Christian smiled even more deeply with a sinister look on his face. He picked up his cellphone and made a long-distance call to Timothy.
The mont the line got connected, Christian said coldly, "I agree to do as you suggested. However, you’ll have to find so way to keep Zen by Wendy’s side."
"Are you sure?" Timothy sounded nervous. "If she joins the board of directors and learns of your involvent, it’ll spell huge trouble."
"We have complete control of HG Enterprise through our shares. She will only get to know what we choose to feed her. Unless soone tips her off, there is no way she will learn the truth," said Christian confidently. "We have worked together for years, so I am sure you have no problems taking care of this. Moreover, if we don’t give her what she wants, she will feel upset. We stand to gain nothing if she is unable to focus on the Moonlight collection."
Christian had no clue that Michael had already connected the dots about Christian and HG Enterprise. Wendy also knew about this.
Christian had a selfish motive. If Wendy owned shares from HG Enterprise, it would bring them closer to each other. He and Wendy would end up defeating Michael hand in hand.
Just thinking about Michael’s downfall made Christian feel excited.
"Got it," replied Timothy softly.
...
Wendy worked hard every single day. At least on the surface, it certainly seed that way.
Todd continued ferrying Wendy to and from work every day. Sotis, he would even pick the children up from school if he managed to finish work early. He was already seen as Wendy’s boyfriend and he was a very good one too. However, it was starting to feel like a burden to Wendy.
Based on her last conversation with Todd, Wendy was unsure if Christian and Todd had anything to do with each other, but she was certain Todd knew sothing that she did not. Otherwise, he would not have overreacted, but there was nothing Wendy could do about it for now. Fortunately, Todd had never forced her to do anything against her will.
It has been a week since Wendy last brought up her request about the shares. Timothy said to give him a week. In the past, Wendy would have called Timothy directly to ask, but she did not dare to do it after hearing what Todd said. Fortunately, Timothy took the initiative to reach out to her.
Wendy was working with her head lowered when she heard soone knocking on the door. She said, "Please enter."
Wendy put down her pen when she saw Timothy co in. She pressed for the intercom and told her assistant, "Bring in two cups of coffee."
Wendy stood up and walked towards Timothy, gesturing for him to take a seat. Timothy sat on the couch by the side.
"Mr. Woods, what brings you here?" Wendy reckoned Timothy was here to talk about the shares. However, she was not about to broach the subject so as not to appear desperate about it.
"I’m here to talk about the shares," said Timothy as he smiled. "I have so news."
Wendy contemplated before she asked Timothy, "Really? How did it go?"
But she also imdiately added, "It’s okay even if the outco is not what I would have wanted. There is no sense in getting into a fight with the board of directors because of ."
"Initially, the board was adamant about not giving you any shares. After I fought for it, more than half of them agreed to it."
Timothy was exaggerating. He wanted Wendy to feel like she owed him. He actually did not have to call for a board eting. All he had to do was call Christian.
"Oh, really?" Wendy looked surprised and happy. "Mr. Woods, I can’t believe what you did for . Todd tried, but even he failed to get the shares. I didn’t expect you’d do that for ."
Her assistant brought in the coffee. Wendy handed a cup to Timothy as she smiled and said, "Mr. Woods, here you go."
"Are you not going to ask how much shares you’re alloted?" Timothy smiled when he saw how happy Wendy was.
"It doesn’t matter. I’m sure you have done your best to fight for it." Wendy flattered Timothy intentionally. She was being ingratiating. As long as she could get hold of so company shares, she would be able to attend the board eting. She did not really care about how much shares she had been given.
"Well..." said Timothy voluntarily. "Initially, I suggested giving you 5% worth of shares, but the board of directors felt it was too much. After further discussion, they decided to start with 3%. Once the second batch of the Moonlight collection hits the market, you can receive 1% more. If the second collection ets the target sales, you can get another 1%. That adds up to a total of 5%.
"However, there’s one condition. If you are unable to et the sales target for the second collection, you won’t be able to get the remaining 2% worth of shares. I have absolute faith that you can make this happen."
Although 5% did not sound like much, HG Enterprise was one of the top international firms in the fashion industry, so it was worth hundreds of billions in assets.
That ant 5% was worth over tens of billions. Even 3% of HG shares was worth an astronomical sum.
Wendy was the main reason HG Enterprise could remain this profitable. it was only natural for the company to give her 5% worth of shares as a reward.
If the company wanted to grant her shares, it had to be taken from the other board mbers. No one appreciated getting their share of the pie taken from them.
"Mr. Woods..." Wendy lowered her head. When she looked up again, her eyes were teary.
She sniffled and pretended to be touched by Timothy’s effort as she said in disbelief, "Mr. Woods, I did not expect you to convince them to grant this much shares. I had thought that even if the board mbers agreed to it, it would be only be 1 to 2%."
Timothy reached out and patted Wendy’s shoulder as he said, "You have earned it. You have made huge contributions to HG Enterprise, so we should have given you the shares ages ago. I was simply helping you fight for what you deserve."
"Mr. Woods ..." Wendy’s eyes beca even more teary. Timothy could feel that Wendy was so moved that she was speechless. But Wendy was only putting up an act.
Timothy pulled out a few pieces of napkin and handed them to Wendy. He smiled as he said, "You’re a grown woman. How can you cry this easily? It seems as though I have just bullied you."
"Mr. Woods, you have just done a huge favor. How could anyone say that you bullied ?" Wendy took the napkins from Timothy and wiped away her tears. She proceeded to smile and said, "When will the board eting be held to sign the shares over to ?"
Wendy had always wanted to join the board of directors. She already knew Christian was the one helming HG Enterprise. She wanted to find out who the other shareholders were.
Wendy had never once seen the other shareholders of HG Enterprise. She had never attended any of the board etings. Wendy could only deal with Christian after joining the board of directors as a shareholder.
"My secretary is drafting the agreent as we speak. It can get notarized in about three days," said Timothy. "We don’t need to hold a board eting. I have full authority to approve this."
"No board eting?" Wendy was stunned.
Giving an employee company shares was a huge affair. How could they not hold a board eting? From the looks of it, Christian was not simply a shareholder of HG Enterprise. He must be holding majority of the shares.
Timothy saw Wendy contemplating with her head lowered, so he said, "The board mbers are busy people. I had to call for an ergency board eting just to ask them about giving you shares. I was worried people might not be able to show up, so I’d already asked them to grant the authority to finalize the shares transfer during the last board eting. I now have total authority to do it. Don’t worry about the legitimacy of the agreent."
Timothy pointed at the docunt folder he had left on the table, saying, "Take a look at this."
Wendy picked it up and had a look. It was genuinely an agency agreent. Since Wendy wanted to find out who the board mbers were, she flipped right to the last page, which had all their signatures. She wanted to see if Christian’s signature was there, even though she was certain that she wouldn’t find it on the last page.
Wendy frowned slightly and felt even more puzzled. Was Christian not the man behind HG Enterprise? Was he not the biggest shareholder in the company?
For the transfer of shares to take place, more than half of the existing shareholders had to agree to it. This ant the signatories of this docunt owned over 50% of the company’s shares. Timothy’s signature was there though.
Wendy asked quizzically, "Mr. Woods, how much shares do you own in HG Enterprise?"
"I have a 40% stake in the company," Timothy said as he imdiately figured out Wendy’s concern. "Don’t worry. This docunt is legitimate since all the signatories have over 50% shares in the company."
Wendy nodded as she smiled and said, "Then I’m sure this docunt is legally binding."
Wendy checked out the signatories once more and quietly made a ntal note of the nas. There were a total of seven signatories and Timothy held 40% of the company’s shares. That ant the six other shareholders combined possessed more than 10% stake in the company.
Wendy was not afraid that Timothy would lie about this.
After all, Timothy could have refused her altogether if he did not want to make her a shareholder.
To be precise, Christian could have said no if he did not want her to be a board mber. If no board eting was held, Wendy would not be able to find out more about the mbers of the board. It was impossible for Wendy to identify the signatories with just this docunt alone.
None of the shareholders had ever shown their faces publicly. It was public knowledge that Timothy was the CEO and chairman of HG Enterprise. No one knew anything else about the other board mbers.
The nas on the docunt were useless since plenty of people had the sa nas. Wendy knew Christian did not want her to be in contact with the key mbers of HG Enterprise.
They might have given her the shares, but she was still unable to see the board mbers.
At least having the shares ant that she had the right to join future board etings.
Wendy felt that they were bound to hold a board eting one day.
"Corrine, keep up the good work." Timothy reached his hand out and patted Wendy on the shoulder and said, "You an a lot to HG Enterprise. Now that you are going to beco a mber of the board, we are on the sa side."
"Mr. Woods, trust . I will do a good job," said Wendy. "I will ensure that HG Enterprise will only get better."
"I have faith in you." Timothy nodded as he smiled and said, "Oh yes, one more thing."
"What is it, Mr. Woods?"
"It is about ti that you hire so new people for the design departnt," said Timothy. "HG Enterprise needs to keep up with the tis, so we can’t keep using the old pool of designers. In the design industry, sotis you need inspiration from the youngsters. Without new blood, the design departnt will probably end up going downhill."
Wendy nodded her head in agreent with Timothy, "I agree, but there is no hurry. After I am done working on part two of the Moonlight collection, I will hire new people. Otherwise, no one will have the ti to train the new hires."
Timothy’s concern ca unexpectedly.
Also, Wendy ought to get to decide on hiring new people and not Timothy.
She knew best when her design team needed new blood, so she felt that Timothy did not bring this up out of the blue.
There had to be a reason for him to say this.
Sure enough, Timothy continued, "I agree that it can be a little tough to train completely new hires. What about your friend, Zen? I recalled you talking about her, so I looked into her. She used to work as the design director at DR Group and made a lot of profit for them. I took a look at her designs and I thought they were pretty good. If you like, you can recruit her. Since you two are friends, it would make things easier for you at work."
Why was Timothy talking about Zen?
From the looks of it, Christian was planning on placing Zen right under her nose.
Wendy was going to bring this up to Zen when the opportunity presented itself, but she did not expect them to beat her to it.
Timothy noticed that Wendy had gone quiet, so he imdiately explained, "Don’t misunderstand, Corrine. Although she is good at her job, she can’t compare to you when it cos to design. I only suggested her since you two are university friends. Now that she is out of a job, I just thought that perhaps we could hire her. I have no other intentions and she won’t threaten your status in the company."
"To be honest, Mr. Woods, she asked about a job recently," said Wendy as she smiled. "She said she was bored to her wit’s end staying at ho and asked if she could be my assistant or even a design intern. I felt it was a bad idea for her to work since she is pregnant. Also, it would be a pure waste of talent for her to be an intern, so I did not agree right away. Since you have spoken on her behalf, I will talk to her and see if she is still interested in joining us."
"It’s completely up to you." Since Timothy had achieved what he wanted, he pretended as if it was purely Wendy’s decision. "You have complete control over the design departnt, so it’s completely up to you if you want to hire her. I just brought it up since she was a suitable candidate. If you think she suits the business, then you can hire her. Otherwise, just forget I ntioned it."
Wendy smiled as she nodded.
"In that case, I will leave you in peace to continue working." Timothy stood up and said, "Once the secretary is done drafting your shareholder agreent, I will bring it over so you can sign it."
Reviews
All reviews (0)