Sophia then turned to take out Calvinâs name card and called him.
It wasnât long before he arrived at the shop.
Kingâs launch ceremony was around the corner so Sandra had been visiting King every day. Ever since she lost to Scarlett in the competition for that few shops, Lucy had enlightened Sandra, telling her that she fell into Scarlettâs trap.
It turned out that Scarlett had been deliberately enraging Sandra, causing her to act irrationally. Scarlettâs objective was to make the Mitchell Family disappointed in Sandra after her scheme was exposed.
It was still vivid in Sandraâs mind that the former victim, Natasha, fell for that trap as well. She acted stupidly, causing Alex to be completely disappointed in her, which then led him finding Sandra as her replacement.
However, Sandra wasnât the same as Natasha. She had learned her lesson and changed her tactic. This time, she would defeat Scarlett in a face-on battle. She would make Scarlettâs shop go bankrupt and prove her ability to the Mitchell Family!
What did Pourl have now? Their customer base that they had been accumulating from the past had now become Kingâs customers.
Not only their designers joined King with their completed work, which had become their latest Spring product, even their sales manager brought away all their customer resources.
Half of Pourlâs sales and design department were now under King, so what did they have now?
Burning with ambition, Sandra prepared for the launch ceremony. She wanted to prove her superiority to Scarlett so that Scarlett could taste the bitterness of offending her.
But right at that moment, King suddenly received a summons from the court and it turned out that Pourl had finally prosecuted King!
However, Pourl didnât prosecute Lucy, the legal body of Pourl. Instead, they prosecuted the few designers and salespeople who left their company and joined King.
After all, when they joined Pourl they had signed a contract with a non-competition clause which stated that upon their resignation, they mustnât work in the same profession within a year.
Since they one-sidedly broke the agreement, those who left Pourl had violated the agreement.
Therefore, the company had the right to ask for compensation or make them fulfill the non-competition restriction.
When Sandra heard about that, she chuckled codly and completely ignored the situation. âDonât worry;
itâs just a small amount of money. Let them prosecute us and weâll compensate them no matter how much they ask for.â
In order to show that she cared for those employees that left Pourl and joined King, she not only paid the compensation on their behalf, she even promoted them in a high-profiled manner. In addition, she publicly promised that she would hire everyone who came from Pourl and even promote them. Not only that, she would pay them double and give them twice the staff benefits.
If Pourl sued them, King would pay for them without asking the employees to fork out a penny.
What the ordinary employees ever wanted was to make a living. Therefore, Pourlâs employees had been consecutively resigning due to Sandraâs temptation.
Now, there were only two designers left in the workshop; one was Ivan and the other was his new apprentice.
Ivanâs new apprentice was rather dull since he had just graduated. Every morning when he reached the workshop, he would show Ivan the message from Kingâwhich tried to lure him to leave Pourlâthat he received the previous night and even joked about it.
He not only picked things up slowly, he was also dim-witted; even Ivan felt sorry for him. Through his actions, Ivan further confirmed that his apprentice was helplessly dumb so he decided to teach all his skills to him. Since he was so dull, Ivan bet that no one else would want this apprentice other than himself.
And so, there were only two people in the design department whereas in the sales department, only a handful remained other than the two employees who were newly hired by Sophia.
âDamn it!â
Sarah threw a pile of resignation letters on the table. âKing has taken this too far. They even took away our janitor, Lily.â
Sophia glanced at the letter and sighed inwardly as she thought, Impressive!
Now, even their janitor left. It seemed like King wouldnât give up without driving her, the owner of a small dog collar shop, into a corner.
Even Cooper was informed about the huge crisis that Sophiaâs shop met. As soon as she got home, Cooper walked up to her but before he could speak, she forestalled him. âDad, let me handle this. I honestly donât need your help. Iâve grown up so I canât rely on you in everything.â
Cooper was at a loss for words. Meanwhile, Linus walked out from the kitchen with a dish of scrumptious stir-fried vegetables and reassured, âDonât worry, Cooper. If Sophia needs your help, she wonât hesitate to ask.â
However, Cooper seemed dejected.
Since his daughter had grown up, she was no longer that vulnerable baby when he first found her. She didnât even need his help now.
Thinking of that, he felt rather lost.
After Sophia changed her clothes, she came down to eat. Carmen had finished a bottle of milk when she suddenly said, âMommy, Daddy came home to visit me today!â
âYour dad is back?â
Sophia could barely conceal her happiness. âWhen did he come home and what did he say?â
Seeing that Sophia became merry once she heard about Taylor, Cooper couldnât help but pull a long face.
Sophia immediately concealed her happiness and surprise on her face, pretending that she didnât care about that while she continued to eat her food.
However, Carmen told on her grandfather. âGrandpa chased Daddy out!â
Knitting her eyebrows, Sophia grumbled, âDad, how can you chase Carmenâs father away in front of her?
It must have broken her heart to witness that!â
But this time, Carmen took Cooperâs side firmly and supported him. âMommy, Iâm not sad at all because Daddy is at fault this time!â
Curious, Sophia asked, âWhat happened?â
Carmen slowly related the incident and she said, âDaddy wants to act as Grandpaâs father and thatâs outrageous!â
Michael wanted to act as Cooperâs father?
Confused, Sophia looked at Cooperâs sulky expression. It was only after a while that it finally dawned on her that Michael must have come to meet Cooper to discuss the script!
He was planning to film the exciting past where Cooper and Mark made a sortie out of the snowy mountain. Therefore, he had to get the approval and authorization from the person involved or his descendants before shooting the movie.
As one of the people involved, Mark definitely would agree with that since he longed for Michael to act as him every day.
However, the other person involved, Woody, had passed away and since Cooper was his descendant, Michael had to get Cooperâs approval.
This was where the problem arose. That film was about Mark and Woody when they were young. If everything went as planned, Michael and Ethan, who were somehow resurrected and no longer famous, would be playing the two leading roles.
Therefore, Michael had only two roles as his optionsâeither Mark or Woody.
In other words, Michael would either act as Cooperâs father or his godfather.
How could Cooper accept that old, shameless son-in-law to portray his father?
That was totally impossible!
Sophia widened her eyes upon hearing that, wanting to persuade Cooper but she had no idea how to.
At last, she could only mumble, âItâs just a movie though. You shouldnât chase him away regardlessâ¦â
Cooper had on a sulky face for the whole day and even got annoyed at the few cats and dogs that belonged to Michael.
He would never approve or authorize that! Never!
When night came, Carmen went to bed early to have her beauty sleep since she wanted to be on TV.
After she dozed off, Sophia secretly called Michael.
When the call was answered, Michaelâs deep, sexy voice came from the other end. âIs everything going well with your shop? Do you need my help?â