Chaos in Heels

They entered to find the room already half-full. Board members murmured among themselves, falling silent as the Moreau family took their designated seats. Dominique was already present, looking smugly triumphant in a pristine white suit that Deja immediately fantasized about spilling coffee on.

The Zuo family entered moments later—Mr. and Mrs. Zuo looking grave, Ming professionally neutral, and Lily shooting Deja a subtle thumbs-up. Nai Nai trailed behind, wearing an expression that suggested she was attending an entertaining show rather than a serious business meeting.

Ren was the last to arrive, striding in with a stack of folders and his tablet. He nodded politely to everyone but avoided making eye contact with Deja.

Stick to the plan, she reminded herself, even as she imagined hurling a chair.

The board chairman, Mr. Yao, called the meeting to order. "We are gathered today to address serious concerns regarding the Sandersen project, which has reportedly experienced catastrophic failure due to mismanagement. Additionally, we have documentation suggesting that Miss Deja Moreau deliberately ignored financial red flags and proceeded despite clear warnings."

Dominique leaned forward, all concerned professionalism. "If I may, Chairman Yao, I've prepared a presentation summarizing the issues at hand."

"Please proceed," the chairman nodded.

Deja caught Ren's eye briefly. Here we go

Dominique approached the front of the room with confident steps, connecting her laptop to the projector. "As you'll see from these reports," she began, pulling up a series of damning spreadsheets and graphs, "the Sandersen project has been haemorrhaging money for weeks. Despite clear warnings from the financial department, Deja. Moreau chose to proceed with an experimental approach that industry experts flagged as high-risk."

She clicked through several more slides, each seemingly more damning than the last. "Furthermore, customer satisfaction metrics have plummeted, and our preliminary user testing shows an alarming 87% dissatisfaction rate with the product prototype."

Deja bit her tongue, literally, to keep from interrupting. The numbers were so obviously fabricated that it would have been laughable if the stakes weren't so high.

"In conclusion," Dominique finished smoothly, "while I understand Ms. Moreau is relatively new to her role, this level of incompetence cannot be overlooked. The project requires immediate intervention to salvage what remains of our investment and client relationships."

Mr. Yao nodded gravely. "Thank you, Miss. Duval. This is indeed concerning. Ms. Moreau, do you have anything to say in your defence?"

Deja stood slowly, every eye in the room on her. She took a deep breath, channelling every ounce of corporate poise she could muster.

"Chairman Yao, distinguished board members," Deja began in a tone that was 70% formal, 30% audibly tired of everyone's nonsense, "thank you for the opportunity to respond to these very serious, very creative accusations."

She clasped her hands, tilted her head slightly, and smiled like a kindergarten teacher about to unleash emotional violence. "Now, I could stand here and waste everyone's time by playing defence. Or—I could save us all the agony and call Mr. Ren Zuo to present, you know, the truth. Wild concept. Buckle up."

Dominique's smug expression faltered slightly. "I'm sorry, but these are the official reports—"

"Are they?" Ren interrupted, standing and approaching the front of the room with his materials. "Because according to the official Zuo-Moreau server logs, these reports were created three days after they were supposedly signed off on. Furthermore, they originated from your personal laptop, Ms. Chen."