The glass shattered, sending shards flying.
The other three jumped back in shock. Rebecca, in her haste, tripped and slammed hard against the wall.
“What kind of design proposal was that? Did you do any site reconnaissance at all? Putting a parking garage entrance on a pedestrian-only street—what were you thinking?”
Mr. Sullivan vented his fury on Rebecca, his voice booming through the private room.
“Why are you so angry? It’s obvious Penelope is just trying to make things difficult for us, finding fault where there is none. If you want to yell at someone, yell at her!” Mrs. Sullivan poured a cup of tea for her husband, but he snatched it from her and smashed it on the floor as well.
“You—!”
Mr. Sullivan, now at his breaking point, shoved his wife hard.
Zebulon rushed forward to catch her and was met with a stinging slap across the face from his father.
“Useless! All of you are useless! I’m telling you, if we lose the KINY Group project, you can all get out of my house!”
Being called useless was more humiliating for Zebulun than the slap, but he couldn’t deny that he had failed.
“Dad, it’s just one entrance. It’s not a huge deal. I’ll talk to Penelope, get her to help us with the revision, and then we’ll sign the contract.”
“Didn’t you see her tonight? She’s clearly settling scores!”
“She’s angry, but she won’t go as far as actually divorcing me. If I sweet-talk her a little, she’ll soften up.”
Mrs. Sullivan couldn’t bear to see her son bow his head. “Our company isn’t going to go bankrupt without this one project. Why should we have to beg her?”
“What do you know?” Mr. Sullivan exploded again. “We took a huge loss on the Azure Cove project! We desperately need this deal to recover. The KINY Group project is a must-win. Otherwise, our company’s cash flow will dry up, and we could face bankruptcy!”
Mrs. Sullivan hadn’t realized the company was in such dire straits. A wave of panic washed over her.
“In that case, Zebulon, you need to coax her. Get her to sign that contract, and then we can deal with her!”
“This is all your fault!” Zebulon said, his voice laced with frustration. “If you hadn’t forced me into this, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”
Penelope stopped by the KINY Group office to meet with the project team and go over the preparations for Monday’s meeting at Zenith Group. It was late when she finally got home.
She found Luna in the process of gathering the things that had been thrown onto the lawn and putting them back in her house.
“Shouldn’t the person who threw them on the ground be the one to pick them up and put them away?”
Luna gave a strained smile. “It’s all the same if I do it for you.”
Just then, Mrs. Sullivan emerged from her house, a placating smile on her face.
“Penelope, come home for dinner tonight. I made that fish stew you like.”
...

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