The Doormat Wife’s Ultimate Glow-Up novel Chapter 25

Alan frowned. “Mr. Shaw, I think you’ve got Ms. Meyer all wrong. Her skills aren’t up for debate.”

He kept his tone even. “If you don’t trust BlackOak, then there’s really no point in us talking about a partnership.”

Elijah hesitated, then tried to brush it off with a laugh. “Alan, you’ve misunderstood. BlackOak’s reputation is stellar. Why would I ever—”

Alan cut him off, waving a hand. “But you clearly don’t respect Ms. Meyer’s abilities. Mr. Shaw, I think it’s best you go.”

He gestured to the door, making it obvious the meeting was over.

Elijah hadn’t expected Reese to show up and throw a wrench in what should have been a sure thing. But at this point, he knew there was no saving today’s deal. All he could do was glare hard at Reese before storming out, already thinking up her next move.

Reese gave Alan a grateful smile.

Alan patted her shoulder. “No pressure. Just help me get this system running smoothly, and there’ll be plenty of chances for us.”

Later that evening at Moonlight Manor, inside a private room.

Elijah set her wineglass down hard on the table, scowling. “How did I not notice before? Alan from BlackOak is out of his mind.

“He’d really drop Monarch Partners just to defend Reese?

“And Reese just stood there watching Alan reject me. After all these years we’ve known each other!

“She’s just taking the chance to get back at me, thinking I embarrassed her in front of everyone.

“She should take a look at herself. So disgusting!”

Sebastian was sprawled on the sofa, holding a glass of whiskey in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Smoke drifted around his face, making his expression hard to read. He didn’t say anything, just shot Elijah a glance.

Sofia took a sip of her drink, her eyes flicking over to Sebastian. “It’s okay, Elijah. Alan didn’t get BlackOak where it is by being clueless. Maybe there’s been a misunderstanding.

“Or maybe… he’s doing someone a favor by giving Reese some face in front of you.”

Elijah snorted. “A favor? With BlackOak’s status in AI, who does Alan need to impress?”

He paused for a second, then looked over at Sebastian. “Unless… is Reese using Mrs. Ratcliff’s name to throw her weight around town?”

After all, no one in Bridger Lake had more influence than Sebastian.

Sebastian flicked some ash from his cigarette, voice flat. “She wouldn’t dare.”

“Why not?” Elijah muttered. “She already went as far as drugging you. What wouldn’t she do? She’s just trying to use your name to keep her spot at BlackOak.

“She wants to prove she’s better than Sofia and get your attention.

“Honestly, that’s just naive. Does she forget that Sofia is an MIT grad? How could Reese possibly compete?”

He sighed. “It’s all Reese’s fault. If she had any sense, she’d have divorced Sebastian ages ago and spared us all this drama.”

“Don’t say that,” Sofia said softly. “If Reese left Sebastian, things would probably get tough for her. Maybe this is for the best.”

Sebastian still didn’t say a word, just stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, his face unreadable.

Three days later, the headline “Mr. Sebastian Ratcliff Attends Clever Cloud’s Launch to Support Sofia Meyer” shot to the top of the trending searches.

In the photo, Sebastian was standing next to Sofia in a black suit, tall and striking. He didn’t show any emotion, but that was enough to get people talking.

In the BlackOak Tech break room, a few programmers were scrolling through the news.

“Sofia’s new system looks a lot like our traffic platform,” one said.

“So what? Alan already said her version is full of bugs. Ours is on another level, and with that new big shot joining our team, all the loopholes are fixed.”

“Yeah, but she’s lucky. With Mr. Ratcliff backing her, it doesn’t matter if her system’s not as good—she’ll always find partners.”

Reese walked by with her mug, not even slowing down on her way back to her office. Her fingers flew across the keyboard.

On her screen, the 3D simulation of the traffic management system was running. In the virtual city, every car’s route was mapped out with precision, and the congestion warning line was nearly half as long as in the original version.