Chapter 31

The Whitmore family was one of the most powerful and influential families in the area.

Their business empire spanned healthcare, real estate, and luxury hotels, giving the family enormous influence.

As the youngest and most favored daughter of the Whitmore family, Charlotte Whitmore had grown up getting almost anything she wanted.

All it took was one word from her, and there were always people willing to make things happen for her.

Of course, compared with the Sterling family, the Whitmores' influence was still on a different level.

But Charlotte had Victoria Sterling on her side.

Victoria was the only daughter of the Sterling family, and Charlotte had done plenty of things for her over the years. In return, she'd earned Victoria's trust and favor, which had only strengthened her own position within the Whitmore family.

So that very afternoon, just hours after making her threat to Elena, Charlotte decided to put the Whitmore family's connections to use.

She had someone dig into Elena's background from top to bottom.

Inside a private VIP room at an upscale beauty spa, Charlotte lay facedown on a massage table, enjoying an intensive essential-oil treatment from one of the spa's top therapists.

Her personal assistant stood beside her and respectfully handed her the freshly printed investigation report.

Charlotte casually flipped it open.

She had barely read two pages before a deeply contemptuous smile appeared on her lips.

“…These are her parents?”

She'd already known Elena didn't come from a wealthy family.

But she hadn't expected them to be this ordinary.

The report laid everything out in detail.

Elena's parents had divorced when she was young, and both had since remarried and started new families.

Her mother, Margaret Hayes, was a public-school teacher. Her second husband was also a teacher.

The couple had two children of their own after getting married.

Both of them valued education highly, so they spent most of what they earned on their children's schooling and extracurricular activities.

Between expensive tutoring programs and extracurricular classes, they were constantly trying to stretch every dollar. They barely had the time or money to pay much attention to Elena.

Her father, Daniel Hayes, had an even more interesting story.

Daniel worked for a building-materials company as a department manager. After divorcing Margaret, he married a woman nearly ten years younger than him.

The couple later had a son.

Unfortunately, the boy had been sickly since childhood and required regular medication and hospital visits, costing the family a considerable amount of money over the years.

Daniel had originally continued sending Elena a monthly allowance.

He knew his son wasn't likely to be healthy enough to support him in the future, so he naturally wanted to maintain a good relationship with his daughter.

Then he found out Elena had a boyfriend.

And apparently, her boyfriend had some money.

Daniel didn't know exactly how wealthy the boyfriend was, but he noticed that around that time, Elena had stopped asking him for her monthly allowance.

Then, when she came home for his birthday, his wife recognized the designer handbag Elena was carrying.

She said it was worth more than ten thousand dollars.

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Daniel's monthly salary was around the same amount.

The moment he heard that, he'd immediately demanded that Elena pay for her half-brother's medical expenses.

The father and daughter had gotten into a huge argument.

After that, they went their separate ways.

Daniel stopped contacting Elena altogether.

“Tsk, tsk. Poor girl.”

Charlotte casually tossed the report onto the floor, a vicious glint flashing in her eyes.

“Even her own parents don't want anything to do with her, and she still has the nerve to act superior in front of me?”

“Exactly, Miss Whitmore.”

Her assistant immediately chimed in.

“Someone with no family background or connections like her can only rely on that pretty face to manipulate men…”

Charlotte gave a disdainful scoff.

Her perfectly manicured fingernails tapped lightly against the edge of the massage table.

“Her mother is a public-school teacher. She's got a stable government position, so getting her fired won't be that easy.”

Even if she could make it happen, it would take some time.

Her eyes fell on the report lying on the floor.

“Daniel Hayes works for a subsidiary of Westbrook Materials Group…”

A slow smile spread across Charlotte's face.

Daniel was relying entirely on that salary to keep paying for his son's medical treatment.

If he lost his job and was blacklisted throughout the entire industry, leaving him with nowhere to work—

the Hayes family would be thrown into chaos overnight.

And once Daniel was desperate and had nowhere else to turn, he'd definitely show up at the university and make a scene.

He'd pressure Elena to find money somehow.

Charlotte wanted to see what Elena would look like after her own family drained her dry and left her completely humiliated.

Would she still have the nerve to hold her head high?

“Westbrook Materials…”

Charlotte thought for a moment.

“Isn't the CEO of that company named Charles?”

She picked up her phone and started scrolling through her contacts.

“I remember him from that charity gala. He spent months following my brother around, practically begging for the chance to secure the materials contracts for several of our family's new developments.”

Her assistant nodded immediately.

“You're right, Miss Whitmore. That's him.”

Charlotte called the number and put the phone on speaker.

It took only a few seconds for an extremely enthusiastic, almost flustered middle-aged man's voice to come through.

“Charlotte! What a surprise! What can I do for you? Did your father ask you to give me a call?”

“Mr. Whitman, don't make it sound so serious.”

Charlotte's voice became sweet and playful, though the arrogance underneath it was impossible to hide.

“Can't I call you just to say hello?”

“Of course! Of course you can!”

Charles laughed.

“But if you're calling, there must be something I can help with. Just tell me what you need. If it's within my power, consider it done.”

“It's really nothing complicated.”

Charlotte spoke casually.

“You have a department manager named Daniel Hayes at your Harbor City branch, don't you?”

There was a brief pause on the other end.

“Daniel Hayes?”

Charles clearly had no idea who she was talking about.

As the head of a large group, why would he remember one relatively insignificant manager working at one of his subsidiaries?

“Oh… Daniel Hayes?”

He quickly brushed it off.

“That's all? I thought something serious had happened!”

He couldn't have cared less about the fate of one employee.

“He's just a manager at one of our branches. Firing him is a matter of signing one piece of paper.”

His tone was confident.

“Don't worry, Charlotte. I'll have HR issue the termination notice right away. And I'll make sure word gets around the industry. No company in Harbor City will dare hire him after that.”

“Thank you, Mr. Whitman.”

Charlotte smiled.

“I'll be sure to mention your help to my father and my brother next time I see them.”

“Haha! I appreciate that. Anytime!”

The call ended.

Charlotte tossed her phone aside with a satisfied smile and settled back onto the massage table.

This was what power looked like.

Someone like Elena would never understand it.

For Charlotte, crushing someone like her was no more difficult than stepping on an insect.

Two hours later, Charlotte finished her spa treatment and changed into fresh clothes, feeling completely refreshed.

She sat on the leather sofa in the VIP lounge, picked up a beautifully decorated latte, and happily checked her phone.

Normally, once Charles had taken care of something like this, he would call immediately to report back.

But two hours passed.

Her phone remained completely silent.

“His efficiency is really terrible.”

Charlotte frowned impatiently and decided to call him herself.

She couldn't wait to hear that Daniel Hayes had been thrown out of his job.

But this time, the phone rang for quite a while before anyone answered.

And instead of Charles's overly eager voice, she heard a calm, businesslike man's voice.

“Hello, Miss Whitmore. My name is Andrew Blake. I'm Mr. Whitman's assistant. How may I help you?”

Charlotte's eyebrows immediately drew together.

“Why are you answering his phone?”

“My apologies, Miss Whitmore.”

Andrew's tone remained polite but noticeably restrained.

“Mr. Whitman is currently attending an extremely important emergency meeting and isn't available to take calls. If there's something you need, you can tell me, and I'll make sure he receives the message.”

Charlotte suppressed her irritation.

“A meeting? Fine. I can talk to you.”

Her voice turned cold.

“Two hours ago, I spoke with Mr. Whitman about a man named Daniel Hayes. Has it been taken care of?”

She paused.

“Has he been fired?”

There was a brief silence on the other end.

Charlotte waited, expecting Andrew to report that everything had been handled.

Instead, his voice remained calm and professional.

“Regarding Mr. Hayes's employment…”

Andrew paused.

“I'm very sorry, Miss Whitmore. We just reviewed his records. Mr. Hayes has consistently met his performance requirements, and there are no disciplinary violations or breaches of company policy on his record.”

His tone remained steady.

“Under employment law and Westbrook Materials Group's internal compliance requirements, we have neither the grounds nor the authority to terminate a permanent employee without legitimate cause.”