Three Years Forgotten, Why Go Crazy When I Say Goodbye? novel Chapter 116

"So? Are you going to give me the materials I asked for before the end of the day or not?" Willow interrupted, refusing to entertain his rambling.

"Oh, I'll give them to you. Of course I will." Clarence was smiling, but it didn't reach his eyes. His expression was downright menacing.

Before walking out, he threw one last remark over his shoulder. "You could have just sat there looking pretty like a good little mascot, but you had to go and punch above your weight class. Let's see how this plays out for you."

After Clarence left, Willow gathered her things and returned to her office. Honestly, her mood wasn't deeply affected. She had dealt with his type far too many times in the past. Bullying the weak, fearing the strong, and weaponizing seniority were their standard playbook. She had tried playing nice with these types before, but retreating only ever encouraged them to push further.

Besides, she had a stubborn streak in her. Once she set her mind to something, she would see it through to the end.

Willow waited the entire day, but Clarence's documents never arrived. As the end of the workday approached, she gave him a call, but it went straight to voicemail. She tried his desk phone next, only to find out he had left the office half an hour ago.

She had a coworker relay a message to Clarence: she would be waiting in her office until she received his materials. She wasn't leaving until he delivered.

When Clarence got the message, he was just arriving at a club to blow off some steam. Over the phone, he couldn't help but curse. "That crazy bitch. Doesn't know what's good for her. I gave her face in the meeting today and she actually bought it? Who the hell does she think she is?"

His colleague tried to reason with him. "Maybe you should just let it go. She seems serious about the work. Just go back, send her the files, and be done with it. You don't want this blowing up and reaching Mr. Thorne's ears. You know how he is."

"Let it reach him, you think I'm scared of her? I've been at Merit longer than she has, and my projects have a flawless track record. You think the boss is going to side with her over me? You might be scared of her, but I'm sure as hell not. They drag some little girl in off the street and she thinks she can walk all over me? I'm not taking this lying down."

There was actually another reason he was so reluctant to hand over the data: Vivienne hadn't sent him Sinclair Group's submission yet. Every other company had already submitted their paperwork, and now they were just waiting on them. Clarence had no idea what was taking them so long. It was just an initial pitch deck—it was incredibly uncharacteristic for a massive corporation like Sinclair Group to drag their feet like this.

"The end of the week doesn't work. Tomorrow is the absolute latest I'll accept," Willow shot back.

Clarence gritted his teeth. "Fine. Tomorrow."

With that, he turned to leave, but Willow reminded him, "The evaluation process."