Chapter 2

He froze, then quickly smiled. "I know you too well, it's just the pregnancy hormones acting up, and if I really go home, you'll be unhappy again."

I smiled without saying anything and stopped dwelling on the topic, because Ethan would never be willing to leave just like that.

So I wasn't in a hurry either.

I pressed the intercom. "Notify the project department that we're having a meeting in ten minutes!"

Seeing this, Ethan was instinctively surprised. "A project department meeting, honey, the current projects have basically all been finalized, so calling a meeting halfway through might be a little…"

"The Starlight project has been going on for three months, as far as I know, and I already gave them a final warning before I got pregnant, but now I'm already three full months pregnant, and there has been no progress at all!"

"If I don't put some pressure on them, they won't take it seriously."

"All right, Vice President Clark, get ready to come with me now."

I deliberately emphasized his job title.

Although Ethan was dissatisfied, he had no choice but to follow me to the conference room.

When we arrived, several members of the project team came in one after another, and I glanced at Mr. Blake. "Who else hasn't arrived?"

"Project Team Two hasn't arrived yet, which is the team Mia Collins belongs to."

Hearing that, I couldn't help laughing. "Just because Mia Collins was fired, does that mean the entire Project Team Two isn't coming?"

Mr. Blake stammered, and I said softly, "Fire every employee in Project Team Two."

"Honey!"

"There is no honey here, only superiors and subordinates, so please address me by my title."

Ethan clenched his fists, and the veins on the back of his hand bulged before he finally said after a long while, "Ms. Sterling, Project Team Two has been following up on Starlight for three months, and if they're all fired, I'm afraid it will shake the foundation."

"The Sterling family does not need useless people, and three months without any result on a project proves they never put their hearts into it, so fire them all and pay whatever compensation should be paid, and since they're so unhappy about Mia Collins being fired, they can simply join her in unemployment."

"Mr. Blake, starting today, you will be demoted to an ordinary secretary."

"Hand your work over to Grace Reed!"

Mr. Blake froze, but when he met my gaze, he couldn't say anything more and could only silently nod before sitting to the side.

Then I waved my hand. "An ordinary secretary is not qualified to attend a project department meeting, so leave first, and now the meeting begins!"

I acted swiftly and decisively, questioning everyone about every task from the past three months, and everyone realized with surprise that even though I had been at home waiting to give birth, nothing I should have known had escaped me.

I even knew clearly about all the little tricks they had played behind the scenes.

From their initial dismissive attitude, everyone gradually became serious.

Twenty minutes after the meeting ended, HR quickly issued the layoff list, causing a huge uproar in the company.

The people from Project Team Two rushed into my office. "Ms. Sterling, what exactly is going on, is it just because I didn't attend the meeting?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Give me a reasonable reason for not attending the meeting, and that reason has to be convincing enough for me!"

They looked at one another, and one of them flushed. "We had a reason, because we were contacting the client."

I scoffed and shook my phone.

"I just finished speaking with Mr. Preston from Starlight, and he told me that in the past three months, you called him fewer than three times, so with the Starlight project stalled for so long, did you fulfill your responsibility?"

"I handed this project to you, and this is how you report back to me, yet now that you're facing me, you're still lying, so what is wrong with me firing you, and if you have any issues, you can go to arbitration or file a lawsuit, and I'll see it through to the end!"

"If there is nothing else now, you may leave!"