Chapter 349

Giselle stood frozen, utterly speechless. She never imagined even Damien Harrington couldn't fix this mess.

Her voice trembled as she protested, "This makes no sense! How can Camille Hartwell and Gabriel Ashcroft drag us to court and cancel our partnership over some harmless teasing? That's ridiculous!"

Selene Lancaster's expression darkened. "I had our legal team review the contract between Vertex Dynamics and NovaSight Labs Co. Clause 12 explicitly allows termination if either party damages the other's reputation."

"But this incident barely scratches their reputation!" Giselle argued desperately.

"Normally, yes," Selene admitted through gritted teeth. "A public apology and compensation would've sufficed. But—"

Malcolm Lancaster cut in sharply. "If you'd forced Giselle to apologize immediately when this started, Gabriel wouldn't have grounds to terminate. Instead, you defended the insult and accused Camille of overreacting when she stood up for her team."

He slammed his palm on the table. "You handed Gabriel the perfect justification to claim breach of trust. In business, sometimes all it takes is one well-timed conflict blown out of proportion to achieve an agenda."

Giselle swallowed hard. "But Selene apologized to Camille as soon as she realized—"

"And now it looks like damage control," Malcolm snapped. "Too little, too late. They'll argue we only apologized because termination hurts us."

Giselle's throat went dry.

"Is Gabriel absolutely refusing to reconsider?" Malcolm demanded. "There must be some way to salvage this."

Their only hope was changing either Camille or Gabriel's mind. The former seemed impossible, but perhaps the latter...

Selene shook her head. "He was adamant on the phone." The unspoken truth hung heavy in the room - Gabriel was doing this for Camille.

They had nothing to offer him. Not even Damien's influence had swayed him. The termination would devastate Vertex Dynamics.

Despite Gabriel's firm stance, Selene wasn't ready to surrender. She called repeatedly that evening, getting only voicemail. The next morning, she went to NovaSight Labs Co. to intercept him.

Camille arrived first, spotting Selene in the lobby. Their eyes locked. Selene's hands clenched into fists, her expression icy. She'd underestimated Camille this time. Never again.

Without acknowledgment, Camille turned and entered the elevator.

Declan Vaughn arrived shortly after, noticing Selene immediately. He'd heard about yesterday's incident at Vertex Dynamics, though news of the termination hadn't spread through NovaSight Labs yet.

As he moved toward the elevators, Selene called out sharply, "Declan!"

He paused, turning with raised eyebrows. "Yes?"

"I'm here to see Mr. Ashcroft. Will he be in this morning?"

Declan shook his head. "Mr. Ashcroft is traveling. He won't be in today."