Someone Is Getting in the Way
“Double compensation? Ha!” Sonia was so angered by such an excuse that she laughed instead.
“They sold our stuff to someone else without our permission and only told us about it after the fact.
Clearly, they had gone over our heads. If we couldn’t get the spare parts on time, some machines
wouldn’t be able to be used in the processing, and all the progress would have to be halted for the time
being. Even if they pay us double compensation, it won’t be enough to cover the costs incurred by the
shutdown!”
Her assistant lowered her head.
“That’s right. We talked to the collaborating manufacturer and asked them to intercept our parts, but
they refused to do so, saying that it was unreasonable to intercept the goods after they’d been shipped
out.”
“Were they being reasonable?” Sonia was frothing at the mouth. “If they were being reasonable, they
wouldn’t have breached the contract and sold our stuff to someone else. I’m gonna hold them
accountable for this!” she said while clenching her fists in anger. “Also, have you found out which
company it was that bought our parts before we did?”
There were only a few enterprises in Seafield that were engaged in heavy industry, but she felt that
none of these enterprises was the culprit behind this. Paradigm Co. was ranked bottom among these
enterprises, after all, so these enterprises had no reason to snatch things from her, not to mention that
these enterprises bore no grudge against her.
Furthermore, everyone in the country knew that she was Toby’s spouse, so there was no way these
enterprises were unaware of it. Therefore, they would only make concessions to her out of courtesy to
show Toby respect instead of offending her. So, who is it that’s targeting me? That’s right—they’re
targeting me!
Again, everyone in the country knew that she and Toby were a couple, so no one would snatch things
from her for Toby’s sake. The owner of the collaborating manufacturer wouldn’t sell her stuff to
someone else either, for he was afraid of offending Toby, who was backing her up.
This time, however, someone had snatched things from her despite knowing about her relationship with
Toby, and the owner of the collaborating manufacturer had sold her stuff to someone else despite
knowing about her relationship with Toby. There was only one explanation for this: someone had
deliberately picked on her by snatching her stuff.
As for why the owner of the collaborating manufacturer dared to sell her stuff to someone else, it was
either because he had nothing to fear since the one who had bought her stuff had even more clout than
Toby, or because he had to do so because the one who had bought her stuff had gotten something on
him.
Whatever the reason is, I’m not gonna let this slide. I won’t let both the owner of the collaborating
manufacturer and the one who had deliberately picked on me by snatching my stuff off! Sonia’s
expression was dark as she bit her lower lip.
Seeing Sonia’s expression, her assistant was somewhat afraid. She lowered her head and replied, “No,
we don’t know that yet.”
“You don’t know that yet?” Sonia raised her voice as she was taken aback by the assistant’s reply.
“How could you not know that?” She was puzzled. “Someone snatched our stuff, yet we don’t even
know who they are! Does this even make sense?” she asked with a frown.
The assistant hung her head even lower. “We really don’t know that, Miss Reed. We asked the
collaborating manufacturer, and they said that it was someone with a powerful background who
intercepted our parts. As for who the person was, the collaborating manufacturer didn’t tell us about it;
it was as if they had scruples about doing so. They only told us that the person wasn’t a local and told
us to find out about it on our own.”
Upon hearing this, Sonia clenched her fists even tighter. Someone with a powerful background who
isn’t a local… Suddenly, a figure flashed across her mind, and her eyes widened in shock. “It was him!”
The assistant immediately looked at her. “Do you know who it was, Miss Reed?”
At this very moment, Sonia’s heart was beating fast, and her breathing quickened somewhat. The
person who had just crossed her mind was Connor. After all, he was the only person who matched the
clues provided by the collaborating manufacturer.
Connor wasn’t a native of Seafield, but his social standing in Westsanshire was high. Even if he came
to Seafield, he wouldn’t be of low standing. His standing would have been at least higher than that of
Titus in his heyday, and this alone fitted the description of having a powerful background. Secondly,
Connor was a citizen of Westsanshire, which meant that he wasn’t a local to the citizens of Seafield,
right? However, although Connor had some standing in Seafield, his standing wouldn’t be comparable
to Toby’s. Even so, the collaborating manufacturer’s owner dared to ignore Toby and did things for
Connor. So, her second conjecture just now was probably correct—Connor had gotten something on
the collaborating manufacturer’s owner.
At the thought of this, Sonia took a deep breath, and her anxiety subsided somewhat. After all, she had
figured out who was the person that had snatched things from her. As long as she knew who the
person was, it would be easier to deal with the aftermath. Otherwise, she would only find herself at a
loss without knowing where to start in dealing with the matter. “I do know who did it, but I can’t say it yet
right now.” She shook her head before looking at her assistant. Then, she asked with a grave
expression, “How many people in the company know that our parts have been intercepted? Does
Asher know that?”
The assistant promptly shook her head. “President Dafoe doesn’t know about this yet. Ever since you
took back the administrative power from him, Miss Daphne had picked out all the people he had
planted in the collaborating manufacturer. He no longer has any informers, so he doesn’t know about
this yet, or he and his men would’ve made a fuss about it long ago.”
Sonia nodded. “That’s great. In that case, I can rest assured for the time being.” She breathed a faint
sigh of relief. As long as Asher doesn’t know about this, I don’t have to worry that he’ll take the
opportunity to stir up trouble. “But this matter can’t be kept a secret for long,” she muttered while
knitting her good-looking eyebrows.
The assistant replied, “That’s right. We and the collaborating manufacturer have agreed to have the
parts delivered three days from now, which means that we can only keep this from President Dafoe and
his men for three days at most. If we can’t get the parts back in three days, the rest of the progress
won’t be able to be carried out. When that happens, we’ll no longer be able to keep it a secret even if
we want to.”
“You’re right.” Sonia pursed her lips. “So, we have to either get the parts back in three days or buy a
batch of identical parts that don’t bear any logo, but it’ll be difficult to find such parts.” She massaged
her temples.
The assistant looked at her. “In that case, Miss Reed, does that mean the first solution is the only
option we have?”
“Uh-huh,” Sonia mumbled. “That’s about it.”
“In that case, can we get the parts back in the next three days?” asked the assistant.
Sonia’s red lips parted. She wanted to say that they would definitely be able to do so, but she felt
somewhat uncertain when it occurred to her that it was Connor who had snatched the parts from her.
However, she couldn’t show her lack of confidence. As the chairman of the company, she could only
keep her thoughts to herself without saying them out loud, or those working for her would lose
confidence in the company. Therefore, she let out a breath and patted the assistant gently on the
shoulder while managing a relaxed smile, saying, “Of course we can. Don’t worry.”
Seeing that Sonia had said so, the assistant breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. “That’d be great. In
that case, I’ll share the good news with the others. They’re still worrying about this, but they’ll surely be
happy once I tell them the good news.” Only when the company didn’t run into problems would they not
have to worry about their paychecks and future lives. Therefore, if anything were to happen to
Paradigm Co., they would definitely be worried, nervous, and anxious. Now that Sonia had said that
she could deal with the matter, they would be able to keep their jobs, so they were surely happy.
Sonia’s heart was incredibly heavy when she saw the smile on her assistant’s face. Still, she kept
smiling and said, “Just go.”
“In that case, Miss Reed, I’ll take my leave.” The assistant took a step back and bowed slightly to Sonia
before turning around to leave the room.
Sonia watched the assistant disappear from her sight before massaging the space between her
eyebrows. As she returned to her desk, she felt very distressed. This is why every company has to
have its own manufacturing plant to prevent the occurrence of such or other situations that lead to
unsolvable problems that’ll cause the company to go bankrupt. Little did I think that I’d come across this
right now!
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