The Merciful Female Boss Chapter 05
Renzo looked at him with a cold sneer.
“You really thought Sophia was just some small-time shop owner trying to make a buck off you?”
“She’s Miss Moretti, the majority shareholder of Apex Gear.”
“The gear you’ve been using for years was all custom-made by her, specifically tailored to your body
measurements.”
Kevin’s jaw dropped.
“Apex Gear?”
“Sophia, why didn’t you tell us sooner…”
I adjusted my own harness, not even bothering to look up.
“Would it have made a difference?”
“Did you really have no idea what the gear I gave you was actually worth?”
“Don’t forget what your three-thousand-dollar setup looked like before you met me.”
Kevin looked down, rubbing his hands together nervously.
“I… I really thought the production cost was just low…”
Lily and Nick crowded around me too.
“Sophia, we were brainwashed by Chloe. We were idiots.”
“Since you’re the big boss, it should be even easier for you to get us gear, right? Please!”
“The sponsors are already here. We can’t climb in this junk…”
“We’ll transfer you the twelve hundred right now. Just get us the gear!”
Renzo burst out laughing.
“Twelve hundred? You couldn’t buy this gear for twelve thousand!”
“Do you have any idea how much you’ve been freeloading all these years?”
Kevin was completely stunned.
“Twelve thousand…”
He looked at the gear in Renzo’s hands, then at the helmet in his own-the one he could crush with one hand.
His face crumpled.
“Sophia, we really didn’t know.”
I looked at him coldly.
“You knew.”
“Kevin, nobody’s that stupid. Even if the production cost was low, the quality of the gear I gave you could
never have been under two hundred bucks.”
“You really had no idea?”
“You just saw Chloe was new and wanted to fit in. You thought she was a bigger sucker than me.”
“You figured if I was willing to lose money by charging you twelve hundred, Chloe would be willing to lose money by charging you two hundred.”
“You just didn’t expect that Chloe isn’t like me. The stuff she gave you isn’t even worth two hundred.”
Having their true intentions laid bare, they hung their heads in shame.
“Sophia, can’t you help us out… just this once?”
“No.”
“I’m done subsidizing people only to be called a scammer.”
“Do I look like a charity to you?”
They slumped back to their pile of gear.
“Chloe, you’ve got to be kidding me. What the hell is this garbage?”
Chloe snapped.
“Seriously? What do you expect for two hundred bucks?”
“Did you think I was going to pay out of my own pocket to give you luxury gear for two hundred?”
“I brought you the stuff. I’m not in the mood to climb anymore. Bye!”
Chloe dumped the rest of the gear and drove off.
Lily spoke up, her voice hollow.
“Forget it, Captain. Let’s just pull out of the competition today.”
Kevin suddenly jammed the thin plastic helmet onto his head.
“We climb!”
Lily was almost in tears.
“How? Look at this stuff!”
Kevin hissed through his teeth.
“The sponsors are here. What else are we supposed to do?”
“The contract says if we forfeit, we owe a thirty percent penalty. That’s a hundred thousand dollars. Which one of you is paying that?”
After hearing Kevin, they silently put on the gear.
Everyone gathered at the starting point, facing a five-hundred-foot rock wall.
Kevin and his crew looked at the towering cliff, their hearts already in their throats.
Renzo’s team, however, was pumped, ready to take back their title.
The whistle blew. Our team surged up, hitting the six-foot mark in seconds.
Nick reached three feet, trembling. Her sole slipped, and she tumbled down, twisting her ankle.
Nick unclipped her rope and forfeited.
Seeing Nick fall, another male climber panicked.
He was six-foot-four and weighed two hundred pounds.
His carabiner was visibly bending under the strain.
Sweat poured off him as he sobbed, scrambling back to the start.
“No way. I can’t do it. I’m going to die!”
The rest of the team followed suit, climbing back down.
The officials were stunned. They couldn’t understand why this powerhouse team was falling apart.
They ran over, and when they saw the gear, they gasped.
“Are you guys insane?”
One official grabbed a megaphone and yelled up at Kevin:
“Captain Kevin, stop the climb immediately!”
Kevin was fifteen feet up, his heart hammering against his ribs.
His shoes slipped with every step.
The carabiner felt like it could snap at any second.
The helmet was just a thin shell of plastic. If he fell…
The fear was paralyzing, but if the whole team forfeited, they’d owe the penalty.
Kevin gritted his teeth, blocked out the officials’ shouts, and took another step.
The moment his toe hit a ledge, his sole slid.
His body jerked downward.
The carabiner couldn’t take the shock. It ripped right out of the rock.
Kevin scrambled to grab a hold, but it was too late.
He fell backward, slamming into the ground.
Kevin clutched his leg, screaming in agony.
“My leg! My leg is broken!”
Mr. Wilson, the lead sponsor, walked over with a deep scowl.
“What the hell happened to you guys today?”
Kevin gasped through the pain.
“Mr. Wilson… we didn’t forfeit. We just failed. We don’t owe the penalty, right?”
Before he could finish, he blacked out.
The sponsor’s face went dark.
Just then, a roar of cheers erupted from the crowd.
Renzo had reached the summit first.
Our team won, and we set a new record for the fastest climb.
The sponsors rushed to the landing zone. As soon as Renzo unhooked, Mr. Wilson grabbed his hand.
“Captain Renzo, I knew you guys were the best!”
“Let’s talk about our next partnership.”
Lily and the others watched us, tears streaming down their faces.
The ambulance arrived quickly and took Kevin away.
When the results went public, the entire climbing community was in shock.
“No way! Renzo’s team hasn’t taken first in two years!”
“What happened to Kevin’s crew? They were supposed to be unbeatable.”
“Look at their gear. Where did they find that trash? They’re lucky they aren’t all dead.”
The cameras turned to our team. Renzo was being interviewed.
He pulled me into the shot.
“Our victory today is thanks to the custom gear Sophia provided.”
“I have to give her a shout-out. Everyone in the industry knows Apex Gear, right? Well, Sophia is the majority shareholder of Apex Gear!”
I was caught off guard. My family follows a code of silence, and I rarely go public.
But Apex Gear was a legitimate business under my name. It shouldn’t be a problem.
Renzo kept hyping me up. “I don’t need to tell you how good their gear is, but today was my first time using
the custom-made line.”
“It’s incredibly comfortable. We won because of our skill, but this gear was the real MVP!”
The community finally connected the dots.
“I knew that gear looked familiar. Kevin’s team used to use the same stuff, didn’t they?”
“Why did they switch to flea market junk this time? Did they lose their minds?”
“Wait, wasn’t this Sophia girl on Kevin’s team before?”
