Recently, she had been reflecting on herself and all the horrible mistakes she had made. She finally understood that everything Jonathan did was in the family’s best interest. After a few seconds of silence, Jonathan inclined his head in acknowledgment.
“Call us when you’re free. Dad and Mom still care about you no matter what. You need to stop being willful. Lucian and Roxanne will not harm you as long as I’m around!” Jonathan promised. He then returned to his car and took out a bank card before handing it to his sister.
“Take this. There are about three to four million on this card. I’m surprised you could tolerate not having a car, considering you’ve been pampered since you were young.”
Frieda froze and did not know how to react at first. She instinctively wanted to reject his help but still reached out her hand to take the card.
“All right. Take good care of yourself. I’ll be leaving now!” Jonathan got into his car after waving his sister goodbye. Frieda’s tears fell uncontrollably as she watched the car gradually drive away.
“Yay! Daddy and Mommy are getting married!” Upon seeing a large stack of wedding invitations and Lucian and Roxanne’s beautiful wedding photos, the three little ones began to prance around in excitement.
The wedding was only ten days away, so Lucian had been extremely busy lately. He was constantly occupied with phone calls and WhatsApp messages and also received numerous congratulatory messages from guests, among which were those who hoped to receive an invitation to attend the ceremony.
After all, Lucian had provisionally limited the number of guests to five hundred for this once- in-a-lifetime wedding of his. An unverified rumor circulating suggested that the admission standards for guests invited to the event were strictly limited to individuals from elite families.
Considering the limited number of available spots after including some relatives and friends, Lucian had to be highly selective in choosing additional guests.
“Daddy, Daddy. Is there anything we can help. with?” Archie held the hands of his younger siblings and walked up to Lucian, hoping to do something for the wedding.
Lucian replied, “Yes, of course. There are plenty of tasks you can help with. Archie, go through the invitations and the guest list to cross-check them with the list I have here to see if we missed anyone. We must make sure all the guests who should be invited are included. Benny, take this list and calculate the total amount of the gift money.
We plan to donate all the money to underprivileged children living in remote areas. Essie, since you’re the more artistic one here, could you check if there are any areas where we can improve the wedding outfits, venue, and floral arrangements provided by the bridal agency?”
Upon receiving his orders, the three little children got to work right away. Their help relieved Lucian of the numerous trivial matters involved in wedding planning.
Soon, Elias and Sonya arrived, giving Lucian a few more name lists and discussing more details about the wedding with him. Meanwhile, in the research institute, Roxanne was also busy working in her office. Just as Elektra predicted, the products of the second phase were sold out within three days.
The warehouse’s inventory that was accumulated through great effort including the additional portion produced by the employees who worked overtime was all sold out. They even fell short by two days’ worth of inventory With a post-tax cash flow of two hundred million, the entire company’s financial situation had improved significantly.
However, Roxanne had no desire to keep the money in the company’s account. Instead, she planned to use a significant portion of the funds to reward the research and development team and distribute the remaining amount to all the employees in the factory.
According to the agreement made with Elektra, Roxanne would forgo her annual salary, which amounted to tens of millions. The current issue bothering Roxanne was the number of product units to be launched for the third phase.
Elektra was actively expanding the business on her end. There were already more than ten franchise stores in Horington alone, and they planned to establish a total of three hundred stores in major cities all across the country. Roxanne was concerned that they might not have enough inventory to supply all the stores.
Linda knocked on the door and brought in a report. “Ms. Lane expressed a desire to upgrade the office building. Since the building that Crawford Heights Group had stopped renting still has a couple more years’ lease, Ms. Lane was thinking of taking over the building as it fits our needs perfectly. Anyway, she had negotiated a great deal with the building owner.”
Roxanne froze for a few seconds before remembering Crawford Heights Group was the company established by Lucian’s opponent. She was taken aback to learn that the company had declared bankruptcy despite being in business for only a month. Indeed, the road to entrepreneurship is perilous.
Elektra managed to take over the lease of the building at a sixty-percent discount. That showed how savvy she was when it came to business.
“No problem, Linda. Tell Ms. Lane that she doesn’t need to report the company’s operational matters to me in the future. I give her the right to manage it directly.”
Roxanne wanted to focus solely on product development, as she believed Elektra was far more competent in marketing than she was. After going through the report Linda brought in, she exclaimed, “What? Three hundred thousand units? That’s a lot!”
At the same time, the office building Crawford Heights Group had moved out of was left in a huge mess.
Given that the twenty-story building with a three-year lease was rented at a sixty percent discount, Elektra felt that it was a shame.
The reason was simple. Flora Verba Group might go the way of Crawford Heights Group in the not-too-distant future. Just the thought alone filled her with sorrow.
After painstakingly building up Flora Verba Group’s reputation and gaining the support of the authorities, Elektra was certain that it would. grow into a conglomerate one day. Unfortunately, she had to destroy it with her own hands.
It felt as if she was suffocating her own child to death. Alas, she could only hope that the controversy would only affect Roxanne and try her best to mitigate the negative impact on the company. When her phone rang, she saw that it was Christina on the line again, just as expected.
The latter had been calling every day to pressure Elektra, who had been dragging her feet with the excuse that the third phase of products had yet to be manufactured..
“I’ve learned that the second phase of products has sold out, so it’s time for the third phase to begin. Make sure you’re ready.”
Christina spoke in a tone entirely devoid of emotion. Despite her resentment, Elektra had no choice but to reply, “I am. More than three hundred flagship stores have begun operations one by one. The third phase will definitely take the market by storm.”
“Haha, I’m glad to hear that. When the time comes, this issue will be too big for Lucian to deal with no matter how powerful he is. This is so exciting!”
“I’m sure I’ll get affected by it, too. Once I get my hands on the shares of Flora Verba Group, I’ll definitely share them with you!”
Christina’s hysterical laughter carried with it a sense of ruthlessness that disregarded any and all consequences, sending a chill down Elektra’s spine. Therefore, Elektra knew that even if Roxanne was crushed, she would barely benefit from it due to all the dirt Christina had on her. As a result, she had to ingratiate herself with Christina by giving up her shares in Flora Verba Group.
“Sure. I’ll gladly accept your kind offer. It will be our reward for taking down Roxanne. I don’t need much, so two billion will do. Also, please help me look for my family.” The tension in Christina’s voice eased as it took on a friendlier tone. Even though it was a casual comment, Elektra derived a sense of security from it.
As Christina’s parents are still in the country, I can use them to control her. Otherwise, she’ll betray me once she has achieved her goal. “No problem. I’ll help you search for your family. If there’s anything else I can do for you, feel free to let me know.”
Upon ending their discussion, Elektra left the office building. When she received a sudden call from Roxanne, her eyes narrowed in response.
“Elektra, why were you on the phone for such a long time? I needed to speak to you urgently!” said Roxanne anxiously. She had called Elektra many times but kept getting an engaged tone.
Elektra had assumed that it was a friend or relative trying to get the latest product through her. Little did she expect it to be Roxanne.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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