Saturday, on the day of the shareholder's meeting.
The beads of sweat rolled down her jawline and dropped on the mat when Anya was elbow-planking. The weight discs on her back seemed much heavier than her frame.
Her core clenched tightly and her body started to tremble after a minute but her determination was much stronger. "Add another." She needs to beat her record in order to be the best of herself.
Alvin glanced at the weight disks on the rack and looked back at Anya. He truly pondered where she gets her strength in her lissom body. He accepted that he was married to a devil.
His wife wanted him to challenge her limits but he couldn't bring himself to add another weight on her back.
"Alvin," Anya grunted glancing at his legs that hadn't moved.
She would get angry if he stops her. So Alvin was thinking of fleeing, but his eyes fell on his little enemy. Zane yawned entering the home gym, rubbing his eyes in one hand and another hand… holding his mobile.
Why did his little enemy bring his mobile?
Zane's eyes widened in horror as soon his gaze registered what was going on, "Mommy…" He panicked, dropping the mobile on the floor. He ran over to Anya and struggled to remove the discs from her back without listening to her.
"Baby, it's not heavy…. You will hurt yourself… Alvin… Help him." Anya's words fell on deaf ears. She couldn't even move, afraid of hurting Zane. Hence she carefully laid down on the floor with the weights.
Once Zane rolled away the last disc, he kneeled on the floor and rubbed her back while breathing hard, "Momma, you will hurt your back."
Anya held the little hands with a big fat pout, "Why did you strain my tiny cute little hands?" She sounded like she was going to cry and Zane giggled hearing her.
Alvin: "..."
He let the mother and son indulge each other and grabbed his mobile. A frown immediately graced his handsome face looking at Liam's missed calls.
Why did Liam reach him early in the morning?
Did someone die? He mused if Cordelia was fed to her fear or if Gianna gave into her shame.
Reluctantly, he called back as he glanced at the two who were planning for a snowball fight, "Stretch, Officer Owen." Stretching after a hard workout is mandatory else the workout will harm the body.
Anya:
The call was answered after the third ring. Alvin climbed the stairs listening to Liam, [Alvin… I think I- screwed up.] The tone was filled with remorse.
Alvin didn't get the good news he looked forward to. 'Screwed up?' He was done doing favors to people and stalling the plans.
Considering there was a shareholders' meeting, he had to control his urge to hang up the call. Uninterested, he indifferently questioned, "What happened?"
Liam hesitantly revealed, [I thought Dad won't be restless if I said I stopped you from selling your shares.] But Casper was enraged and stayed up half of the night, [He must be up to something.] He was afraid Casper would harm Skylark, Alvin, or his happy family.
Alvin got a clear picture of why Anya couldn't trust Liam. How angered and disgusted Liam might be, he couldn't let go of his parents. Liam undoubtedly worries about Casper and Gianna, he doesn't know how to manipulate people.
Coming to Casper, Alvin was repeatedly slowing down or changing the plan of action due to Anya's wish to join Imperial University and Liam coming forward to take responsibility for the company.
If Casper was stupid enough to harm them in any way just because he hadn't taken a drastic step, "Matthews Industries couldn't be saved then." Alvin ended the call and went under the hot shower.
Although a part of him wanted to be in a position where he could do or get anything to his wife and protect his little enemy from every trouble, another part of him was largely affected by the simple life he was living in the past few days.
He wouldn't mind living off his wife and he disliked people intervening in their day.
But he won't be able to relax until Casper is out of the picture, Miles Johnson will be put in a place and Anya leaves the dangerous job of her own accord or gets promoted to a safe, harmless position.
Anyway, the thorn under his feet was Casper. He couldn't do anything illegal and put Anya in a position where she would want to stand for him but be answerable to others. So he will have to meticulously handle Casper.
What is Casper up to?
Dialing Rob on speaker, he asked once it was answered, "What is Casper doing?"
[He has checked into the clauses of insider trading from dawn.] Insider trading is the illegal trading of large amounts of shares that would affect the investors and largely fluctuates the stock price. [The penalties for breaking the code are severe.]
Alvin almost rolled his eyes. He had studied every word in the clauses. He knew well to find the loopholes and bend them to his favor. Anyway, these weren't an attack. These were precautions to keep the company unaffected. He patiently waited for Rob to continue.
After a long pause, the voice continued, [We just found out Casper was making some phone calls to the international numbers.] He hadn't reported prior as they didn't have accurate information.
'International numbers and Phone calls!?' It could be anything. Harming Alvin's business or museums. Contacting his investors or making deals with the people who are against him.
The call ended. Casper won't be foolish to target Anya or Zane, will he?
He had asked Ean to attend the shareholder's meeting on his behalf. Looks like he needs to hurt Casper's ego and watch Casper being stripped of his powers.
––––
At Matthews Industries,
Casper was busy on his laptop. He considered a lot of possibilities. People say a wife, children, and family are the weakness of a man. He grew old thinking about money, power, control over people, and influence as his strengths.
On the contrary, Alvin's strength was his wife. Anya was like an invisible shield around Alvin. Taking any wrong step toward Alvin was the same as signing his arrest warrant.
Thus threatening Alvin with Anya, ambushing her or her son or her parents wouldn't yield them any success. Instead, she would rip his face off just like she handled Janet, Wilson, and also Gianna.
So the last person Casper could even think of crossing was Anya. As much as he hated Anya, he couldn't deny that Anya Owen had built herself a fortress. Anybody in her circle was untouchable.
That doesn't mean Casper would sit and watch Alvin ruin the company and Anya have her way with everything. He wasn't a pushover.
There were knocks on the door. A man pushed the door and asked from there, "Chairman Matthews, we got the man. Should we start the plan?"
Casper subtly nodded, "Proceed."
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