"How is this possible?" Janet murmured, confused. "lve never heard of a failure notice being withdrawn before. Even so, she decided to give it another shot and went to the Larson Group. The receptionist ushered her to the meeting room and motioned for her to enter. As soon as she stepped inside, all eyes fell on Janet. It gave her a momentary fright, but she calmed herself and mustered a smile. "I apologize. !’m afraid I’ve come to the wrong place. But before she could turn and get out of there, a voice called out, “You're in the right place, Miss Lind. Please come in and have a. seat. Now that she looked closer, Janet recognized her. She was one of the interviewers yesterday, the woman with straight,. chestnut colored hair. She must not be mistaken, then. Janet swallowed and cautiously moved forward. What was going on?. "Hello, Miss Lind. I’m Garrett Harding from the Larson Group. We invited you here today because we wanted to deal with some. problems that occurred in yesterday's interview. The one who spoke was a handsome man in a tailored suit. He was sitting right in the middle of the long table, and he was. eyeing Janet carefully. His silver-rimmed glasses made him look like the typical boy next door, charming and friendly. It helped that he als o had a mole at the ou ter corner of his eye

Garrett Harding? Why did he have to do wi th all of this? Janet had only ever seen him in financial news and magazines. He was . the vice president of t he Larson Group, as well as a notorious playboy. Back at university, a lot of her female classmates were so enamored by him. They had been shameless and vocal about the ir fantasies to be his lover, and they even tually went on to try their luck in landing . a job at the Lars on Group. "I see," Janet sa id now, not reall y seeing anything. She still had n o idea what was happening here. And then she noticed that Elaine was also present, albeit looking like rather distr essed. She looked up and gave Janet a glare . filled with hatred. Janet only looked away. She didn’t k now why Elaine had just done that, either. She was absolutely clueless. Garrett pressed his glasses again st the bridge of his nose and gla nced at either side of the table. Seeing that everyone was there , he cleared his throat and spo ke in a gentle but clear voice. "All right, let’s get down to the matter a t hand. Elaine, you rejected Miss Lind on th e grounds that she had moral issues, but we . cannot simply take your word for it. Now, kind ly tell us in detail what exactly is wrong wi th Miss Lind's character. It is only fair that . you clarify things f ace-to-face, with us as your witnesses. Elaine gingerly got to her feet, her fear showing on her face. She hadn’t expected to cause such a commotion, all because she . had reje cted an a pplicant. Who was this woman, anyway? As far as anyone could tell, Janet was clearly a nobody

More than a dozen head s turned to Elaine, wa iting for her response. "I—I," she sta mmered. "I heard it from the others. When she was i n university, she had sex with a-no, with several male students, and. In any case, . they said that she is not innocent and swee t as it appears. She-". "Think care fully before you speak,” . Garrett inte rrupted, his tone sharp. "Who did you hear it from? Give us the nam es of your informants, of the people invol ved, as well as the time and place of these . incidents prove these claims. We must clear this matter up once and for all. I don’t wan t to find out later on that you were judging . potential candidates for the company bas ed on hearsay. It’s easy enough to investi gate whether you are telling the truth or . not. You will have to take responsibility for every word you say today. I don’t think I ha ve to remind you, Elaine, that there’s a fine . line between gossip and slander. It can easi ly turn into a legal matter entirely. In add ition to that, you failed your duties as an . interviewer by treating Miss Lind with bia s. You know very well that it’s against the company’s rules to let the newly-graduated . applicants take the advanced exam ination meant for professional des igners with years of experiences