Guido's face was etched with despair as fear surged through his entire body. The color drained from both Ashwin and Michael's faces, and their hearts sank when they realized what happened. Neither of them could understand why everything changed so abruptly. Things were going so well before, but Stanley's shifted allegiance ruined their plans! The worse part was, what if Guido decided to betray them and expose their involvement in this to Iris? "Tell me who ordered you to do this?" Iris was even more outraged to discover that other people besides Guido were behind this. "It's—" Guido instinctively glanced in Ashwin and Michael's direction, but when he caught sight of the murderous look in their eyes, he perked up and stopped himself from saying anything further. "Tell me who is it, quick! If you don't want to say anything, I'll call the cops right now and let them arrest you under a fiscal offense!" Iris spat. "It's…" Guido could not help shuddering when he heard this.
Michael shot Leon a murderous glare as he said this. "You're insane! I've already clarified multiple times that Leon isn't my boyfriend, and nothing is going on between the two of us, so you're just spouting nonsense!" Ariel snapped. "That's impossible! You were the one who introduced him to our company, and in doing so, you even got rid of Conrad! Why else would you do this for him if he wasn't your boyfriend? Do you think I'm an idiot, Ariel?" Michael scoffed. "What nonsense! Who told you I was the one who introduced Leon to the company, and what made you think I got Conrad fired because of him? Let me tell you this; Iris was the one who did all this, and none of it had anything to do with me at all! I was just the scapegoat for her actions!" Ariel finally exploded. Being the scapegoat for somebody else was not a pleasant experience, and in doing so, rumors started circulating about her and Leon being an item, so this significantly impacted her reputation. It was a miracle
"Michael, Guido, Stanley, all three of you were involved in attempting to frame Leon for fraud, and in doing this, you brought on a massive financial loss to the company, and this cannot be forgiven! From today onwards, all three of you are officially fired, and you no longer have anything to do with Elegante Group!" Iris declared solemnly. Seeing that the three of them gave their service to the company for many years, Iris decided to show them mercy by firing them instead of pursuing legal prosecution for their crimes. "Thank you, Miss Young—" the three of them thanked her grimly and stood up, getting ready to leave. "Miss Young, wait a minute," all of a sudden, Leon took a step forward. "What is it?" Iris glanced at him dubiously. "Miss Young, the ability to understand and rectify one's mistake is a quality that I feel everyone should appreciate. I'm sure that Mister Wallace was forced to take part in this out of his responsibility as the breadwinner of his household, an
Leon and Ariel followed her out of the room. Ashwin clenched his fists as he watched their retreating figures disappear from view, his face ashen. He planned this scheme down to the last detail in an attempt to get rid of Leon, but everything was ruined! Even though he managed to get away unscathed, he knew that Iris already began to suspect him. However, because he sacrificed and achieved so much for the company, and also because his grandfather was a shareholder of Young Group, Iris chose to give him another chance. Rats! Despite feeling defeated, Ashwin knew that he had no choice but to accept this. The last look Iris shot him before leaving was a look of warning. If he dared to stir something up again, there was no guarantee that Iris would show him mercy in the future! As soon as the meeting ended, Leon rushed to Wick Group to apologize to Elder Wick in person and clarify what happened. Elder Wick was extremely gracious about this; not only did he choose no
"Well, clearly fate wanted us to run into each other, so why don't we go inside together?" He said lightheartedly. "No thanks. I'm here for a meeting, so I won't be able to join, unfortunately." Leon shook his head. Leon was an orphan, and the only way he managed to get into college was because he worked hard his whole life to save up for his college fund. However, because he hailed from poverty, he was always looked down by his classmates and did not have many friends. Not only that, but he was a shy person and mostly kept to himself. Dominic was the total opposite; He hailed from a wealthy family who owned millions of dollars in assets. Therefore, Dominic was always the popular kid and the target of many girls' fancies during his college days. Leon and Dominic were never the type of people one would expect to hang out together, but not only that, Dominic used to pick on Leon a lot during college. Besides, no one invited him to the gathering, so of course, he would not
Dominic was always one of the popular kids in school, and he was the object of many girls' attraction back then. This was made even more so prominent since everyone graduated and was now working, which resulted in their realization of the importance of money. Even though Dominic's familial wealth faltered in comparison to some of the big names in Springfield City, it was still far more than any of them could ever imagine, so his presence continued to stir up a storm wherever he went. "Oh, Sean and I ran into Leon on the way here, so that's why we're a few minutes late," Dominic explained, curling his lips into a handsome, roguish smile. "Leon?" Everyone froze when they finally noticed the man standing behind Dominic and Sean. Expressions of distaste and contempt flashed across their faces, all except for Janice. Her twinkly gaze fell onto Leon's face, and she greeted him with a beautiful smile. "Long time no see, Leon." "That's right. I can't believe it's been three
"I'll pay for lunch today, so guys, feel free to order anything you want!" Dominic declared at the top of his lungs. "Since you say this, Dom, I won't hold back!" "This hotel is so luxurious and expensive; I haven't even been anywhere like this in my life." "Me, too. The only reason we can eat here today is because of Dominic. Otherwise, why would any average white-collar worker like us be able to enjoy such expensive food?" "That's right. We're so lucky to have a friend like Dominic." Praises and words of admiration rang out throughout the table. "There's no need to thank me. I don't think paying for everyone's lunch is anything difficult at all," Dom said, puffing his chest out in pride. As he said this, he could not help glancing in Janice's direction, hoping that she would be impressed. As for Leon, he was nothing to be afraid of at all! However, to Dominic's disappointment, Janice did not even look in his direction. Instead, her attention was on Leon as she ask
Dominic declared in feigned anger as though he was truly sticking up for Leon's sake, but in reality, he brought Leon's shame to light to make himself appear better. That was why he insisted on bringing Leon to the gathering so that he could humiliate Leon in front of everyone. "What? His wife cheated on him and even got pregnant with the other man's child? How embarrassing!" "This is so funny! Hahaha—" Everyone was shocked to hear this at first but soon erupted into laughter. None of them ever was impressed with Leon in the first place, and now that this embarrassing tidbit came to light, they began to ridicule him even more and cast him looks of disgust. The only person who was not laughing at that moment was Janice, who pitied Leon greatly. She knew that they were deliberately making fun of him, and tried to console him, "Leon… please don't take them seriously." "Don't worry. I'm used to this already," Leon replied curtly. He was not an idiot; He knew that Domini