章 17: The CEO Saved The Morning
Irene did not stay long enough to see the result of her little scheme, not that Garrett Davies would smack some sense into his daughter for public eyes' enjoyment.
What she, and most probably a lot of other people noticed, was that the Davies Group did not post pictures of the ball until three days later.
Even then, there was not a single picture of Garrett Davies or his daughter past 10 PM.
On the Monday following the Davies Group ball, Chris Henderson excused himself for the whole morning. And then he disappeared the whole afternoon.
And then he reported being sick for three consecutive days.
On the fourth day, he showed up at work with a huge bruise on his left eye.
Irene presumed that he looked a lot worse when he first, allegedly, "fell from the stairs".
He also started showing up on Wednesday. No more business trips to the branch offices.
After Irene finished ending up the affair between Chris Henderson and a rich young heiress, she moved to the next item on her agenda: exposing Chris' act of nepotism.
That was when acting as a shadow CEO became extremely useful.
Irene happily typed an email to demand an impromptu audit by the Internal Audit Department to check the legitimacy of all supplier contracts. Naturally, the legal documents must be checked as well.
Unless the Internal Audit Department was colluding with Chris Henderson, which was extremely unlikely, Chris' crime would come to the surface.
After Irene clicked the send button, she leaned back in her chair and twirled around on her seat. A soft ding sound made her sit up straight within a split second.
The Internal Audit Manager, Mr. Wilkins, appeared from behind the elevator doors, and he did not look very happy. The man closed the distance between them in long strides.
"Miss Gallagher," he nodded at her with a grim expression. "I wish to meet with the CEO."
Well, the CEO was not there. And Irene knew exactly why Mr. Wilkins showed up at the topmost floor so early in the morning.
Irene rose to her feet with a smile.
"Good morning, Mr. Wilkins. I regret to inform you that the CEO is not in his office."
Silas Wilkins was close to blowing up.
"Typical!" he shouted. "The boss knows nothing about what is going on on the ground floor but he orders random audits just because he has nothing to do!"
Truthfully, Irene only needed the team to do an audit on a single company, the BerryLemon. But what would it look like if she specifically targeted this one company?
Even if she could kick BerryLemon out of Primavera and ruin Chris' little scheme, it would draw Chris' attention to her.
Chris never forgot a slight, and there was so much more that Irene wanted to spoil for him. She could not afford to be found out so early in the game.
"I am sorry for the inconvenience, Mr. Wilkins. If there is anything that I can help with..."
The Internal Audit Manager scoffed with disdain.
"I am here to give him a piece of my mind. If you want to help, why don't you just get him here and..."
Silas Wilkins' words were cut by the soft ding sound that announced another person's arrival. Irene swallowed hard.
It was not easy to handle two angry men, that was for sure. She needed to think about something, and fast.
Unexpectedly, the door opened and revealed Damian Henderson instead.
Once he got to see Damian with his own eyes, Silas' initial rage dissipated into thin air. His jaw dropped open in surprise.
"Mr. Henderson, Sir," he greeted him while throwing him incredulous looks.
"Silas," Damian nodded at him while he marched in their direction. "What is going on? You seem... restless."
Damian's early return to the office could be both good news and bad news. The good news was that once Silas Wilkins got to see the CEO himself, he might just decide to retreat and do his job begrudgingly. Or...
"I am here to question your latest order to do a full audit on the supplier contracts," Silas Wilkins demanded, to Irene's greatest dismay.
Damian's eyes shifted to Irene for a fleeting moment before they returned to Silas.
"And what about it?"
Irene almost sighed out of relief.
Silas Wilkins glared at Damian.
"Mr. CEO, I just want to tell you that the auditing team already has their agenda packed full until the end of the year. You cannot just come and demand random audits. It will ruin all of our meticulous planning!!!"
"Hm, is that so? Then, can you perform a document audit on, let's say three companies for now?"
Silas' mouth dropped open in amazement.
"That... yes. If it's only three companies for now."
Damian walked into his office and dropped his briefcase on his practically empty desk.
"Start with Lady's Note, Musk, and BerryLemon."
Irene's heart jumped with delight. She did not care who tipped Damian off, but it seemed that he was not too nonchalant about being a CEO after all.
Silas Wilkins hurried back to his floor to return to his busy schedule, while Irene went to make Damian the best cup of coffee ever to reward her boss for saving her ass.
Looking at Damian's sullen and weary expression, he did not just come from a holiday in Guam. There were even distinct dark circles around his eyes.
"Thanks," he said while sipping on the cup of coffee that Irene served him.
He did not make any complaints. That either meant that Irene finally made decent coffee or he was simply too tired to comment. It was good enough for Irene.
Damian glanced at his wristwatch.
It was a vintage watch with a gilt dial. A piece of beauty from the 90s, if Irene was not mistaken. Unfortunately, there was a hideous crack across the glass.
When Damian sensed Irene's eyes on his watch, he covered it with his hand. Irene lifted her eyes and gazed into Damian's stunning blue eyes.
"Irene, get me the general manager, Chris Henderson."
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