"Mr. Green, I absolutely share the blame for this."
"So whatever you decide, I will accept the consequences."
Though Patton desperately wanted to salvage the situation, he also hoped to leave Mr. Green with a solid impression of his integrity.
As long as he survived this, he could rebuild.
Even if he lost this specific contract, there might be other opportunities down the line.
Patton was genuinely trying his best.
The silence from Dane was suffocating.
A cold sweat had even broken out across Patton's forehead.
"Understood."
That was all Dane said.
Patton had no idea what Dane was plotting.
But after returning to the office, he didn't receive any termination notices or lawsuits.
Old Randall, on the other hand, didn't just lose the contract-he caught the full, ruthless attention of Vertex International's legal team.
Old Randall was hit with a massive lawsuit!
Not only did he have to cough up everything he had embezzled, but he also faced crushing damages.
Furthermore, Old Randall's company was publicly blacklisted.
It was practically a public execution in the business world.
How was he supposed to survive in the industry after this?
He was completely ostracized.
No one would ever order materials from him again.
Old Randall was drowning in a suffocating wave of regret.
He called Patton begging for mercy, but Patton refused to engage.
Patton was just thanking his lucky stars that he had acted decisively, intercepted Mr. Green, and confessed everything.
Otherwise, he would have been buried right alongside Old Randall.
Not only was Old Randall being sued by Vertex International, but all the other clients
he had scammed in the past banded together to file a class-action lawsuit.
Old Randall was going to lose every penny to his name!
Rose went to Patton's house and cried her eyes out multiple times, but it was useless.
Patton and his wife had finally seen the true colors of that father-daughter duo. But that was a story for later!
Right now, after parting ways with Dane, Patton was still an anxious wreck.
He was terrified Dane was going to ice him out of the industry entirely.
Then, Mrs Patton shared a piece of gossip "That girl with Mr. Green? She
the adoptive daughter from The James Family."
Patton froze, his brain stalling. "What adoptive daughter?"
Seriously, it felt like his wife was speaking a foreign language.
He understood the individual words, but put together, they made zero sense.
"The girl Latham raised until she was eighteen."
With that clarification, it finally clicked for Patton.
"Her?"
"What's her connection to Mr. Green?"
Mrs. Patton wasn't entirely sure either. "If you ask me, Claire might just be his girlfriend."
How was that possible?
Patton didn't buy it.
"If she really is his girlfriend, why didn't she pull strings for Latham earlier?"
"If Vertex International stepped in, The James Group would definitely be saved, wouldn't it?"
Patton wasn't just talking out of his ass; he genuinely believed it.
"It sounds like Claire's relationship with her adoptive family ended on pretty toxic terms."
"Maybe she didn't want to save their company at all," Mrs. Patton theorized. Her logic was sound.
But thinking deeper, Claire hadn't been entirely unhelpful.
Vertex International had just taken over the stalled Westside Heights Project!
Why else would a titan like Mr. Green leave Cabinda to personally handle a project in Apex?
Someone had to have pitched it to him.
And that someone was highly likely Claire.
"Makes sense." Patton recalled the
scandalous gossip surrounding the
James family. Throughout that
entire mess, Claire was the only
innocent party.
Even if she had enjoyed eighteen years of their wealth, she had still been separated
from her biological parents.
Rumor had it that Latham's wife had known Claire wasn't her biological daughter from the very beginning.
Naturally, her affection had been
doors,
Performative. Behind closed
there was no telling hoveret
coldly she had treated the girl.
Meanwhile, Claire was listening to Dane recount Patton's earlier confession.