her. Lydia Thorne trembled, her face pale as a sheet as she backed out of the room.
Lydia Thorne walked toward the breakroom in a daze, wanting to splash some cold water on her face to clear her head.
As she drew near, the cheerful chatter from inside instantly died down, replaced by hushed whispers.
"Look, here comes Mr. Hawthorne’s favorite lady..."
"Favorite lady? Did you not see how Mr. Hawthorne wouldn’t even give her the time of day? He couldn’t even be bothered to shake her hand. How humiliating."
"Didn’t she used to brag about it like it was the real deal? All that talk about ’private approval,’ being ’just his type,’ and their ’close relationship.’ Turns out it was all in her head, huh?"
"Tsk, tsk. This is what you call biting off more than you can chew. And she wanted to compete with Director Rhodes? Director Rhodes has real skills. What does she have? A case of professional delusion?"
"Keep your voice down. She may have fallen from grace, but she’s still a vice president..."
"Vice president of what? Haven’t you seen the way President Sterling looks at her now, like she’s a fly? I’d say she’s not far from getting the boot."
"What are you talking about?! Get back to work!"
Lydia Thorne couldn’t take it anymore. She hurled a few curses at the gossiping employees before storming back to her office and locking the door behind her.
Her chest heaved violently. Humiliation, jealousy, and resentment threatened to burst out of her.
Why?!
She had given so much to this company, even stooping to suck up to Ethan Hawthorne!
Why should that pretentious woman, Maxine Rhodes, get to sit back and reap all the rewards?
Why did she get to win Ethan Hawthorne’s favor, while she, Lydia Thorne, had to endure all the ridicule and anger?
Just then, a soft knock sounded at the door before it was pushed open a crack.
Rose Joyce came in. The pure, innocent look she once wore was long gone, replaced by the same venom that filled Lydia’s own heart.
"Lydia," Rose Joyce’s voice was low, but it held a sharp edge, fanning the flames. "Are you just going to take this?"
She closed the door and walked over to Lydia Thorne, her tone agitated. "All Benjamin cares about now is how to cut his losses and suck up to Maxine Rhodes! What does that make us? Rags to be used and thrown away! I was the one who recommended you for this job. I thought we’d have a good life together, not be treated like this!"
Every word from Rose Joyce struck one of Lydia Thorne’s raw nerves.
"This is all because of Maxine Rhodes! Without her, Benjamin would still be relying on you! Without her, you wouldn’t have become a laughingstock! Without her, how could we have ended up in this position?! She stole your spotlight, ruined your future, and now she’s lording it over us! Can you really accept this?!"
Accept it?
Of course Lydia Thorne wouldn’t accept it, not even in death!
Maxine Rhodes had made her lose everything and turned her into a laughingstock... Well, she would make sure Maxine Rhodes wouldn’t have it easy either!
Seeing the cold glint that suddenly lit up in Lydia Thorne’s eyes, Rose Joyce knew her instigation had worked.
She leaned in closer. "Lydia, just being angry is useless. We have to... let her have a taste of what it’s like to fall from a great height."
「A few days later, in Maxine Rhodes’s office.」
Glass walls shut out the prying eyes and noise of the outside world. The interior was spacious and bright, with a whiteboard covered in project timelines and mind maps. A few potted plants added a touch of vibrant life.
Maxine Rhodes sat at the head of the conference table with several files spread before her. Sunlight streamed through the blinds, casting a pattern of light and shadow across her serene profile.
To her left, Coco was clattering away on her laptop keyboard; to her right, Bubbles was organizing a stack of colorful sticky notes.
"Everyone’s here. Let’s begin," Maxine Rhodes said.
"Maxine!" Coco was the first to report, her voice full of excitement. "Following your strategy, last week we completed the technical evaluation and process takeover of seven core projects from the original marketing and R&D departments, all under the pretext of synergistic optimization and supply chain integration for the Celestia project."
"Right now, the core data streams and decision-making nodes for over sixty percent of the company’s A-level projects are under our control."
She pulled up a complex chart. "Here’s the process visualization. The red parts are under our complete control, and the yellow parts are within our sphere of influence."
Bubbles elegantly took over. "On the client side, I happened to run into President Warren of Deep Blue Tech at the gym yesterday. We chatted a bit about his daughter’s celebrity obsessions, and he happened to mention that for their strategic partnership next year, they’d prefer to work directly with a team that has top-tier project management experience and efficient, independent decision-making. That makes seven clients, by the way."
He winked. "Also, those three most difficult veteran suppliers have finally budged. They’ve agreed to grant top-level access and their best pricing to our independent procurement channel. Special Assistant Erza Sinclair helped with a... friendly little chat."
Maxine Rhodes nodded, satisfied.
"Any reaction from President Sterling?" she asked.
Coco pursed her lips. "At first, he wanted to send his people over to ’learn collaboration,’ but Bubbles scared them off with three ridiculously complex reports filled with technical jargon. After that, we started moving too fast and involving more and more stakeholders, and the benefits he’s been reaping have become obvious..."
"So now, he’s probably torn. It pains him that we’ve taken over the core projects, but he can’t bear to lose the tangible benefits and stock price support we’re bringing in. He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place, so he can only turn a blind eye, throw tantrums in his office every day, and not dare to openly challenge us."
Bubbles added, "Vice President Thorne has been awfully quiet lately. However, according to a little birdie in my makeup-sharing group, she and Rose Joyce have been meeting privately quite often, and they don’t look happy. Best be careful. A cornered dog will lash out."
A cold glint flashed in Maxine Rhodes’s eyes. She was well aware of what Lydia Thorne and Rose Joyce were up to. The more restless they became, the more likely they were to become catalysts that would accelerate her plans.
*****
