Chapter 103
Revealing the truth There were only two pairs of eyes looking at Aren and me without an ounce of
hostility: Chris, who sat on our left side as the second biggest shareholder, and Neil, who sat farther
away from the main people, ready to offer his assistance if Aren needed it. The fact that I found
suspicious was that only Chris seemed to be overjoyed by Aren’s return, while the rest exchanged
nonchnt looks or filled the room with their impatient huffs. I seriously wondered what was wrong with
those people.
As Chris noticed my confused grimace, he leaned into my ear to give me an exnation. “Most of the
shareholders are the rich kids–the unnecessarily bright and easy to manipte rich kids.”
I stifled a chuckle, suddenly detecting ack of brain cells in at least five of those who sat by the table. I
wanted to thank Chris for giving me more confidence, but he suddenly moved his chair a little further
away from me. I couldn’t understand why until I shifted my gaze to my husband and saw him ring at
his friend. My lips instantly formed an evil grin, and I leaned over him.
“Are you jealous, dear husband?” I whispered to his ear, my lips delicately brushing his earlobe.
He took a deep breath as if he needed it to remainposed. “I should be the only man you see,” he
murmured, a hint of annoyance in his tone. I smirked teasingly. “I see a lot of men in this room, but there
is only one I want to see naked.” The corners of his lips dangerously curled up as he locked his intense
gaze on me. “Be careful what you wish for.”
His words sent a wild wave of electricity down my spine. I bit my lip before realizing that I was getting
turned on in the room filled with vicious people. Aren’s presence made my stupid hormones march in
happy parades all over my blood vessels. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to resist a moan if he even
identally touched my thigh. As dumb as it sounds, I was actually relieved when Mr. Cooper stood up
and started to speak.
“Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders of the Lan Diamond Corporation, we, the board of executives,
called for this meeting due to the long absence of Mr. Aren Lan, the Chief Executive Officer.” Mr. Cooper
started his speech hesitantly, barely sparing Aren a nce, unlike Aren, who gave him all of his
attention. “The recement that Mr. Lan appointed seemed inefficient, and it resulted in a drop in sales
of -”
“Did it really?” Aren interjected, messing up Mr. Cooper’s carefully prepared arguments.
“P-pardon?” He looked at Aren with a nervous smile.
Aren chuckled coldly. “You are the CFO, for God’s sake. You should know all the numbers by heart, so
stick to the facts. Prove that Cora Lan made the sales decrease,” he dared as his lips curved in a wicked
smirk.
Mr. Cooper restlessly corrected his sses. “Well, Mrs. Lan’s decision concerning the “Sky Fight” game
didn’t match the current trend and”
“Numbers, Mr. Cooper.” Aren’s even voice pierced the room like a de.
“I-I… It’s not… I-I can’t…” he stuttered mindlessly.
Aren gave Neil a brief nod. Neil nodded back and remotely turned on a half-wall-size screen with arge-
scale sales statement. Aren pointed at the screen, ncing at the CFO. “If you can’t tell us, maybe you
can at least read it?” His mocking tone made Mr. Cooper clench his fist.
“It doesn’t show the trend that I was talking about…” he squeezed the words through his teeth.
Aren raised his eyebrows, a smirk shing through his lips. “Are you saying that we should imagine the
trend?” A wave of snorts spread through the auditorium. “I didn’t say that. ording to my predictions,
the game’s sales might drastically drop over the next three months, and that wouldn’t have happened if
we waited with itsunch until next year,” he imed, his voice’s pitch driven by anger. Aren ces his
hand on top of mine. “Mrs. Lan, mind exining your decision?” he asked, his warm gaze at me giving
me courage.
The corners of my lips curled up into a timid smile. He couldn’t have the full knowledge of why I had
made the decision to push theunch of that game earlier than Aren had initially nned, and yet he
trusted that it was the right move.
I stood up from my seat and looked around the table. All eyes were on me, curiously awaiting my
exnation. I wasn’t afraid. I had all the confidence I needed because my husband believed in me. “I
discussed that issue with the game developers, and we had reasons to believe that someone leaked the
game’s basic strategy as well as graphic solutions. I ordered the Lan Diamond Corporation’s special
team to find out whether ourpetition was nning to release something simr to the market, and
we discovered that our assumptions were correct. Thepany called Blue Dreand Corp. has just
announced their new game, “Space Fighting,” and I can assure you that the name isn’t the only simrity
to our product…”
I paused and observed the shareholders’ reactions. Some of them nodded in approval, while others
gasped at the revtion that things like stealing technologies and ideas could actually happen. Only Mr.
Hill, Cooper, and Dawson seemed to be displeased with my exnation. I took a deep breath and
continued, “The Blue Dreand had been nning tounch their game in less than two weeks, but as
soon as we released our game, their ns suddenly changed. Their second announcement was about
releasing “Space Fighting” at the beginning of August, and currently, there are no announcements
concerning that game. It only proves that the decision of an earlier release helped save our project.” I
smiled and sat down. Aren quickly grabbed my hand, a warm smile forming on his lips as he looked at
me. “I couldn’t be more proud of my wife right now.” He kissed my hand before shifting his gaze to other
shareholders. “That only proves that I made the right choice in appointing Cora Lan as the temporary
CEO. She predicted the problem and made the tough decision. In a perfect world, perhapsunching the
game half a yearter with a better-designed marketing campaign would have brought an even higher
profit… But we do not live in a perfect world, and we could either release the product faster than our
competition or kiss the whole project goodbye.”
Aren’s words caused another wave of muttering and approving nods. Even if they were reluctant to
believe that I had made the right call, after Aren’s statement, they no longer had
any doubts. I smiled shyly, only ncing at my husband, but inside my mind, I was madly celebrating the
fact of being appreciated.
Suddenly, my phone quietly buzzed in my pocket. I used the opportunity when all eyes were on Aren and
checked the message I received. It was an email from n. He sent me a few photos with a short
message, “We thought it might help.”
I only managed to see one from n. It was a picture of Mr. Hill, Cooper, and Dawson sitting in the
restaurant with two other men in expensive suits. I had no idea who those men were, but it looked like
the group in that photo was celebrating something. I was about to take a look at the rest of the pictures
when I noticed Mr. Hill standing up and getting ready to speak.
He cleared his throat and nced at Aren before turning to the rest of the shareholders. “I just wanted to
say that we decided to call this meeting because we, as the executives with experience, thought that
Mrs. Lan’s decisions were hasty and irrational, such as appointing this woman to lead a-”
“This woman?” Aren glowered at Mr. Hill. “This woman?” he repeated, sharpening the edge of his tone
as if it were a deadly weapon before he got up from his seat. “You are trying to insult my wife again, and
truthfully, I have had enough of your poor performance, Mr. Hill. You make me realize that I made a
terrible judgment call…”
Mr. Hill’s eyes brightened with agitation. “Yes! That is exactly my poi—”
“I made a terrible judgment call in hiring you, Mr. Hill, Mr. Cooper, and Mr. Dawson.” The way Mr. Hill’s
jaw dropped was priceless. I barely stifled augh as I saw it, but Chris was far less reserved than I was
and boldly burst outughing. Of course, we could all just count the seconds until the protest began…
“This is outrageous!” Mr. Dawson jumped up from his seat. “We’ve been bringing money to thispany
for years! If it weren’t for us—”
“You are receable. In fact, your recements might start working for Lan Diamond Corporation by the
end of the week,” Aren said coldly. The tension within the room rose sky-high. Themotion kept
increasing by the second, easily covering all the shouts and cursinging from the executives. I took
that opportunity to use a few tricks and check the identity of the two unknown men from the pictures that
n sent. What I found made my lips curve in a wide, devilish grin. I nced at Aren; it seemed like he
was more than eager to finish this meeting quickly, and now, I had something that might help with that…
“You want to fire us?!” Mr. Hill thundered across the room. “You need a reason to do that!”
Aren burst into viciousughter before sending Mr. Hill a murderous look. “How about deliberate
vilification that could easily decrease thepany’s value? That’s enough to fire you and sue you for
money even you cannot afford.”
“We were doing what was necessary to save thepany’s money!” Mr. Dawson spat.
It was time to end this, and I decided to do it with style. I gestured at Neil toe over, sent the pictures
I had from n, and asked Neil to put the first one on the widescreen.
“What’s this?” one of the shareholders asked, turning everyone else silent.
Aren raised his eyebrows at me, amusement painting his face. I winked at him and stood up,Text content ? N?velDrama.Org.
ready to exin. “I bet that you can all recognize our executives in this picture. The two other men are
directors working for the Blue Dreand Corp., isn’t a convenient coincidence?” I chuckled.
Mr. Cooper cleared his throat. “It’s normal for businessmen from differentpanies to meet, and
sometimes drink…”
I gestured at Neil to put another photo on the screen. It was a picture of a couple celebrating their
anniversary, but the thing that was more important was happening in the background of that photo. As I
asked Neil to put focus on the picture’s left upper corner, everyone gasped.
“I suggest we all take a closer look at the handshakes and the exchange of envelopes between our dear
executives and those men from Blue Dreand. We can also match this fact with the executives’
protests against the earlyunch of Lan Diamond Corporation’s game.” I grinned proudly and looked at
my husband.
“This is bribery!” someone yelled. “Call the security and the police here, now!” another shareholder
roared. The security was already inside, and those poor bastards had nowhere to run. The turmoil kept
rising, with the shareholders ready to crucify the executives and the executives uselessly begging for
their mercy or iming innocents, but I no longer cared. My eyes were locked on Aren’s, just like his
were on mine. At one moment, in the middle of thismotion, he stood up, pulled me into his embrace,
and shed our lips in a long, sensual kiss. For us, the meeting had officially ended. We won.