His Dangerous Love On Ice (Olivia and Zane) novel Chapter 162

Olive’s POV

“-thank you, Otive,” she whispered, standing up on shaky legs as a small smile tugged at her lips.

She walked to the front of the room where the presentation screen was set up, and I could see her hands trembling slightly as she pulled up our slides.

But when she started speaking, her voice was steady and confident in a way that surprised even me.

“Good afternoon, everyone. Today I’ll be presenting our strategic approach for Antonio Mercer’s Quantum Al campaign partnership.”

She clicked to the first slide, and I watched as Antonio leaned forward slightly, his full attention now on Jessica in a way that made her pause for just a second before continuing.

“Our research indicates that Antonio Mercer’s brand identity aligns perfectly with Quantum Al’s mission to merge athletic excellence with technological innovation,” Jessica continued, her confidence growing with each word. “We’ve developed a three-phase rollout strategy that positions Antonio as the face of next-generation athletic performance.”

She walked through each element of our proposal fith impressive clarity, target demographics, media placement strategies, social media integration, partnership opportunities.

And Antonio was actually engaged, asking questions that showed he was genuinely interested in understanding the strategy rather than just going through the motions.

“This is impressive work,” Antonio remarked at one point, and Jessica’s face lit up at his words. “The level of detail here shows real understanding of both the athletic and technological aspects of what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Jessica practically glowed at his praise, and I felt a small surge of pride watching her present work she’d clearly put her heart into.

When she finished and returned to her seat, Antonio was nodding thoughtfully.

“That was excellent,” he said directly to Jessica. “Really well done.”

But before anyone could respond, Sophia cleared her throat.

“Stephanie has also prepared a presentation,” she said quickly, gesturing to her assistant. “I think it would be valuable to hear multiple perspectives on this campaign.”

I felt my eyebrows raise slightly because that definitely wasn’t part of the plan we’d discussed

Stephanie stood and moved to the front, pulling up her own presentation, and the second her first slide appeared on the screen, I felt my stomach drop.

Because it looked almost identical to Jessica’s presentation.

The layout was slightly different, some of the images were changed, but the core strategy-the three-phase rollout, the specific demographic targeting, even some of the exact wording— was eerily similar to what Jessica had just presented.

1 glanced at Jessica and saw her face had gone completely pale, her

hands clenched into fists on the table.

Nina was frowning as she looked between the two presentations, clearly noticing the similarities.

Stephanie went through her presentation quickly, and when she finished, the room was uncomfortably silent.Antonio looked at Sophia with an expression I couldn’t quite read, then turned to look at me with one eyebrow raised, clearly waiting to see how this was going to play out.

“Nina,” I said carefully, keeping my voice level even though I was furious. “I think we need to discuss the remarkable similarities between these two presenters.”

“I was just thinking the same thing,” Nina said, her professional mask firmly in place. “Miss Monroe, Miss Mercer-would either of you like to explain how two separate teams came up with nearly identical strategies?”

Sophia leaned forward, and I could see the calculation in her eyes as she prepared to throw me under the bus.

“Well,” Sophia said with false sweetness, “I think it’s quite obvious what happened here. Someone clearly had access to confidential information they shouldn’t have had access to. And given that Jessica works directly under Miss Monroe, I think we all know where the leak came from.”

My hands clenched into fists under the table. “Are you actually accusing me of stealing your team’s work, Sophia?”

“I’m not accusing anyone of anything,” Sophia said with that same fake innocent tone. “I’m simply stating facts. Stephanie developed her presentation weeks ago. If Jessica’s presentation loks identical, well…

I’ll let everyone draw their own conclusions about how that might have happened.”

Jessica looked like she was about to cry, and I could feel rage building in my chest because I knew exactly what had happened here.

Sophia or Stephanie had somehow gotten access to Jessica’s work and copied it, then had the audacity to accuse us of stealing from them.

“Actually,” I said, my voice coming out colder than I intended, “I think the facts tell a very different story. Jessica has been working on this presentation for the past two weeks. I have timestamped drafts, email exchanges, and documented progress reports that prove when each element of her strategy was developed.”

I pulled out my tablet and started pulling up files, my fingers moving quickly across the screen.

“Stephanie, on the other hand, only joined this Antonio’s project team last week after Sophia specifically requested her involvement,”! continued. “So unless Stephanie is capable of time travel, I find it

” highly unlikely that she developed this strategy weeks ago as claimed.”

Sephia’s face flushed with anger. “Are you calling my assistant a liar?”

“Tim stating documented facts, “I said calmly. “Facts that I’m happy to share with Nina and Antonio if they’d like to review the evidence.”

Sophia launched into her reasons for choosing Cole-his skills and achievements, his growing popularity in the hockey world, how he’d been personally approved by William Mercer himself as having strong potential.

1 rolled my eyes and had to physically bite my tongue to keep from countering every single point she was making.

I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of fighting over Cole with her, wouldn’t waste my energy debating the merits of my ex-boyfriend who’d proven himself to be completely untrustworthy.

“Thank you both for your input,” Nina said once Sophia finished. “TIL review both candidates and make the final decision by end of week.

We need to move quickly since the photo shoot is scheduled for two weeks from now.”

She gathered her materials and stood. “Miss Monroe, Miss Mercer-l expect you both to finalize your strategies with your chosen candidates and have everything ready for the production team by Friday. No more drama, no more accusations. Just professional work.

Understood?”We both nodded, though Sophia looked like she was swallowing glass.

The second Nina left the room, Sophia turned to me with pure venom in her eyes.

“You think you’re so clever,” she hissed quietly enough that Jessica couldn’t hear from where she was gathering her materials. “You think you’ve won something here. But you have no idea what’s coming for you.”

“Is that a threat, Sophia?” | asked calmly.

“It’s a promise,” she said with a cold smile. “Enjoy your little victory while it lasts. Because everything you’ve built here? It’s all going to come crashing down. And when it does, I’m going to be there to watch you fall.”

She walked out with Stephanie trailing behind her, leaving Jessica and me alone in the conference room.

Jessica looked at me with wide eyes. “Did that really just happen? Did Antonio actually choose our strategy?”

“He did,” I said, feeling exhausted from the entire confrontation. “You did amazing work, Jessica. You should be proud.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you believing in me,” she said quietly.”

Thank you for letting me present. That meant more to me than you probably realize.”

I gave her a tired smile. “You earned it. Now let’s get back to work and make sure this campaign is everything we promised it would be.”

As we left the conference room, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Sophia’s threat wasn’t just empty words.

Something was building, some storm that I could feel gathering on the horizon.And I had no idea how to prepare for it.