Chapter 115

115 Completely Stolen

Why didn’t I recognize that I had been talking to the CEO of Chase Creatives? Even after I found out her name, I never connected the dots.

Did the other people know about this already?

But when my friends from my old department showed me their wedding photos, no one talked about the bride being the CEO of our largest competitor. Did they not recognize her as well?

Their wedding was probably a very private event, and it was not covered on the news; however, there is no mistake that the woman standing proudly on the stage right now is Kyle’s wife.

“Don’t look so troubled. Elizabeth just took over as CEO. It’s like her trial period so it hasn’t even been publicly announced yet. Just like me, she’s following in her father’s footsteps,” Ace explained as he secretly reached for my hand.

She’s not that much older than me and she’s already the CEO. If what Ace said is true, then she’s the only daughter of the pervious chairman of Chase Creatives. I stared at the woman who smiled confidently on the stage: Elizabeth Chase.

Unlike the emotionally shaken woman that I encountered before, this version of Elizabeth truly lived up to her title of CEO. There was nothing that I could do but to control my shock at meeting her again like this. Just like my other team members, I strained my eyes and ears to focus on her presentation. This is the storyline and the storyboard that we’re going up against.

“We are proud to present the concept of embracing natural changes and shifts in values related to the dog meat trade as time progresses and newer generations rise up to take the place of the old...” Elizabeth’s voice rang out clearly.

While providing more details of the key messages and describing each scene in the storyboard, Elizabeth flipped through the presentation slides. After a couple of scenes, a sickening knot formed in the base of my stomach and a large lump formed at the back of my throat as my mouth dropped opened at what I had just heard and seen.

.....

What is happening?

Why is her storyboard almost exactly the same as mine? That aside, the storyline exactly matches with Ace’s idea.

To say that her storyboard was exactly the same would be a slight exaggeration but to say that Chase Creatives had somehow copied a version of my storyboard was not.

“We want to show people from various races and age generations and their relationship with dogs...” Elizabeth continued with her presentation.

Various scenes of people in different age groups and their relationship with dogs were flashed onto the screen as illustrations of the concept.

My body froze in place as many thoughts ran through my brain. How did they manage to come up with a storyboard like this?!

‘...the message will be stronger if you portray the scenes as going through the life stages of one person rather than different people at each stage in life,’

That was Ace’s advice and because of that I tweaked my first version of the storyboard from using different people at each stage in life to using only one person going through the various life stages instead.

“Interesting...” Ace murmured from close to me.

I turned to see Ace with his eyes still on the presentation screen on the stage. Had he realized that their storyboard is basically the same one as my first version?

If that is really the case, then everything that we had prepared for will turn out to be the same, all except for the scenes that I had edited based on Ace’s recommendation. Just like me, the other team members had the same reaction and they had started murmuring to each other. The calm atmosphere around us began to turn into one of panic.

“With that, I would like to direct your attention to a mock-up version of the commercial that we have prepared especially for today,” Elizabeth presented proudly.

They even have a mock-up shot and ready to be played for the audience already?!

Just as that thought ran through my head, the lights dimmed and the mock-up commercial from Chase Creatives began playing on the large projector screen.

No. This cannot be happening!

“Ace...” I turned to call him name.

Ace had a thoughtful look on his face, and I knew that he was figuring out what we needed to do. What can we possibly do in this situation?

“Someone leaked our storyline and storyboard. This is a first...” Richard said as his eyes narrowed suspiciously at me.

No. I did no such thing!

I felt the eyes of many team members on me, and I knew that no one was on my side. It wasn’t that surprising. I was the one responsible for the storyboard, so I was the one suspected of the leak. That coupled with the fact that I was the newest member to the team and the one that everyone trusted the least, made me the prime suspect in this case.

At that time, I didn’t have time to worry about myself. My mind was too preoccupied with the problem right in front of us. Our presentation starts right after Chase Creatives’s. What are we going to do?

The concern that was probably in everyone’s mind, but no one was willing to voice out loud was voiced first by none other than Ace.

“Since our presentation starts after theirs, it doesn’t even matter what the truth is. It will simply look like we’ve copied their idea instead...” Ace stated before scoffing at the ridiculousness of the idea.

“Ace...” I whispered his name.

His eyes shifted to mine in the dark and to my surprise, his hand reached for mine and gave it a comforting squeeze. Unlike the rest of us, Ace seemed extremely calm and collected in this dire situation.

“We’ll make it through. It’s just the first round. We can’t fail here,” Ace said reassuringly before he nodded at me and the rest of the team members.

I had no idea what he had in mind, but the meeting was about to start in less than a few minutes.

–To be continued...