Page 21 of Next Door Billionaire's Surprise Baby

Mike reprograms the elevator to stop at the software engineering floor.

We get there in no time, and I walk into the chaotic developers’ office with the iPad held high,

"Gather round, people!"

The developers and testers peek out from behind their workstations. Eric looks up from whoever he's talking to, and his face pales when he sees my angry face.

He immediately begins lumbering over to me, and following him closely behind is none other than the woman I dreamt about.

Wow…so she can come all the way down here to keep Eric company but can't even muster up the decency to say hi to me…

If I was pissed before, I'm livid now.

"This!" I throw the iPad at Eric, who barely catches it in time, "Explain what this is about."

I cross my arms and glare, not at the team lead, Eric, but at the woman behind him glaring defiantly back at me.

Eric goes through the codes and immediately understands why I'm here. He glances up at me and begins stammering,

"I…I have no idea what to say," he trails off into a nervous laugh.

Chloe snatches the device from him and carefully looks through it, eyes narrowing at what she sees there.

"I don't understand. Everything here is just the way it should be."

I size her up, "Do you want to argue?"

Eric jumps in before she can respond, "No one's arguing. Sir, please give us time to fix this."

Chloe confronts him, "Fix what? There's nothing wrong with the software."

"Please, Chloe," Eric sighs, "Let me handle this."

He stares plaintively at me and hands out the iPad, "We should be done with it by tomorrow."

I snarl, "Tomorrow is too late. I need it fixed today."

The rest of the developers start murmuring, and I shut them down, "If it's going to require you to stay extra hours to fix this, do it."

I don't understand why they're so upset. They are paid well, and they need to step up in a situation like this.

"And this better not happen again," I add as a last warning.

Sending a glare to every single one of them, I turn around to head back to my office.

"Who do you think you are to talk to us that way?"

I stop in my tracks at the pure challenge in that voice.

"We're your staff, not your slaves. You'd better treat us with respect!"

Slowly, I turn around to see Chloe inching her way to me. Her icy blue eyes are huge and lit up with anger, and her face is a bright red.

Oh, so she's mad? Good!

"You did a shit job, and here you are yapping about respect."

I return the stink eye she sends my way. She's breathing so hard, you'd think she just ran a marathon.

---