Their eyes were filled with it.
“Oh… okay.” Celia blinked slowly and looked around at all of them. “That’s so sad for all of you. I guess it was just a bad day.”
The people around her stared at her in confusion. Some of them blinked as if they hadn’t heard her correctly.
“But after all,” Celia continued, brushing an invisible speck of dust from her sleeve, “it was your fault for having him on the team. If you knew he had a record of stealing from the company, you shouldn’t have added him to your project in the first place.”
“What?” one of the men snapped, his voice rising sharply. His face turned red with disbelief. “We told you he was accused of stealing from the company!”
His breathing turned heavier. “Did you forget? I specifically told you he had been accused of stealing projects before. There was no evidence, so he wasn’t fired—but we warned you!”
Celia’s brows furrowed slightly as if she genuinely didn’t understand why they were upset. She tilted her head.
“So what?” she said after a pause. “It’s still your responsibility. Not mine. I didn’t know it was that serious.”
Her tone was almost indifferent.
She gave them a tight smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “If you had just been more careful… more attentive about him… then maybe this wouldn’t have happened to you.”
A heavy silence fell.
The team members exchanged stunned looks. Shock slowly turned into bitterness. Their hands tightened around their files. One woman’s eyes turned red, but she held back her tears. Others looked like they had just been slapped.
Yet none of them dared to shout at her.
She was the boss’s daughter.
One man who had been standing slightly behind stepped forward. His shoulders were tense, and desperation flickered in his eyes.
“Celia… look,” he said, lowering his voice. “We can’t afford to get fired. There’s a shortage of jobs these days. You’re the daughter of our boss. Can you talk to him? Convince him not to fire us?”
His voice trembled slightly. “It was you who told us to accept Baron into the project. You told us to trust him.”
Celia’s brows knitted together as if she had just heard something ridiculous.
“When did I tell you to accept him?” she asked coldly. “I never said anything about accepting anyone. I only tried to help you with your project. Why are you accusing me of something I never did?”
The man stared at her in disbelief.
“Did you forget? You said it would be better to trust him. You said you knew better.”
Celia’s lips pressed into a thin line.
“I never said I know him personally,” she replied. “If you didn’t feel confident about him, you should have refused. You made the final decision. Not me.”
Her tone grew colder.
“And I can’t do anything now. My dad won’t listen to me about this. It’s not my company yet.”
Her eyes swept across them briefly.
“It’s very sad… but I think it’s best if you start looking for other jobs.”
The words dropped like ice.
They were flabbergasted.
Some stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. Others looked betrayed, their eyes burning with anger. But no one dared to argue further.
