Chapter 1

Kimmy Zabel froze for a split second before protesting in return.

“Don’t go on a power trip just because you can! I just lowered it by 0.007 mm. What could that possibly do? It still screws in, doesn’t it?”

To prove her point, she grabbed a screw off the table and casually drove it into a piece of wood.

With a smug look, she said, “See? No difference at all! You’re just looking for trouble because my job isn’t as much of a grind as yours.”

I picked up the standards manual with a sneer.

“The buyer for this batch is an international firm. Their classifications are stricter. Twenty-eight TPI means a pitch of 0.907 mm. This spec is used for precision equipment. Your tiny adjustment of 0.007 mm could cause cross-threading or strip the mating socket, leading to critical equipment failure. They won’t just fail customs inspection. If we miss the delivery window, we’re looking at massive breach penalties, and our company’s reputation gets shredded. You call that ‘looking for trouble’?”

One look at the confusion in Kimmy’s eyes told me her brain was not built to process anything this complicated.

Sure enough, the next second, she pouted and looked at me.

“Don’t think even for a moment that you can scare me with a bunch of fancy technical jargon! I’ll call someone who actually knows what they’re talking about. Let’s see if you still dare pick on me like this after that!”

The call connected almost instantly.

The noisy backdrop of a bar flooded through the speaker.

“Kimmy, where are you? I’ve been waiting.”

Kimmy’s tone instantly shifted to wounded innocence.

“Mr. Huidobro, I tried to leave early, but Ms. Turner wouldn’t let me go. She’s saying tomorrow’s shipment is going to fail because of me.”

“That’s preposterous!”

Dale Huidobro’s bark was sharp even through the phone. “Put her on the phone. I’ll talk to her myself.”

Kimmy put the phone on speaker.

She shot me a triumphant look that said, “Let’s see how you get out of this!”

“Mr. Huidobro, Kimmy altered the production specs without authorization. The entire run is now out of spec with the international standards—”

Dale cut me off before I could finish.

“Lisa, it seems you still don’t understand your place. Kimmy is our human good-luck charm. I brought her in for a reason. The fact that she even graces the production floor should be considered a blessing. And you dare upset her? If her energy turns sour, the entire company’s fortune could follow. Are you prepared to be responsible for that?”

I was aware that most successful executives harbored their own superstitions.

However, instead of worrying about hypothetical bad energy, we should have been trying to fix the disaster right in front of us.

I was just about to explain when Kimmy jumped in, “That’s exactly what I told Ms. Turner, Mr. Huidobro. But she kept throwing technical jargon at me to scare me. She even implied that the company would be cursed with bad luck. I had no choice but to ask you to step in.”

In eighteen years on the job, I had never seen anyone twist the truth with such ease.

Rationality told me there was no point in engaging with her any further. What mattered was making the consequences unmistakably clear.

I pulled out the contract and tapped the relevant clause.

“Mr. Huidobro, this isn’t about ‘curses.’ If we fail to deliver tomorrow, the client has the right to demand compensation for triple damages under the agreement. The client is a global industry leader. If we blow this order, we won’t just lose one contract but also lose access to the entire transatlantic market. The losses wouldn’t even be calculable.”

Dale was the boss’ brother-in-law. He parachuted into the company from nowhere and was handed authority he had never earned.

He liked to throw his weight around, but when it came to money, no one clutched it tighter than him.

I thought laying out the stakes would finally get his attention. Instead, he let out a dismissive snort.

“But none of that’s happened yet, has it? If it weren’t for Kimmy gracing the production floor with her presence, do you think we’d even have these orders? And whether production gets done or not, that’s your problem. Don’t even think about pinning this on Kimmy. If we fail to deliver tomorrow, I’ll be holding you responsible!”

I almost laughed from sheer disbelief.

That contract had taken our sales team three months of nonstop follow-ups to secure. What did Kimmy have to do with it?

Ever since she had started hanging around the workshop, she had only made things harder.

I gritted my teeth.

“Mr. Huidobro, I’ll not ship defective parts. The regulators won’t clear them anyway.”

The sound of laughter and clinking glasses from the bar grew louder over the line.

Dale said in impatience, “I hired you to solve problems, not create them. Let me ask you something simple: Do you still want your job or not?”