The Sinners' Queen

"Hmm?"

The voice did not come from the one asked, but from the person next to him. When some of the business-attired ladies and gentlemen in the room traced its origin, seeing it was the unexpected addition to today"s conference, not few of them showed a displeased expression on their faces.

"Oh, Miss Silver. It seems you"re having an opinion about my question." Marc bemusedly said, his lips arcing up to the girl.

Sofony glanced around and noticed the many dissatisfied faces here, especially the older ladies giving her questioning and belittling gazes. Their eyes alone were screaming at her,

"How rude!"

"Who is she, doesn"t she know that this is a formal conference?"

"I thought she knows her place and thus she"s not speaking."

If she was still the soft-hearted weak-willed girl of two days ago, she would surely reject it at first hear, not agreeing to the idea of hurting or shaming others just because of some very petty excuses. Now, she did not say a thing, neither agreeing nor declining. When the system issued it, she just let it stay on her interface, leaving to fate whether she would accidentally complete this minor quest or not.

Meeting Gio"s eyes, she heard him chuckle and say, "Go ahead, Miss Silver. Mr. Goldwin is waiting for your answer."

She did not immediately break eye contact with him. After saying to herself that she has to show him her edges, she nodded. With gathered composure, she stood up.

Her eyes swept around the room. Sofony"s calm expression made some of those giving her questioning glances to have a better impression of her.

She began, "Everyone, my apologies for my recent action. I"m from the Silvers. And I indeed have an opinion about Mr. Goldwin"s question."

The girl was picking up a blue folder on the table when another person spoke up. It was a woman in her thirties who looked like a successful business lady. Beautiful, smartly dressed, brainy looking, and with thick-lensed eyegla.s.ses framing her two bright eyes. Unfortunately, those eyes were casting disapproving glances at Sofony.

The woman parted her glossy lips, "Miss. We obviously know you have something to say, and you"re even given permission to speak, however, it"s a basic manner to introduce yourself first."

"Oh?" Sofony had just finished speaking with the system when the woman"s admonishment was thrown at her. With a blue folder in one hand, she blinked once to the other,

"I thought Mr. Goldwin did the introduction for me when he told everyone what I should be addressed. Didn"t he? Am I mistaken?"

The woman who remembered what Marc called Sofony stiffened and froze, her irises dilating.

"Marc called her Ms. Silver. A Silver family member around her age... Is she that recently found heiress?"

Sofony ignored her and instead roamed her eyes around again.

"I"m sorry for the sudden interruption. I just found Mr. Goldwin"s question stupid because the clues were already in front of him, yet he still asked."

"What do you mean?" with a raised eyebrow, the man mentioned abandoned his old sitting posture, leaning forward to the table with two hands clasped.

Before Sofony replied, she secretly gave Gio an apologetic look. She knew one of the reasons why he made that decision was her eye signal. That most likely showed her puzzlement on why he was tolerating the current presenter.

This was why she told herself, "I have to clean this up."

"Mr. Miller is colluding with this presenter." she began, "There is actually no need for any more background check. Even if you are not Mr. Albarez, it will be easy to realize this. You just have to look at the two company"s proposals. I"m referring to this one in my hand," she paused, gesturing next to the projected wall of texts and numbers in front. "And this one."

A laugh echoed out the moment the girl finished speaking. There was no need to ask who it came from. There could only be that guy who looked as annoying as ever to her eyes. For a higher-up of one of the most reputable companies in the country, this fellow was unbelievably relaxed and easy going.

Marc raised a hand, "Objection, Miss Pretty Girl." His words almost caused a frown to appear in her face. Though she managed to restrain the muscles of her face, the look she was throwing at him became more unfriendly. "What I"m saying is how Mr. CEO pa.s.sed the verdict just because this man told people that this scam plan is cooked up by Mr. Miller. This is what I"m saying. In short. Where"s the evidence? The proof of their collusion? What motive? How are they related?"

Sofony almost replied, "I presented the evidence but you"re not listening."

"May I insult your intelligence?"

Thankfully, rational immediately returned to her. She looked away from Marc and spoke to the others, "Everyone. I"m sure you"ll get what I mean after you check your copy of this blue folder. Please."

The Silver Corporation"s representative chimed in to help his boss" daughter. "There"s no harm in checking, right? At most, we"ll just be losing some of our time. " He eye-signaled the others he knew here and led them to pick up the plan Mr. Miller registered under the Miller"s company name.

Others, though reluctant, followed suit, thinking it wouldn"t hurt to give face to the VIP girl brought in by Gio Albarez.

"Please don"t forget to take a look at the projected figures here while scanning the doc.u.ments," Sofony kindly reminded before taking her seat again.

Her eyes quietly went to Gio"s face who also did as she requested. A few seconds later, his amused eyes met hers. Sofony could guess the reason for this.

It was the numbers in one of the pages of the Miller"s true proposed plan. None differed from the currently displayed slide show. In other words, the expected budget, returns, number of surveyed people, number of workers for the building, number of prospective clients and customers... even the industry"s stats used to show why the project would be successful, even the location... Everything was identical!

But they were not supposed to be because the Millers" businesses were mainly on pharmaceuticals and drug researches!

Therefore, it was a mystery how this happened. Everybody except the couple was taken aback. Even Marc Goldwin who raised the issue was.

Only, when Marc came back to his senses, unlike the majority whose expression turned from skeptical to dumbfounded, he went back to laughing. Unmasked praise was in his voice when he exclaimed,

"I can"t believe it! Miss Silver is amazing to have discovered this! Please accept my salute to your sharp and details-attentive eyes!"

Sofony saw the same admiring gazes from the rest. They were probably wondering when she noticed the problem. Even though anyone here with a good memory could do the same, it was still quite amazing that she did it within a very limited span of time. After all, they only saw her going through the pile of folders when the fatty began to protest at the presenter"s ratting out.

"That Harry Silver must be dancing in joy for regaining this intelligent and beautiful daughter that he lost before... This girl is a dangerous gem! Despite being young too, she seems very close to Gio Albarez... She"s someone who must not be made into an enemy!" the thought that crossed everybody"s mind subsequently.

"By now, I"m sure you"ve all realized that there"s just no way for the stats of a drug manufacturing company to be similar," the girl blinked, correcting herself, "My mistake, identical, to the figures a banking company will report."

Her gaze momentarily went to the fat man,

"So who copied who? Mr. Presenter already confessed. But since one, no, two among us don"t want to recognize his confession, I presented this mysterious point. Now, how do we explain this unexpected relation?"

"No, no, this can"t be happening! This is just stupid! I swear this is not the proposal my company created! Someone must have sabotaged us! This... This..."

The one guilty of magically tampering with his proposal looked at him indifferently. Sofony knew she was wrong for what she did, but actually, this was already lenient. This was only in a proposal.

Think, what would happen if she did this to their company"s financial report, making it look like a hundred trillion credits were lost?

In the first place, who asked him to target Gio"s money?

"Who switched our folders with a fake!!!? This is not my proposal"s content! I"m sure someone at least changed some of the pages! Mr. Albarez, one of your secretaries must have been paid to sabotage me!!!" shouted the fat accused man as he threw the doc.u.ments on the floor.

That scream from the red-faced, agitated fellow earned more reproaching looks from everybody. A second later, half of them turned into pitying glances. This pig actually questioned Gio"s selection of employees. How idiotic could he be? Did he forget that even without factoring the boss in, even that oldest a.s.sistant, Jone, was strong enough to decimate him into a bag of bones within seconds?

The clicking of tongues resounded after, driving the fat man to realize what great blunder he had committed. He was about to take his words back when Gio"s cold glare shut him up again.

"You done?" the demon magnate asked, Despite being seated, the younger man seemingly appeared taller than any mountain in Mr. Miller"s eyes. Couple with the other"s glare, the fat shareholder felt himself turning so small. He no longer had any way out, he realized. Now, he could only regret why he allowed a devil to possess him to actually dared to plan against this monster.

Not looking anymore at the middle-aged pig sweating buckets from his icy glances, Gio said, "You wasted so much of everyone"s time with your nonsense. Do you know that?"

Gio signaled the one in charge with the projector to take down the current slides.

After Gio saw the next representative nervously preparing, he looked down to the doc.u.ments on the table. Without sparing the despairing old fatty another glance, he stated,

"Somewhere in this world, Mr. Miller, there"s a tree whose single purpose on earth is to replace the oxygen you waste. I think it has become way too pitiful because your nonsense and bulls.h.i.+ts just wasted so much of what it is always striving to replace. Go find it. And apologize. You decide what kind of apology will suffice, Jone."

The a.s.sistant standing near the access controlled door widened his eyes a bit at his boss" order. However, his years of experience made him capable of whatever role he was playing, be it a hitman, con-artist, or an a.s.sistant. Jone swiftly got himself together and marched toward the fat man whose face became too unsightly due to Gio"s order.

Afterward, everyone watched as Jone effortlessly dragged the cursing and protesting board member.

"...So troublesome."

"I can"t possibly ask for his opinion. Last time, when someone annoying got sentenced to death by hanging while I was the one in charge of watching out for him, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d requested to be hanged from a tomato tree."

"I"ll just have this fatty tied to a random tall tree housing thousands of red ants and bees somewhere deserted. I"ll let the insects do the torture for him," thought Gio"s oldest a.s.sistant.