Chapter 129 The Hughes Family Causing Trouble!
'What's Ms. Windsor up to? Is she really gonna show off all the Windsor family's stuff? If they lend us their pieces, we might just save this art show,' Elijah thought.
"If the Windsor family's paintings get here in time, we might be okay. But I have no clue how many of Dominic's works they own," he said.
Catherine shook her head, dismissing the idea. "We don't need their paintings. There are less than 130 of Dominic's works in all of Imperia City."
"So, what's your plan?" Elijah asked.
Catherine quickly sketched a new exhibition layout and handed it to Elijah. "Go set this up. I'll handle the materials. Triple the workers' wages today, and pay them extra for overtime."
The original exhibition design was done by a pricey professional team, but Catherine's tweaks instantly made it way better!
"Your design is incredible. Just a few changes, and it's so much more impressive. It's a masterpiece! Absolutely brilliant!" Elijah said, wondering if this was the backup plan Catherine had mentioned.
Catherine casually tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and said calmly, "Half the gallery's staff is gone, and the suppliers suddenly bailed. As the manager, care to explain?"
Elijah's smile vanished. 'When Catherine walked in earlier, she didn't seem to notice anything, and I even hid the attendance records to keep her from finding out. But she still did!'
Under Catherine's intense gaze, Elijah wiped his sweat and said angrily, "Miss, those employees were poached by a new gallery the Hughes family opened!"
If the employees hadn't been poached, and some resident artists weren't still on the fence, and the suppliers hadn't bailed, tomorrow's exhibition wouldn't be in such a mess.
"Poached?" she asked.
"Yeah, one of our senior admins, Jennifer Phillips, left with her team."
Such mass job-hopping wasn't rare, but the exhibition was exactly the responsibility of the team that left!
Elijah was fuming just thinking about it. "Jennifer's too outrageous. She knows we spent a ton on this exhibition and invited a lot of media. The initial investment is huge. If we can't pull it off because of this, our gallery will definitely be outshined by the Hughes family's new gallery! She even claimed the gallery wronged her, but her salary was almost higher than mine."
As Elijah ranted, Catherine calmly glanced at her phone. It was filled with messages from the Windsor family and Alexander, which she mostly replied to with emojis. If she didn't respond, the Windsor family might even come to pick her up from work.
Outside the office, there was a commotion, and a woman in high heels strutted in, looking down at Catherine. "Ms. Windsor, you haven't signed my resignation letter yet, and you should also look at the compensation I'm asking for."
Elijah was almost livid when he saw her. "Jennifer, how dare you come back? Why should the company compensate you? How has the gallery wronged you?"
Jennifer's face was full of smugness as she glanced disdainfully at Elijah. "I always had to front the material costs for each exhibition, and the company withheld a lot of my money, including my quarterly bonus. I often worked overtime without extra pay. Now that Ms. Windsor is here, let's settle everything." Jennifer slapped a calculation sheet on Catherine's desk.
Elijah's face turned beet red with anger. He couldn't believe how shameless Jennifer was.
Catherine glanced at the sheet and smiled lightly. "Do you even know the law?"
"What do you mean? My compensation request is totally within labor laws," Jennifer shot back.
"Resigning on your own needs my signature? Plus, you've taken kickbacks multiple times. That should be accounted for too," Catherine said.
Jennifer's smile vanished. She glared at the nineteen-year-old Catherine with disdain. The Hughes family's gallery had offered her a high salary to be their manager. Jennifer thought Catherine wouldn't understand and decided to cause some trouble, hoping to gain some benefits. "What do you mean? The gallery never reimbursed me for the material costs I advanced."
Catherine nodded, opened her computer, and quickly pulled up a series of data with her slender fingers. "In the ten years you've been at the gallery, every exhibition's information and material costs are recorded. Last month's special exhibition had material costs of $180,000, but you took $300,000 from the gallery. Where's the extra $120,000? Over ten years, you've taken an extra $10 million using this method. Do you still care about quarterly bonuses?"
Catherine leaned back slightly, looking indifferently at Jennifer.
"What are you talking about! How can you prove your data is accurate? Do you know the market prices for those materials?" Jennifer said.
Catherine handed Jennifer a price list. "Then tell me, what are the market prices for these materials? I've never seen aluminum alloy frames costing $50,000 per square foot."
Jennifer looked at the price list, which detailed the main materials needed for the exhibition and their market prices!
Using the access granted by Charles, Catherine quickly found all the information she needed from the company's internal network and printed it out, placing it in front of Jennifer.
Elijah looked at the price list and then at the one Jennifer had submitted, and he was stunned! "How could you have taken so much extra! You took tens of thousands of dollars for each exhibition!"
'Is she here to work or to invest? This is a crime!' Elijah thought.
Jennifer panicked. She didn't expect Catherine to find so much information in such a short time and even know the correct prices for the materials! Now she could only insist that Catherine was making things up and that it had nothing to do with her.
Catherine saw through Jennifer's thoughts. "Whether what I said is true or not doesn't matter. I don't need you or your team. Since you aren't committed to our gallery, you don't need to be here. Go learn how to switch jobs properly in prison."
'Prison!' Jennifer's eyes widened, and she almost collapsed to the ground! "No, Ms. Windsor, I can't go to jail. It was the Hughes family who made me do this. They also knew we were opening the gallery tomorrow and deliberately made the suppliers stop cooperating."
Catherine glanced at her and said lightly, "Did the Hughes family also instruct you to take the gallery's money?"
Jennifer was speechless! "Don't call the police. I'll bring my team back to work. We'll all dedicate ourselves to the company and never slack off again!"
Catherine didn't even look at her.
Until the police came to take Jennifer away, she had a look of disbelief on her face. She couldn't understand how she ended up in jail when she came to cause trouble.
Elijah looked at Catherine with respect and thought Catherine was truly impressive, immediately spotting the problem with Jennifer! "Miss, how did you know Jennifer's quotes were so inflated?"
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