Page 5 of Executive Decision

“Oh, alright.”

Finally, I got some credit for busting my ass while he slept with half of the girls in River North! He was the first man who gave me that in the past twenty-four hours.

“Thanks,” I said. “So, as Davey explained, I literally just returned to O’Hare two hours ago. Apologies if the slides aren’t super pretty. I did them on the plane.”

“They’re fine, Daphne,” Dad assured.

I took a deep breath.Don’t undermine yourself, woman!

I updated them on financials, and liabilities before addressing compliance concerns.

The president cut me off. “We have no consolidated branding. Why is that?”

I stared, deer-in-headlights, at Cal, who should have spoken. He was radio silent.

“We don’t have it yet,” I said.

“And why is that, Miss Delphine?”

This wasn’t even this prick’s domain, but here we were. I looked to Cal to chime in. Instead, he stared at the wall. I set my jaw, annoyed.

“Cal do you have an update?”

Cal, looked up. “Uh… we weren’t contacted?—”

I crossed my arms. “I sent you three emails with read receipts. If your team is too busy, it’s understandable, but I haven’t received a response.”

He flushed red. “Well, it’s not as if we’ve had adequate time to prepare much, you know?”

Don’t bullshit me, Cal!

“When did you receive the request?” Dad asked, concerned.

“A week ago. We haven’t made headway?—”

“It was ten days ago,” I answered. “I was working late on financials and contracts and told you we needed branding assistance. I sent a follow-up on Monday morning. No response.”

“We were flooded?—”

Dad cleared his throat, cutting his protege off. “Cal, I need to see movement on this. When Daphne sends an email about an urgent issue, please do not delay.”

“I wasn’t, David. We wanted to return with actual information.”

“Well, at least say you’ve seen her request.”

“Apologies. I thought Sarah responded,” Cal said. “She didn’t reach out about any clarifications?”

I didn’t believe him.

“No,” I answered. “No response.”

“Well, maybe she assumed it could wait until we could meet with you, David?” He looked to Dad for guidance.

“You’re both adults. I delegated all the work on this matter to Daphne and David. Is that not clear?”

“It’s clear. Yes,” Cal said. “But couldn’t you have come to me, Daphne?”

“She was in London,” Davey scoffed.

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