"How could I get lost here?" Hayley Cole tapped the ground with her toes, her mood gloomy and listless, head hanging, "James, I’m sorry I couldn’t help you this time with the bid."

"Don’t say that." James Reed chuckled, "This wasn’t your decision. It’s because those people misunderstood you, which turned our bid into a losing one."

"It has nothing to do with you." The more indifferent James Reed was in comforting her, the more upset Hayley Cole felt inside, "Even if you didn’t win the bid, why did Sophie Wilson’s company win? Is Charles Seymour really that formidable?"

Hayley Cole asked James Reed, unwilling to accept it.

James Reed moved his lips, seeming to want to say something but ultimately held back, saying nothing.

His hesitancy made a thought flash quickly through Hayley Cole’s mind, but it was too fast to grasp.

"James, what are you trying to say?" Unable to figure it out, Hayley Cole asked directly.

"Hmm, it’s nothing." James Reed smiled gently, "Let’s go back and pack up, and head home in a bit."

"No, you tell me first! What were you about to say?" Hayley Cole’s temper flared up, and when that happened, she wouldn’t listen to anyone.

James Reed looked at Hayley Cole with a complex expression, then said, "Hayley, my brother knows some big shots who came out of the training camp, but that’s only through the connections of my uncle."

"My uncle used to be in the training camp, but he’s retired now. He can’t possibly have so much influence as to sway the decision of a branch chairman and a vice chairman." James Reed stopped there, not elaborating further. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Hayley Cole furrowed her brows, still unable to understand what James Reed meant: "If Charles Seymour doesn’t have this ability, then who does? You’re not trying to tell me it’s Sophie Wilson, are you? What skills does she have?"

"Just because she’s the boss of Lingzhu Jewelry? Isn’t that a joke? What connection could a jewelry store possibly have with a training camp?" Hayley Cole scoffed, "They’re completely unrelated."

"No, it’s supposed to be..." James Reed started but then shook his head with a smile, "Forget it, none of that matters, let’s just go back."

"No way, you must clarify this today!" Hayley Cole was not having it; this matter had embarrassed her so much, made her lose face in front of James Reed. If she didn’t get to the bottom of this, she wouldn’t let it go!

"Hayley, have you ever considered that the chairman did this?" James Reed carefully probed.

"My dad?" Hayley Cole hadn’t considered this possibility at all.

In her eyes, her stepfather was even more imposing and scary than her brother. Ever since she entered the Cole Family, she seldom saw him, he was always busy.

In the beginning, he would scold her.

After she acted up a few times, he stopped saying anything unnecessary to her.

If not for his attitude, she wouldn’t have such a strong aversion to the Cole Family. She always thought that even if their relationship wasn’t close, at least they were family.

Now it seemed, it was all just her wishful thinking!

"How could that be?" Hayley Cole asked incredulously, "What reason would he have for doing that?"

Wasn’t he indifferent to her affairs?

Why would he sabotage her from behind?

"Maybe it’s because you wanted me to win the bid, so Chairman Cole got upset." James Reed said with a helpless, bitter smile.