My Coldhearted Husband'S Regret novel Chapter 38

38 An Unceremonious Welcome

38 An Unceremonious Welcome

The conference room door slammed shut behind Quentin’s dramatic exit, leaving a heavy silence in its wake.

Julian ran his hand through his hair, exhaling deeply. “Well, that was certainly… memorable.” He turned to address the remaining team members, who sat stiff and uncomfortable in their chairs.

“I want to apologize for that unpleasant scene,” Julian said firmly. “Quentin’s behavior was completely unprofessional and doesn’t reflect our company values.”

No one responded. The silence stretched uncomfortably.

Elara stood beside Julian, her face composed despite the humiliation she’d just endured. Her hands were clasped tightly in front of her to hide their slight trembling.

“Look,” Julian continued, his voice taking on a more determined edge, “I understand you all had good working relationships with Quentin. But I need to be absolutely clear

Elara Vance is exceptionally qualified for this position.”

–

A woman with short dark hair in the third row finally spoke up. “With all due respect, Julian, we’ve been through this before. Remember Daniel Thomas? Hired because he was someone’s nephew, and his incompetence nearly cost us the Rhinehart contract.”

Several heads nodded in agreement.

“This is completely different,” Julian insisted. “Elara is brilliant. She developed the core algorithms that YodaVision was built on.”

“Then why doesn’t she have a doctorate?” someone else called out.

Julian’s jaw tightened. “There are reasons for that which I’m not at liberty to discuss. Some of Elara’s best work was for a classified government project.”

The skeptical expressions around the room made it clear they weren’t convinced.

A tall man with glasses leaned forward. “Julian, we respect you, but this feels like favoritism, Vivienne Dubois had every qualification on paper.”

01:15

1/6

<

38 An Unceremonious Welcome

“Sometimes paper qualifications don’t tell the whole story,” Julian replied. His gaze swept across the room. “I’m asking you all to give Elara a chance to prove herself before making judgments.”

More uncomfortable silence followed.

Julian turned to a young man sitting in the front row. “Yandel, you were working with Quentin on the neural network optimization project, correct?”

Yandel Sanchez nodded reluctantly. “Yes, we were scheduled to present our progress report next week.”

“Good. Elara will take over Quentin’s responsibilities on that project,” Julian decided. “Can you bring her up to speed on where things stand?”

Yandel’s expression tightened, but he nodded again. “Of course.”

Julian turned to Elara. “Is that acceptable to you?”

Elara nodded calmly. “Yes, I’d be happy to step in.”

“Excellent.” Julian checked his watch. “I need to deal with the situation downstairs. The rest of you, please return to your tasks. Yandel, if you could spare an hour now to brief Elara, I’d appreciate it.”

As Julian headed for the door, the other team members began gathering their things. Their glances toward Elara ranged from curious to openly hostile.

Elara took a deep breath and stepped forward. “I know this is an awkward situation. I appreciate your patience as I get settled in. I hope we can work well together, and I welcome any guidance you can offer.”

Her polite words were met with stiff nods and mumbled acknowledgments. No one quite met her eyes. A few people stepped deliberately wide around her as they left the conference room.

Within minutes, only Elara and Yandel remained. The young man closed his laptop with a controlled snap.

“We should go to Quentin’s office,” he said, his voice professionally neutral. “All the project files are there,”

01:15

2/6

<

38 An Unceremonious Welcome

Elara nodded. “Lead the way.”

They walked in silence through the corridor. Conversations hushed as they passed, only to resume in whispers once they were beyond earshot.

Quentin’s office was meticulous – every item precisely placed, the desk surface clear except for a sleek laptop and a single notepad.

“You can use this desk until IT sets up your own space,” Yandel said, gesturing to the chair. “Quentin was very… particular about his organization system.”

Elara set her purse on the floor beside the desk. “Thank you, Yandel. I appreciate you taking time to help me transition.”

Yandel’s expression remained closed, but he nodded. “I’ll transfer the relevant files to you now.”

As he connected Quentin’s laptop to the network, Elara studied him. He was younger than most of the other team members, probably in his late twenties. His precise movements and careful maintenance of professional distance told her everything she needed to know – he had respected Quentin and viewed her as an unwelcome interloper.

“The project involves optimizing neural network responsiveness for real-time applications,” Yandel explained, pulling up several complex diagrams. “We were hitting a wall with the latency issues.”

Elara leaned forward, immediately spotting a potential issue in the architecture. “May I?” she asked, gesturing toward the keyboard.

Yandel hesitated, then slid the laptop toward her.

Elara quickly navigated through the code, finding the section she suspected was causing problems. “I see the issue. You’re using a traditional sequential processing model, but for this application, you might want to consider a parallel architecture with distributed nodes.”

She typed quickly, changing several lines of code, then ran a simulation. The response time immediately improved by 15%.

01:15

3/6

38 An Unceremonious Welcome

Yandel’s eyebrows rose slightly. “That’s… actually impressive.”

“It’s a common problem,” Elara said modestly. “I’ve encountered similar issues before.”

For the next forty minutes, they went through the project details. Gradually, Yandel’s responses became less terse, though he maintained his professional distance.

When they finished, Elara looked at him directly. “Thank you for your patience, Yandel. I know this can’t be easy. Quentin was obviously respected here.”

Yandel packed up his tablet, his expression carefully neutral. “Quentin is brilliant. He taught me a lot.”

“I’m not here to replace him or diminish his contributions,” Elara said quietly. “I’m just here to do good work.”

Yandel paused at the door. “Ms. Vance… I don’t know what happened with you and Vivienne Dubois, or why Julian chose you over her. But Quentin was right about one thing – people here will judge you based on results.”

“That’s fair,” Elara replied. “I wouldn’t expect anything else.”

Yandel nodded, his expression softening slightly. “The team meeting is at nine tomorrow morning. The project files I sent include our latest progress report. You should review it before then.”

As Yandel left, Elara sank into Quentin’s ergonomic chair. The office felt foreign, hostile even – like she was trespassing in someone else’s territory. Which, in a way, she

was.

She glanced at the photos on Quentin’s desk – one showing him with what appeared to be research colleagues, another with him shaking hands with a well-known tech innovator. Evidence of a career built on hard work and legitimate credentials.

Elara turned to the computer and began reviewing the project files. The complex algorithms were exactly the kind of challenge she’d been missing during her years away from the field. Despite the hostile reception, a small thrill ran through her as she immersed herself in the work.

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify