Her Revenge Contract

Katherine's POV

Half a month had gone quickly, and Xavier and I never spoke about the night with Maggie. I hoped that the old woman was wise enough to know that I wasn't what Emma claimed me to be; even with Xavier's reassuring words, I was still worried. I sat in my office with a pile of assessments on my desk.

"Sophia!" I called her to my office, and she quickly arrived.

I handed her the pile of assessments, and she looked confused at me.

"I need you to decide whether these interns will stay or not," I said. "Pay special attention to this woman," I tapped with my finger on the top file, "named Emma Smit. I want to know how capable she is!"

Sophia opened the file and looked at the photo of Emma.

She flinched, and she looked at me with a bit of shock in her eyes.

"Ms. King," she said, "don't you need to review this yourself?"

I shook my head and chuckled lightly.

"No," I said, "I am afraid that someone will accuse me of being unfair or picky. I'd rather have you look at her and the rest and decide. I can't be involved in this decision."

Emma and I are family after all. If I did the reviews and decided she wasn't staying, she might go around telling everyone that I did it on purpose to get back at her. The employees might think that I was out to bully her because of her father's mistakes. Sophia nodded in understanding and then left toward the HR department.

I called Director Lewis and told him that Sophia was on her way, and I went back to do some work.

Sophia arrived back at the office just before lunchtime and brought the assessment files to me.

I quietly flipped through eighteen odd files, leaving Emma's for last.

"Sophia?" I called as I flipped through Emma's report again and again.

"Emma's orders are complete, but your assessment results are quite different. I don't understand; the contents of the assessments don't match."

Sophia snorted softly and crossed her arms around her chest. She had become more and more open about her ideas and thoughts around me, which was a great help.

"This Emma Smit is manipulating her orders." She said, "I asked her a few random questions in regards to her work, but she couldn't answer any of them."

I lifted my gaze and looked at Sophia.

"What are your thoughts?" I asked.

"I think she is taking credit for work the other interns have done," she answered, her face a bit angry. "I could see the resentment in certain interns' eyes when I interviewed Emma."

I sat back in my chair, thinking.

If Emma was taking credit for the other interns' work, she was deceiving the company.

I would have rather seen Emma's skills underdeveloped so that I could at least decide to give her another chance rather than take credit from other interns. She was acting like Erika in some way.

My gaze found Sophia's. I haven't worked with her for too long, but I respected her opinion.

After thinking about the situation and working through the whole list throughout the afternoon, I finally made up my mind.

I quickly checked the list again and sent it down to HR, then left for home.

The next morning, Sophia's office phone rang, and she put the call through to me.

"Ms. King," Lewis' voice came through the receiver.

"Morning," I said, a bit startled at Lewis' sudden call.

"I have some bad news," he said. "Emma Smit's dismissal notice had been intercepted by one of the directors."

"By who?" I asked, shocked, but before Lewis could answer, my office door swung open.

"By me," the man said, and I dropped the call.

Roger Clarkson was standing in my office.

He had never dared to barge in like this.

My gaze slowly moved over the dark-headed man standing in my doorway. His expression was hard and cold, and his dark brown eyes were almost black.

I breathed hard against his overbearing cologne.

I rose to my feet and lifted my eyebrows at this arrogant man.

John had promoted him weeks before he fled due to winning several big orders, but since I took over the company, I haven't seen any big wins coming from him.

To me, he was a fraud, but when I did some digging into everyone working for the company, I did notice that Roger had a tendency to make friends. He had close relationships with several of the company's directors. In addition, he also managed to get his hands on some high-volume shares, and at the time, it wasn't beneficial for me to move him into any other position.

"Mr. Clarkson," I said, "you really care about the company-even the interns', it seems?"

"I live for the company," he said, "so naturally I care about the company."

Clarkson walked closer, placed his hands on the table, and bent forward. A teasing smile played on the corners of his mouth.

"I think this Emma Smit is a talented person," he said. "Those few orders she did, she completed them well. Why doesn't Ms. King want to permanently employ her?"

"Whether she has talent or not," I said, raising an eyebrow, "is not just based on superficial skills."

I took a seat and leaned back in my swivel chair, then searched for Clarkson's gaze.

"I manage the intern affairs alone," I warned, "and your work focus shouldn't be there."

"But Ms. King," Clarkson argued, "I don't have proper talent in my department. For the sake of the company's performance, shouldn't it be too much to ask to keep Ms. Emma? She has a bright future ahead of her."

The corner of my mouth twitched out of anger.

How dare he use the word performance against me?

I internally sneered and crossed my arms around my chest.

"Since you have made your point," I said, "I will reconsider."

Clarkson seemed to have won a big victory.

He straightened his back and smiled triumphantly.

"Thank you, Ms. King."

Clarkson turned and strode forward. He was about to walk out of the office when I added behind him.

"Mr. Clarkson," I said, and he froze, "I am looking forward to your winning the cooperation case against SEES company next month."

Clarkson's expression darkened immediately. He paused for a second, then walked out without saying anything.

Since he used performance to suppress himself, I could use performance to fight back. Regardless of Clarkson's performance, I was sure to win and gain work for the company.

But when it got to Emma, I wasn't so sure.

Late in the afternoon, Sophia brought news, and I chuckled without any humor.

It turned out that during those last couple of weeks, Clarkson became romantically interested in Emma, and thus Emma found her golden ticket to stay.

I took a sip of my coffee, deep in thought, and Sophia's gaze never left me. She narrowed her eyes, reading me.

"Since you are so worried about that girl called Emma Smit," Sophia said, "why don't you just transfer her directly to Mr. Clarkson's department? Doesn't he believe she has talent? Let Mr. Clarkson personally train her and make her his problem." It was the answer I was waiting for, and I lifted my head to look at Sophia, nodded, and smiled.

"You are absolutely right," I said.

If something happens to Emma in the future, Clarkson will definitely be involved. "Send the letters out," I instructed, taking the last sip of my coffee and smiling. Things were about to become interesting.