The Man Who Never Looked Away novel Chapter 158

With that, she sat back down.

Garnett's expression darkened for a fraction of a second before his polished demeanor slipped back into place. "Apologies for interrupting the flow, Mr. Coleman. Please, carry on."

Next up was Sigrid, presenting for the Quantitative Research Department, but Garnett's attention was clearly no longer on her.

Lavinia debated for a moment before deciding she needed outside help.

She opened a group chat with Saul and Charley and typed: [Garnett showed up at Celestial Capital for a visit this morning. He saw me.]

Charley replied almost instantly: [Don't worry, he can't hurt you.]

Saul's panic was evident: [I'm out of town on a business trip in Port City. I can't make it back today.]

Charley: [Garnett cares too much about his public image to do anything crazy in front of people. I'll pick you up after work, Lavinia.]

Putting her phone down, she exhaled a long breath.

Garnett's mere presence was suffocating.

He was domineering, arrogant, and radiated absolute authority. Sitting silently in a massive room packed with people, he was still impossible to ignore.

After the meeting, Lavinia followed her coworkers back to their department. The second she sat down, she received a text from him: [Is this your new phone?]

Her heart hammered against her ribs.

He must have gotten her new number directly from Chairman Coleman.

She put the phone face down, deciding to ignore him.

Barely a second later, that familiar, freezing voice drifted in from the hallway. "So this is the Industry Research Department?"

Footsteps approached slowly from behind her.

The entire office fell dead silent. Catching his reflection in her monitor, she watched his imposing figure draw near.

As he got closer, his features came into sharp focus.

The footsteps stopped right behind her chair. She didn't turn around.

"Ms. Joplin, I have one more question regarding your presentation earlier. May I ask for your professional opinion?"

Left with no choice, Lavinia stood up, turned around, and met his eyes.

"What is your question, Mr. Harper?"

He posed a highly technical query, which she answered with complete factual precision.

"Wow, Lavinia, Mr. Harper is seriously impressed with you," one of her colleagues whispered.

Howard, one of the other junior analysts, joked, "Come on, Lavinia, just take the job at Harper Group. That way Jacqueline and I are just two of us competing for one spot."

Hearing this, Jacqueline immediately chimed in. "Yeah, you've got a golden ticket right in front of you, so stop standing in our way."

That was stepping over the line.

Lavinia had already discreetly looked into the rumors. The whole "only one out of three juniors gets to stay" narrative was just management applying pressure to squeeze out their maximum potential. If all three passed their evaluations, Celestial Capital would absolutely hire all of them.

They were just letting their own jealousy blind them.

Looking right at him, Lavinia said seriously, "Fair competition doesn't mean I'm in your way."

The room went dead silent for several painfully long seconds.

Jocelyn slammed her hand hard against a desk. "What's going on here? Haven't you all had enough of a show for one morning?"

The crowd instantly scattered back to their cubicles.

Ethan, the head of the tech group sitting next to her, lowered his voice with a chuckle. "You usually seem so soft-spoken, but you're actually pretty ruthless when it counts."

She offered a small smile. "I just want to fight for what's mine, Ethan."