Chapter 479
Chapter 479
Fate was truly a cruel joke. Shaking her head, Noelle sobbed harder, but Finnian simply turned his face away, refusing to even look at her.
With no other option, she turned and dragged herself toward the door.
Her legs felt like jelly; every step required every ounce of her strength. Stepping out of the office, she slumped against the wall, using the back of her hand to frantically wipe the tear tracks from her cheeks.
Ignoring the blatant, gossiping stares of the assistants nearby, she looked back at the closed door. What was she even hoping for? Did she seriously think he was going to come chasing after her like he used to?
Inside the office, Finnian sat motionless on the sofa, staring at the closed door.
Outside the window, the sun had finally set, bringing with it the harsh bite of early winter. He closed his eyes, then slowly opened them again. It was time to say a permanent goodbye to the past.
He looked down at his tightly clenched fists, slowly uncurling his fingers. He realized he was holding onto absolutely nothing-not the past, not the present, and certainly not the future.
Standing up, he lit a cigarette and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window. He watched the final sliver of the sunset, a thin line of crimson and gold on the horizon, staring blankly until the light faded completely into the dark.
For an entire week following that confrontation, Noelle stayed away.
Naturally, Finnian didn’t reach out to her, either.
However, a sudden crisis soon dragged Noelle into an even more destructive downward spiral.
At 7:30 PM, she received a phone call that sent her collapsing into her
Chapter 479
chair, her face draining of all color. Before she even had a second to process her shock, her phone rang again-headquarters was demanding her immediate presence.
She had just slammed into her first catastrophic hurdle since taking over Aethelstan Biopharma. As the head of the company, she couldn’t run and
hide.
The atmosphere in the conference room was incredibly heavy, carrying the oppressive weight of an impending hurricane.
The round table was packed with the conglomerate’s senior executives, the legal team, and the finance department. Every single person looked
grim.
Aethelstan’s vice presidents and department heads had also rushed over, their heads buried in the thick stacks of damage reports in front of them.
Sitting at the head of the table for the Aethelstan faction, Noelle had a copy of the report right in front of her. She didn’t bother opening it. Her mind was entirely blank, frantically calculating just how much of the blame was going to land squarely on her shoulders.
The meeting had been going for over half an hour when Finnian finally walked in, taking the central seat of authority.
The head of finance quickly summarized the financial damages and liability assessments again for Finnian’s benefit. Within minutes, Finnian fired back with a series of piercing questions that left the finance director stammering, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
Noelle sat there, listening as if they were discussing something that had absolutely nothing to do with her. She bit her lower lip, her complexion ashen. She looked like a wilting flower that had been completely cut off from its life source.
Finnian glanced at her twice, his jaw tight. After listening to everyone’s reports, he spoke, his voice heavy with authority. “The conglomerate wil! absorb the financial hit, but there will be accountability, and the core
Chapter 479
issues must be resolved immediately. I will not tolerate a repeat of this failure.”
He paused, his gaze sweeping across the room before landing directly on Noelle. “Before coming in here, I met with the board of directors. They have officially decided to suspend Noelle Lawrence from her position as the head of Aethelstan.”
The moment the words left his mouth, a dead silence fell over the room.
Seconds later, people began exchanging loaded glances and whispering among themselves. Almost every set of eyes locked onto Noelle.
She sat rigidly in her chair, her fingers gripping the report so tightly her
knuckles turned white.
She desperately tried to maintain her dignity. She wanted to arrange her features into an expression of profound remorse, but she couldn’t manage it, leaving her face looking like a blank, emotionless mask.
Her gaze instinctively drifted to the handsome man sitting at the head of the table. In the past, whenever she had felt anxious or terrified, he had always been her impenetrable shield and her ultimate source of comfort.
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