Chapter 528: My Best Partner
Christian had just stopped talking when Wendy burst out laughing.
She laughed loud and long as though she had heard something unbelievably funny.
Christian scowled, irritated by her seemingly unstoppable laughter.
He asked, "Why are you laughing?"
Clutching at straws now, he continued, "You were the one who called yesterday, asking to swap Alice for Zen. So now, I’m giving you the opportunity to take Zen away."
"What’s happened to you, Christian? I used to think that you were quite smart, but you seem to have lost it in the face of some hiccups," Wendy jeered at him.
That was when Christian totally lost it.
"What the hell do you mean by that?" he ranted.
"Did you really think that I was truly concerned about Zen?" Wendy sneered.
"She’s lying in a coma in the ICU, and her baby’s gone. The doctor said there is a likelihood that she might never wake up. And, even if she did wake up, would she be able to accept the reality that her precious baby is dead?
"It’s true that I had intended to take her away from you, but that was before she turned into a comatose patient. I was after a cognitive Zen, not some person lying in a coma dead to the world.
"Besides, as I’m sure you know, Zen had betrayed me so many times. Aren’t you being presumptuous in thinking that I might disadvantage myself to help her?
"I am already being very compassionate by giving her a helping hand without adversely affecting my circumstances."
"So, what was yesterday’s call all about?" Christian asked, clutching his phone tightly.
He was puzzled by what Wendy had said yesterday in that call.
Wendy was spot on. She could not possibly disadvantage herself to help Zen.
And that could only mean one thing; that she had an ulterior motive for making that call yesterday.
Suddenly enlightened, an infuriated Christian bellowed, "You made that call intentionally to trick me!"
"So, you’re still pretty smart after all," Wendy jeered. "Yes, you’re right. I made that call and said those things for Alice.
"That stupid woman was initially determined to cover up for you and refused to speak up, even in the face of a death threat. I had no choice but to resort to that trick.
"However, I should stop calling it a trick because it was reality. Thanks to your excellent co-operation, she told us all we needed to know.
"Otherwise, Alice would not have stepped up so quickly and sung like a canary."
Now, this was the third phone that Christian had damaged.
The first two had been mobile phones.
Once again, the office was shrouded in silence.
Not content with smashing the phone, he thrashed everything that was wreckable on his desk.
Alas, he was not appeased one bit, even after everything had been wrecked.
Noting that the phone had suddenly gone dead, Wendy knew that Christian was, at that moment, hitting the roof in his fury.
The ultimate egoist, he had always excelled at playing dirty.
Little did he expect to lose to Wendy. Naturally, it was an extremely bitter pill to swallow.
On her part, Wendy was as happy as Christian was upset.
She was humming a tune as she instructed Zess, "Please cut me some fruit."
"Sure, coming right up," Zess replied.
Unthinkingly, Christian slumped down onto his chair. However, during his frenzied attack on the items around his desk, he had kicked the chair some distance away.
And that was when Christian landed on his bum on the floor.
Scrambling to his feet, Christian stood by his desk, resting his clenched fists on the desk.
He stood there, looking menacing, his entire being enveloped in evil vibes.
To think that he had been so careless as to fall for Wendy’s ruse. That he had even taken the initiative to call her, thinking that he could use Zen as a pawn for negotiation.
What an idiot he was!
...
Shortly after, Christian’s assistant appeared at the door to his office.
Actually, he had stood there for a long time. Then, taking a deep breath, he mustered up his courage to knock on the door.
Despite having heard the rap on the door, Christian said nothing. His assistant stepped into the office.
"Mr. Lucas." He stammered, "I... I’ve instructed the PR team. They will do their best to respond to the online posts."
Having made the report, the assistant just stood there, not moving.
Even without raising his head, the frosty glance that Christian sent his assistant radiated evil and foreboding.
His assistant hung his head even lower.
"Anything else?" Christian asked.
Because if there wasn’t, his assistant would have scurried away after having made that report.
"Yes... " The assistant replied a little tentatively.
"Well, what is it?" Christian bellowed impatiently.
He was already in so much trouble. Had there been any other challenges that he could not handle?
"It’s about our partners. They have all called asking for their contracts to be terminated. And for their payments to be refunded," replied his assistant, bracing himself for an outburst.
"Because of the high volume of fans following Miss Tanner, many of our partners had transferred funds as pre-payment for the clothes that we had been planning to launch.
"However, having seen the news on social media, all of them have called, wanting to terminate their contracts with us."
"Contract termination," Christian muttered under his breath.
Having their contracts terminated was not a big deal. The issue had been that he was in no position to make refunds.
As stipulated in the contract, if the contracts were terminated due to a fault on Christian’s side, then he would have to make restitution that was three times the amount that the partners had pre-paid.
Meanwhile, their new project had been waiting for the second round of funds injection.
As such, he did not even want to think about the partners’ demands.
"Let’s just park that to one side for now. Just ignore them," Christian instructed, having had run out of ideas himself.
"But if we ignore them, they will take legal action against us," his assistant replied in a small voice.
"Then, let them!" Christian replied. He had no money to compensate them, and the legal process would take some time.
Right now, money and time were what he had needed the most.
It did not matter if they had been unable to suppress the online posts as, in time, they would gradually lose their newsworthiness.
As long as Phase Two of the new project could proceed as planned, he would still have innumerable opportunities and possibilities.
"But," his assistant stopped mid-sentence, too scared to continue.
Christian shut his eyes in weariness and, in a subdued voice, instructed, "Tell me."
"DR’s stocks have, just within today... " His assistant also shut his eyes, not daring to see Christian’s reaction. He continued, "Dropped fifty percent in market value."
The fifty percent figure was what finally caused Christian to visibly break down.
For the very first time, he screamed at the top of his voice in the office.
Shocked out of his wits, his assistant collapsed and fell to his knees.
Since Christian had said nothing, his assistant did not dare utter a word either.
Neither did he dare leave the office.
The atmosphere in the office had increasingly tensed and was scary.
After a very long time, Christian eventually managed to calm himself down.
He told himself that he needed to stay calm and collected. That he had to think about what to do going forward.
And so, he remained thinking through his options as the clocked ticked away.
To his assistant, what was actually a little over ten minutes seemed more like a century.
Finally, Christian spoke up.
"Give me your phone," he said to his assistant. He had thrashed both his own mobile phone and the desk phone.
Shaking in fear, his assistant replied, "My phone... broke... it’s broken."
He did not dare say that it, too, had been thrashed by Christian.
However, looking at the debris around him, Christian knew that it had been him who thrashed his assistant’s phone.
"Then, go find me a decent phone. Do I need to tell you how to do everything?"Christian massaged his forehead, his body shaking with rage.
"I’ll do that right away," his assistant said and rushed out of the office to find Christian a phone.
...
Christian’s assistant had returned quickly with a phone and handed it over to him.
Taking the phone from him, Christian proceeded to call someone.
And that someone was Clement.
Once the call had been accepted, Clement spoke up, "What’s your decision?"
"It’s a deal," Christian replied curtly. "I can’t leave Lake City right now, so you’d have to find time to come over. As soon as possible."
"I need to see some real commitment from you first," Clement said, just as frostily.
"You should know what to do."
"Yes, I know," Christian replied, switching the phone to video call mode.
Then, he placed the phone on the desk to enable Clement to see what was happening on his end.
"Get me a dagger," Christian instructed his assistant.
Not knowing why Christian had asked for a dagger, the assistant obeyed his instruction anyway and went looking for a dagger.
Shortly after, he returned with a dagger that he passed to Christian.
Holding the dagger in his hand, Christian lost no time proceeding to do what he needed to do.
He placed his left hand flat on the desk, raised his right hand - the one clutching the dagger - and brought it down.
Instantly, his left pinky was severed.
The entire procedure had been swiftly executed and done in the blink of an eye.
Christian gritted his teeth in pain as beads of sweat covered his forehead.
Despite the pain, he did not complain.
"Did you see that?" Christian calmly asked as he looked at Clement on the screen while throwing the dagger to the floor.
"Yeah, I did. You are one gutsy guy, Christian," Clement responded.
"What had I said? I told you that you were the kind of guy that was cut out to do business with us. But you had insisted on staying away from us.
"If you had known that one day you were gonna come back to the fold, you shouldn’t have been so arrogant about leaving us in the first place.
"After working with us for so many years, you just upped and left. So, don’t blame us for being harsh on you.
"If we were to go by the book, according to our rules, just a pinky would not suffice.
If it had been someone else, asking to come back after having left the organization, it would have cost them an entire arm or leg.
"In your case, we have been very compassionate."
"I know that," Christian replied, grimacing as he dealt with the pain.
Having witnessed Christian slicing off his pinky, the assistant was in a state of shock.
Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that Christian would have asked for a dagger for that reason.
After all, he was just a regular assistant and not the special assistant that had been working with Christian while he was in Rheinsville City.
Also, before this incident, he had no clue about the power base behind Christian’s organization.
Whereas Christian’s special assistant would have already gotten things in order for him.
Coming back to his senses, he immediately went out looking for the first aid box.
Returning with the kit, he stepped forward tentatively, trying to muster up the courage to dress Christian’s wound.
His eyes turned a tad red with fright as he stared at Christian’s bleeding finger.
"Welcome back, my best partner," Clement could be seen spreading his arms wide in a welcoming gesture.
"Come to Lake City as soon as possible. We need to discuss the next steps," Christian urged.
"Sure," Clement agreed without hesitation.
It was only after their call had ended that the assistant stepped forward and said cautiously, "Mr. Lucas, let me apply some first aid and stop the bleeding first. Then, we will send you to the hospital, OK?"
Christian nodded allowing the assistant to help him.
Then, in a menacing tone, he warned the assistant, "You should know when to keep your mouth shut about what you had witnessed."
The assistant quickly nodded, "Yes, sir. Don’t worry, sir."
Although this assistant had not worked for Christian in Rheinsville City, he had nonetheless been selected by Christian for the job.
That was why Christian had been comfortable with contacting Clement in his presence.
