Chapter 4

The company's front doors were shut tight, and the office area was plunged into pitch darkness.

Mr. Wilkins' brows furrowed into a deep knot.

"Where is Wayne? What on earth is going on with your company?"

Tammy fumbled frantically for her phone to call Wayne, only to discover that there was no signal. The call wouldn't go through at all.

"Mr. Wilkins, there's a power outage. Wayne… He went downstairs to meet you."

Mr. Wilkins' expression grew even sterner.

"Nonsense! Every floor we passed on our way up had power. How could only yours be blacked out?"

Wayne pounded desperately on the elevator doors, his muffled voice echoing from inside.

"Mr. Wilkins, I'm in here! I'm trapped in the elevator!"

Mr. Wilkin's expression darkened further.

Wayne, sensing disaster, quickly said, "Mr. Wilkins, please don't be upset. I'll contact the property management right now."

He pulled out his phone, only to remember that for all these years, I had been the one handling all the communication with property management. In fact, he didn't have their contact number at all.

"Meredith, give property management a call and find out what's going on," Wayne pleaded softly to me.

I stayed where I was and replied flatly, "My phone doesn't have a signal either. The call won't connect."

Wayne panicked. "How can there be no way to reach them? Can't you just run down to their office?"

I replied leisurely, "I twisted my ankle when the power suddenly cut out earlier, so I can't really go anywhere."

Wayne grew even more frantic.

"Meredith, let's be reasonable about this. Don't let personal grievances interfere with business. I'll give you a raise! I'll pay you back all the overtime from last year—I'll give you double the amount!"

When he heard no reply from me, Wayne switched targets.

"Tammy! Orlando! Bring the documents for Mr. Wilkins to review first!"

The head of the technical department, Orlando Bowen, stammered, "W-Wayne, we were doing the final update when the power went out just now, and all the data got reformatted."

Wayne slumped in the elevator.

Suddenly, it dawned on him, and he erupted from inside the elevator with a torrent of curses.

"Darn it! Meredith, are you behind this? Do you expect me to believe that it's just a coincidence that only our floor lost power?"

A stream of foul language poured out of Wayne's mouth.

Mr. Wilkins let out a cold snort and swept his gaze around.

His assistant, Isaac Hodge, said sternly, "Mr. Wilkins is still here. Is this how your company conducts business negotiations? The office is blacked out, and the system is down. Do you have no emergency contingency plan at all?

"And on top of everything, you're resorting to foul language? You can't even show basic courtesy, so how can you possibly expect us to keep working with you after this?"

Panicking, Wayne said, "Mr. Wilkins, this is all Meredith's fault. She's holding a grudge against me. Just give me ten more minutes. Once I get out, I promise I'll give you a satisfactory proposal."

Mr. Wilkins laughed coldly. "I'm not comfortable entrusting a 50-million-dollar contract to a company where the boss is locked in a feud with his own employees."

With that, Mr. Wilkins led his people straight out.

Several of my colleagues collapsed limply to the floor, and Wayne was so furious that he was punching the elevator walls.

More than ten minutes after Mr. Wilkins had left, footsteps echoed from the corridor. The property management team had arrived.

The technician swiftly pried open the elevator doors, and Wayne staggered out. His hair was disheveled, and his face was flushed crimson.

He lurched toward me, ready to settle scores.

Chester immediately stepped in front of me and held out a folded piece of paper to Wayne.

"Ms. Burch asked me to give this to you."

Wayne grabbed it reflexively, still cursing.

"Who's this Ms. Burch you're talking about?"

The moment he saw what was on it, every last trace of color drained from his face.