Facci Group
Just as expected, Athalia Montez was with the Corneels during the meeting. When Lily saw this, she immediately plastered a huge smile on her face before greeting them. Today, she decided to have Mr. Rossi handle the meeting proceedings while she sat there as an observer, listening to the words that she had already heard before.
Of course, her real intention was to observe their reaction when they receive the call about the hijacking. The smell of coffee lingered inside the room as everyone started discussing the business ventures. Surprisingly, unlike the previous night Miss Montez did not make any sound to distract the meeting.
After a lengthy discussion, everyone decided to take a break. Lily then excused herself and decided to leave with Yang Mi so she could have her own snack back in her office. To be honest, she did not want to spend any of her time with Miss Montez and her obvious attempts to get close to Lily.
“President, Mr. Leon Corneel is following us. Should I— “
“Let him in.” Lily said as she walked inside her office. She had been anticipating a confrontation from this man since he sent his twin children to give that silly presentation. She sat on her leather chair and started playing on her phone. “Is there something that you need?” she asked when she felt his presence near her. “You should take a seat.”
“A few hours ago, one of our tankers was attacked near Africa.”
“Is that so?” she met his aged eyes. “Is there something I can do about it?”
He pursed his lips in response. “We came here to negotiate about the company. Not create chaos.”
“What does it have to do with the incident?” she feigned ignorance.
“We know the value of our company. Other multi million dollar companies are trying to negotiate with us. However… we chose to strike a deal with Facci Group.”
“I know… that is something very surprising.” And suspicious at the same time. Lily and her company were not from the same industry as the Corneels. Why would they consider having a deal with Lily?
“And yet… you did not appreciate it. Instead… you attacked my company and my ship.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. I know it was you and your subordinates. The timing is just… too perfect, even a toddler would be able to tell it was you.”
“You—” An unfathomable expression flashed through Lily’s eyes. “Are you saying that I attacked your tanker? How dare you!?”
“Please… President Zhou, let’s stop fooling each other. Just yesterday, we talked about piracy and now… my tanker just magically became a target to these pirates. My company is unlike other companies. We invest in security for our tankers. There is no way that a small pirate group would succeed in attacking us without someone’s assistance— someone of influence.”
A snort instantly escaped Lily’s lips. She stared at the old man. Frankly, she did not expect him to figure it out that easily. However, Lily already decided not to tell anyone about what she did. Unless these people could provide proof that it was her then these people’s accusations would just remain as such— a baseless accusation. “So… let me get this straight.” She leaned against her chair, her fingers started drumming on her table. “You are saying that I caused an incident on your end to make you lose millions before buying out your company. Does… Does that really make any sense to you?”
As expected the older man frowned. Why would Lily try to destroy a company that she was about to invest into? That— That logic really did not make any sense if he thought about it. A business woman like Lily would never do that. First, fixing a ruined company would only cost her more. Second, an incident like this would mean that Lily’s investments would also suffer. Not even the craziest businessmen would do something like that to their millions worth of investments.
“But—”
“To be honest,” Lily interrupted him. “I feel somewhat insulted that you think that lowly of me.” The corner of her lips turned downward. “I always thought that you wanted me to invest in your company, basically making your company one of my subsidiaries because you knew how my late grandmother did not involve herself in underhanded schemes like that. This— This just hurts me.”
“Your statement makes sense.” Leon Corneel said with a straight face. “However, that only applies if you already bought the company. We all know that is not what happened here, right? You have yet to sign the agreement. I wonder why that is. Everyone in your company seemed to love having my company under Facci Group. However… until now… you haven’t signed the agreement.” He continued. “This— This just makes me wonder if you really want to have us under you. So I told myself, there was no way you won’t want us in your company. You have seen our awards and accomplishments, only a crazy business person would decline such an offer.”
Lily only lifted an eyebrow at him. She pursed her lips into a thin line before she smiled at him. Seeing this, Mr. Corneel continued.
“So… I thought you were only observing us. There is no way that you won’t sign the contract. Then this happened…” he made a deliberate pause. “You purposely delayed the signing then attacked us while we were here with you. Then voila! You now have a reason to not sign with us.”
Impressed, a small snicker escaped her lips. The man before her was truly smart. So far, he had guessed all of her previous moves, including the fact that she planned to attack while they were here to lessen the possibility of suspicion. “I must say… this story of yours is believable. If I was a bystander, I would easily buy this story and condone Lily Zhou for what she did. Unfortunately… I happen to know that you don’t want me to invest in your company. You can tell people this story… but it won’t stop me from telling them that it was you who attacked your own company to prevent me from signing the agreement.” She smirked at his dark face.
“Mr. Corneel… between a tycoon like me and a company like yours… who do you think will win if we tell our own stories to the media?”
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Proofread by Dragon777
