Chapter 150
As Zinnia slowly woke up, she heard Yannis shouting angrily, “Toby, who gave you the guts to hide this from me?”
Zinnia’s body shook a little because she was scared. When she opened her eyes, she saw Yannis standing outside the office. His face was cold and serious, and his sharp eyes looked ruthless.
Toby stood outside, taking the blame. Five minutes before, after Yannis finished his meeting, Toby told him what happened. When Yannis heard Zinnia had been sprayed with a knockout drug, his face turned icy with anger.
Even though the drug’s effects had worn off, his face stayed dark. Zinnia got out of bed, opened the door, and softly called out, “Yannis.”
Yannis said softly, “Zinnia, do you feel uncomfortable anywhere? I already had Roderick check you, and the drug is gone, so you’ll be okay. Sorry I let you go through this.”
Yannis’s cold face quickly softened. He walked over to her, his eyes full of worry.
“Yannis, I’m fine now,” Zinnia said softly after sleeping most of the afternoon. She did feel much better, though a dull pain still stayed in her lower belly—just her usual monthly pain, nothing to do with the drug.
“Yannis, I was the one who told Toby not to tell you. Please don’t scold him,” Zinnia said softly. She had just heard Yannis scolding Toby. She had never seen Yannis this angry before.
Zinnia thought well of Toby. At that moment, Toby gave her a thankful look.
Yannis said, “I wasn’t scolding him.”
“Yannis, did you catch the person who went through your files? Did anything bad happen?” Zinnia asked worriedly. She knew if secrets of the company got into the wrong hands, the results could be very bad.
As Zinnia drifted off to sleep, she vaguely heard Yannis telling Toby to find someone to watch over her. ‘That woman only came into Yannis’s office because of me. If anything happens because of that, I’d never forgive myself,’ she thought nervously.
Yannis said, ‘Got her. Don’t worry, Zinnia. Everything’s okay now. I’m done here, so let’s go home and I’ll cook your favorite food.’
Seeing Zinnia still worried about others even though she wasn’t feeling well, Yannis felt a wave of tenderness. He reached out, his big, strong hand gently brushing her silky hair, giving it two soft strokes.
Yannis and Toby had already noticed strange things among the staff and had asked people to keep watch, just waiting for the mole to slip up.
Both of them had a feeling the mole would make a move soon. Their leaving the office for meetings was actually a planned move to give the mole a chance to make a mistake.
Yannis usually didn’t allow women into his office—only male workers reported to him there. But he understood how hard it was for women to find jobs, and his company still gave chances to talented women, never underestimating what they could do.
Because Yannis didn’t like women in his office, Lila never got to go in.
But Yannis brought Zinnia with him. Since Zinnia wasn’t feeling good, he even made a special exception and let a female helper to his private lounge care for her.
This gave Lila a perfect chance to act. To Toby’s surprise, the person he picked turned out to be the mole.
Toby only wanted to find someone to take care of Zinnia. They had other ways to catch the mole. But surprisingly, Zinnia’s presence made it easier to find out who the mole was.
Lila had been paid off by the Shaw family, who had long wanted to work with the Perkins Group, but their deal didn’t match, so Yannis kept saying no.
The Shaw family wouldn’t give up. They saw teaming up with the Perkins Group as their way to succeed, and maybe even a way to get close to Yannis, so Yosef tried bribing one of the Perkins employees.
Lila had been paid off by the Shaw family about two weeks ago, after her family had trouble. The Shaws wanted to get the final quote from the Perkins Group, hoping it would help them make a deal.
Yosef promised to help her, then she worked for him. The knockout spray she used on Zinnia was actually her self-defense spray. Since it was her first time doing this, she got nervous and ended up spraying too much on Zinnia.
Lila wasn’t really a threat, and the quote papers left in the office were just fake clues. Seeing them wouldn’t have mattered. In the end, Zinnia just got caught up in all this by accident.
Zinnia sat back in the car as Yannis covered her with a blanket. Toby was driving them home, telling her what had happened. She asked softly, “So, what are you going to do with Lila?”
“Fired,” Yannis said coldly.
“Keep your eyes on the road,” Yannis said sharply, stopping Toby from talking too much.
Toby thought, ‘He’d get upset even if I said a few words to Zinnia. He is protective.’
Yannis said, “She betrayed the company, so this is already a pretty kind way to handle it. If it were any other company, she’d be blacklisted and never work again.”
His way of dealing with it was already pretty soft. After all, she hadn’t really done much harm yet. She was just starting to act, and her plan didn’t work. Because her family was having trouble, Yannis decided to show her mercy.
Yannis didn’t want to scare Zinnia or make her think he was too harsh.
“Yannis, you’re really a kind person,” Zinnia said.
In those CEO love stories she and Maisie had been reading, CEOs broke the law, more like ruthless killers than real business people. Maisie kept saying how crazy those stories were.
‘Yannis is so law-abiding. At least I won’t have to worry about visiting him in jail someday,’ Zinnia thought happily.
“Yep,” Yannis replied without feeling guilty. In his mind, he was a good guy. As for the Shaw family, the ones behind everything, he planned to deal with them himself.
Yannis thought, ‘The Shaw family actually dared to hire people to hack our system. If I hadn’t personally written the main program and only brought in top cybersecurity experts, they might have succeeded.’
The person who tried to hack their system really surprised Yannis. He didn’t think the Shaws had such skilled people.
Yannis thought, ‘That hacking trick feels strangely familiar.
‘I wonder if I can hire that hacker. They have both bravery and skill—just the kind of person we need,’
Jackson pushed the Shaws into a corner, and Yosef was angry. He wanted to prove the Shaws could survive without them. He was trying so hard to make a deal with Yannis to make up for their losses.
Yannis thought, ‘The Shaw family is shameless. Even if I forget my friendship with Jackson, the way they treated Zinnia is enough to stop me from ever trusting them.’
Business shouldn’t be based on feelings, but Yannis never followed just the rules. That was why he was such a headache for many.
Yosef’s actions were terrible, using Lila’s weakness and forcing her to do such bad things.
Yannis thought, ‘The Shaws are rotten inside. Thank goodness Zinnia wasn’t raised by them.
‘If Yannis had come to me and fought fair, I wouldn’t look down on him. Business is a war—people will do anything to win, and I respect that.
‘Using such dirty tricks—pressuring and exploiting a woman—was the worst thing in business.