-What’s wrong? -Jaime saw Yolanda’s expression and hurried to ask.
-My father said that someone has launched in advance Yoli’s new product for tomorrow -Yolanda answered him.
Jaime also froze when he heard that.
The night before, Yolanda had told him about Grupo Carballal’s situation. Yoli’s new product launch tomorrow was their last hope.
If someone launched it early today, wouldn’t Grupo Carballal’s launch tomorrow be ruined?
All of Grupo Carballal’s preparations would be in vain and all of their efforts would be futile.
-Call the police and ask them to pay compensation. Isn’t your industry always very resistant to plagiarism? -Jaime said.
Yolanda said nothing, but looked nervous and pale looking at the photos.
-It won’t work, this is not plagiarism,” she was almost in tears. I have looked at the photos they took. All the elements and themes are exactly the same as the new products. But the specific details are completely different.
This could only be considered similar, but it could not be called plagiarism.
Jaime didn’t know much about the garment industry, but seeing Yolanda’s expression, he knew the situation was serious and tomorrow’s launch would be a failure.
-Also, although the photos are not in high definition, you can see that both the fabrics and the handling are good, so it is obvious that they have been in preparation for a long time. I’m afraid our design has been leaked a long time ago.
The more she said, the more panicky Yolanda felt.
She had spent almost all of Grupo Carballal’s liquid capital on the design and mass production of Yoli’s new products.
She had previously relied heavily on these new products and had produced a large batch of clothing earlier to bail Grupo Carballal out of its predicament.
But he hadn’t expected that another company had beaten him to it and now everything was bad.
This company was small but famous. This was because the company liked to argue with other companies and then make a big fuss, forcing its rivals to give in and compensate it.
Yolanda could imagine that if Yoli kept bringing out the clothes tomorrow, that company would come looking for trouble too.
They no longer had the money or the energy to do so.
-It happened at a time like this, someone must have done it on purpose -Yolanda said and suddenly thought of something- Do you think it’s Umberto who has done it?
As soon as this thought came out, she almost turned pale.
She had thought yesterday that Umberto would not deal with the Carballal Group, only for something like this to happen today. Yolanda felt extremely desperate.
Hearing her words, Jaime remembered Umberto’s past tactics and said with less certainty:
-But maybe he is not the mastermind and there are others working against you.
-Anyone else? -Yolanda froze for a moment, thinking of the company’s designers, she said angrily. Someone must have leaked our design drawings, there is a traitor in our company.
As soon as she said that, Julio’s call came again.
He picked up the phone as he said a few words to Jaime and left in a hurry.
Jaime sat in his wheelchair, looking at Yolanda’s back and had a premonition that this time Grupo Carballal would not be able to overcome this difficulty.
He thought that if Grupo Carballal really went out of business, he could take Yolanda in for old times’ sake. Of course he wouldn’t marry her, he would just keep her out.
After all, her cruelty was still to his liking.
***
Yolanda hurried back to the office to find the scene in chaos.
Tomorrow was the new product launch, but this kind of thing happened today. This was clearly going to make people panic.
She rushed into Julio’s office. Before she could say, he was questioning her.
-Didn’t you say yesterday that all the arrangements had been made? Why would something like this happen today? If you can’t solve this problem, there’s no way the launch will go smoothly tomorrow.
Of course, Yolanda knew the gravity of the situation. She thought frantically about countermeasures and answered him.
-There must be a way to save it, let me think about it carefully.
Julio saw her nervous look, he also felt very anxious.
Previously, he had allowed Yolanda to invest all the money from her other properties in Yoli. But he never thought that all his efforts would be in vain after today’s big incident.
-I know what we have to do,” Yolanda suddenly said.
-What are you going to do? -Julio was quick to ask.
-These new products will not be available tomorrow.
When Yolanda finished this sentence, Julio’s face sank:
-So all this money has been wasted? The news of the new product launch is coming out. If we don’t celebrate tomorrow, many people will laugh at us.
-I didn’t mean that, I meant that we should switch to other products,” Yolanda explained.
-Where do we have other products? -Julio even wanted to slap her, what nonsense was being said at this moment. Everyone had just seen the pictures and none of the new products were suitable for tomorrow’s launch.
-I will solve this matter -Yolanda said and headed towards the design department with a sullen face.
First she had to find the traitor, otherwise it was impossible to say what would happen again tomorrow.
She had just reached the entrance when she heard voices coming from inside.
-Tomorrow’s launch should be useless, all the work we have done during this time is no longer usable.
-It’s not just that we can’t use it anymore, maybe in a few days even Grupo Carballal will no longer exist. We’d better find a way out sooner.
-I don’t know if the company can solve this issue either, I am not too optimistic….
Yolanda’s face was incomparably somber as she listened and violently pushed the door.
This sudden movement brought all the sighing inside to a halt.
When the designers saw Yolanda, they hurried to sit upright and their faces were a little unnatural thinking that their words of a moment ago had been heard by her.
Only after a while, someone said to Yolanda:
-Miss Carballal, you’re back at last, what can we do tomorrow after such a big incident?
Yolanda looked around the office and said in a deep voice:
-Today’s incident, those of you with brains have already guessed that our design has been leaked, right? Only you and I have seen the designs, so one of you must be the traitor.
All the designers looked at each other when they heard this, they were all together every day and couldn’t know who the traitor was.
-That person had better admit it and I can be lenient. Otherwise, don’t blame me for a severe punishment.
Yolanda threatened as she watched their faces for any abnormal emotions.
At that moment, Lila suddenly spoke up:
-Miss Carballal, I didn’t participate in this batch of designs, it must have nothing to do with me, right?
Yolanda nodded because she really didn’t believe that Lila would do something like that. Her reputation was ruined, no one in the industry dared to accept her. She could only stay at Grupo Carballal, so she shouldn’t have done such a thing.
Lila was very happy to see that she didn’t doubt herself.
But the rest of the office got angry and someone said:
-In all the time we have worked here, we have never done anything to harm the interests of the company. You are not free to suspect us even if you are our superior. Don’t forget that, apart from us, you are the only one who has access to all the complete design drawings. Can you guarantee that you have not done so?
They were all known designers, so they were very upset at being suspected.
Seeing that they dared to upset her directly, Yolanda also lost her mind:
-Carballal Group is my property, how could I leak the design? Definitely the traitor is one of you. Seeing that the company is no longer doing as well as before, you may have discussed the opportunity to leave.
Everyone was very angry to hear this.
One of them, who had a strong temper, directly slammed the things in his hands on the floor and said angrily:
-Since you suspect us, show us the proof. If you can’t, we will all resign and you will have to pay for the damage to our reputation.