I Canceled The Wedding After His Female Bro Ruined Everything Chapter 08
Three months later.
At the Hayes Group quarterly earnings conference, cameras from domestic and international media were all
aimed at the center of the main stage.
I swept my hair up and pinned a jade brooch to my collar.
In the back row, people murmured in the back.
“That’s the Hayes family heir symbol.”
“I thought Marcus was the successor?”
“Look at the seating today. The tide has turned.”
During the Q&A session, a male reporter with gold-rimmed glasses stood up.
“Ms. Hayes, there’s a rumor that you’ve been able to establish yourself so quickly because Richard and Marcus paved the way for you. That you’re just standing on the shoulders of giants. What do you say to
that?”
A faint stir rippled through the audience.
Marcus leaned forward slightly, looked annoyed.
But I calmly picked up my microphone.
“I admit, no one dislikes standing on the shoulders of giants. Especially when the giant in question is as tall
as the Hayes family.”
A wave of soft laughter came from the audience.
“But giants don’t bend down. If I want to climb up there, I have to do it on my own merits.”
“For the next three quarters, I’ll have full responsibility for Hayes Group’s key projects.”
I scanned the room and let my gaze land on the male reporter.
“You’re all welcome to keep watching. Results speak louder than rumors.”
The conference continued, broadcast live on every screen in every Hayes Group office building.
It was my father’s way of hyping me up. Honestly, it was also his own little obsession.
–
Ever since I took over the mess that was Cole Group – and started doing a decent job of it – he couldn’t
stop showing off.
He plastered my interview footage everywhere he could.
And right at that moment, Sebastian – now working as a grocery store demonstrator – was watching that
same video.
He was running a weekend promo for a laundry detergent brand. Twenty-five bucks an hour, plus a boxed
lunch.
A customer walked up and asked about the deals, but Sebastian’s eyes were glued to the screen. He didn’t
react.
The guy called out to him twice.
Sebastian snapped back to reality. He kept saying sorry over and over, then rattled off his scripted pitch.
“Hi, this line qualifies for a buy-more-save-more deal right now…”
But he spoke too fast. The customer didn’t catch a single word.
He just shot Sebastian a look like he was a total weirdo and walked off.
On the big screen, the conference was wrapping up.
I stood up and delivered my final line.
“Never give up your own light for people and things that aren’t worth it.”
Sebastian’s plastic water bottle crumpled in his grip. Water dripped through his fingers.
On the screen, I smiled.
“Because when you become the sun yourself, you’ll see how bright the world really is. And the shadows of
the past? They’ll seem small enough to not matter at all.”
Sebastian watched in a daze as I stood up, shook hands with the partners next to me, and walked off the
stage with ease.
At the exit, my father and brother were waiting for me.
The screen went dark and cut to commercials.
But Sebastian kept staring blankly at the spot where the image had been.
He leaned against the wall. The water bottle slipped from his hand and rolled into the gap under the shelves.
He bent down to grab it.
A tear hit the supermarket tile.
Then another. And another.
He crouched on the floor and pulled the collar of his store-brand apron up over his eyes.
It took him a long time to get back up.
The manager strode over, his voice harsh.
“Hey, what’s your problem? This is the third customer complaint you’ve gotten this month. Get out. The only reason I hired you in the first place was because you looked decent. But you can’t do a damn thing. Get lost.”
Sebastian got kicked out. They didn’t even pay him for the morning shift.
He wandered down the street, dazed.
No one knew what was going through his head.
Then again, even if they did.
No one would have cared.
