Tam's secretary was about to dash over to stop Erica, but one of her colleagues grabbed her hand and said in a hurried whisper, "What are you doing?! Even Mr. Wu has locked himself inside his office. Don't get yourself into trouble!"
The secretary was pissed seeing her smashed computer, lying on the floor. "This woman is crazy!" she said angrily.
The lady holding her back was shaken by her words. She almost covered the secretary's mouth. "Shh! You are the crazy one here! You'll get us all into trouble if you don't shut your mouth! Mrs. Huo can do whatever she wants; she has the Li and Huo families backing her up. Whatever trouble she creates, there will still be many people willing to support her! But who will take care of us? All we can do is stay out of this."
"But whatever her problem is, she has no right to damage our property and destroy our work!" the secretary said indignantly.
"Calm down. Let's just stay silent and watch the show! Haven't you noticed that none of the security guards has come forward to stop her? Why are you trying to be a hero? Do you want to get fired?"
Erica, who paid no attention to the talks behind her, continued to bang her fists on the door to Tam's office. The man inside was a real coward and refused to show his face.
Erica stopped pounding on the door and turned to look at the employees gathered around in the operations department. She raised her voice and said, "I've heard that sixteen people in the operations department had followed Tam here from another company. Who are those people?"
The employees looked at each other, but no one dared to speak up.
Seeing the angry look on Erica's face, one of the female employees pointed to a portion of the office to her left because she was afraid of being implicated for their mistake. Erica counted the employees in that area and found that there were exactly sixteen people over there.
While this was going on, a security guard, who had earlier dozed off in the lounge, heard the commotion and rushed in with a baton. "Who is causing trouble here?" he shouted.
Erica snorted, "That would be me. You got a problem?"
Ignoring his disbelief, she grabbed the baton from his hand and smashed another computer nearby.
Seeing that she was serious and really bad-tempered, the security guard stepped back without saying another word.
Erica smirked and walked over to the other area where the woman had pointed earlier. She smashed all sixteen computers, one after the other. She had the whole company's attention now.
After smashing their computers, she raised the baton and warned the sixteen employees who were loyal to Tam, "If you don't make your boss come out of his office right now, my husband will make sure that you are fired from this job and you will never again be able to find another job in Y City."
The employees gasped in unison. They knew how powerful Matthew Huo was. Terrified about the prospect of indefinite unemployment, the employees pushed each other and rushed to Tam's office. Some of them knocked on the window and some banged on the door. They were ready to do anything to get him out of the office.
Amidst this chaos, a group of people suddenly walked into the operations department.
"What the hell is going on here?" a middle-aged man, who seemed to be heading the group, asked furiously.
Erica turned around, completely irritated now. She replied loudly, "I'm the one raining hell here. What are you going to do about it?"
The employees recognized the group of shareholders. They had just finished their meeting. The man who had spoken earlier was the president of Champion Group, Neville Chai, and he was followed by more than a dozen smaller shareholders.
Neville Chai and Erica had never met before that day.
But the young man behind Neville Chai, who was in a light blue casual coat, saw Erica and greeted her immediately, "Erica!"
Following the voice, Erica looked at the young man who was smiling and waving at her. 'Watkins?' She was surprised to see him there. She smiled politely as a greeting.
Neville Chai looked back at Watkins and questioned, "You know her?"
"Yes, Father. She is a friend of mine." Watkins passed through the crowd and approached Erica.
She obstinately looked at the gloomy-faced Neville Chai and stated downright, "What's going on here has nothing to do with you. I was the one who wreaked this place. If Tam doesn't come out, I won't pay a penny for the damages. But if you can make that coward walk out of there, I'll pay for all your losses."
Neville Chai loosened his tie and took a deep breath. His face darkened and he looked quite frightening to the others. "Who the hell are you, girl? How dare you create a ruckus in this place? Where do you think you are standing, huh? Guards, hand her over to the police!"
Watkins rushed to his father's side. "Dad! Wait! This is probably some kind of misunderstanding!"
Erica snorted and glared at Neville Chai. He was trying to intimidate her, but she had seen worse. She turned around, ignoring the man, and banged on the door again. "Tam Wu, if you don't come out right this moment, I'll seal this door shut! I'll starve you to death, you coward!"
Neville Chai was shocked by her attitude. This was the first time that he had seen such a defiant girl. Very few people in Y City dared to look down upon him.
Sensing that his father was about to lose his cool, Watkins immediately walked up to him and said, "Dad, ask Mr. Wu to come out."
The man glared at Watkins. It was obvious that his son was protecting the girl. "Why should I? Call the police first!"
Watkins hurriedly waved his hand. "Father, you can't call the police on her! She..." 'She is married to Matthew Huo!'
Before he could say it out loud, a dozen bodyguards in black rushed in and stood behind Erica.
While the crowd was still confused by their sudden appearance, one of the bodyguards said to Erica respectfully, "Mrs. Huo, Mr. Huo sent us here to support you. He said we are to follow your orders without question."
The crowd gaped. Matthew Huo spoiled his wife too much!
Neville Chai was taken aback when he heard the bodyguard address the girl as Mrs. Huo, but he regained his composure quickly. Then he asked Watkins in a low voice, "Is she the daughter-in-law of the Huo family?" He figured that since she had the guts to break into their office and smash things up, she must have someone of high status backing her up.
The Huo family was the most powerful family in Y City, and Carlos and his son, Matthew Huo, were the two most important and influential men running the city from behind the scenes.
Some time ago, Neville Chai had heard that Matthew Huo married the youngest daughter of the Li family, a renowned military family in A Country. The marriage alliance made the two originally powerful families even stronger. He assumed that this bad-tempered girl in front of him must be the youngest daughter of the Li family.
He turned to his son and it seemed like he was right. Watkins was vigorously nodding at him.
Erica stepped back from the office door. She pointed at the locked door and ordered the bodyguards, "Tear this door down!"
"Yes, Mrs. Huo!" the bodyguards replied in unison and rushed forward to fulfill her order.
As they were getting ready to bring down the door, it was quickly unlocked from the inside and Tam showed his face.
He looked a little haggard and quickly apologized to Erica, "I'm sorry."
Erica had no intention of accepting his apology. "What's the use of being sorry now? Tam Wu, I want you to tell everyone who the father of the child I had brought home long back."
Tessie and Tam had done so many awful things to her. She couldn't continue covering up for them and as a result, be misunderstood by the public. She wanted to clear her name, once and for all. Being a pushover wasn't in her nature.
Tam shivered. "It's me. The kid is mine and Tessie's," he admitted.
Satisfied, Erica turned to the bodyguard beside her and asked, "I need you to contact a reporter right away. Ask him to get here soon."
This had to be published by a proper news outlet. The news that she had a child before marriage was public knowledge now, and she had been judged miserably by everyone when she married Matthew.
And the irony was that, since she married Matthew, even more people knew about the child.
Almost everybody who paid attention to their wedding ceremony knew that she had a bastard son. They claimed that she didn't deserve Matthew.
The bodyguard replied, "Mrs. Huo, Mr. Huo has already arranged the reporters. They are here, waiting for your orders."
Following his gaze, Erica saw two men standing at the best location for shooting and recording what was happening there.
Erica was once again blown away by how efficient Matthew was. He had known in advance that she would need reporters. 'Can he read minds? He gives everything I need without having to ask.'
Erica grabbed Tam's collar and dragged him to the reporters. "Come here and tell the reporters all about the child I had before marriage!"