Zaden's eyes narrowed slightly. Teri looked at him and said, "Daddy, your cookies must be really bad. That's why no one wanted to eat them." "Oh, really?" Zaden sneered. Everyone suddenly froze, their minds spinning in shock. Wait—those cookies Athena brought were made by Zaden? For real? Zaden looked around and said, "Sorry, my wife isn't great in the kitchen, so I made the cookies for her. I guess they didn't meet everyone's standard." Although these ladies had been targeting Athena, none of them dared to offend Zaden. After all, Storm Group was under his control—he was the boss. Even their families needed favors from him. "Yeah, Willy wanted to eat one, but his mom scolded him," Teri added quickly. That was totally tattling. Zaden turned to Vivian, his eyes thoughtful. Just then, the teacher stepped in to smooth things over. "Mr. Storm, it's a misunderstanding. We started tasting from over there, so we just hadn't gotten to your cookies yet." No one dared to target Athena anymore. Parents who had stopped their kids from touching the cookies now rushed forward to grab one. In no time, the cookies were gone. Athena was speechless watching the scene. These people sure knew how to switch sides.Still, she hadn't expected Zaden to show up at all. He didn't even do much, but just his presence made it clear he was standing up for her. A strange warmth spread through her chest. Zaden pulled out his phone and stepped aside to make a call to Tommy. After a short while, he returned. Athena squinted. She had a feeling Zaden was doing something to help her. He didn't pull some big boss move to deal with these people's families, did he? She tugged Zaden's arm and whispered, "What did you just do?" "Nothing." "Liar. I saw you make a call." Zaden smiled faintly. "My people don't get bullied by outsiders." Athena instantly understood. Yup, he definitely did something. Vivian hadn't expected Zaden to show up and stand up for Athena. The moms who were just on her side had now switched to Athena's, making Vivian feel a little singled out. She was wondering if she should try to get closer to Athena too. While she was hesitating, her phone suddenly rang. She quickly pulled out her phone. Seeing it was her husband calling, she answered the call, "I'm at the school event with Willy. Didn't I tell you last night? What's up?" "How dare you ask!" roared an angry voice from the other end. Vivian trembled instantly and asked in confusion, "What? What happened?" "Tell me, did you get into some kind of fight with the Storms' kid just now?"Her heart sank. She hesitated and said, "No, not really ... "Ms. Rice was here today. Didn't you say we've been working with the Rices lately? She asked us to isolate Athena, so I did it. I just never expected Zaden to show up ... " Vivian stammered out the explanation. Her husband already knew what had happened. Hearing her excuse only made him angrier. He snapped, "Idiot! Do you know we already secured a contract with Storm Group? Zaden's assistant just called to cancel it! Do you know how much effort I put in to win that deal? How many competitors I had to beat? All gone—because of you!" Vivian's legs instantly gave out. Her head was ringing, and she couldn't process what he said. "Go apologize to Mr. Storm right now! If you don't fix this, you'll deal with the company's losses yourself!" He hung up before she could say a word. Vivian stood there frozen, unable to snap out of it for a long time. It took her a while to come to her senses, and regret hit hard. Willy just wanted one cookie. I shouldn't have stopped him. It was just a little treat. If I hadn't made a scene, we wouldn't be in this situation. But it was too late for regrets now. She turned to look in Athena's direction, and saw her standing with Zaden. She immediately wanted to go over and apologize, to beg for forgiveness for her rudeness.