Christian had just stopped talking when Wendy burst out laughing.
She laughed loud and long as though she had heard sothing unbelievably funny.
Christian scowled, irritated by her seemingly unstoppable laughter.
He asked, "Why are you laughing?"
Clutching at straws now, he continued, "You were the one who called yesterday, asking to swap Alice for Zen. So now, I’m giving you the opportunity to take Zen away."
"What’s happened to you, Christian? I used to think that you were quite smart, but you seem to have lost it in the face of so hiccups," Wendy jeered at him.
That was when Christian totally lost it.
"What the hell do you an by that?" he ranted.
"Did you really think that I was truly concerned about Zen?" Wendy sneered.
"She’s lying in a coma in the ICU, and her baby’s gone. The doctor said there is a likelihood that she might never wake up. And, even if she did wake up, would she be able to accept the reality that her precious baby is dead?
"It’s true that I had intended to take her away from you, but that was before she turned into a comatose patient. I was after a cognitive Zen, not so person lying in a coma dead to the world.
"Besides, as I’m sure you know, Zen had betrayed so many tis. Aren’t you being presumptuous in thinking that I might disadvantage myself to help her?
"I am already being very compassionate by giving her a helping hand without adversely affecting my circumstances."
"So, what was yesterday’s call all about?" Christian asked, clutching his phone tightly.
He was puzzled by what Wendy had said yesterday in that call.
Wendy was spot on. She could not possibly disadvantage herself to help Zen.
And that could only an one thing; that she had an ulterior motive for making that call yesterday.
Suddenly enlightened, an infuriated Christian bellowed, "You made that call intentionally to trick !"
"So, you’re still pretty smart after all," Wendy jeered. "Yes, you’re right. I made that call and said those things for Alice.
"That stupid woman was initially determined to cover up for you and refused to speak up, even in the face of a death threat. I had no choice but to resort to that trick.
"However, I should stop calling it a trick because it was reality. Thanks to your excellent co-operation, she told us all we needed to know.
"Otherwise, Alice would not have stepped up so quickly and sung like a canary."
Now, this was the third phone that Christian had damaged.
The first two had been mobile phones.
Once again, the office was shrouded in silence.
Not content with smashing the phone, he thrashed everything that was wreckable on his desk.
Alas, he was not appeased one bit, even after everything had been wrecked.
Noting that the phone had suddenly gone dead, Wendy knew that Christian was, at that mont, hitting the roof in his fury.
The ultimate egoist, he had always excelled at playing dirty.
Little did he expect to lose to Wendy. Naturally, it was an extrely bitter pill to swallow.
On her part, Wendy was as happy as Christian was upset.
She was humming a tune as she instructed Zess, "Please cut so fruit."
"Sure, coming right up," Zess replied.
Unthinkingly, Christian slumped down onto his chair. However, during his frenzied attack on the items around his desk, he had kicked the chair so distance away.
And that was when Christian landed on his bum on the floor.
Scrambling to his feet, Christian stood by his desk, resting his clenched fists on the desk.
He stood there, looking nacing, his entire being enveloped in evil vibes.
To think that he had been so careless as to fall for Wendy’s ruse. That he had even taken the initiative to call her, thinking that he could use Zen as a pawn for negotiation.
What an idiot he was!
...
Shortly after, Christian’s assistant appeared at the door to his office.
Actually, he had stood there for a long ti. Then, taking a deep breath, he mustered up his courage to knock on the door.
Despite having heard the rap on the door, Christian said nothing. His assistant stepped into the office.
"Mr. Lucas." He stamred, "I... I’ve instructed the PR team. They will do their best to respond to the online posts."
Having made the report, the assistant just stood there, not moving.
Even without raising his head, the frosty glance that Christian sent his assistant radiated evil and foreboding.
His assistant hung his head even lower.
"Anything else?" Christian asked.
Because if there wasn’t, his assistant would have scurried away after having made that report.
"Yes... " The assistant replied a little tentatively.
"Well, what is it?" Christian bellowed impatiently.
He was already in so much trouble. Had there been any other challenges that he could not handle?
"It’s about our partners. They have all called asking for their contracts to be terminated. And for their paynts to be refunded," replied his assistant, bracing himself for an outburst.
"Because of the high volu of fans following Miss Tanner, many of our partners had transferred funds as pre-paynt for the clothes that we had been planning to launch.
"However, having seen the news on social dia, all of them have called, wanting to terminate their contracts with us."
"Contract termination," Christian muttered under his breath.
Having their contracts terminated was not a big deal. The issue had been that he was in no position to make refunds.
As stipulated in the contract, if the contracts were terminated due to a fault on Christian’s side, then he would have to make restitution that was three tis the amount that the partners had pre-paid.
anwhile, their new project had been waiting for the second round of funds injection.
As such, he did not even want to think about the partners’ demands.
"Let’s just park that to one side for now. Just ignore them," Christian instructed, having had run out of ideas himself.
"But if we ignore them, they will take legal action against us," his assistant replied in a small voice.
"Then, let them!" Christian replied. He had no money to compensate them, and the legal process would take so ti.
Right now, money and ti were what he had needed the most.
It did not matter if they had been unable to suppress the online posts as, in ti, they would gradually lose their newsworthiness.
As long as Phase Two of the new project could proceed as planned, he would still have innurable opportunities and possibilities.
"But," his assistant stopped mid-sentence, too scared to continue.
Christian shut his eyes in weariness and, in a subdued voice, instructed, "Tell ."
"DR’s stocks have, just within today... " His assistant also shut his eyes, not daring to see Christian’s reaction. He continued, "Dropped fifty percent in market value."
The fifty percent figure was what finally caused Christian to visibly break down.
For the very first ti, he scread at the top of his voice in the office.
Shocked out of his wits, his assistant collapsed and fell to his knees.
Since Christian had said nothing, his assistant did not dare utter a word either.
Neither did he dare leave the office.
The atmosphere in the office had increasingly tensed and was scary.
After a very long ti, Christian eventually managed to calm himself down.
He told himself that he needed to stay calm and collected. That he had to think about what to do going forward.
And so, he remained thinking through his options as the clocked ticked away.
To his assistant, what was actually a little over ten minutes seed more like a century.
Finally, Christian spoke up.
"Give your phone," he said to his assistant. He had thrashed both his own mobile phone and the desk phone.
Shaking in fear, his assistant replied, "My phone... broke... it’s broken."
He did not dare say that it, too, had been thrashed by Christian.
However, looking at the debris around him, Christian knew that it had been him who thrashed his assistant’s phone.
"Then, go find a decent phone. Do I need to tell you how to do everything?"Christian massaged his forehead, his body shaking with rage.
"I’ll do that right away," his assistant said and rushed out of the office to find Christian a phone.
...
Christian’s assistant had returned quickly with a phone and handed it over to him.
Taking the phone from him, Christian proceeded to call soone.
And that soone was Clent.
Once the call had been accepted, Clent spoke up, "What’s your decision?"
"It’s a deal," Christian replied curtly. "I can’t leave Lake City right now, so you’d have to find ti to co over. As soon as possible."
"I need to see so real commitnt from you first," Clent said, just as frostily.
"You should know what to do."
"Yes, I know," Christian replied, switching the phone to video call mode.
Then, he placed the phone on the desk to enable Clent to see what was happening on his end.
"Get a dagger," Christian instructed his assistant.
Not knowing why Christian had asked for a dagger, the assistant obeyed his instruction anyway and went looking for a dagger.
Shortly after, he returned with a dagger that he passed to Christian.
Holding the dagger in his hand, Christian lost no ti proceeding to do what he needed to do.
He placed his left hand flat on the desk, raised his right hand - the one clutching the dagger - and brought it down.
Instantly, his left pinky was severed.
The entire procedure had been swiftly executed and done in the blink of an eye.
Christian gritted his teeth in pain as beads of sweat covered his forehead.
Despite the pain, he did not complain.
"Did you see that?" Christian calmly asked as he looked at Clent on the screen while throwing the dagger to the floor.
"Yeah, I did. You are one gutsy guy, Christian," Clent responded.
"What had I said? I told you that you were the kind of guy that was cut out to do business with us. But you had insisted on staying away from us.
"If you had known that one day you were gonna co back to the fold, you shouldn’t have been so arrogant about leaving us in the first place.
"After working with us for so many years, you just upped and left. So, don’t bla us for being harsh on you.
"If we were to go by the book, according to our rules, just a pinky would not suffice.
If it had been soone else, asking to co back after having left the organization, it would have cost them an entire arm or leg.
"In your case, we have been very compassionate."
"I know that," Christian replied, grimacing as he dealt with the pain.
Having witnessed Christian slicing off his pinky, the assistant was in a state of shock.
Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that Christian would have asked for a dagger for that reason.
After all, he was just a regular assistant and not the special assistant that had been working with Christian while he was in Rheinsville City.
Also, before this incident, he had no clue about the power base behind Christian’s organization.
Whereas Christian’s special assistant would have already gotten things in order for him.
Coming back to his senses, he imdiately went out looking for the first aid box.
Returning with the kit, he stepped forward tentatively, trying to muster up the courage to dress Christian’s wound.
His eyes turned a tad red with fright as he stared at Christian’s bleeding finger.
"Welco back, my best partner," Clent could be seen spreading his arms wide in a welcoming gesture.
"Co to Lake City as soon as possible. We need to discuss the next steps," Christian urged.
"Sure," Clent agreed without hesitation.
It was only after their call had ended that the assistant stepped forward and said cautiously, "Mr. Lucas, let apply so first aid and stop the bleeding first. Then, we will send you to the hospital, OK?"
Christian nodded allowing the assistant to help him.
Then, in a nacing tone, he warned the assistant, "You should know when to keep your mouth shut about what you had witnessed."
The assistant quickly nodded, "Yes, sir. Don’t worry, sir."
Although this assistant had not worked for Christian in Rheinsville City, he had nonetheless been selected by Christian for the job.
That was why Christian had been comfortable with contacting Clent in his presence.
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