As the date was already set, Heather was aware that there was no way of escaping her fate. She could only bite the bullet. Meanwhile, everyone nodded in agreement to Robert’s suggestion.
She gave him a gratified look. Oh well, three days is better than nothing! I have three days to get accustomed to things.
Heather, who was previously quite relaxed and chill, suddenly realized that she no longer had enough time. She had to hurry up and deal with everything, but she was lucky that Leon, her junior who was currently abroad, was due to return in a few days’ time. She’d used a lot of effort to persuade him to drop out of university and join her in a business venture. He was quite the genius; he had unique views about business in general, so she was quite confident that he’d be a great help to her. Leon was of mixed blood with thick bushy eyebrows and huge eyes. He was half-French with romance in his bloodline and half-German with an unyielding spirit whereas his mom was a native beauty. Overall, he was an amazing guy.
He had a reputation for being a rebellious young man in university. Not only was he a genius in his studies, he was also great at putting his knowledge into practice despite being only twenty years old. If it wasn’t for his identity as an illegitimate child that gave him a bad name, he was definitely the perfect human being. It was also his illegitimacy that made him so anxious to prove his self-worth.
As such, Heather managed to cajole her junior into doing something that disappointed his mom tremendously—quit university. He was raring to prove himself to the world and he felt reluctant to wait for another two years until he graduated. Heather’s invitation was the perfect opportunity for him. He was determined to make a name for himself once he was back in his mom’s hometown—Bradfort City. Although his current role was supposedly her personal assistant, she’d promised that once their company was up and running, then the position of General Manager was his; that was an actual position that held the decision-making power.
Heather planned to keep the bulk of the company shares. Meanwhile, she was more than happy to allow Leon to run the company. She’d rather entice him to work together as a team by granting him all sorts of benefits than to have such a genius as her opponent in the future.
As soon as she realized that, she felt quite pleased with herself for succeeding in gaining a great team member. Within the next three days, she planned to pay a visit to another person—a woman who was one of her friends from high school.
That woman was the only daughter of one of the previously renowned families in Bradfort City; their family had eventually fallen onto bad times. Despite that, she was full of aspiration and was quite determined to make a name for herself. If Heather hadn’t met her on her Europe trip last year, she could never have imagined that the weak, soft-spoken girl from back then was now a formidable business executive.
She was now a successful career lady with formidable tactics. It was speculated that her dad had spent a lot of time grooming her. Although her family business had fallen onto hard times and even faced bankruptcy since Heather moved abroad, it didn’t change the fact that her high school friend’s dad was quite an astute man.
As such, Heather decided to visit her. Heather’s intention was to offer her high school friend a job and invite her dad to join the team at the same time too.
Then, it dawned upon Heather that she didn’t have enough time. She had to sort out everything within the next three days. She was quite sure that the father and daughter would not be content to draw a salary forever. Therefore, the only way to entice them was to offer them shares in the company.
She was quite aware that Leon did not care about the money. He was much more interested in the position offered to him and the possible challenges faced; he needed to have sufficient decision-making power. On the other hand, her classmate, Paige, cared more about the monetary side of things. She knew that the Saffords had harbored the hope of eventually building up their family business again.
After breakfast, Heather immediately left the house and went to the garage to choose her transport for the day. Today, she chose a luxurious sedan since her main intention was to flaunt her affluence. One who cared about the monetary side of things had to be won over by wealth.
She was quite anxious on her way there. As such, she didn’t notice her muted cell phone was ringing. As soon as she arrived, she unmuted her cell and realized that there were three missed calls. Immediately, she unlocked the screen to check the details. Initially, she thought it was Myra who’d called, but unexpectedly it was actually Matthias who did so. Come to think of it, Myra must be so busy right now; surely, she wouldn’t be able to call me at this time of the day!
After he was unable to contact Heather via her phone, he then sent her a text message. She took a look at the text and realized that he wanted to confirm a time to return the car to her. She hastily replied to the text message with ‘I’m busy. I’ll confirm the time with you soon.’ I won’t have any free time until I sort out the matters with the Saffords.
She straightened her collar and made sure her clothes were tidy before she exited the car to walk toward the house. From the outside, the mansion looked quite ordinary. Based on their current financial status, Paige evidently had to work arduously to afford her family’s current lifestyle.
Heather was well aware that all the business partners she sought were quite ambitious, so she had no intention of making this a permanent arrangement. Once the company was on the right track, then the arrangement would cease and their future developments would be of their own responsibility. She was quite confident that her business venture would progress fairly quickly with the help of these two people.
After ringing the doorbell, she patiently waited by the door. It was Paige who came to the door and greeted her.
As soon as she saw Paige, she gave a warm smile and said, “It’s been a while since I last saw you. I’m back in town!” She had planned to meet up with Paige to discuss a collaboration for quite some time now. Today’s meeting was a last-minute decision, so she hadn’t managed to prepare a gift since she had never expected this situation at all. She was quite surprised that Paige had agreed to meet up on such short notice even after a simple phone call. The girl had even taken the day off to wait for her at home.
Heather had initially intended to prepare a gift, but the discussion was much more urgent. Rather than taking the time to choose a gift, it would make much more sense to use the time wisely to discuss their collaboration.
The first thing Heather had to do within these three days was to convince Paige and Josiah to join her team. Of course, there was still plenty of work to do once they joined her, but that would be for later. It would reflect quite badly on her if things were still a mess once Leon arrived. She was convinced that he could very well leave out of anger if there was nothing ready upon his arrival.
Paige greeted Heather at the door and invited her inside. “I came over in a hurry and didn’t have the time to get you something. I’m sorry about that.” Heather was generally quite a courteous person, so she felt quite embarrassed to turn up empty-handed this time.
“Look at you! There’s no need to be so courteous with me. The most important thing that we’re both concerned about right now is the collaboration, so why don’t we forget about all these formalities?” Paige was a straightforward person and Heather liked this quality of hers.
“Is Mr. Safford home?” Heather was quite keen to meet him. Previously, she’d heard Paige mention a lot of her dad’s experiences and she was very interested to meet him in person.
“Yes, he is. He’s already waiting for you in the living room,” Paige said that while leading Heather into the living room.
Starkly different from Heather’s parents, Paige’s dad had a salt-and-pepper hairstyle, which made him look as old as Robert. Heather had heard through the grapevine that Paige was more than just Mr. Safford’s only child; in fact, Paige was quite precious to him because he had welcomed her into his life quite late in his age. That seemed to be the reason why he looked quite elderly.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Safford.” Heather immediately greeted him as soon as she met his eyes. She was usually quite affable in front of strangers.
“Miss Langston.” Josiah stood up to greet her politely.
He was polite yet he maintained his dignified manner that was in-bred, which gave a stately impression to Heather. She realized that this was exactly how he was able to nurture his daughter into such a poised lady and she was satisfied with her first impression of him.
Meanwhile, Paige directed Heather to take a seat on the couch. Then, Paige took a seat next to Heather across the room from Josiah. Heather respectfully mentioned to Josiah, “Please call me Heather.” She knew it was important to be humble since her main goal here today was to win over the father and daughter.
At that moment, he decided not to keep up the pretense any longer. He directly addressed her by her name, “Heather, welcome to my house.”
Paige hastily continued, “Yeah! Welcome to our home! I hope you don’t mind it being slightly worse for the wear.”
Heather glanced at the surroundings and smiled in response. “Of course not! It’s really cozy and I like the place.” There was no sign of opulence like the Langston Residence and it was exactly the simple style that she preferred. Although there was only Paige and Josiah living here, it felt really warm and cozy. They were father and daughter, but they interacted with each other like great friends and she was quite envious of it.
The three of them had straightforward personalities and without further ado, they went straight into the topic. She raised her suggestion to the two of them.
After a short pause, Paige broke the silence first. “I thought you were just joking with me during our encounter in Europe. I didn’t expect you to be serious about this!” Her tone was quite casual as she tried to lighten the mood.
“Well, I want to prove my worth and I don’t want to keep relying on my family.” Heather’s words were also directed at Josiah at the same time. Actually, the main person she was after was, in fact, Josiah, who had an astute mind. Although he no longer had the enthusiasm of a young person, there were three youngsters who were full of enthusiasm in the company, so they would obviously need some reminders from a wise older man from time to time.
This task of handling the logistics would obviously fall upon him as he was the perfect candidate for this job. With the logistics sorted, it would mean that their daily routine could run smoothly and also ensure a constant supply for those working on the frontline.
Obviously, Paige was quite keen to work with Heather. However, Josiah seemed to have some concerns despite Heather’s generous offer of twenty percent worth of shares in their future company. In fact, she was only willing to offer Leon eight percent of the shares in the company. Moreover, neither of them had to come up with any money and she was the only one solely in charge of raising the capital. Thus, it was quite a generous offer. Besides, once they listed their company on the stock market in the future, the number of shares she held would decrease too and the maximum she could hold on to would be forty percent of the company.
Heather was not a fan of family-oriented corporations that preferred to possess the bulk of their shares. It was clearly evident from how the Langstons had absolute control of Langston Group. The family held eighty percent of the shares in Langston Group and the absolute control meant that their staff lacked the motivation to work hard.
As such, she decided that once they succeeded in listing the company on the stock market, she would only retain thirty percent of the shares for herself. As long as she had Leon and the Saffords on her side, their cooperation would be advantageous because they would always hold the bulk of the company shares.
Of course, Heather had also considered the likelihood that someday if Leon or the Saffords decided to leave the company, she would then have to train someone trustable to take their position or purchase the shares they owned.
She had considered everything that could happen in the future. She was quite confident that she could build up her own empire. After all, since her ancestors were capable of doing so, there was no problem for her to achieve that too!
The three of them remained in discussion for quite some time and she shared all her future plans for the company with them. She was quite intent in her goal to win them over, which was obvious from her attitude.
“I’m too old for this. I don’t think I’ll be able to help!” A hesitant Josiah voiced his concern. Although he frequently guided Paige, he didn’t have too much confidence in himself.
“Mr. Safford, you’ve managed to cultivate Paige into such a capable person, so I trust you. The company wouldn’t be successful with just us youngsters. We need someone like you who has plenty of experience.” Heather tried once more to persuade him.
Despite her efforts, he was not convinced at all. He smiled awkwardly and responded, “Excuse me, I actually have something on the stove, so I’ll go and take a look at it. Heather, I must insist that you stay for lunch!” He rose from his position as he said those words, making him look like a stay-at-home-dad.
