The Billionaire's Pretend Wife (Isabella)
Chapter 60 Sixty

Grace handed her the plan she had submitted for her to go through again. Isabelle went back to her desk and reviewed everything, comparing it with the customer's requirements.

When she was done, she found that she had done everything as requested. When she had been preparing the plan before making her submission, this was something she had paid extra attention to. She had known that no matter how good her design was, it would not get chosen if it wasn't what the client was looking for.

She was also sure that the director had paid attention to that while deciding which design to go with. By her own evaluation, she couldn't tell what part of the design was not in line with the client's requirements so she wasn't sure what she was supposed to work on.

After checking her draft for the umpteenth time, she gave up on trying to identify possible areas of improvement and went back to Grace's office.

"Has the client provided new guidelines?" she asked Grace, thinking that maybe that could be the case. It was common for clients to make changes to their requirements after the initial drafts were presented. "No," Grace replied, "they still want the same thing. But when I forwarded your design, they said it wasn't up to par."

"Do you have any suggestions on how I can improve?" Isabelle asked her, hoping that the director would have suggestions. A second perspective could be what she needed. "I don't think I understand what's wrong with my drafts. I was careful to meet all of their demands while preparing my plan."

Grace clasped her hands on her desk and shook her head. "Honestly, I too cannot tell what's wrong with your design. We submitted your plan because we felt it was the perfect fit for what Green Leaf want. I was surprised when I received the request to redo it."

Isabelle frowned. If even the design director couldn't think of a way to improve the design, what was she supposed to do?

"Let's do this," Grace suggested, "let's revise the design with the client. If we sit down with them, they can tell us what they didn't like. Because as we stand, unless they give us new requirements, I don't see how we can submit anything better than what we have."

"That's a great idea," Isabelle agreed. "I would love to sit with the client too to get a better understanding of what they want."

The two left the office and after a short taxi ride, they got to the Green Leaf Company Headquarters. The company was a women's fashion brand.

They went inside the building and took an elevator to the design department of the Green Leaf Company. When they got to the right floor, they headed to the reception. Isabelle was shocked to find Naomi there. Her sister noticed them right away, and she walked over to join them.

"Well, who do we have here?" she asked, her mouth twisting in a sneer as she looked at Isabelle.

Multiple thoughts crossed Isabelle's mind. What was Naomi doing at Green Leaf Company? Did she work here?

"Do you work here?" Grace asked kindly, offering her hand in greeting. "We are from the Larson Group, and we'd like to talk about our latest collaboration."

Naomi completely ignored Grace's hand and crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, is that so? I am the one in charge of that project."

Isabelle frowned at her sister's words. If Naomi was the one in charge of the project, she could as well give up. Her sister would never accept a design from her. Finally, the rejection made sense. Naomi must have found out that Isabelle was the designer. It didn't matter whether Isabelle's design was good enough to win a worldwide award. It would never be good enough for Naomi.

"I'm the design director from the Larson Group," Grace introduced herself, unperturbed by Naomi's rudeness. "This is Isabelle, the designer who prepared the plan that we presented to you. We'd like to know what you're looking for, because we were confident that we had met all your requirements."

"Oh my God," Naomi said, twirling one hand in the air and looking at Isabelle, “she is the one who prepared that design? Are you sure she is one of your employees? I thought the Larson Group only has the finest talents, but her drafts were so amateur."

Isabelle blew air into her cheeks and said nothing. She wondered whether to be frank with Grace and tell her the truth of what was going on.

"What?" Grace asked, surprise evident in her voice. "Are you sure we are talking about the same design? All of the designers in our department prepared designs, and Isabelle's was by far the best. I'm not sure what you mean by amateur."

"I studied what she prepared very closely," Naomi said, "and it did not impress me. This is a very important project, and we will have nothing but the best. Are you sure hers was the best? It was not satisfying." "That's why we are here, to find out what you didn't like about it," Grace told her. "Can we sit down and review everything? If you let us know where we fell short, we can rectify that and move forward." Isabelle was amazed at how professional Grace was, even when it was obvious that Naomi was simply being mean and rude. But then again, Grace didn't know of the story between the two sisters. She probably thought Naomi was a hard-to-please client.

Isabelle was sure that if Grace was to hand in any of the other drafts submitted by Isabelle's coworkers, Naomi would accept it without a second thought.

Before Naomi could reply to Grace's suggestion, a well-dressed man appeared and approached them, a warm smile on his face. Isabelle recognised the man right away. He was Naomi's boyfriend, the one who had accompanied her on the day she and Jacob had ran into them near the subway station.

"You are from the Larson Group, right?" he asked, offering Grace his hand in greeting. "We talked briefly about the project we are collaborating on. I'm Arnold Gibson, the CEO of Green Leaf."

Grace accepted his greeting and nodded. "Grace Ocampo, design director at the Larson Group. This is Miss Cruz, the designer who worked on the drafts we sent to you. We were hoping to discuss your concerns about our submission and chart a way forward."

Arnold nodded, giving Naomi a look. When they had received the submission from the Larson Group, Arnold had been impressed with Isabelle's draft.

But when Naomi found out it was from her adoptive sister, she asked him to reject it. He hadn't anticipated that they would come to the headquarters to discuss the issue.

"We were not satisfied with the design you submitted," he told Grace, "and that's why we asked for a replacement."

Grace frowned. "I want to assure you that we conducted thorough evaluation of the submissions we got from our designers, and Miss Cruz's was the best. Not only that, but her design met all your requirements. Would you care to explain why her design was not satisfactory?"

Naomi huffed. "Look, I've already told you that I don't think she is the right person for this project. If you're not willing to change the designer, then I'm afraid we cannot go ahead with this collaboration. We have already wasted enough time on this. Don't you have a better designer you can put on the project right away?"

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