2026-05-13 01:03:12“Mr. Walker, is there anything you would like to drink?” Mr. David said, trembling.
Since they had arrived in the Chairman’s office, there had been an awkward silence and David was already soiled with sweat. This was meant to be a meeting, but David felt like it was more like a disciplinary meeting.
“David, what was my instruction when I handed the company over to you to handle?” Alan asked, looking at the bustling city through the transparent ceiling-to-floor window.
“Uhm, you said, I should take care of things here till you return. I know you are angry with the situation of the security guards but I have gotten them replaced already. You don’t have to worry about anything, Mr. Walker. The company has been in safe hands.”
“Safe hands?” Alan scoffed, turning around. “On the 6th of September 2016, someone embezzled $600,000 in cooperation with the Kings group.”
“On the 8th of October, the same year, someone accepted bribes from Hermes Company and purchased inferior building materials for a high price and we had to pay compensation due to quality problems, causing the company to incur losses of over millions of dollars and reputation.”
“On 20th of October, Old Tim called a meeting and publicly berated you in front of the other Branch Presidents and General Managers of the company for your inability to squash the bad elements in Gold Aries Constructions, but I told him to delay your punishment till I return.”
“But, you must have thought that there would be no disciplinary action, because last week…”
David, unable to take it any longer, fell to his knees. “Mr. Walker, I am sorry. Please give me another chance to make amends, I promise that nothing of such will happen again in the future. Give me a chance to correct my mistakes!”
David couldn’t look Alan in the eyes so his gaze was fixed tightly to the ground. How was the absent Chairman able to get such discriminating information about him? It couldn’t have been the Executive Director Timothy Hall, that man was too busy handling all the many parts of the company to bother about all these things. If the issue with the inferior materials hadn’t made the news, Old Tim might not have heard about it at all. So, how could someone that had been absent for years still keep track of so many shady activities going in the company. This young star was indeed formidable.
David had embezzled so much money as the President of the branch of Gold Aries that handled Construction. He had collected bribes but these were only done when he was sure the company wouldn’t notice or be affected. However, his actions were soon picked up by those working under him and they also started doing the same thing. In fact, they stole far more than he ever did and took more bribes than he could imagine. He was almost oblivious to all this, but Old Tim, who was in charge of all the parts of Gold Aries, kept track and made reports to Alan on these events.
David knew he was in trouble, he had made the company incur so much loss under his administration and lost its credibility in the eyes of the public.
“You know what you have done has destroyed the reputation of this company!”
“Chairman Walker, please spare me. I promise to make sure the company gains back all the losses it has incurred over the past few years and also I will increase the company’s value in the stock market. I will do whatever you want.”
Alan didn’t give a reply, he knew well that David was a great businessman, he was a corporate devil. But, he lacked sorely in important aspects and his bad traits were spreading in the company.
“I can give you a chance and I expect you to make good use of it, Mr. David. I am not someone who is fond of giving out second chances, so if you fail me this time, you should know what is in it for you.”
David heaved a sigh of relief and nodded his head. “Yes, Mr. Walker! I shall do whatever you want me to do. I will not fail you this time!”
“Do you know of a man named Michael Fletcher?” Alan asked, sitting on the swivel.
“Yes, his company JK enterprise has a very promising cooperation with our company. We are supposed to meet today to discuss the terms of the contract.”
“Cancel it and also make sure to kick the Head of the HR department, Kira out of the company. My company will never contain snobbish employees!”
David nodded. Who knows what these two have done to make Alan angry at them?
Alan, on the other hand, didn’t see a reason to fire David outright yet, such a man was a rare talent, he just needed to make David feel so much pain that he would be forced to turn over a new leaf and flush out the bad elements from the company on his own.
This was Rex’s policy as a hands-off Chairman.
…
Meanwhile, Michael and Kira were outside David’s office, waiting for him. David merely glanced at them, entered into the office and closed the door. Kira and Michael exchanged glances.
“Michael, I think that’s your cue to go inside,” Kira said.
“Let’s go then,” Michael said, straightening up his suit.
As they entered, they met David busy with some files.
“Who asked you both to enter my office unpermitted?”
David was well known for his pride and bad temper; after all, being the President of such a huge company was no small feat at all. Michael had to tread cautiously.
“We had already informed your secretary and she told us to wait for you outside. So when you arrived, I thought it was a good thing to follow you in.”
“I see,” David responded, not raising his head from the documents in front of him.
Michael pulled out a chair to sit.
“Mr. Fletcher, I haven’t asked you to sit down yet,” David raised his head slightly, narrowing his eyes at him.
Michael couldn’t help but swallow. David’s appearance right now was very different from when he was with Alan. Then, he was as mild as a cat but right now, his aura was domineering even the piercing look in his eyes was intimidating.”
“I’m sorry if I have offended Mr. David in any way but my father sent me here to discuss the terms of the contract. The contract as you well know is very beneficial and profitable to both companies and my father is sure that you won’t refuse,” Michael said with a convincing smile.
“What do you mean by that, Mr. Fletcher? Do you think that Gold Aries is short of funds?” David asked, raising a brow.
Michael shook his head with a grave expression on. “Of course not! I was only saying that this cooperation will bring more profits to the company.”
He exchanged worried glances with Kira and that was when David noticed her presence. Alan had ordered him to get rid of this woman so he had better do that right away.
“Ms. Kira, may I ask what you are doing here? I don’t remember calling you to my office.”
Kira coughed slightly, going red with embarrassment. “Uhm, well, Mr. David, you see, Uriel here is my brother-in-law so I followed him here to give him moral support.”
“Moral support,” David replied, appearing amused by Kira’s choice of words. “And I presume you don’t have much work on your desk?”
“Mr. David-”
“Ms. Kira,” David called out, interrupting her. “This is work hours which you are aware of and you left your duties to follow this man to my office, claiming that you want to give him moral support? Have you forgotten the objectives of this company, Ms. Kira? Those documents on your desk are what you should attend to rather than poking your nose into the affairs of the company!”
“I’m sorry, Mr. David. I will get to it right away!”
“There’s no need for that, you are fired!”
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 174
Strickland was locking up the gym when John came out of the changing room.It was late, around quarter to ten, the last session having run long because two of the regulars had gotten competitive about something and Strickland had let it play out rather than cut it short. The overhead lights were off except for the strip above the exit and the security light above the equipment cage."You're the last one," Strickland said, not accusatorially. It was just an observation."Sorry," John replied, shouldering his bag."Don't be sorry, just be out the door." Strickland pulled his keys from his pocket. "You training tomorrow?""Maybe," John said.Strickland looked at him. After three weeks of John coming in at irregular hours and training with a consistency and intensity that had quietly reorganised the gym's informal hierarchy of who-was-actually-serious, he had developed the particular read of a man who had decided that John Bones was not someone he needed to understand, just someone he was
Chapter 173
Aldrich read the statement at ten in the morning, at a podium set up in the lobby of his firm's building, which was a deliberate choice — not the Fletcher Group offices, not a neutral venue, but a law firm's lobby, which said something specific about who was in control of the narrative now.There were twelve journalists in the room and two camera operators. Michael was not present. Aldrich had advised against it and Michael, for the first time in the process, had taken advice without argument.Aldrich read clearly and without inflection, the way good lawyers read prepared statements — as though the words were facts rather than positions, inevitable rather than constructed."Fletcher Group has reached a settlement agreement with the city of Silver Lace regarding three municipal contracts awarded between four and six years ago. The settlement includes financial restitution and an acknowledgment of process irregularities in the submission and administration of those contracts. Michael Fl
Chapter 172
Ann had dressed rather carefully that morning. Not in the usual way she dressed for social occasions, where it was all about impression. This was different. She had stood in front of her wardrobe for longer than usual and eventually chose the navy suit she wore to outings that required her to be taken seriously, the one Lucia had once said made her look like she meant business. She had done her hair properly and worn her good shoes and checked herself in the mirror twice before she left the house, which was two more times than she usually needed. She took the bus, which she hadn't done in years, because she didn't want to arrive in a taxi that might circle the building while she lost her nerve. The Gold Aries building was on Creston Avenue in the heart of the Silverlace Business Area, and it was not the tallest building on the block, but it had a quality that the taller buildings around it didn't — a kind of settled authority, the architecture of something that had decided what it
Chapter 171
Hazel found the reminder on Alan's phone by accident.She hadn't been looking at his phone. It was on the kitchen counter and she had picked it up thinking it was hers, which happened occasionally because they had the same case in different colours and she was half-asleep. She put it back without reading anything, but she had seen the screen for a second and the reminder said: *Respond to Fontaine. Three days.*"You set a reminder," she said aloud when Alan came in from the study.He looked at her. "For what?""Dane Fontaine," she answered. "You set a three-day reminder to respond to his message.""The reminder was for yesterday," he said, going to the counter. "I already responded."Hazel lifted a brow, "When?""This morning," he said. "While you were in the shower.""What did you say?""I called him," Alan said. "We spoke for a few minutes."She watched him pour water and decided not to ask anything else, because the specific way he had said *a few minutes* told her the call had bee
Chapter 170
The document arrived at Arthur Walker's office by private courier at eleven in the morning, sealed with the Walker Family elder council's formal wax mark, which meant it had been handled through the official channel rather than the family's internal communication system.His assistant brought it in without comment, set it on the desk, and left. Arthur looked at it for a moment before picking it up.He read it at his desk with his jacket still on, which was how he read things he expected to be significant. The document was six pages, formal in the way of things produced by committees of older people who believed that formality conveyed weight. The language was careful and measured and in several places said the same thing three different ways, which was what happened when seven people had to agree on every sentence.The substance, stripped of all that, was four pages in.[Preliminary assessment of standing as of the current review cycle. Evaluation criteria: six. Criteria on which Walk
Chapter 169
Taskmaster had been parked at the same corner for three mornings straight, a rented sedan tucked into a metered spot with a clear line of sight down Ferris Street toward the warehouse cluster.The work was slow, the kind of surveillance that rewarded patience over instinct, and he'd never minded the slow parts of a job the way some men did. He kept a thermos of coffee in the cup holder, a folded newspaper on the passenger seat for cover, and a camera with a long lens tucked beneath it, ready whenever something worth photographing crossed his line of sight.Most mornings gave him nothing. Dock workers moving crates, a delivery truck making its rounds, the occasional homeless man cutting through the lot between two of the larger buildings. He logged all of it out of habit, cross-referenced against the patterns he'd already built over the last several weeks, and waited for something that didn't fit.That Thursday morning, something didn't fit.A man came around the corner from the north
You may also like
Rise of the Student Trillionaire
Ty Writes169.1K viewsThe Heir of the Family
Rytir92.6K viewsTHE GREAT GENERAL
Ardy-sensei139.9K viewsBuilding My Life
Anderson José160.4K viewsThe Hidden King Among Mortals
LucyFur197 viewsThe Unsolicited Merger
Ferl237 viewsThe Warlord Comes Home
TrueBay82 viewsUseless Husband is now a Muti-Billionaire
Sam-crowned135 views