All Chapters of From Rejected Son in Law to Empire Heir: Chapter 31
- Chapter 40
152 chapters
Chapter 31: The Investigation
Soh's driver pulled into traffic and the city began moving past the windows in the usual way. Soh sat in the back with his phone in his hand and stared at Francis Lee's name on his screen for a moment before pressing the call.Francis answered on the second ring. His voice was light and expectant, the voice of a man waiting for good news."So?" Francis said. "How did the evening go?""How did it go," Soh repeated quietly. He let a short silence sit between them. "Your little plan nearly cost me everything tonight, Francis. That is how it went."The lightness in Francis' voice dropped away immediately. "What are you talking about?""My CEO called me," Soh said. "Personally. Tonight. While I was still sitting in the restaurant with her handprint on my face." He kept his voice low and steady. "He told me in very clear terms to back off, apologize to the woman, and sign the contract before the night was over. Those were his exact words."Francis said nothing for a moment."You told me sh
Chapter 32: A New Assignment
The news about the Astral Corp contract spread through Synergy Corp before Ava had even settled at her desk.A colleague stopped by her station before nine with a wide smile. "Congratulations, Ava. Seven hundred million. Nobody here has ever done that.""Thank you. I mean…. No one can pull that move aside from me. In fact, no one is greater," Ava said, turning back to her screen.Another colleague passed behind her chair a few minutes later. "Well done on the contract.” The tone was friendly enough but the smile did not quite match it. Ava thanked her the same way she had thanked the first person and kept working.By mid morning, Jared Fisher's assistant called. "Mr Fisher would like to see you upstairs. It’s quite urgent."Jared was standing when Ava walked in. He placed a single sheet of paper on the desk in front of her and sat down. "Read that."Ava picked it up. Her name was at the top and the company seal was at the bottom. She read it twice."Effective immediately, you are bein
Chapter 33: The Morning of the Meeting
Ava stayed late on Wednesday and Thursday going through every previous attempt Synergy Corp had made at a partnership with Astral Corp. She read every rejection note and every internal memo that had passed between the two companies. By the time she finished, the conclusion was clear. Every attempt had failed for the same reason. Synergy Corp did not have enough standing to bring Astral Corp to the table. It had nothing to do with the quality of the proposals. It was simply a matter of scale.She built the strongest version she could with what she had and submitted a draft to Francis on Thursday evening.He replied within the hour. "Good start. See my comments and revise before tomorrow."She opened the comment document. It was a full page. Several of the changes contradicted things he had specifically asked for in an earlier draft. She started on them immediately and finished close to midnight.Friday morning, Ava arrived early with the revised proposal printed and neatly placed in he
Chapter 34: The Hubris of Francis Lee
Francis recovered first.He straightened the folder under his arm with a deliberate motion and turned his full attention to Logan. The expression on his face was one he reserved exclusively for people he had already written off…cold, faintly amused, and dripping with superiority.“Mitchell,” Francis said, letting the name fall from his mouth like something unpleasant he’d stepped in. “What are you doing on this floor?”Logan stood his ground, calm and unruffled. “I had something to take care of.”Francis glanced briefly at Ava, a flicker of irritation crossing his features, before locking eyes with Logan again. “You are aware that this floor is restricted to senior staff and authorized personnel only.”“I am aware,” Logan replied evenly, offering no further explanation.Francis studied him for a long second taking in the tailored suit, Logan’s relaxed posture, and the complete lack of deference in his expression. Something calculating shifted behind Francis’s eyes, but his face remai
Chapter 35: The Masked Majority
The meeting room on the executive floor was large and arranged carefully. A long table ran down the center with chairs on both sides, all of them already filled by the time Francis and Ava arrived. Department heads, senior managers, and key staff sat in order of seniority with folders open in front of them and conversations running low across the table. At the front of the room, a wide screen displayed the Synergy Corp logo and the words New Shareholder Briefing underneath it.Ava found a seat near the middle and set her folder down. Francis took a seat closer to the front, exchanging a brief word with the person next to him as he settled in. The room had the particular energy of people who were all trying to appear less curious than they actually were. Everyone wanted to see the new shareholder. Nobody wanted to be caught looking too eager.Jared Fisher stood at the front of the room and called for quiet. "Thank you all for being here on time. We will begin shortly. The shareholder
Chapter 36: The New Direction
Jared opened the meeting properly by handing the floor to the department heads one by one. Each of them stood and walked through their numbers, their targets, and their projections for the coming quarter. The masked shareholder sat at the head of the table and listened without interrupting. He gave nothing away. He simply listened and occasionally wrote something down in the folder in front of him.Francis presented his department's figures with his usual confidence. He spoke clearly and at length, making sure to reference several initiatives he claimed were already underway, two of which Ava knew for a fact had not moved beyond a conversation in a hallway. She kept her eyes on her own notes.When it was her turn, Ava stood and walked through the sales department's recent performance. She kept it factual and straightforward, she mentioned the Astral Corp contract without dwelling on it, cited the current numbers, and outlined the targets for the next quarter. She sat back down and t
Chapter 37: Whispers of Identity
Ava sat at her desk for a while after the meeting, going through her notes and thinking about what the shareholder had said. Try first and see what happens. It was simple advice but it had settled something in her that the past two nights of reading rejection letters had unsettled. She opened her laptop and started a fresh draft of the Astral Corp proposal from the top.She worked through lunch and most of the afternoon, by four o'clock she had something she felt better about. She saved it, closed her laptop, and sat back in her chair.She thought about her father's birthday. It was coming up faster than she had planned for and she had not bought a gift yet. She had been so buried in work that the date had crept up on her without warning. She needed to go shopping and she needed to go soon.She picked up her phone and called Logan.It rang three times before he answered. "Hello.""It is me," she said. "Are you busy right now?""Not particularly," Logan said. "What is it? Is somethin
Chapter 38: The Cost of Appearances
Logan picked Mia up from school at midday and sent Ava a message telling her they were on the way. Ava was already waiting outside the mall entrance when the car pulled up. Mia spotted her mother through the window and started waving before the door was even open."Mummy!" Mia jumped out and ran straight to her. Ava crouched down and caught her, laughing as Mia grabbed both her arms."Look at my dress, Mummy." Mia stepped back and spun around carefully, holding the sides of the fabric out. "Dada got it for me. And these shoes too." She stuck one foot forward. "Do you like them?"Ava looked at the dress. Then she looked at the shoes. Then she looked at Logan over Mia's head.Logan met her eyes and said nothing."They are very pretty, baby," Ava said to Mia. She stood up and lowered her voice as she looked at Logan. "Where did you get these from?""A boutique," Logan said."Which boutique?" she asked."One in the mall," he said.Ava looked at the dress again. The fabric, the stitching,
Chapter 39: Escalating Tensions
They took the escalator down to the lower floor with Mia standing between them on the moving step, holding both their hands and leaning slightly forward the way she always did on escalators, as if she could make it go faster by tilting toward the bottom.The mall on the lower floor was quieter than the upper levels. Fewer shops, fewer people, more space between the storefronts. Ava led the way toward the antique shop at the far end of the corridor.As they walked, Ava shifted her bag to her other shoulder. "I had some good news at work this week."“Tell me,” Logan said, his voice low and attentive as they walked.Ava kept her eyes forward for a moment, gathering her thoughts. “I closed a major contract this week. Seven hundred million dollars. It’s the biggest deal anyone at Synergy Corp has ever brought in.” She said it plainly, without flair or excitement, like a fact she had already filed away and moved on from.Logan nodded slowly. “That is very good. Congratulations.”“Thank you
Chapter 40: The Shop
The antique shop on the lower floor was narrow and quiet. Shelves ran along every wall from floor to ceiling, filled with old clocks, ceramic pieces, small wooden carvings, and framed items that had clearly been sitting in the same spots for a long time. The owner, an older man with a thin face and reading glasses pushed up on his forehead, looked up briefly when they walked in and then went back to the newspaper in front of him.Mia pressed herself against the nearest glass display case immediately. "Mummy, what is this place?""An antique shop," Ava said, taking her hand gently. "Do not touch anything.""Why not?""Because the things in here are old and cost a lot of money," Ava said.Mia looked around the shop with completely new interest. Logan followed them in and began moving slowly along the shelves on the left side, his hands behind his back, looking at each item without touching anything.Ava moved through the center of the shop, picking things up and examining them. "What a