Free Web NovelChapter 114: Chapter 114 Lost Competition Spot
Christina’s POV
The good thing about being Hudson’s fake wife and Luna is that he doesn’t expect me to help him manage the pack. So I can still focus on my own career.
I’ve been working on inspiration for the designer competition lately.
But recently, the mood at Nyx Collective was completely different now. Everyone looked stressed and kept rushing around like they were being chased. All because of the mysterious new boss who might show up any day for an inspection. Nobody wanted to look like they weren’t doing their job.
Savannah kept telling everyone the same thing. No mess ups allowed. The office needed to be perfect. Even after the cleaning people finished in the morning, we still had to check everything again. Every corner, every tiny piece of dust.
When I got to work that morning, I could tell something was wrong. I mean, things were already weird lately, but this felt different. People were cleaning their desks really fast, but they kept looking at me strangely.
A few people stared at me with worried faces, like they wanted to say something but couldn’t.
I looked confused and walked to my desk. I turned to Zara Khan, who always knew what was happening in the office. "Do I have something stuck in my teeth?"
She shook her head a little bit. It was her way of saying she knew something but couldn’t tell me yet.
"So what’s everyone acting weird about?"
Zara looked around and then whispered to me. "Savannah gave the design competition spot to Violet Lin. Everyone thinks it’s not fair."
My mouth got tight. "She said we could all try for it. Why does Violet get it?"
Zara looked sad for me. She seemed like she might cry. "I don’t know what happened. Violet came out of Savannah’s office looking really happy earlier. She told everyone the spot was hers. We’re all confused about how that happened."
I looked at Violet’s empty desk across the room. "Where did she go?"
"She’s probably telling everyone who will listen. I think she has a friend who works downstairs." Zara made a sad sound. "Don’t worry about it too much, Christina. You’ll get another chance."
I said thanks and started thinking about it. Unless Savannah had gone crazy, I couldn’t understand why she would do this. Violet Lin had almost gotten fired for copying other people’s work. She was lucky to still work here at all.
Giving her the competition spot made no sense. Unless Violet had done something amazing like saving Savannah’s family from a fire or something.
But it was really happening.
I walked to Savannah’s office.
"Violet gets the spot," she said right away.
"Yeah, I heard. But I want to know why. She’s nowhere near good enough. Even if you didn’t pick me, it shouldn’t be her."
"Can you please sit down? You look like you want to throw something at me." She made me coffee. "I’m trying to get you another spot somehow. Just wait a little, okay?"
I made an annoyed face. "Are you kidding me right now?"
Savannah sat back and looked at me in a way I couldn’t figure out. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
"Are you still angry about the Instagram thing?" I asked. "Mad because I wouldn’t pose for company photos?"
"No way. I’m not mean enough to hurt your career over something stupid like that."
"Then explain this to me," I said. I was getting more annoyed every second.
She stopped talking for a moment, like she was deciding whether to tell me the truth. Then she made a tired sound. "You remember the Eliza Black contract problem, right?"
"Everyone knows about that."
"Violet paid thirty million dollars to fix that mess. Nyx paid the other twenty million," she said. She sounded impressed even though she didn’t want to be. "But wait, there’s more. Violet gave us another thirty million dollars. Twenty million as a loan with no interest charges."
She said it again like she still couldn’t believe it. "No interest at all. And she gave the last ten million as a free gift to the company. She only wanted one thing back."
"The competition spot," I said.
"That’s right."
"So she just bought it?" I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I stood up fast and my chair made a loud noise. "You can’t just pay money for these things. And she won’t do well in the competition anyway."
Savannah put both hands up. "I know Violet isn’t the best designer, but we’re talking about thirty million dollars! I would do almost anything for that much money, including selling children."
"You don’t have kids to sell," I said in a cold voice. "You don’t even date anyone."
"Thanks for reminding me how alone I am." She looked hurt. "But you know what I mean."
"So money is more important than being good at your job?"
"Listen, this competition has famous people from everywhere in the world. Nyx is just a tiny company compared to them. I never thought we would win no matter who went. I just wanted people to know we exist. It doesn’t matter if it’s Violet or you or even the receptionist."
"Maybe it doesn’t matter to you, but this is really important to me."
She held up her hands like she was giving up. "Christina, you’re way more talented than everyone else here. But you need to think about what’s good for the company. And I’m not saying you can never go. Just not this time. I promise I’ll get you a spot next year."
"But," I tried to argue, but she stopped me.
"I’m not changing my mind," Savannah said in a harder voice. "I know you’re upset and I understand that. But I have to keep this company running. Being famous doesn’t help if we can’t pay people’s salaries. You’re still our main designer, Christina. That’s not going to change. But I can’t help you with this."
"Okay," I said and nodded. "I understand now."
I left Savannah’s office knowing what I had to do. She could give Nyx’s spot to whoever she wanted. There was no point in arguing anymore.
But I wasn’t going to give up that easily. Nobody said I had to work for a company to enter the competition.
