She Left She Thrived She’s Worth Billions novel Chapter 480

Melanie met the woman's piercing gaze head-on.

Just from her severe, uncompromising features, the woman looked like an absolute terror to deal with.

If Melanie's memory served her right, there was only one female Group Leader in the entirety of Stellaris PharmaTech's R&D department, and she perfectly matched this woman's age.

Which meant the woman interrogating her was undoubtedly Regina Lane, the fearsome Group 1 Leader of R&D.

"That's correct. I am Melanie Royce, Chief Operating Officer of the Royce Group."

Melanie introduced herself with bold, unflinching grace.

The second the words left her mouth, a harsh, mocking scoff echoed through the room.

The scoff came directly from Regina.

Melanie acutely noticed that while Regina was sneering at her, the older woman also shot a profoundly disdainful glare at Preston standing in the corner.

That split-second expression of pure contempt left Melanie genuinely bewildered.

Who exactly was Regina looking down on? Her, or Preston?

Outside the conference room, Gabriel Whitmore was pacing the hallway so frantically he was making Philip dizzy.

"Boss, why don't you... just go inside?"

"Absolutely not."

Gabriel instantly rejected the idea.

"I'm afraid I'll just make things worse if I barge in. You know how ridiculously arrogant and stubborn Regina is. She didn't even give my brother face, why would she give it to me?"

Just picturing Regina's brutally stern, prideful face made a violent shiver rip through Gabriel's body.

Regina was the most brilliantly gifted scientist in Stellaris's entire R&D division.

While she hadn't reached the executive director level—because the best scientists didn't always make the best managers—her skills were legendary.

When it came to pure research, not a single person at Stellaris could touch her.

Because of that, Regina commanded terrifying respect across the company.

Even their untouchable Mr. Whitmore couldn't resist the allure of a pretty face.

It was painfully obvious that 'giving a chance' was a lie, and 'chasing a girl' was the real objective.

Regina absolutely despised talentless bimbos who used their looks to manipulate powerful men into handing them resources.

In her eyes, Melanie was exactly that kind of parasite.

"Ms. Royce, you boldly claim that the bottleneck in the cold medicine lies entirely with Stellaris, taking zero accountability for the Royce Group. But our data conclusively proves that the Silver-Leaf Orchids you provided simply lack sufficient efficacy."

Regina delivered her verdict with lethal finality, shooting a sharp look at a junior assistant by the wall.

Catching the signal, the assistant quickly powered up the projector.

A massive spreadsheet of complex comparative test data flashed across the screen.

"Stellaris's extraction process is the undisputed gold standard of the industry. Our orchid polysaccharide extraction rate is stabilized above 15%, impurities are strictly kept under 0.5%, and batch variance is under 5%."

"But out of the three sample batches the Royce Group supplied, the absolute highest extraction rate we hit was 12.5%, and the lowest was a pathetic 10.8%. This isn't a failure of our technology. It's a fundamental failure of your raw materials failing to meet standard efficacy."