Chapter 78: I won’t refuse
"What are you doing here?" April’s voice cut through the room, completely devoid of its usual clinical tone. She didn’t even bother to stand up. She just pointed a grease-stained finger toward the hallway. "This is my room. Out with you."
Nat let out a sudden, bark of a laugh, his dark eyes crinkling at the corners. He leaned his body against the doorframe, thoroughly enjoying the view. "Wow. You seem completely different from yesterday, little seer. What? You got an on and off button or something?"
April felt a heavy vein throb behind her temple. She closed her eyes, took a deep, stabilizing breath, and chose to ignore the giant red-haired psychopath entirely.
Her gaze shifted over to the heir standing awkwardly by the threshold. "Alexander. What are you doing here?"
Alexander jumped slightly, clearing his throat as he reached into his inner suit pocket. "I... Well, I came to deliver this personally, Miss April. I got you your check."
April’s eyes lit up instantly. The lingering annoyance vanished, replaced by a raw financial hunger. That’s right. The half a billion dollars for the revitalization water she had used to cure his grandfather and pull the Greels empire back from the brink of collapse.
Abandoning her pile of chips, she hopped off the sofa and stepped forward, snatching the piece of paper right out of Alexander’s hand. She scanned the numbers with a critical eye. Every single zero was beautifully in place.
"Thank you for holding up your end of the bargain," April said, her tone softening just a fraction into genuine satisfaction. "And thank you for not dying."
Alexander blinked, a bit flustered by the blunt gratitude, but before he could reply, April had already turned her attention to the stone-faced CEO beside him. She thrust her empty, powdery left hand straight out toward Xavier.
Xavier looked down at her small, chip-dusted palm, the corners of his lips twitching upward in a barely perceptible smirk. Reaching into his tailored coat, he pulled out a crisp, sleek corporate check and placed it firmly in her hand.
"Thanks to you, Reed Industries didn’t suffer a single loss during the crash," Xavier said, his deep voice smooth and grounding. "In fact, we liquidated enough sinking competitor assets to double our current domestic profit margins."
April snatched the check, her eyes widening slightly as she took a look. It was exactly half a billion dollars.
"Wow," she murmured, a genuine, maniacal little grin breaking across her face under her fluffy skincare headband. In fact, she brought the check up and took a brief, appreciative sniff of the fresh ink. "You were incredibly generous this time, Mr. Reed. I certainly won’t refuse it."
With this, she had a whooping sum of a billion. It was perfect.
Nat folded his massive arms over his chest, his brow twitching as he watched the rapid-fire exchange of astronomical wealth. "What’s this? A little game of mutual benefits that I didn’t know about?"
"Now you see it," April flicked the checks before then and then she let both checks disappear before their very eyes with a little Intake thought. "Now you don’t."
"Wow, impressive as always," Nat exclaimed.
Once that was taken care of, April’s expression instantly froze back into a stern, chilly mask as she locked eyes with the mafia king. "Now. As for you. What exactly brings you to my private quarters?"
"Well, I wanted to propose once again, since you keep ruthlessly rejecting me," Nat claimed, dramatically grabbing his chest as if he were suffering a mortal wound to the heart. "It’s incredibly harsh, little seer. My pride is wounded."
"Denied," April stated flatly, not wasting a single second. She clicked her tongue in thorough irritation, turning her back on them as she walked back toward her sofa. "Really, you guys have the absolute worst timing," she whispered under her breath.
With the immediate threat of violence thoroughly neutralized by the exchange of money, the heavy atmosphere in the room completely disintegrated.
Alexander, seeing her lack of fear, relaxed entirely. No one was going to die after all.
He was worried that the golden dragon had come over to threaten April and had been pondering on ways to get April out of the mess if it did happen. But that didn’t seem to be the case so he couldn’t help but drop his rigid shoulders.
He walked further into her suite, making himself right at home by tossing his expensive designer coat jacket over an armchair.
He bypassed the furniture, walked straight to her snack table, and grabbed a fresh bag of chips, popping one into his mouth.
Nat wasn’t about to be left out. Seeing the Greels heir relax, the Golden Dragon casually strolled over to the sofa, dropping his heavy frame onto the opposite end without asking for permission.
He slouched back, looking thoroughly amused by the domesticity of the room. He picked up the remote and began to change the channels however he saw fit.
It was just Xavier left standing near the center of the lounge. He maintained his flawless, rigid persona, his hands resting naturally at his sides—but the sheer contrast of his stiff, corporate perfection against a room full of people eating junk food and hissing at the shitty broadcasts, made him look like the odd one out.
Nat finally gave up on the television and leaned over the armrest of the sofa, trailing his eyes over the screen of the tablet April was still holding. "Whatcha doing, sunshine?" he asked, his deep voice dropping closer to her ear.
April immediately leaned back, shifting her weight away to maintain her personal space between herself and his chaotic aura. She tapped the screen one final time, confirming a bulk order of a hundred industrial-grade water filtration units.
"Spending money," she said smoothly.
Nat’s grin widened as he stared at the screen, watching the digital numbers scroll past. "Spending money? On what? Water filters?" He let out a low, amused whistle. "A hundred units? Little seer, are you planning to open a water plant or do you just really hate tap water?"
"The quality of municipal water is declining, Mr. Collins," April replied smoothly, her face a mask of complete indifference as she swiped to the next wholesale listing—this time looking at solar grid components. "I prefer to be thoroughly prepared for any infrastructural... adjustments."
Xavier stepped forward, his sharp gaze cutting between the casual proximity of Nat and the relaxed state of April. He ignored the mafia king entirely, looking down at April.
"I hear that Samuel has already cleared the primary hub for the arrivals you ordered." He began, but then when she only nodded, he decided to say something else instead. "The funds from the check I just gave you have been cleared for immediate international wire transfer, should your... domestic shopping require higher liquidity."
"That’s nice to hear," April said, her eyes glinting as she typed in the routing details to clear another massive purchase of medical trauma kits. "But I’m not sure I need it right now."
She already had more than 300 million sitting in her account. She could manage with that.
Beside the one billion she had received from them, she had yet to cash out the 100 million she received from Alexander the previous morning.
She was literally flowing in cash right now but she still felt it was far from enough. To fill her 100,000 cubic space, and to fill the next space upgrade, she might need to even buy out the world.
