Chapter <b>317 </b>
For a brief moment, the massive conference room fell dead silent.
Nancy’s usual gentle expression froze in sheer disbelief. She stared directly into Ariel’s calm, indifferent gaze, which left her with no room for retreat.
After a long pause, Nancy’s expression finally eased.
Well, she hadn’t misjudged Ariel’s nature after all.
Ariel actually dragged personal grievances into such an important meeting and resorted to petty threats just to protect her precious ego.
Nancy leaned back in her chair with a quiet scoff. She was clearly done talking.
All of a sudden, it hit her just how sad it was that Ariel had poured so much into a rtionship and received nothing back.
What was even the point of fighting with her?
Just then, Ariel’s gaze drifted to the door and met a pair of sharp, steady eyes. He was watching her, something unreadable behind his gaze.
Jayson stood there with Chad behind him.
Ariel hadn’t expected to be caught by Jayson at such a critical moment.
Her eyes were frosted with calm defiance as she met his gaze head–on. She didn’t seem to care what he thought.
Unless Jayson was ready to confront her now out of pity for Nancy, thest shred of pretense between them would finally fall apart. If not, then no matter how unhappy he was, it wouldn’t matter.
Chad’s expression was interesting. He had definitely heard Ariel’s sharp little speech from the hallway.
Thisdy’s got thorns now. Anyone who pissed her off was bound to bleed.
If it weren’t for the setting, he would have apuded her.
“What happened?” ying dumb, Chad pushed open the door and made a weing gesture toward Jayson. “Mr. Larkin,e on in.”
Jayson’s expression didn’t show much. His gaze slowly shifted away from Ariel.
Nancy turned to look at him. Her expression held a trace of indescribable resignation, but in the end, she chose to be gracious and said nothing more.
“Jayson, you came to keep mepany?” she asked.
He didn’t answer, but he did take the seat beside her.
“You all go ahead. Matt invited us to lunch after this. We’ll head over once the meeting wraps.” Jayson’s voice was indifferent.
He didn’t even mention Ariel’s earlier “threat” as if it had never happened.
Just like that, the tension snapped. Nancy didn’t take a single word Ariel said to heart.
If Ariel could really call the shots, would they even be here right now?
“Okay. I should be done soon anyway. Thanks foring out here just to keep mepany.” Nancy smiled faintly. Her tone carried a touch of intimacy meant to shut others out.
Jayson gave a light nod.
Ariel <b>didn’t </b>spare them so much as a nce. She just found it all amusing.
Jayson, who was always so busy, had actually taken time out of his day to apany Nancy to this meeting. Was he afraid she would get taken advantage of at Faye Technologies?
He came in person to shield her and protect her like she was something precious.
Ariel couldn’t care less if he had overheard what she had said earlier. And she didn’t worry for a second that he woulde at her with some “we’re divorced, you have no right” speech.
She had already made her point. She had humiliated Nancy, put her in her ce, and reminded her she was nothing more than the other woman. That was enough.
At one point, Ariel leaned toward Chad and whispered, “Is Jayson allowed to sit in?”
Chad replied just as quietly, “He set up half the elite management team at Veyo Solutions. He’s basically <b>a </b><b>co- </b>owner. Yeah, he can be here.”
Ariel frowned but said nothing more.
Of course, she didn’t look at Jayson once after that.
This meeting was just <b>a </b>conceptual briefing a necessary formality. It wouldn’t touch on any core technologies.
The meetingsted a little over an hour.
Nancy had no objections.
But when a few of Faye Technologies‘ core engineers showed up, she got up and walked over to chat with them about technical details.