Mistaken Match: Marrying the Enigmatic CEO
They were in the company building, and many employees were passing by the conference room. Hence, Derek helped Alessandra up first.
“I–I’m fine.” Alessandra could not care less about her pain. She hastily wiped the table and took out a cloth to wipe the laptop and phone.
“Stop! I’ll do it!” Derek quickly shoved her away, making her stagger a few steps backward.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Schwartz. I–I didn’t do it on purpose,” Alessandra apologized profusely. For someone from a less well–to–do family, ruining someone’s valuables would only make their situation worse. She was hoping she did not have to pay for the losses, but Derek examined his devices and said grimly, “Ma’am, my laptop’s motherboard is fried, and my phone isn’t lighting up. You’ve got to compensate me.”
“I–I…” Alessandra paled, unable to form a complete sentence. All she could do was bow and apologize. She only wanted to earn some money to help lessen Emmanuel’s burden and give Mackenzie some jewelry. To her horror, she had to compensate a huge sum when she had not even gotten her salary. This is just terrible! I’m sure Emmanuel won’t let me work anymore if he finds out about this. “It’s already happened. There’s no use apologizing now.” Derek helped her up and added coldly, “I’m going to send these for repairs now. I’ll let you know how much you’ll need to pay when I find that out. Please give me your phone number.”
Alessandra was on the verge of crying, but she still nodded and gave him her phone number. At the same time, Beatrix was standing outside the glass door. When she saw how pitiful Alessandra looked, she wanted to help the latter out. To Beatrix’s surprise, Alessandra agreed to compensate him. Hence, the former could say nothing. After all, it was only right to compensate someone after breaking their things. After receiving her number, Derek could not help but scold her a little before leaving to get his devices repaired. There were many important data in them which he had put a lot of effort and time into. He was planning to get Alessandra to compensate him for the intangible losses as well.
Alessandra felt horrible when Derek left. Even so, she still cleaned up the conference room. After that, she clutched her abdomen and walked out of the room. The moment she saw Beatrix, she quickly put on a smile and greeted, “Hello, Ms. Beatrix.” Alessandra did not want Beatrix to find out she was ill. I’ll be in trouble if she fires me because of that. Hence, she pretended to look fine no matter how much pain she was in.
“Hello, Ms. Cadigan. Are you all right?” Beatrix felt bad for Emmanuel’s mother when she gazed at the latter. Feeling worried, Beatrix said, “You can take two days off if your body’s in pain.” “No, no, no. I’m fine. I’m feeling great!” Alessandra quickly waved her hand dismissively and forced a smile. The moment she straightened her back, she felt an excruciating pain, which made her grimace.
“Ms. Cadigan, please go home and take a day off. I’ll make sure the manager doesn’t deduct your salary. End of discussion.” With that, Beatrix walked off. That was all she could do to help the elderly woman. After all, it was not her place to make Derek give up on the compensation. Just then, Mackenzie, who was at the headquarters, dialed Derek’s number to ask about a project’s details. She did not expect the call to not get through, and it pissed her off.
She always requested her employees to maintain smooth communication during working hours. No one
was allowed to be unreachable. At that, she instructed Lexi to find Derek. Half an hour later, Derek returned the call in a hurry. “M–Ms. Quillen, I’m so sorry. My phone was damaged by one of the cleaning ladies. I didn’t turn it off on purpose.” He sounded a little panicked.
“Derek, is this your first day working at Terence Group? Why didn’t you make a report about your broken phone right away? What if this affects the project’s progress?” Mackenzie scolded right away. She had
always been a strict person. Derek swallowed his anger, not daring to retort. To him, Mackenzie was like the queen of the company.
“I–I understand, Ms. Quillen. I promise this won’t happen again in the future. The project’s data? Ah… They’re on my laptop, but I can’t give them to you now…” After enduring the scolding, Derek encountered a second problem. “Derek, you have one hour. If you don’t send me the data in time, you can pack your things and leave.” Mackenzie hung up angrily.