The most nervous person in the room was Regan, who thought, in retrospect, that everything had gone unexpectedly smooth from start to end. Even though Harper was the person he wanted to rope in as his henchman when he first joined the company, he didn’t know much about him, and he now felt that he was being set up as he listened to the things Matthias had just said.
This time, the call really went through, and Harper’s voice sounded from the other end, making Regan’s heart gallop in anxiety. All of a sudden, it dawned on him that this was such an ironic situation; he had carefully planned to set up Matthias, but he was the one being set up in the end.
“Hello, President Locke,” Harper answered politely.
“Are you in France now, Mr. Lewis?” Matthias asked while looking at Regan, deliberately asking the question so he could hear it.
“Yes, President Locke,” he answered. At the moment, he was at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, and he would be carrying out an important task in France.
“Director Regan Locke told me that you couldn’t be reached and he thought that you had run away with a huge amount of money,” Matthias said nonchalantly, but Regan’s forehead was already breaking out in cold sweat.
On the other end, Harper was silent for a while before finally answering, “I’m sorry, but the signal isn’t good in the airport. If Director Locke has any suspicions about me, I can confront him once I return.”
It was as though Harper was a changed person, and Regan finally understood that it was a trap laid out by Matthias and Harper. This meeting with the board of directors on this day was meant to snare him, and now, he had made a fool of himself in front of all the directors and suffered a complete defeat.
After hanging up the call, Matthias gazed at him and said solemnly, “Director Locke, can you offer me an explanation now?” Upon hearing the conversation over the call earlier, the other directors all stood on Matthias’ side immediately.
Regan’s forehead creased deeply from his tightly knitted brows as he had no words to say. Now that things had developed to this stage, there was nothing else he could say to defend himself. “President Locke, I’m sorry that I didn’t investigate the matter properly and made the wrong judgement,” he said, pretending to be composed.
In the same room, Nikolai tried his best to suppress his smirk. Who would have thought that Matthias had been planning this? he thought. So it turned out that Harper didn’t betray the company, and this was merely a ploy used against Regan.
“Director Locke, you should understand that there are consequences when an adult makes a mistake. This isn’t something you can just brush off by saying that you made the wrong judgement.” The tables were turned now; Regan was constantly finding ways to throw him off his position, so naturally, Matthias wouldn’t be soft-hearted against him either.
Speechless, Regan thought frantically, Does it mean that I have to resign to be held accountable for this huge mess? There’s no way that I will go along with his idea. I don’t mind any other punishment as long as I get to keep my position in front of the directors.
“I’ll be responsible for this matter, but it was the truth that Harper took away three hundred million. As the Chief Financial Officer, I have the right to know where this huge amount of money has gone,” Regan argued, making his desperate attempt to question Matthias and to emphasize that this was the reason why he asked for this meeting in the first place. That way, he could reduce his own punishment.
“I’ve told you that it’s a company secret. Besides me and Harper, there’s no need for another person to know about it.” Matthias purposely kept it a secret from Regan. Besides, it was true that Harper was on a secret mission now, so he had a reason to keep mum about it.
The other directors agreed with him because the Locke Group would have a few secret missions in a year that were not announced to the public, and only the person carrying out the task and the president would know it.
Tongue-tied, Regan realized that he had lost the battle as all the directors were now on Matthias’ side, and all he could do now was secure his position as a director. “I’m sorry, President Locke. I shouldn’t have suspected you.” At this point, he couldn’t stubbornly insist that he was right, so he had to lower himself to Matthias.
On the other hand, Matthias wasn’t interested in listening to his fake apology because he knew that he was trying to keep his position. “Do you remember what was my first working position when I joined Locke Group, Director Locke?”
Although he wasn’t sure what Matthias was up to, he had to play along with him now and answer his question appropriately. “A regular staff in the sales department,” he replied.
Matthias nodded. For him to get to his current position wasn’t easy at all, and he had done it step by step. “Exactly. People from the Locke Family had always started from scratch, and there are very few people like you who started with a high post. Personally, I don’t agree with giving such an important position to a newbie, and it was proven that you’re not suited for this position. Maybe you should train for some time from the basic level, Director Locke.” Finally, he had made his intentions clear. After beating about the bush, his aim was to throw Regan off his position. How could he possibly allow him to keep his post as the Chief Financial Officer?
Meanwhile, the board of directors were quiet—nobody opposed or agreed to it, let alone put in a good word for Regan. Even though they didn’t say a thing, they basically gave their silent consent as Matthias shot Regan a provocative look. Recently, Regan had really been such a hindrance that he had to do something against him.
“You’re right, President Locke. I do have to train myself for some time at the basic level.” Besides accepting the judgement, Regan had no other way out. If Matthias brought this matter back home, he would have to return with his tail between his legs.
Just when he finally made it into Locke Group, Regan vowed that he wouldn’t rest until he had thrown Matthias off his post, and even if it meant that he had to start from the bottom, he didn’t want to leave the company.
“Looks like you have sincerely repented, Director Locke. I’m sorry but you’ll have to work from the basic level, so you’ll be starting in the same position as I was before—a regular employee in the sales department!” As he had experience in the sales department before, Matthias knew about the pressure and difficulties in that position, and it wouldn’t be a breezy task for Regan, who had always been pampered.
I’ll be waiting for the day when he calls it quits, Matthias thought. Since he’s here in Locke Group, then I have to play along with him accordingly as well.
When the whole fiasco ended, the board of directors all saw it for what it was—a fight between brothers. Despite the fact that Regan was not a likeable person, Matthias’ recent performance hadn’t been exactly satisfactory either, and it was clear that the directors were unhappy with him in the meeting.
After the meeting, Matthias returned to his own office with Nikolai gloating happily over Regan’s situation next to him. Engrossed in his work, Matthias ignored him and didn’t give him any reaction even though Nikolai had said so much. In the end, he had to shut his mouth.
“You don’t seem so happy, Matt,” Nikolai said tentatively.
Upon lifting his head from the document he was reading, Matthias said, “There has been a huge backlog of work recently, and there are many things I have to attend to. I don’t have the time to be gloating over another person’s misfortune.”
In order to create an opportunity for Regan, Matthias had done a lot of background work, resulting in his backlog of work. It was a fact that he had neglected his work, and of course, part of the reason was because of his own personal relationship. Thus, it wasn’t entirely unreasonable for Regan to question him at the meeting earlier.
“The reason why you’ve been acting abnormally recently is because you’ve been waiting for this day, Matt?” Nikolai asked sheepishly. Finally, he was able to vanquish the resentment in his heart, so he was over the moon right now.
“You can either go out or keep quiet,” Matthias said without lifting his head while skimming through the document in his hand. There was still tons of work awaiting him.
Lowering his head with an innocent expression, Nikolai thought that Matthias was terrifying when he was working seriously, and he didn’t dare to disturb him further. Although it was obvious that Matthias wasn’t in the mood for chitchat, he had an unfathomable look on his face. Instead of rejoicing over his victory, he looked a little depressed.
After Nikolai sneaked out of the room, he went to Lara, who was rather free at the moment and was flipping through a book casually. On both theory and actual practice, Lara had been enriching herself recently, and she wanted to read more books.
Silently, he crept up behind her and gave her a scare when he asked, “What are you reading, Lara?”
Lara rolled her eyes at him and returned to her book. Seeing that she ignored himself, Nikolai then plopped himself next to her.
Sensing something amiss with him, Lara nudged him with her hand. “Who bullied you? You look so pitiful,” she remarked with a bright smile on her face, gloating over his unhappiness.
“The president has been really weird recently. I can’t understand what he’s thinking about anymore,” he explained in a defeated tone. It was true that he didn’t understand what plans Matthias had in his mind.
He didn’t even discuss it with him beforehand regarding the plan this time against Regan, and it looked like he had a growing interest to plan things by himself. This made Nikolai suspect if there was a gap between them; otherwise, he would have always discussed everything with him. Regardless, he had to look at himself in retrospect because of Matthias’ abnormal actions.
“Why do you have to figure out what the president is thinking about? We’re his subordinates and aides, not his brain,” she said, pointing a finger at her own head. After all this while, her principle at work was carrying out Matthias’ instructions, unlike Nikolai, who had so many thoughts in his mind.
“Let’s drop this matter.” In the end, he decided to let this matter go because what Lara said kind of made sense as well.
While she turned back to her book, he leaned in closer out of curiosity, which made her shove his head aside with her own head in annoyance.
“Buy another one yourself if you wish to read. I don’t like to share a book with someone else,” she grumbled.
Rubbing the spot on his head where she just hit him, Nikolai thought, Her head is so tough that it’s a weapon of mass destruction!
On the other hand, in his office, Matthias went through the main points in some files again regarding his recent exchanges with Hart Group. The last time Locke Group attacked them directly, Tony was actually able to remotely control Hart Group from abroad, and Locke Group was not able to benefit from it at all. It was tough to go against Tony, but Matthias received some valuable materials after the huge confrontation previously.
In fact, he had been hiding something the whole time—it wasn’t his personal goal to defeat the Hart Group. Despite the directors’ disapproval to continue fighting with Hart Group, it was impossible to call everything off halfway when the war was already declared.
Recently, he was wavering in dealing with Hart Group, and he tried his best to avoid any direct confrontation with them; he was planning to stay still instead. However, this is no longer a matter I can decide, he thought as he opened a folder which was airmailed to him from the Locke Family.
There was no way to withdraw the arrow that had been shot. As he read the document in black and white, a sense of helplessness welled up in him. He was merely the front man of the Locke Group; many things were actually beyond his control!
