Single Mom's Sweet Husband by Charlotte

A trace of doubt emerged in Charlotte's mind. But before she could continue eavesdropping, the elevator arrived with a ding. Elaine stalked into the elevator and turned around to face the front. Right at that moment, Charlotte hurriedly spun around.

She did not want Elaine to see her, especially not now.

Unfortunately, Elaine did just that.

However, she didn't seem fearful of being exposed. Instead, her lips curved upward into a sinister smirk.

The elevator doors closed and broke off the women's eye contact. Charlotte looked up at the clock on the wall and realized it was already an hour past midnight.

Where would Elaine be going so late at night? "Oh no, something's cup with the patient in Room 888!" A trainee nurse crushing into the on-call room. Very quickly, a doctor stepped out and headed toward Room 888.

Instinctively, a bad feeling brewed in Charlotte's gut. There was no way that her father was the patient she was talking about, right? She didn't allow herself much tto overanalyze. She simply followed behind to take a look for herself. Sure enough, the patient of Room 888 was her father, Timothy Emerson.

Charlotte stood by the door in a daze as she watched the medical staff rendering resuscitation efforts. Seconds felt like minutes until she finally saw the heartbeat on his vital signs monitor return to normal.

As she stood by the door and watched from the outside, tears streamed down her face. She hastily stopped the doctor before he could leave and urged, "Doctor, what... what's wrong with him? What illness does he have?" The doctor stared at Charlotte with a sense of skepticism as he asked, "Who are you?" 'T m his, his..." Daughter. She was his daughter, but she couldn't seem to enunciate the word.

All of a sudden, she was reminded that the relationship between herself and her father had turned vile.

"The patient had a heart attack. He needs good rest and should be kept from emotional shock." Once he left her a simple explanation, the doctor left.

Charlotte briefly wiped her tears away, ready to enter to take a look.

But as she recalled the doctor's advice, she retracted her foot.

She smiled bitterly to herself. It had been five years since they last met. Would he still consider her his daughter? Charlotte remained standing by the door. After debating with herself for a long moment, she ultimately decided to leave.

Right then, in a hidden corner, the shutter of a camera clicked, capturing an image of her.

After the photographer finished his task. Without delay, he sent the photo he had taken to someone.

In the blink of an eye, the day of the bidding arrived as scheduled.

The client had set the venue to be at Royal Dragon Hotel.

Early in the morning, the design team followed Christopher to the hotel under Charlotte's lead.

To her dismay, Charlotte bumped into Elaine, who was here as the representative of Emerson Corporation.

Today, Charlotte was clad in her routine formal attire, but sans the hefty black-framed glasses.

Her large, glimmering eyes were displayed unobstructed to view, which made her appear fresher than ever before.

Elaine, on the other hand, donned an immaculate white dress. Her hair was scattered naturally on her shoulders and her face was caked exquisitely with make-up as usual.

However, when set side by side with Charlotte' s pristine, unpainted face, she seemed a little tacky in appearance.

The two did nothing but exchange a disciplined glance before they located their respective seats.

This round's bidding had managed to recruit 15 companies.

Each company's order of appearance was to be decided by drawing lots.

NC was allotted last with Emerson Corporation's turn just before theirs.

While the minutes ticked past, each company utilized their tto the fullest as they unveiled their design concepts.

After the 13th presentation was a warm round of applause and up next was Emerson Corporation. As their proud representative, Elaine Emerson slowly ascended the stairs on her 5-inch heels.

A boastful smile lingered on her face and everyone in the audience could tell she was certain she would win.

Her eyes scanned the crowd and the moment her gaze landed on Charlotte, a tinge of provocation flickered within her eyes.

"Ladies and gentlemen, lo and behold! Emerson Corporation's design concept. We call this 'Sustainable Living'." The title wordings displayed on the PowerPoint projection turned Charlotte's brain into mush.

How could Elaine's thbe the sas hers? Could this be a coincidence? However, the following few slides that revealed Emerson Corp's design prints blew every member of NC's team off their feet.

Emerson Corp's designs were a carbon copy of theirs, down to the littlest details.

Christopher turned to look at Charlotte, who was seated next to him. He cleared his throat and asked in a low voice, "What's going on?" At that moment, Charlotte's mind was still blank. How did her designs end up in Elaine's hands?

The team had previously opted to keep only the original design due to the critical importance of the documents. All along, the files were under her care. How did it get leaked? Charlotte couldn't wrap her head around this. She snapped her head up and caught Elaine smirking at her with pride spilling from her eyes.

"Mr. Gibson, what do we do now?" Very soon, it was their turn to present their ideas. Realizing that they did not have a design of their own, everyone grew overwrought.

"Alright. Thank you, Emerson Corporation, for sharing. Last but not least, let's welcNC Corporation's representative onto the stage." Concluding Emerson Corp's exhibition, the emcee climbed onstage to give a simple transition. It was now NC's turn. "Leave it to me," Charlotte uttered, breaking her silence.

"Ms. Emerson, we don't even have design prints. How are we supposed to compete?" someone chastised with displeasure. The majority of the team was convinced that Charlotte was merely trying to steal the limelight. After all, their hard work of innumerable sleepless nights was abruptly disclosed in this way.

In fact, a good handful suspected this for Charlotte's own doing. The only reason they kept this to themselves was that the situation didn't allow for it.

Disregarding the others' opinions, Charlotte rose to her feet, her eyes glazed over with an inscrutable somberness.

Under everyone's stupefied gaze, she pushed her shoulders back and calmly strode toward the stage. Seeing Charlotte scale the stairs with empty hands, Elaine let out a triumphant snicker.

'Hmph, Charlotte Emerson! Let's see you putting on a fight.' she sneered.

Peter Gril CH/F-PSE X