Chapter 18

Maisie looked at her with her arms crossed. “Why don’t you direct that question of yours to your boyfriend? Why are you asking me that?” ‘This sounds absolutely absurd. She makes it sound like I’ve snatched her man from her.’ Willow’s face turned pale due to the rage. “Maisie Vanderbilt, you won’t be preening yourself for long, just you wait!” She flung her arm and left after leaving such a threat behind. Maisie squinted her eyes as she gazed at Willow leaving the scene. ‘Who will be the triumphant one in the end? That’s still unknown.’ At Maisie’s office… Maisie was sitting in front of the computer surfing the Internet, and suddenly a staff member walked in in a hurry. “Ms. Zora, something has happened!” Maisie raised her head calmly upon seeing that she was so nervous. “What’s the matter?” “A few customers bought our jewelry in the store and found that they were all fakes. They’ve tracked the origin of the jewelry to our company and are now in our office building. The employees of the purchasing department said that the raw materials were acquired according to your order.” After she finished explaining, Maisie lowered her eyes, turned off her computer, and got up. “Let’s go and take a look.” In the lobby, the few guests, who had come to the office angrily due to the fake jewelry, had created a stir. “Vaenna Jewelry has been in the business for decades, and yet you’re manufacturing fakes. Do you still want to be in business?” “This pearl bracelet costs a few thousand dollars. I went to other stores to inspect them and found out that they’re fake pearls. Are you trying to con your customers just because of your reputation now?” A lady threw the bracelet on the table agitatedly. “We’ll see if your jewelry business can survive when I expose this matter to the public!” Willow and her secretary walked out of the crowd. She walked up to her and comforted her with a smile. “Madam, calm down. We’ve already communicated with our purchasing department. There must be some misunderstanding regarding this matter.” “Misunderstanding?” The lady pointed to the bracelet’s box. “Take a look at that! It’s clearly bought in your store, and I still have the receipt from your store. The evidence is conclusive!” Willow was very calm. “Madam, our products have never been found out to be fraudulent. There must be some issues with the supplier’s materials. Don’t worry, I’ll ask our designer about the source of our materials when she’s here. If it’s found out to be fake—” “I’ll double the compensation.” Maisie’s voice sounded, and everyone’s gaze fell on her, who arrived at the scene slightly late. Maisie walked to the counter, picked up the pearl bracelet, and took a glance at it. “These are indeed fake pearls.” “See, I told you it’s fake!” The lady became even more confident. Willow looked at her, “Zee, you ordered all these materials, and the purchasing department also purchased the materials according to the order slip that you placed, but why are there fakes?” After Willow finished speaking, the secretary behind her took out the order that she had gotten from the purchasing department and handed it to Maisie. Maisie skimmed through the slip and smiled. “This is indeed the order slip that I handed them.” “Zee, did you do this to ruin Vaenna’s reputation? You’re deceiving our customers!” The lady glared at Maisie. “You’re the one who purchased these fakes? You’re so wicked. Why open up stores? Pay me back the money that I’ve lost!” “Yes, pay her back!” “If you don’t give us an explanation today, we’ll bring this matter to court, saying that Vaenna Jewelry is selling fake jewelry to deceive customers!” Willow was secretly preening herself. ‘Maisie, we’ll see how you get to stay in Vaenna!’ “What’s wrong this time around?” Nolan and Quincy appeared in the crowd. Willow walked up to him aggrievedly as soon as she saw Nolan. “Nolan, we’ve found fakes in Vaenna again, but Zee is responsible for the acquisition of the rough diamonds and raw materials this time.” Seeing Nolan, the lady stepped forward hurriedly and complained, “Mr. Goldmann, you might not know this, but I’ve bought fake pearls from Vaenna for thousands of dollars. So please reason this out for me. This is a huge jewelry company, a brand that has existed for decades, so how can it sell fake jewelry to deceive customers?” Nolan’s gaze was fixed on Maisie. He walked toward her and said in a cold tone, “You’re responsible for the purchase of raw materials. Give them an explanation.”