The Wife He Forgot to Marry (Winona and Yule) novel Chapter 427

The next day, Winona took time off work to meet Camille's assistant at the property registry and finalize the transfer of the three storefronts.

Holding the new title deeds, Winona felt a surge of triumph. Camille had made things incredibly difficult for her aunt in the past just to spite her, and Winona had never forgotten that debt. Moving forward, she fully intended to keep bleeding the Locke family dry.

When Rhea heard Winona had traded her research for three commercial spaces, she was a little baffled. "But your solution is just going to help Locke Group make more money in the long run, right? Didn't they get off easy?"

Winona laughed softly. "That project is a nightmare. I highly doubt they even fully understood my original R&D blueprint. The bottlenecks are only going to get worse from here on out, and Tallulah is entirely incapable of solving them. Plus, the middle-to-late stages of development are when the financial burn rate skyrockets. The more sunk costs the Locke family pours in, the harder it will be for them to pull the plug. When the time comes, they'll be on their knees begging me for another trade."

Rhea gasped in awe. "I never thought I'd see the day you had the Locke family in a chokehold. You are incredible."

*

At Locke Group, Yulen sat in an emergency R&D meeting, completely shocked to hear the bottleneck had been cleared.

He pulled Conrad aside. "Did you hire an external consultant?"

There was no way Tallulah solved this while recovering.

"It was an external solution provided by Camille," Conrad explained.

Yulen raised an eyebrow. His sister managed to pull that off?

After the meeting, he dropped by Camille's office. She didn't even look up from her paperwork, still furious that he had ignored her advice regarding Tallulah.

Yulen personally brewed her a cup of coffee and smiled winningly. "Camille, did you hire an external R&D expert? Since Tallulah is out of commission, if this person is willing, we can offer double their usual rate to bring them on as a permanent R&D advisor."

Camille snapped, "She would never agree to it, so drop it. Locke Group just needs to hire a proper Director of R&D, and you are absolutely forbidden from letting Tallulah back into this company to mess things up."

Seeing she wasn't going to budge, Yulen didn't press the issue. He figured that if his sister could get this expert to help once, she could do it again if needed. He didn't have to worry about it. As always, the company couldn't survive without Camille.

*

After work, Winona walked out of her office building and immediately spotted Yulen waiting for her.

"Mom, didn't we agree to keep the baby's party low-key? Why is everyone talking about it?"

Willow was confused. "I only invited a few close relatives. That's barely a real party."

"Then how does Winona know about it?"

Just hearing Winona's name sent Willow into a rage. The noxious liquid Winona had sprayed on her had ruined her appetite and sleep for a whole week, keeping her trapped indoors. She hadn't even had the chance to demand payback yet.

"You went to see her again?!" Willow shrieked. "Wake up, Yulen! Winona is a complete lunatic who has zero respect for this family. She is beneath you!"

Yulen was in no mood to deal with her screaming and abruptly hung up.

Gripping the steering wheel, he suddenly realized he had nowhere he actually wanted to go. Winona had been giving him the cold shoulder for almost a year, completely immune to his apologies. Tallulah was constantly playing the frail victim—so she had a baby, big deal! His mother had pushed out four kids without whining this much. And going back to the Locke Villa meant dealing with a crying newborn and his mother's endless nagging.

Exhausted and thoroughly annoyed, he drove to his private downtown bachelor pad to sleep in peace.