Chapter 128 Provoking Catherine!
"What's up?" Catherine asked.
Annie kept her eyes on the road, hands steady on the wheel. "To me, anything that goes against morality and law is bad news."
Catherine chuckled. "Yeah, I feel the same."
Annie let out a breath. Since Catherine was on the same page, she felt brave enough to spill what she'd found out. "One of the people playing cards with Esme is way too close to her. I checked Esme's account, and besides the money from Lila, the rest came from this person. It's a lot of money. But their chats seem normal, like between a senior and a junior. At first, I thought it was a relative from the Windsor family, but it's not. So, I dug deeper."
In Annie's mind, someone handing out big bucks for no reason was definitely fishy.
"The weird part is..." Annie bit her lip, hesitating. After a long pause, she said, "Esme calls this person 'Dad.'"
When she saw the chat logs, Annie got goosebumps. She thought she'd stumbled onto something bizarre, but it turned out the guy really seemed to think he was Esme's dad.
Catherine nodded, thinking, 'Someone who's that close to Esme and gives her a lot of money is probably her real father. If I remember right, Lila claimed Esme was an orphan. Looks like that might've been a lie.'
"Who is this person?" Catherine asked.
"He's in business too, from the Hughes family. It's tricky for us to dig any deeper," Annie said.
The Hughes family had some serious pull in Imperia City. Not as much as the Howard or Windsor families, but still significant. Investigating someone from the Hughes family wouldn't be easy. Catherine agreed it was smart not to push it.
"Got it. Thanks for driving me. Go home and get some rest. We'll talk about work after you've had some sleep." Catherine noticed the dark circles under Annie's eyes, a sign she hadn't been sleeping well. Following Esme around must've been exhausting.
Annie felt touched, thinking, 'Did Catherine ask me to drive her just so I could go home and rest? Catherine is the best!'
Annie nodded eagerly, watching Catherine walk into the gallery, reluctant to leave.
'If only I could work for Catherine. At least I'd get to talk to her every day. I really want to switch jobs,' Annie thought.
Elijah stood at the door, waiting for Catherine. "Miss, several partners have suddenly announced they're ending their cooperation with our gallery. We have an exhibition coming up, and the invites are already out. If we can't hold it as planned, the gallery's reputation and finances will take a hit."
Elijah looked like he was about to cry.
Catherine walked into the gallery, staying calm. "When's the exhibition?"
"Thursday, so tomorrow. We've invited a lot of artists and media. It's too late to cancel the invites, but those suppliers suddenly bailed on us, and they are even willing to pay the breach of contract fees to refuse cooperation," Elijah said.
Pushing open the office door, Catherine sat down and glanced at the suppliers' info, thinking, 'Coincidence? Most of them are industries that thrive because of the Hughes family.'
"How many paintings are we short?" she asked.
"One hundred and thirty, and one exhibition hall isn't set up yet. We can't get the materials; only one company in Imperia City has them." Elijah was getting anxious. 'Why isn't the boss worried at all? Is she scared because she hasn't handled something this big before?'
"Change the materials, use a different plan for the hall setup, and I'll handle the paintings," Catherine ordered.
'Change the materials? It's not that simple!' Elijah thought. He cautiously said, "Miss, our gallery has a stellar reputation. We don't use subpar materials, and they could be bad for the guests' health."
Catherine gave him a calm look. "Construct the hall with trusses, use aluminum alloy for the main frame, and switch to an oil painting style, using Dominic's paintings as the base tone."
"That's possible, but the truss company..." Elijah hesitated, thinking, 'Didn't I already say they refuse to cooperate? If I could find a suitable truss supplier, I wouldn't be so anxious!'
Catherine picked up the phone and called Charles. "Charles, I need a batch of trusses for the gallery tomorrow."
"Okay, I'll send them right away."
Elijah suddenly perked up, realizing, 'How could I forget my new boss is from the Windsor family! What materials can't the Windsor family get?'
"But we don't have that many paintings, let alone Dominic's oil paintings. We only have five in the entire gallery," Elijah said.
"I'll handle it, don't worry."
Elijah wanted to say more, but seeing Catherine's calm demeanor, he swallowed his words and thought, 'Forget it, even if there aren't enough paintings, at least the hall will be set up. We could use some of the less impressive paintings from the warehouse to fill in. The gallery would just have to face some embarrassment!'
Catherine glanced at Elijah. "I'll handle the paintings and ensure the exhibition's effect won't be worse than expected. But I want to know why these suppliers suddenly chose not to cooperate."
'Even facing high compensation fees, they refuse to work with the gallery, which doesn't make sense. Moreover, these are companies that have worked with the gallery before, not their first collaboration. This is damaging their own reputation and showing a lack of contractual spirit,' Catherine thought.
Elijah hesitated, stammering for a long time. "It's because these companies heard something... They said our gallery changed owners, so..."
'The bosses of those companies are shrewd people. They used to respect Samuel, the previous owner. Now that the gallery has a new owner, they probably think Catherine, as a newcomer, doesn't know the social niceties of the business world. They're giving her a hard time to make her bow down and learn the ropes,' Elijah thought.
Catherine sneered. "At their age, they still have a head full of nonsense. They really think they're something. Being in that position at their age shows they're still foolish."
Elijah thought the same but didn't dare say it out loud, realizing Catherine seemed gentle, but her words were sharp and powerful! "I think they'll come to the exhibition tomorrow to watch the show, hoping to see you embarrassed and begging them."
Catherine chuckled softly. "Embarrassed? Well, I love watching others get embarrassed."
Seeing her so confident, Elijah suddenly wondered, 'Where will Ms. Windsor find so many paintings? I also want to see those people embarrassed!'
"Miss, I have some collections at home that could be used. Should I bring them over?" Elijah suggested.
"No need, I can handle it," Catherine said.
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