?Chapter 372:


    The site wasn’t far—just a ten-minute drive from the office.


    The second Ste stepped onto the site, she caught a whiff of something sharp and chemical.


    Her stomach twisted. She walked over to one of the wooden panels, crouched down, and peeled back a small section. Powder spilled out. Not sawdust—powder. Like cheap particleboard held together with glue and hope.


    She stood and stared Nixon dead in the eye. “We ordered solid wood, didn’t we? Real timber doesn’t fall apart like this. This is low-gradeposite. You’re passing this off as high-end material?”


    Shaun’s face darkened beside her. “Mr. Garrett, is this how you do business with us?”


    Nixon looked like he was about to melt into the ground. “No, no—Mr. Smith, please. Let me exin…”


    Shaun stared Nixon down, waiting for an exnation. But after a full minute of stammering and sweating, all Nixon coulde up with was, “It… it must’ve been one of my employees. Probably mixed up the materials—those two look real simr. I’m so sorry. I’ll have my guys tear everything out and rece it with the right stuff immediately!”


    Ste folded her arms, visibly unimpressed. ssic—ming the staff the moment things went sideways.


    “If it was just one thing, maybe you’d have a shot at convincing me,” she said coldly. “But multiple changes, across several materials? And let’s not forget the mysterious extra hundred thousand added to the budget. Care to tell me where that went?”


    Nixon had clearly underestimated her when she walked in. But now, seeing the way she kept pushing without backing down, his face went pale. “Ms. Gilbert, I swear—this is all just a big misunderstanding!”


    Ste snorted, not buying it for a second. “A misunderstanding doesn’t change what’s already been done. Whether it was you or someone on your team, this came from yourpany. If we hadn’t caught it in time, you would’ve passed off shoddy materials on a multi-million-dor project. And if something went wrong with the buildingter, who do you think would pay for that?”


    This was a major project, worth tens of millions. Who could afford to bear such a loss?


    Nixon wiped at his forehead, sweat beading as he dropped his head, speechless.


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    Shaun’s expression was grim, his jaw tightly set. When he spoke, his voice was cool and measured. “Mr. Garrett, if you didn’t want to work with us, you should’ve just said so. You didn’t need to turn the project into a mess.”


    “NO! NO, Mr. Smith—I would never jeopardize our partnership. Look… it’s on us, I admit that. I’ll fix it right away. We’ll rece all the materials, and to make up for the mistake, I’ll give them to you at half price. Please, give us another chance.”


    Then Nixon turned to Ste with an ingratiating look. “Ms. Gilbert, people make mistakes—but what matters is how they fix them. I promise you, this won’t happen again. Just one more chance.”


    Ste was just the overseer here—Shaun was the one who got the final say. She couldn’t decide.


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