Nathaniel hung up the phone and took a cigarette break before entering the house. Inside, Melanie was
sitting on the sola, peeling an orange. Before putting it into her mouth, she ensured the orange was
free of all pithis. “Something wrong?” Melanie asked as she noticed he had a pained expression. She
cleaned up the mess on the table, wiped her hands, and sat up. Nathaniel shook his head, indicating
that he rather not talk about it.
“Even if you don‘t tell me, I could guess. I heard a thing or two when you were on the phone. Lily was
the one who leaked the information about our perfume, right?” Melanie was good at reading people as
if she was filled with wisdom.
Since Melanie had overheard his conversation with Lily, he decided not to keep it from her anymore.
He heaved a heavy sigh, walked to the fridge to get a can of beer, and downed it.
“Why are you so angry when she‘s the one who leaked the information? She‘s just asking for trouble. If
that‘s what she wants, then let her be,” Melanie said nonchalantly.
She did not think it was a huge problem. Ever since the formula of their perfume was leaked the last
time, Melanie lad honestly stopped caring
It was true that the awards she had received were all because of those perfumes, but it was Lily who
invented them. Melanie did not participate in any research or production, so she knew nothing about
the formula. Her value to the company diminished after the award show.
After utilizing her as a marketing tool, their primary concern was making money. Following the fallout
with Lily, Melanie knew MN Inc. could not rely on its past perfume lines alone. They needed to come up
with a novel approach to retain their clients.
“It‘s easy for you to say, but where can we get proos? We have no evidence that Lily leaked those
formulas. The key thing now is not to blame her but salvage this situation,” Nathaniel explained his
reasoning to Melanie.
Nathaniel felt like his head was about to explode. The board was already after him, so he needed to
come up with a solution as soon as possible. They were already dissatisfied with him because of the
company‘s previous production line crisis.
Although the relationship problem between Melanie, him, and Lily was private, the board of directors
warned him to maintain a positive image for the company. The shareholders were older men with a
conservative mindset. Nathaniel needed to ensure they were still happy with him to keep his position as
the director of MN Inc.
“Aren‘t we already producing our new product?” Melanie placed her hands around Nathaniel‘s
shoulders and leaned on him. “We could always tell the board that a new product line is in the works
and is sure to be a hit with women. The company will make twice as much by then, so the loss we‘re
currently experiencing won‘t matter much. “Besides, the public is already bored with our past lines, and
sales aren‘t doing well either. If the forinulas were leaked, so be it. Let‘s use this opportunity to do some
PR and improve our company‘s image,” Melanie suggested. “What do you mean?” Nathaniel frowned.
“If we can‘t prove that Lily leaked the information, we could say we did it ourselves to stimulate healthy
competition in the industry. The goal was to share confidential information in order to develop superior
versions of our products. Since the damage is done, we might as well try to improve our image. Just
think of it as Lily helping us instead,” she concluded.
After listening to Melanie, Nathaniel felt enlightened and nodded in agreement, “You‘re right! That‘s a
great idea!”
“Don‘t worry too much about it. The most important thing now is to get our new products out into the
market is soon as possible. Which our products become a hit, we no longer have to fear Lily of our
formulas being leaked! Lily‘s just a nobody. She won‘t be able to cause much commotion,” Melanie said
confidently.
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