Next Man, Better Plan novel Chapter 95

It was supposed to be Wilma's birthday, but the atmosphere in the Gonzalez home was heavy.

Quennel was kneeling on the floor, and Ternence stood over him, holding a rattan cane.

Ternence glared at him, seething, "Rebellious son! You disgrace!"

Quennel had always been responsible, a standout among his peers and the model son every parent dreamed of. Ternence had always been immensely proud of him.

But this recent string of events had left Ternence utterly dumbfounded, making him question if his own parenting had gone wrong somewhere.

First, he was caught messing around, with pictures of him kissing another woman sent directly to Ternence's phone. Then, he went behind his back, contacted the company's vice president, Kent, and secretly altered the contract with Sapphire Group.

Ternence had investigated the matter and had been too furious to eat since last night.

With a sharp motion, Ternence raised the cane to strike Quennel.

"Quennel! Do you have any idea what you've done!"

Even Wilma, who usually doted on him, sat on the sofa without a word of protest.

The cane struck Quennel twice, tearing through his white shirt. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead from the pain, but he clenched his jaw and didn't make a sound.

Wilma looked at him with disappointment. "Quennel, you've gone too far this time. The company's contracts are approved by the board. How could you make such a decision on your own?"

"How are you going to explain this to the board? You're a CEO yourself; you should know the stakes involved."

Ternence was practically grinding his teeth. "And it was all for that woman, Victoria! Utterly foolish! When did your judgment become so poor? A woman like that is not worthy of our family. She's not even fit to be a maid here!"

That was when Stephanie arrived.

Her appearance made everyone turn their heads. Quennel's eyes flickered, and he slowly rose from the floor, heading upstairs to change his shirt without a word.

Seeing Stephanie, the anger on Ternence's face subsided slightly. He gestured for her to sit down.

He rushed down. "What did you say? You resigned? Why?"

"Isn't it obvious what you've done?"

Ternence glared at Quennel, erupting in fury. "You helped an outsider undermine your own wife! Quennel, did you not know that Stephanie and that Victoria were direct competitors on this project?"

"Because of you, years of Stephanie's research have gone to waste!"

Quennel froze.

He knew Stephanie had been working on this project since university, constantly iterating and improving it for three whole years until the technology was mature.

When Victoria had asked for his help, it had never occurred to him that the two were competitors.

Victoria had only said she needed him to pull some strings for a project because she was too intimidated to approach Ternence directly, fearing he was biased against her.