Chapter 493
Matthias came to the office early in the morning to have a discussion with Niki regarding their next
move against the Hart Group; it seemed that Tony was totally unbothered by Matthias’ act of
provocation toward him.
“Is Tony not nning to return to the Hart Group and call the shots?” In Matthias’ hand was a bunch of
photos of Tony and Myra—they were currently on vacation overseas.
Tony was bearing a grin in most of the photos. From the looks of it, he wasn’t worried about what was
going on in his home country at all. Following that, Matthias’s gaze shifted toward Myra. The two of
them looked like a match made in heaven; even Myra’s smile was exceptionally radiant. At that
moment, it made Matthias recall the first time that she’d smiled at him many years ago.
It was precisely her healing smile that had prated his heart like a beam of sunlight. Many moons
Matthias let out a wistful sigh at the thought of that. He had seen Myra a few times in Bradfort City, but
she was always on her guard in front of him; it seemed like she could only be her true self whenever
she was around Tony.
If Matthias really took Myra away from Tony, he was sure that she would never be happy with him—
some things were just as clear as day without the need to exin. However, part of Matthias was still
stubborn and unwilling to let go; he tried to control his persistent inner callings many times, stopping
himself from doing anything that might hurt Myra.
All these years, Matthias hadn’t once given her contentment in life—that point alone caused him a lot of
unbearable pain. Thus, he didn’t want to be the one to shatter her very source of happiness either, so
the only thing he could do was to control himself.
“There’s no way he’d rush back in the middle of his honeymoon. After all, he’s such a proud and
strong-willed person.” Niki’s reasoning was logical; if he were in Tony’s shoes, he wouldn’t have
chosen to return either.
Without a doubt, it was Tony’s once-in-a-lifetime marriage with the one and only person he loved
dearly. Besides, the honeymoon period was a special and irreceable experience in itself—nobody
would want it to be interrupted.
“Perhaps Tony has underestimated our abilities,” said Matthias with a deep, meaningful smile.
Tony had always been a sessful businessman; he was also gifted in managing and directing a
business. He probably had a rational reason behind his decision, for he’d never abandon the Hart
Group entirely due to his personalmitments.
Niki cast a doubtful look at Matthias. Indeed, he hadn’t considered that possibility since he was
mainly looking at things from an emotional point of view. Niki was quite a sentimental person to
begin with; even though Matthias greatly admired that quality of his, more often than not, he hoped that
Niki would mature from it and have a more professional mindset. After all, emotions were a
businessman’s greatest weakness.
“Tony cares a lot about the Hart Group; there’s always time to have another honeymoon, but the Hart
Group is irreceable.” Matthias ced the photos face-down on the table. He didn’t want to look at
them anymore, for it would only add to his sadness.
“Sir, are you saying that Tony is wholeheartedly enjoying his honeymoon overseas because he thinks
that the Locke Group isn’t able to threaten the Hart Group?” Niki finally caught on. After giving it
some thought, he felt that Matthias’ exnation was more reasonable than his.
“Yes.” Matthias nodded. Niki was able to think on his feet and he understood things quickly. Other
than that, he was pretty intelligent as well—Matthias thought that he was a promising youngd to train.
“We’ve been looked down on,” Niki muttered sarcastically. After Matthias’ kind reminder, Niki
immediately figured that the Hart Group was incredibly powerful and well-prepared in all aspects
possible. More urately speaking, there was a huge gap between the Locke Group and the Hart
Group in terms of their capabilities, especially since they were in Bradfort City.
“Exactly.” The look on Niki’s face was precisely what Matthias wanted to see. Right now, Matthias’
eyes were clouded with secrets of his own; it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
Nheless, Niki didn’t really understand Matthias’ n. Even though thetter had made it clear
that he wanted to make a move against the Hart Group, he only gave a vague idea of what he wanted
to do. Aside from the man himself, no one knew what he had in mind.
“We’ll take it one step at a time; the Hart Group isn’t an easy opponent, so this might not be our best
chance.” Matthias gave Niki an ambiguous statement, for he didn’t feel the need to thoroughly
exin certain things. Moreover, it wasn’t a bad idea to keep it mysterious for now.
Since Matthias was cryptic with his words, Niki had no idea what he was keeping under wraps—
after all, Matthias was giving away very few hints. Therefore, Niki stared into Matthias’ eyes for a
few moments in search of an answer. He couldn’t ask his boss directly, and Matthias wouldn’t tell him
the truth even if he asked either.
“You already have ns, right?” In the end, Niki could only afford to inquire this much, though he
couldn’t be sure of what Matthias was actually nning.
“Just follow my instructions,” Matthias replied in a yful manner, keeping his turbulent thoughts of
nning to himself.
Niki nodded. He had a hundred percent trust in Matthias, so he was already used to carrying out his
orders dutifully. Niki had always believed in Matthias’ judgement; throughout his time under
Matthias, the man had never made any huge errors in terms of decision-making.
When Niki was heading out, a question escaped his lips without a second thought. “Matthias, are
you and Miss Langston…”
Before he could finish, Matthias cut him off. “Let’s not discuss private matters at work.” Back then,
Heather had said the same sentence to him countless times; now, it was time for him to shut others up
using the same exact words.
Niki stared at Matthias helplessly; since his cousin had put it like that, it wasn’t a good time to
continue pressing on. Even so, he noticed that Matthias had been acting strange ever since he
returned from Myra and Tony’s wedding. Niki knew a thing or two about his cousin’s past with Myra,
but he didn’t expect her to have such a huge influence on his well being.
Niki even considered the possibility that Matthias would go easy on the Hart Group just because of
Myra. After all, Matthias didn’te to Bradfort City primarily to go against the Hart Group; he was only
doing so because they were coincidentally in the way of the Locke Group. Matthias never liked being
pushed around by others, so it was no surprise that he would want to surpass the Hart Group.
The chances of the Locke Group getting along with the Hart Group were slim, so they could only be
rivals in business. With that in mind, Matthias massaged his temples worriedly. Myra was stuck in the
conflict between the twopanies, and Matthias felt that his ns wouldn’t do Myra any good—it
seemed that whatever he wanted to do would somehow cause harm to the woman.
Matthias was at his wits’ ends; back then, he only wanted to help Myra by intervening with the Stark
Group’s business. In the end, he’d somehow managed to help her, albeit indirectly.
Despite all of that, things were different now—he was nning to face the Hart Group and shatter their
leading reputation in Bradfort City. Truth be told, Matthias felt a little guilty inside; the corporate world
was a merciless battlefield, whereas Myra was so in love with Tony.
From the couple’s wedding day, Matthias could tell that the Hart Family upied an important ce in
her heart. In other words, she probably valued the Hart Group a great deal as well.
Since Matthias wanted to challenge the Hart Group, thepany could very well go bankrupt in the
midst of their ruthless corporate war—things might not end well for them.
If he were to really force the Hart Group into bankruptcy, he couldn’t imagine how much Myra would
hate him. Just then, Matthias quickly shook away the strange thoughts in his head; it was simply too
much to think that he could force the Hart Group into bankruptcy.
Right now, the Locke Group had all of its eggs in one basket. If they were to offend the Harts… At that
moment, Matthias recalled the Deputy Mayor of Bradfort City being one of the Harts, as well as the fact
that the family had quite an influence in the army as well.
Matthias wasn’t sure if his decision was the right one or not. From the looks of it, it was more probable
that the Locke Group might meet its doom instead. At the same time, Matthias couldn’t wait to surpass
the Hart Group with his own strategy.
As a stubborn and headstrong person, Matthias was willing to give his all even if he was bound to fail;
he’d only stop if he decided against it on his own will. Moreover, the Locke Group’s outstanding
potential could easily make them one of the Hart Group’s best rivals, so it was quite difficult to tell
which party had the upper hand.
On his desk, Matthias had a pile of documents waiting for him to look through every day. Even though
Tony wasn’t personally present at the Hart Group, thepany was operating just as usual. Tony was
quite adept when it came to preparing for any sort of situation beforehand, so he more or less had a
prediction of Matthias’ next move.
Initially, Matthias nned on taking the opportunity to attack the Hart Group while Tony was away on
vacation, for he had expected thepany to be in chaos without its leader. To his surprise, the Hart
Group was unexpectedly strong while defending themselves; it seemed like they didn’t have anything
to fear even without their director around. Matthias couldn’t tell if it was thanks to Tony’s prior
instruction before he left, or if the Hart Group was actually filled with highly capable employees.
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Regardless of the truth, things weren’t going in Matthias’ way; he’d already heard about Tony’s
achievements back in Tasnia City. Nevertheless, Matthias never believed that Tony had the power to
predict the future. It wasn’t until he arrived at Bradfort City did he experience Tony’s exceptional way of
handling things in the shadows first-hand. As a result, even Matthias couldn’t fully recognize Tony’s
abilities.
Right now, Matthias was taking every step with caution—he knew that his opponent had the skills to
win every battle. Even though Tony was unclear about Matthias or the Locke Group’s true capabilities,
it was the same for Matthias regarding Tony as well.
More importantly, Matthias was uncertain whether the Hart Group’s strengths and abilities on the table
was all there was to them. After all, there wasn’t anyone who wouldn’t hide their trump card under their
sleeves, and he believed that Tony was no exception as well. In other words, it was more urate to
say that Matthias had a feeling Tony wasn’t as clean as he seemed.
Matthias was getting more enthusiastic the more he thought about it. He especially liked a tough
challenge and loved the exhrating feeling of winning an uphill battle. Not only was Matthias hungry
for sess, he even had a knack for taking risks; he was extremely excited to be able toe face to
face with Tony.
On the other hand, Tony never once stopped worrying about the Hart Group just because he was
overseas. In fact, his concerns heightened due to the Locke Group’s constant taunting; they were
intervening in almost every project that the Hart Group was involved in.
Needless to say, the Locke Group didn’t miss any opportunity to catch the Hart Group off guard, be it
publicly or in the dark. Perhaps it was Matthias’ n all along to light a fire in the cracks in hopes of
fanning it into a scorching ze.
Tony didn’t expect Matthias to take advantage of his leave. To be fair, he didn’t take the Locke Group’s
advances to heart in the first ce; not even Tony had anticipated the fact that the Locke Group’s true
target was the Hart Group.
It seemed that Tony had to run a thorough investigation on the Locke Group once he returned from his
trip; he decided that he must get to the bottom of the Locke Group’s true intentions. However, he
couldn’t afford to make rash decisions at the moment since he hadn’t found out much about them just
yet.
Tony didn’t think much of it when Locke Group came to Bradfort City, so he hadn’t had any official
dealings with thepany. To think that they would target the Hart Group all of a sudden without any
warning was pretty absurd.
Meanwhile, Myra stared at Tony who was currently enjoying the night breeze by the balcony. She
walked over to him with quiet steps as she held a coat in her hand. Then, she went up to him and
draped it over his shoulders.
“It’ste, Tony. Aren’t you going to sleep yet?” His behavior wouldn’t be unusual in the day, but it was
quite odd for him to be lounging outside in the middle of the night. Immediately, Myra thought of the
Hart Group’s current predicament.
“The scenery is beautiful at night; I can’t help but want to enjoy it a while longer.” Tony’s deep-set eyes
were fixed upon the bright lights outside the window as he spoke, for he didn’t want Myra to see
through his worries.
Just then, a gentle breeze passed by and ruffled her hair; Tony quickly closed the windows and
smoothened out her messy hair.
“Are you having trouble sleeping without me hugging you to sleep?” Tony wrapped his arms around
Myra, and she melted into his arms instantly like a gentle cat. He wanted nothing more than to shoulder
all of her worries so that she could live a happy and carefree life.