Chapter 145
The receptionist, who was pretty new on the job, had no clue that Rachel was Michael's ex-wife. She just assumed Rachel and Mandy were buddies and smiled as she said, "Ms. Williams is here to drop off a proposal for the new energy tech collab."
"Got it," Mandy said, pursing her lips. She'd heard from her dad that Rachel was also gunning for a spot in this collaboration.
"Alright, I'll go find Michael first," Mandy said with a smile to the receptionist and headed towards the elevator.
But instead of going up to the top floor to see Michael like she said, she went to the reception room on the thirty-eighth floor.
"Miss Brown," David greeted her without any surprise and politely invited her in.
Mandy nodded. "I'm here to drop off my dad's proposal. Sorry for the delay, traffic was a nightmare. Thanks for waiting, David."
"No worries, Miss Brown. Please, have a seat." David took the proposal she handed over and pointed to the sofa.
Mandy smoothed out her dress and sat down, her eyes landing on a stack of folders on the table. Something flickered in her eyes and then vanished. Mandy thought, 'Rachel's proposal must be in there, right?'
With that thought, Mandy suddenly smiled. "David, could I get some water? I'm parched from the trip."
"Of course, Miss Brown. Just a moment, I'll get it right away," David said and left the room.
Now alone, Mandy stood up and cautiously checked the door. After making sure no one was around, she took a deep breath and reached for the stack of folders.
Luckily, she found Rachel's folder after flipping through just one. Mandy pulled out Rachel's folder and started reading it. Her face soured as she read.
Even though she wasn't a business expert, she could tell a good proposal from a bad one. Rachel's proposal was clearly top-notch, way better than the one she had submitted.
It was hard to believe that Rachel, who had taken over Skyline Corporation less than two months ago, could write such a solid proposal.
No way, Rachel couldn't have written this. She must've had someone else do it for her. Yeah, that had to be it! Mandy squashed the jealousy bubbling up inside her and convinced herself that Rachel didn't have the chops to write such a proposal.
But no matter who wrote it, it was clear that it had a high chance of impressing Michael. The thought of Rachel possibly landing the collaboration while her own family might get the boot was unbearable to Mandy.
"No way," Mandy muttered, biting her lower lip as an idea popped into her head.
She placed Rachel's proposal and her own on the table, then unfastened the metal clips holding the proposals in the folders. She quickly swapped the proposals between the folders, since the folders had name labels on them.
Now, Rachel's proposal was her father's, and her father's was Rachel's. After doing this, Mandy smiled. Suddenly, she heard footsteps outside the door.
Mandy, realizing it might be David coming back, felt a brief flash of panic. She quickly closed the folders and put them back in their original spots. Then, she hurriedly sat back on the sofa and pretended to look at her phone.
David walked in. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Miss Brown."
"Not at all," Mandy replied with a smile. David didn't notice anything out of the ordinary and placed the coffee in front of her.
Just as Mandy was about to take a sip, her phone rang. "Sorry, I need to take this call," Mandy said with an apologetic smile as she answered her phone. "Monica, you're out?"
Mandy's face lit up with surprise. David glanced at her, raising an eyebrow slightly.
"Okay, I'll be right there," Mandy said, hanging up. She turned to David. "David, please let Michael know I won't be meeting him anymore."
She wanted to meet Monica, not because she considered her a friend, but because Monica was a loyal follower who would do anything Mandy asked. Keeping Monica close was essential; she could be a useful pawn if any issues arose. This relationship was too valuable to sever.
"Of course, Miss Brown. I'll make sure Mr. Smith gets the message." David nodded with a smile.
After Mandy left, David gathered the stack of folders and headed to the top floor, knocking on the CEO's office door.
"Come in," Michael's cold, deep voice called out.
David opened the door and stepped inside. "Mr. Smith, these are the collaboration proposals from the twenty company heads."
Michael put down his pen and looked up, his gaze falling on the stack of folders. "Are they all submitted?"
"Yes," David confirmed with a nod.
Michael's eyes flickered. "What about Rachel's?"
As soon as he asked, he regretted it. He hadn't inquired about anyone else's proposal, only Rachel's, which might make it seem like he was particularly interested in hers. He didn't even know why he was so concerned about Rachel's proposal.
But when he saw that David didn't seem surprised by his question, his regret faded. Maybe David didn't think he was overly concerned about Rachel.
What Michael didn't know was that David wasn't surprised because he already knew Michael still had feelings for Rachel. So when Michael asked about her proposal, it didn't catch him off guard.
"Here it is," David said, pulling out Rachel's proposal and handing it over.
Michael took it, feeling a mix of curiosity and anticipation as he opened it. But as he read through the proposal, his brows furrowed, and any anticipation he had vanished.
It was terrible! The proposal was too ordinary, with no standout features, completely lacking competitiveness. She actually submitted something like this? Michael pressed his lips together, his eyes filled with undisguised disappointment.
David noticed and adjusted his glasses. "Mr. Smith, is there something wrong with Ms. Williams' proposal?"
"See for yourself," Michael said, tossing the folder over.
David caught it and started reading. After a moment, he couldn't help but twitch his mouth. "Maybe Ms. Williams isn't familiar with the new energy sector and didn't understand it well, so she wrote it like this."
Hearing this, Michael's tightly furrowed brows relaxed a bit. "Leave this proposal with me. Take the others and start the selection process. Eliminate the bad ones and keep the good ones for my final decision."
"Understood." David nodded and left with the remaining nineteen proposals.
Before leaving, he glanced at Rachel's proposal. Michael had said to eliminate the bad ones, so logically, Rachel's should be eliminated too. But he kept it.
It seemed Michael wanted to give Rachel another chance. There was definitely some favoritism in this competition. David couldn't help but roll his eyes. So Michael was also a person with double standards.
After David left, Michael picked up Rachel's proposal again and started making corrections and suggestions with his pen. Rachel was unaware of all this. She had already driven to the Williams Manor.
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