Without bickering with May any further, Xyla turned around and started walking upstairs.
“Xyla Quest, I won’t let you off the hook! Just you wait! Emily and I won’t be defeated by you this easily!” May murmured to herself in a murderous tone.
After returning to her room, Xyla poured herself a glass of red wine and began observing the snowy view outside from her balcony. The layer of snow on the red plum tree seemed so thick that it might cause one of its branches to snap. Against the fully white surrounding, the slight dash of red appeared unusually striking.
After taking a sip of the red wine, Xyla could not help but think about Emily.
This should have been the happiest moment in Emily’s life because it was the night of her wedding. However, this was perhaps the beginning of Emily’s nightmare.
Xyla had once experienced falling from the highest high to the lowest low. She knew all too well how painful it was.
When Xyla thought of this, the painful memories began replaying in her mind all over again. The expression on Xyla’s face turned increasingly cold.
She believed Tom Sullivan was in an equally disastrous situation.
***
Meanwhile, in the Sullivan family’s house.
“Tom Sullivan! Are you even a human being? For the sake of profits, you went as far as using expired ingredients and bribing the quality assurance staff. How did I teach you in the past? Didn’t I tell you that the most important part about producing consumer products is integrity? The matter of food safety is related to the well-being of all citizens of the nation!”
“The most important thing about running a business is to maintain our integrity. What have you done? You ignored everything l said! Now, you got us into a huge trouble! Because of you, the Sullivan family’s stock price has plummeted! Since the appearance of the negative media, we have lost billions of dollars! What have I, Tony Sullivan, done to deserve a useless b*stard like you?!” Tony Sullivan pointed angrily at the stock pattern of the Sullivan Food Group in the phone on the coffee table.
While he glared coldly at Tom, who was now kneeling on the ground, he continued reprimanding him.
Emily, Bailey, Mary, and Julian observed silently nearby.
The living room felt so cold that each of them shivered.
“Dad, I’m sorry,” Tom said in fright.
Tom thought he had kept everything hidden from sight. He never expected what he did to be exposed like this. Although it was not his intention to earn profits at all costs, he truly wanted to prove himself too badly.
Tom’s father always liked to compare him to his older brother’s past performance. Tony was always saying how Tom’s older brother performed very well when he was the CEO and how he did a better job than Tom.
Tom never felt good listening to these things.
“Sorry? Do you think a simple sorry will solve everything that has happened? If we can’t get through this catastrophe, we’ll go bankrupt! We are receiving one bad news after another. Dragon Group had just informed us that they would like to withdraw their investments. Their decision to do so, coupled with the negative media we are facing now, has severely impacted our company. If what you did had not been exposed, we could still deal with Dragon Group’s withdrawal of investments. However, I’m afraid it won’t be that easy for us now,” Tony said with an increasingly cold facial expression.
He wished he could kill Tom right now.
Tony used to think of Tom as a capable person. In the end, he turned out to be a heartless and useless man.
“I thought it would all go well. As long as we kept things hidden, nobody would find out. Moreover, my factory isn’t the only one that uses expired ingredients. Many other factories in the country are doing the same thing. Aren’t they all fine? I’ve been doing it for a year, and nothing has happened to anyone. To be honest, the food has gone through a high-temperature sterilization process. Even if there were bacteria in the ingredients, they would have been killed in the process. Although we used expired ingredients, most of the products meet the required standard during the quality checks,” Tom explained carefully.
The more Tony listened to Tom’s explanations, the angrier he became. Finally, Tony could no longer hold back as he picked up a teacup and smashed it against Tom’s forehead.
