Three Years Forgotten, Why Go Crazy When I Say Goodbye? novel Chapter 300

After Clarence scurried off, Vivienne didn't head straight back to the office. Instead, she ducked into a nearby luxury boutique, bought a brand new outfit, and changed into it before finally returning to the Sinclair Group tower.

Her very first stop was Julian's office. Under the guise of reporting on project updates, she paraded right in, eager to gauge if his sudden appearance at the cafe meant he suspected her.

She was dead certain he had spotted something while she was sitting in the corner, otherwise he wouldn't have aggressively pulled up like that.

When she walked in, Julian's immediate instinct was to scan her outfit. Seeing that she was wearing something entirely different from the woman at the Gilded Bean, the tight knot of suspicion in his brow finally relaxed.

Still, his paranoia pushed him to ask, "Where were you just now? I didn't see you around."

Knowing he was testing the waters, Vivienne maintained total composure. She offered a bright, easy smile. "I haven't gone anywhere. I've been in meetings all morning. I was probably locked in the conference room right when you got back."

Without missing a beat, she expertly redirected the interrogation. "What about you? You're back early. How did the divorce hearing go?"

Julian's head snapped up instantly. "Hearing?"

With that single word, Vivienne realized she had catastrophically slipped up. He had never officially told her today was the court date—she had pried that information out of his inner circle, a fact she desperately needed to keep hidden.

"Oh, don't misunderstand!" she scrambled to cover her tracks. "I heard the maids gossiping about it while they were cleaning. They were asking if I needed to prep anything for you."

"It's handled," she lied straight to Julian's face without blinking. "They admitted the data error was due to their own negligence and promised they'll be tracking the lab results much closer from now on. There won't be any more slip-ups."

She knew better than to paint too perfect a picture; flawless lies were always the easiest to spot. Having played the corporate survival game for years, she knew exactly how to spin it.

So, she feigned a moment of humble self-reflection. "I've also thought a lot about what you said last time. You were right—it is my responsibility. As their Project Lead, I failed to properly supervise the final data check. But I promise you, Julian, I'll be strictly monitoring them moving forward."

Since she was saying all the right things, Julian had no reason to press further. Lectures were just empty words anyway; he would just have to keep a close eye on her actual results.