Chapter 159
Chapter 159
Benedict looked at Kimberly proudly. His eyes smiled, emanating a proud warmth. In his heart, he couldn't help but praise her silently.
This girl was not as helpless as he had imagined.
Just then, Benedict interrupted at the right time and said, "Lincoln, I can't believe this. You accused her of not doing her job, but you didn't even allow her to explain herself. What if I were as rash as you and questioned your ability?"
Lincoln began to tremble in fear. He did not know how he should respond to that question of Vice President Yardley.
Lincoln shifted his gaze to Maddox.
However, Maddox was still staring at Kimberly. He watched her as she printed out the documents calmly, as though all of this wasn't affecting her at all.
Maddox then subconsciously glanced at Benedict. He saw him smiling at Kimberly, and a ball of fury was set ablaze in his heart. He sneered and said, "You are playing tricks on the first day of your demotion. Surely, there was an opportunity for you to explain yourself. However, you didn't and you are only trying to defend yourself now. Your printing has taken extra time out of our meeting. We have now lost 5 minutes because of your mistakes."
"Maddox, this is an unexpected situation. Let's..." Benedict tried to defend her, but before he could finish his sentence to say let the incident slide, Maddox interrupted him.
"I'll deduct your quarterly bonus," Maddox said.
Maddox's indifferent gaze fell on both Kimberly and Lincoln as he spoke.
He continued, "Yardley Corporation don't need people who like to play tricks. If this happens again, you'll be fired at once."
Lincoln was so intimidated by Maddox's fierce gaze that he couldn't even straighten his bowing posture. In addition to his warning, Lincoln broke out in a cold sweat.
As for Kimberly who had gotten used to Maddox's attitude after marrying him, when compared to Lincoln's pallid face, she was much calmer.
In the meantime, Kimberly finished printing the documents. She put them in folders and passed them out to everyone one by one.
"The documents in your hands are what I have prepared. Please have a look," Kimberly said to them.
While she was organizing the documents, Kimberly did not understand why the task was passed to their department. Their department should not have the qualification to deal with this important information. Nevertheless, she had no right to question that.
Perhaps, Maddox had set all this up on purpose, just to make things difficult for her.
After that, the meeting went on smoothly except for the 10 minutes wasted in the beginning. Kimberly seemed to be very used to what she was doing. She made coffee for everyone after she had handed out the documents, and the entire process was natural.
Finally, the meeting ended and everyone started to disperse. However, Kimberly was not in a hurry.
Lincoln lowered his voice and said to her, "Come with me!"
Kimberly did not reply. She was looking at the man in the wheelchair.
Although she was demoted, she still wanted to explain herself to him. She wanted him to know that the words she had uttered the other day were all unintentional.
"Newcomer, did you hear me?" Lincoln's threatening voice sounded from behind her again. Kimberly suddenly realized that Lincoln was standing very close to her, and the repulse feeling made her move a few steps away from him. She then said, "Lincoln, you may leave first. I have something else to do."
Lincoln asked upon hearing this, "What do you want to do? Are you going to stay and complain about me?"
Kimberly replied helplessly, "I will not do such a meaningless thing. I have to attend to a private matter."
"Private?" Lincoln thought as gritted his teeth. He then hissed, "You're not allowed to talk about private matters during work hours. You're a subordinate under my department, you must listen to me." NôvelDrama.Org: owner of this content.
After saying that, he forcefully grabbed Kimberly's hand and held her arm. At that instant, he noticed that her skin was as delicate and tender as a baby's. He was startled for a while and subconsciously glanced at her body.
"Let me go!" Kimberly shook his hand away forcefully. Lincoln was still amazed by her soft skin, and he coughed lightly and said, "Okay, I'll wait for you outside. Hurry up."
After that, Lincoln left.
Kimberly waited for everyone to leave before she headed towards Maddox.
"Urn... About yesterday's incident..." Kimberly murmured.
However, Maddox's phone rang at the moment. With a calm expression, he answered the phone, "What's the matter?"
Kimberly was interrupted abruptly, and she had no choice but to wait for him to end the call.
She then watched on as he hung up the phone after replying to someone on the phone and said to Sam, "Let's go."
Sam looked at Kimberly awkwardly. He made an eye gesture at her before pushing Maddox away and they left.
Maddox did not once look at Kimberly.
His disregard for Kimberly made her feel like she was a clown.
She was completely ignored.
Kimberly stood tooted, clenching and unclenching her fists. She repeated that a few times silently. Suddenly, she heard a gentle voice coming from behind her. She turned around and immediately saw Benedict.
She was surprised to see him. She thought he had left.
She had been paying attention only to Maddox and didn't even notice Benedict's presence.
Benedict saw the surprise in her eyes and guessed what she was thinking. He couldn't help smiling bitterly and asked, "Does my existence even mean anything to you?"
"I'm sorry, Brother Yardley. I still have work to do, please excuse me!" Kimberly said and quickly packed up her stuff, then she left the room.
When she was leaving, she could feel his gaze following her. Kimberly was uncomfortable and her emotions were in a mess. She could only leave the tangled thoughts aside and stop herself from thinking.
When she returned to the department, she met Lydia and Agnes as soon as she entered. They didn't look very happy.
The previous gloating on their faces was obviously gone and they looked very disappointed to find that they hadn't achieved their goal.
Kimberly calmly walked back to her seat. As she was about to sit, she noticed someone had splashed water on her chair and she almost missed it.
Lydia said loudly, "She is indeed a woman who has slept with the president. Look at her playing tricks. She pretended to create an opportunity for us by going to the bathroom, in the end, she magically pulls out that USB!"
Agnes said along, "I know, right? Those who are non the wiser would've thought she was innocent!"
"You did it on purpose, didn't you?" asked Lydia.
Kimberly took out a tissue paper and wiped the water on her chair before calmly sitting on it. Only then did she reply, "The USB was connected all the time. Yet, you are blaming me for something you were too blind to see, which resulted in you failing to frame me."
"You!" Agnes's face fell and she barked. She stepped forward, wanting to fight with her.
Lydia quickly reached out to stop her, "Calm down, Agnes. Last time, Sister Winna suffered a lot after she had fought with her. Let's learn from that lesson."
Agnes stood back reluctantly while suppressing her temper. She then said coldly, "Humph, each day as you stay in this department, I will make you suffer!"
Kimberly's lips curled up and she challenged, "Sure, I'll wait and see."
"Humph," Agnes snorted.
Then, she and Lydia left angrily.
During lunchtime, Vera came to her department. Kimberly was surprised to see her and asked curiously, "Didn't you tell me to stay away from you? Why..."
Vera blinked her eyes and replied, "I didn't mean it! I was just simply saying, did you really believe it? We're friends, how could I make you stay away from me? Forget it, let's go for lunch."
Vera hooked her arm around Kimberly's and pulled her towards the canteen, ignoring everyone's stares.
Kimberly was stunned at Vera's words. But at the same time, she was very touched.