Mr. Billionaire, I'm Back!

Chapter 18: To Admit Or Not To Admit

Mike glared at Joanna for a second, and then he said, "Joanna, I am deeply concerned about your competence. If you cannot handle the vice general manager position, you should get the hell out of the company!"

Mike knew what his employees said about him behind his back, but he didn't care about his reputation. All he cared about was the promise that he'd made to Sarah.

Joanna was at a loss for words. She honestly didn't know what she had done to make Mike so unhappy. Fortunately, she was able to keep her head. She didn't panic. She said, "Mr. Devine, please tell me what I have done to make you dissatisfied."

Mike looked furious. He clenched and unclenched his fists, took a deep breath, and said, "You still didn't know what you've done. That's hard to believe. You should have finished reviewing the contract for sending materials to Arkan yesterday, and then given it to me for my approval, but you did not. Do you know what your little "mistake" has cost us? The workers in Arkan couldn't start working because they didn't receive the materials they needed, and it may now be impossible to hand over our building materials to our partners on time!"

Arkan, a branch of Devine's, was a company that mainly manufactured building materials. If the raw materials could not be delivered to them in time, they couldn't make building materials. The papers required Joanna's approval before Mike's approval. Once that was done, the raw materials could be delivered to Arkan.

Mike: "Do you know that the company could lose 30 million dollars because we didn't give them the raw materials on time? Will you make up the difference? Are you that rich? I highly doubt it!"

Joanna frowned, and in disbelief, she said she said, "I don't know what to say to you. I am sorry that the company will lose 30 million dollars. That is a lot of money, but I'm not at all convinced that it is my fault. I signed the document yesterday and asked Kris to give it to you."

Mike looked more furious than before. "So, Kris gave it to me," he said. "Are you are saying that I was the one who made the mistake? And now I am passing the blame on to you? Is that the story that you want to go with?"

Joanna thought that it was, but she knew better than to say so outright. "Mr. Devine," she said, "I am just stating a fact. I did sign it yesterday, and I did give it to Ken."

"Enough!" Mike roared. "Joanna, the company will lose money because you made a mistake. Now you are acting like a victim. If you think that you can deceive me and all the employees in the company, I'll tell you right now that that's not going to happen!"

Kris could hear Mike's yelling outside the office, and she was overjoyed. She muttered under her breath: "Joanna, your enemies are powerful, and you have no chance of escaping from the trap we've set."

In the office, Joanna said to Mike: "You think that I'm pretending to be innocent, but you're wrong. I really am innocent."

"As if," Mike sneered. "I thought that if you admitted your mistakes, I could give you a second chance. If you refuse to admit your mistakes, though, I have no choice but to fire you!"

Joanna thought about what Mike said - You want me to admit to mistakes that I never made so that you can give me a second chance? But wasn't it part of your plan all along to get me out of the company? That is why this is happening. But Mike, why is it that you are so eager to get rid of me? Is it you? Or is it Sarah? "If I am guilty," she said, "where is the evidence?"

"Ask yourself," Mike replied, and then he and Molly left the office. Then, as he passed through the doorway, he turned back and said, "Joanna, you said that you processed that document and gave it to Ken. You said you were innocent. I'll get the evidence to prove that you're guilty! Molly will find it for me!"

Joanna wanted to say something, but she didn't know what to say. After all, anything she said was in vain since no one would believe her anyway.

Joanna felt everyone's eyes on her as she returned to her office. All of her coworkers knew what had happened, and she was embarrassed. Then, as she sat down, a stream of employees entered her office and began rifling through her things. Mike and Molly came in last.

Molly went straight for Joanna's desk, and Joanna said, "I don't think you should go through my desk."

"Why's that?" Mike sneered.

"If Molly goes through my desk," Joanna replied, "it will mess up all of my documents. I'll have to fix them later, which will be very time-consuming."

Kris almost laughed out loud when she heard Joanna's shitty excuse. "You are just afraid of being exposed!"

Mike looked at Joanna, and he was surprised by how calm she was. He was convinced that Joanna was pretending to be calm, but she was actually afraid. That being said, he had to admit, at least to himself, that the charade was convincing. Little did he know that Joanna was not panicked at all. She was calm, relaxed, and collected. She smiled and said, "Afraid? Why would I be afraid? I did nothing wrong."

Mike: "What a stubborn person!"

Molly stopped when she reached the front of Joanna's desk. She turned to Mike because she didn't know if she should continue. Molly waited for Mike's permission, and then her search began. Before she could do much damage, though, Joanna pushed her aside and said, "This is my desk, and I haven't given you permission to search it. Thus, you have no right!"

Molly paused because she didn't know if she was allowed to push Joanna away or not. Even the employees next to them thought that Joanna was guilty, but nobody knew about her legal rights. Mike scowled and asked Joanna, "What are you trying to hide? Look at you! You're guilty as f**k. It's written all over your face for everyone to see."