279 Noisy Buzzing Bee
At about a few minutes past noon of the same day, Leon safely arrived at the presidential hotel conference room in country X; which was the scheduled location for the stakeholders’ meeting.
He was welcomed warmly by some of the stakeholders, who had always been loyal to the Treshvire family. However, others who still saw him as a little boy, but were too afraid to voice out their displeasure, simply nodded in acknowledgment of his presence.
They were highly disappointed for not being invited to mourn the loss of their previous legendary chairman. Some even claimed that the young chairman deceived and bullied them into forcefully assuming his father’s position when he knew fully well that his father was dying or already dead.
Even though some of these aggrieved and disloyal stakeholders wanted to condemn the young chairman for cheating his way into office, they chose to remain mute, as no one wanted to be a scapegoat. They were still horrified by the instant death of one of their members, who questioned the young chairman’s authority in their previous gathering.
Also, some of them, who heard about the calamity that visited Rodriguez Sacramento’s three sons, suspected that the young chairman was responsible for it.
They heard that a group of thugs, whom they assumed belonged to Rodriguez, attacked the young chairman and his ruthless uncle. However, both men single-handedly defeated all the thugs and painted the city red before leaving.
Leon, ignoring the judgemental glares of these disloyal stakeholders, assumed his chairman seat and stared briefly at everyone. He was impressed that everyone aside from Rodriguez was in attendance even though the memo for the meeting was sent the previous night.
After a few minutes of silence, Leon was about to speak up when the door to the conference room suddenly flung open.
Rodriguez arrogantly strolled into the room with an air of laxity and fearlessness.
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When he got to the seat opposite Leon, he cleared his throat as though he wanted to say something.
However, no word came out of his parted lips. He simply gave Leon and some of his loyalists a condescending look before slowly pulling out a seat for himself.
While dragging his seat, the annoying scraping sounds emanating from the friction between the seat legs and the floor made faces scrunch and foreheads furrow at his lack of respect.
Feeling satisfied with the attention gotten, Rodriguez lazily took his seat and scowled at Leon’s surprisingly calm face.
There was complete silence in the room as everyone held their breath while expecting the young chairman to flare up and possibly sanction Rodriguez for his insolence.
Although some stakeholders were pleased by Rodriguez’s disrespectful attitude, others were highly pissed off by it.
Rodriguez on the other hand was both impressed and unbothered by the brief attention he had drawn to himself. He knew that the highest thing Leon could do to him would be to throw him out of the conference room. So, he folded both hands around his chest and waited patiently for Leon to buzz in some security details.
However, to his disappointment, Leon cleared his throat and started speaking on the subject matter for the gathering.
There was no hatred or resentment in Leon’s eyes as he spoke with authority and power. Instead of anger, the side of his lips curled into a smirk.
Leon’s behavior totally aligned with a popular quote which said; ‘confuse them with your silence and shock them with your actions.
The way he acted towards Rodriguez was as though a noisy bee buzzed into the room, did a few unimpressive stunts, and buzzed out.
This made Rodriguez almost vaporize with anger in his seat.
The purpose of his initial act was aimed at disorienting Leon and causing temporal chaos in the meeting.
He planned on provoking Leon to say something threatening to him. He also planned on using this medium to accuse Leon of brutally murdering all three of his sons.
However, with Leon’s unexpected mature and commendable behavior, Rodriguez felt the sting of humiliation strick him on the cheek, leaving him gasping for air.
“I will take this!” Rodriguez suddenly stood up and glared at the young chairman.
One of the things that emboldened Rodriguez to challenge Leon’s authority fearlessly was due to the absence of Maxwell in the meeting.
“Rodriguez, sit down and allow the chairman to finish his speech.” Mr. Wallace, who happened to be a good friend and partner to Rex Treshvire, stood up abruptly to challenge Rodriguez.
“Shut the hell up, you fool before I make you!” Rodriguez spewed invisible fiery darts in Wallace’s direction.
“Mr. Wallace,” Leon called in a deep but calm tone, “thank you very much. It was rude of you to speak on my behalf. I’ll handle it. Kindly have your seat.”
“I’m sorry for speaking out of term, sir. Accept my sincere apology,” Mr. Wallace bowed politely and took his seat.
Leon returned his gaze to a resentful Rodriguez, who was still busy scowling in Wallace’s direction.
Although Leon’s gaze on Rodriguez was intense, his eyes were void of emotion or expression. This made it difficult for anyone to predict what he was thinking or what he will do next.
Still maintaining his calm disposition, Leon asked, “Mr. Rodriguez, what exactly can’t you take? Is it the fact that you walked into this room behaving like a child who has lost his place in society? Or, is it the fact that I’m willing to overlook your excesses? Or, is it the fact that you are interrupting my speech for the second time with impunity? Or is it the fact that I’m making the house aware of my late father’s wish for privacy during his last days on Earth? Which of these is getting you all fired up? Speak!”
Leon’s last commanding word threw Rodriguez off balance. He wanted to say something but the sudden sinister look in Leon’s eyes made him wary of his statement.
An image of his dead sons’ heinous murder flashed before his eyes and crippled his soul. It made his heart temporarily bleed and clogged his throat with sickening emotions.
The heartbreaking and piercing cries of his lovely wives echoed in his head. And standing and smiling wickedly behind all his mystery was the devilish son of Rex.
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