Chapter 455 Did You Forget?
Adeline had no clue how she ended up back home with Robert and Timothy.
Back in Blue Bay, she plopped down on the couch, mindlessly scrolling through comments and videos, feeling totally lost.
Neither Timothy nor Robert said a word on the ride back. But she knew they had to be feeling like crap too. This was their first big competition since starting their jobs, and they’d been busting their butts just like her. If they got disqualified because of her...
Adeline shut her eyes, feeling completely at sea.
Luna’s plan was slick. It all kicked off with that video from a couple weeks ago.
Adeline even thought Luna might’ve tipped off Amelia about her plan to mess with the competition, making Amelia warn Anne before she left, which made Adeline more wary of Luna. That wariness gave Luna the perfect chance to strike.
This project was Adeline’s blood, sweat, and tears. Same for Robert and Timothy, and the whole team. But not for Luna.
She wasn’t involved, so she wouldn’t care about letting it go. But for everyone else who worked their butts off, it was a nightmare.
Blake called out, "Mommy."
Just as Adeline was deep in thought, Blake came downstairs looking all apologetic.
After his bone marrow transplant, Blake was doing great; he’d put on weight, looked stronger, and his complexion was way healthier.
Blake carefully walked over to Adeline and held her hand. "I’m useless."
Adeline snapped out of it and looked at Blake sitting next to her. "What are you talking about?"
Blake bit his lip and looked up at her. "Violet told me about the online attacks against you."
Blake sighed. "I tried to delete the nasty comments and videos about you online, like I did before. But I couldn’t. The other side’s videos were encrypted, using the same method I came up with."
Blake’s face was full of guilt. "This encryption method is my own invention. I don’t know how they got it, but I can’t crack it."
Blake got more and more down. "I’m still too green. I can’t even crack my own virus."
Adeline was stunned for a moment, but her gloomy mood lifted a bit, amused by Blake’s serious self-blame.
Adeline said, "Not being able to crack your own virus is pretty normal."
Her words didn’t make Blake feel any better; he felt even worse.
Blake said, "If you create a problem, you should be able to solve it yourself. Otherwise, it’s a failure."
Adeline was amused by his stubbornness and was about to say something when she realized he had a point.
After all, Luna targeted the team because of her. So, she should be the one to fix it. Running away wasn’t gonna solve anything.
Thinking of this, Adeline quickly grabbed her phone, about to call Jasper when it rang. It was Jasper.
"Adeline." Jasper’s voice on the other end was low and cold. "I’m at a café near your place. Can we meet?"
Adeline paused and smiled. "Okay."
Blake asked softly, "Are you going to see him?"
Adeline nodded. "I need to sort this out. He’s probably here because of this mess."
Blake sighed. "Be careful on the way."
With all the trash talk about Adeline online, Blake was feeling pretty uneasy.
Lauren called out, "Mommy!"
Just as Adeline was about to head out, Lauren’s clear voice echoed from the stairs.
Adeline frowned and stopped. "What’s up?"
Lauren dashed down the stairs and handed Adeline a bunch of stuff she’d prepped. "Take this! You might need it!"
Adeline raised an eyebrow at the items Lauren handed her. There was a mask, a hat, a concealed military knife, and even pepper spray?
Holding these, Adeline couldn’t help but remember what Jasper had done to her on the living room couch last time.
Adeline smiled. "Don’t worry. I’ll be fine."
That time, Jasper was just drugged. Otherwise, why would he be into a cold-hearted woman like her?
But she still took Lauren’s "gifts" with her.
Ten minutes later, Adeline showed up at the café where Jasper was.
At this hour, right after work, everyone in the café was glued to their phones, scrolling through the news, and chatting about the day’s trending topics.
"She thinks she’s hot stuff just because she can design jewelry."
"She bullied the newbie, who’s the CEO’s girlfriend. The nerve of her!"
"Ms. Jones is so understanding. Did you see those burn blisters on her stomach? So scary! And she’s not even mad!"
"Nice people always get screwed over. She’s been played so many times because she’s too nice."
Wearing a hat and mask, Adeline headed up to the second floor and walked into the private room.
Inside, Jasper was sitting in a chair, casually messing with his phone.
From the faint sounds coming from the phone, Adeline could tell he was watching the videos of her "bullying" Luna.
Adeline smiled bitterly and sat down in front of him. "Mr. Foster, are you here to chew me out?"
Jasper glanced at her coolly and put away his phone. "I wanted to talk about the competition."
He pushed a cup of coffee he’d ordered for Adeline in front of her.
Jasper said, "The event organizers reached out. They said with you excluding a newcomer and the bad behavior shown in the videos, they want to disqualify the Foster Group team. They think with a leader like you, the team’s designs wouldn’t reflect everyone’s input, losing the essence of teamwork."
After saying that, Jasper looked at Adeline seriously. "I don’t know much about your work, but how could you mess up like this? You knew it was a team competition, yet you still deliberately excluded Luna. Luna never mentioned this to me. If I had known earlier..."
"What would Mr. Foster have done if you had known earlier?" Adeline cut him off coldly, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "When Mr. Foster put Luna, who knows squat about design and has zero artistic skills, into my team, you should’ve seen this coming.. I didn’t deprive her of an opportunity; she couldn’t even draw a basic jewelry projection. What was I supposed to do? Should I trust core design elements to someone who can’t even draw a simple circle for jewelry?"
Adeline took a sip of her coffee. "Mr. Foster found time to dump her on my team, but you can't find a minute to get Ms. Jones an art teacher? Or were you too busy planning to have kids with Ms. Jones to remember that?"
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