Chapter 174: I Gave You a Chance, But You’re Useless
"What?!" Kieran Kerr’s voice warped in shock when he heard that a franchise manager had dared to lay a hand on Arabella Donovan.
"Where are you right now? I’ll send someone over immediately!"
"I’m on... the second floor of Jennings Plaza."
"The jewelry store in Jennings Plaza, right? Please wait inside the store for a moment. My people will be there right away. I promise I will give you a satisfactory resolution to this matter."
After saying that, Kieran Kerr immediately hung up, presumably to arrange for his people.
Arabella Donovan hadn’t tried to hide her conversation with Kieran Kerr. Most people, after hearing what she said, had already started speculating about her relationship with the jewelry store’s behind-the-scenes owner, but only Eugene Jennings asked about it directly.
"Serena, you know the owner of this store?"
"Sort of. I’ve met their company chairman twice, and I also did a divination for her son—the company’s general manager. I guess you could say we’re... friends."
Arabella Donovan’s words further convinced Catherine Chamberlain that she was the Miss Donovan mentioned in the company’s group chat announcement. Prescott, however, just scoffed.
"Putting on a show! A little brat like you, how could you possibly know our company’s owner? Don’t think I’ll be scared just because you made some random phone call. I’d like to see how you’re going to clean up this mess!"
Mr. Sterling’s cousin, who was also being restrained alongside him, chimed in to agree. "That’s right! If you know what’s good for you, let us go right now! My husband is very close with Manager Wagner from the head office and many influential people in Brynn. For them, crushing you is as easy as crushing an ant."
Arabella found their shouting rather amusing. "I like this defiant attitude of yours. I hope you can keep up this tough act when my people get here."
It was clear that Kieran Kerr was truly in a hurry.
Arabella and the others had waited less than five minutes when a middle-aged man in a suit, looking rushed and travel-worn, ran in from outside leading a young man in his early twenties.
Prescott’s eyes lit up when he saw the man. "Mr. Wagner! Mr. Wagner, you’re finally here!" he said excitedly. "It’s this little bitch! She brazenly impersonated a friend of the chairman and had someone attack me! You have to stand up for me and teach her a lesson!"
SLAP—
Prescott had barely finished his sentence when a heavy slap landed across his face, causing his wife to shriek, "How can you hit someone?"
"You fool! You don’t even know enough to pull back when you’re at death’s door. You are so dead today!"
Clutching his slapped cheek, Prescott was about to ask what was going on when he heard those words. His pupils constricted, and a sense of foreboding bloomed in his heart. ’Could it be that little bitch really is...’
The young man who had followed the middle-aged man in didn’t even glance at Prescott. He walked briskly over to Arabella Donovan. "Miss Donovan, hello. My surname is Fang, and I’m General Manager Kerr’s special assistant. Mr. Kerr was in a meeting in Solara this morning, and he’s stuck in traffic right now so he can’t get back immediately. He sent me to come and help handle this first."
"He can’t make it back?" Arabella looked disappointed. She then turned to look at Mr. Wagner, a faint, unreadable smile on her lips. "So what’s this about? Is it a company policy to slap people in the face whenever you feel like it?"
’I gave you a chance and you blew it. Serves you right. No wonder it’ll take you another two or three years to get a wife!’
Cold sweat beaded on Mr. Wagner’s forehead. "My subordinate doesn’t know his place. He’s blind and foolish. He failed to recognize you, Miss Donovan, and offended you both. I hope that you can be the bigger person and not stoop to his level."
Arabella found his words rather interesting. "It’s not as simple as him just ’not recognizing’ me. I can understand being cautious when you’re running a business. But this constant screaming about beating and killing people... I’ve never seen anything like it in my life."
"That’s right," Eugene Jennings chimed in from the side. "This manager was just threatening to have us all killed. Anyone who didn’t know better would think we were living in the old society, where you could just take a human life without a second thought."
"It’s fine if he didn’t recognize me. I’m not a celebrity; not everyone has to know who I am. It’s also fine if he thought my card was fake. Paying full price isn’t a big deal for me. And taking a huge step back, if we couldn’t come to an agreement, couldn’t I have just decided not to buy it?"
As she spoke, Arabella’s eyes grew sharp, and her tone shifted. "But the fact is, when this gentleman raised his doubts and accused us of being scammers, this sales associate reminded him again and again that the card was real, and that your company had apparently even sent out an announcement about me. But he refused to listen to a single word, and instead decided this young lady was our accomplice and attacked her."
Arabella’s words were tantamount to pointing a finger at Prescott and calling him arrogant, obstinate, and vainglorious.
And it was true. Catherine Chamberlain, a mere salesperson, knew about her because of the company-wide announcement. But this Manager Prescott was completely clueless. Worse, when someone tried to remind him, his first reaction was that she was talking back and undermining his absolute authority, rather than taking a minute or two to verify the truth.
Having a decision-maker who couldn’t tell right from wrong was, without a doubt, a disaster for his subordinates.
"My friend and I just tried to stop him, and he wanted to hit us too. As a consumer, it’s hard for me not to suspect your company of being a big business that bullies its customers."
Arabella then turned to look at Catherine Chamberlain. "And as for this young lady, she’s an employee who was inexplicably fired due to her supervisor’s arrogance and stupidity. She was only trying to protect her basic rights as a worker. As a human being, she bravely and uncompromisingly fought back against a rude assault, only to be met with violent threats. It makes it very hard for us not to suspect that your manager has violent tendencies, posing a serious threat to our safety as customers."
Chloe Ulrich, who had been on Arabella’s side from the beginning and had witnessed the entire altercation, decisively stepped forward to back her up.
"Yeah, that’s right! I just came into your store to buy a necklace. I don’t want to spend my money just to get a beating in return!"
"Spending money just to suffer? What a ripoff. It’s bad enough being a corporate drone all day, but now we have to grovel just to be a customer? Let’s go, let’s go."
"I saw the whole thing from the start. The girl was perfectly polite at first. When she took out her card, she just asked the salesperson if she could use it. Just a simple question. Did she commit some unforgivable sin? But to hear these people tell it, the young lady was conspiring with the employee to embezzle store assets. What a serious crime to accuse someone of! What’s next, are you going to accuse us of the same thing when we come to shop? We can’t afford to pay for that."
"Actually, there was nothing wrong with that saleswoman’s attitude. She was trying her best to explain things for the customer. It’s a shame she ran into such a super-macho manager who wouldn’t listen to reason and just started hitting people. Who can stand that? I feel so sorry for her."
"Exactly! The service from the staff at this store is actually pretty good. It’s just this manager who’s the problem. I have no idea how he even became a manager. And those people with him, supposedly his relatives, were fanning the flames the whole time, even shouting about crushing customers like ants!"