Hunter's P.O.V. ———————
"Good morning Mr Jaquish, Mr Harwood " I greet the two men who I am
familiar with and giving them a handshake which is obvious that they
grudgingly accepted.
Well Dad was right.
I sight Lily at the left end of the table and I acknowledge her with a
nod.
But the third man in the room was a strange appearance to this party.
And from my apprehension he looks to be my age more so or a tad bit
older.
" And may I ask who?" Referring to the gentleman who is currently
undressing my secretary with his eyes.
" This is Mr Hayes, my nephew and the one to take over my business. So
he is right to be here to know the companies he is up for " Mr Jaquish
answers glaring at me with his last words.
You're angry. Hint taken.
" Well then, nice to get to meet you Mr Hayes " I extend my hand to him
for a handshake also.
He finally takes his eyes off Iris and pays me the slightest
attention.
" I'm not sure if I can say the same, but who is this lovely lady behind
you?" His eyes going back to what it preferred interesting.
" That's my secretary, so may we get down to the main reason for being
here" I take my seat at the head of the table and wait for Iris to take
hers beside me but someone seems to not be ready for this meeting.
" May I know your name?" Mr Hayes asks Iris who was currently going to
sit beside Mr Harwood which is almost at the opposite end of the
rectangular table.
" Miss Shawn, but you can call me Jules" She offers him a bright smile
and a handshake.
Oh, so she can give answers freely to someone she just met.
" Jules. I like it. Call me Darlington " He responds and plants a kiss
to the back of her palm.
Meanwhile Mr Jaquish and Harwood just watch in admiration.
Is there really no one ready for this meeting?
I clear my throat to get back their attention " Shall we begin?" My
focus on Mr Hayes and he is aware of it.
" Of course we shall, you can have a chair here love" He taps on the
seat by his left hand for Iris.
" Her seat is here Mr Hayes, thank you for the suggestion " I look to
Iris with an expression that clearly says 'need I remind you this
meeting is your fault'
And I believe she understands because she smiles " Don't worry Mr
McConnell, I'll be fine beside Darlington "
Then the bitch takes a seat beside Mr Hayes which makes her sandwiched
between him and Mr Jaquish.
I sent her an are you serious look but she ignored me anyway.
" So no need for time wasting " Mr Harwood finally comes to his senses "
We all know why we're here, and need I say, I am not at all happy with
the reason "
" Yes Mr McConnell, you see there is a reason why a contract was made.
To ensure all parties keep to their word, which you have remarkably
failed to do " Mr Hayes now deemed it fit to concentrate.
" Well, there's also something known as lucrative interest. If I see no
profit from your side, why then invest?" I direct my question to the
present Mr Hayes .
" Lucrative interest comes in only when a contract hasn't been involved
yet. Meaning you had to have thought about that before putting your
signature on a paper " Mr Jaquish counters.
" Since we began in our little trade all we've recorded was losses" I
continue. " I don't think any businessman would love to be associated
with losses"
" Need I remind you Mr McConnell that contracts are like marriage deeds,
for better for worse till death do us part or rather in this case till
it is of no use" Mr Hayes replies while dropping a file on the table and
Iris picks it up.
" Well your business is of no use to me anymore so your argument is
invalid " Iris opens the file and starts reading it.
" Our deal says we have to be valid for at least ten years before we can
consider it useless " Hayes finishes off.
I look to Iris to know if what he said was true since she is the one
holding the contract.
She lifts her head and catches my eyes on her, when I lift a brow that
silently asks my question she nods in response.
So that dude read the contract.
" Your business manual says when something is inactive it's noted a
stale worth, which may I add is your business to mine" I pipe up and
wait for a counter.
" Mr McConnell, that same business manual states the right to sue to
court any business that dupes the other which you firmly did" Mr Harwood
states.
" I did not dupe anyone "
" How would you refer to a case where we deposited our share of money
promised and you gave half at the beginning, proceedingly we kept on
depositing our share but you never dropped a dime as our agreement had
stated. This means you're gaining from us but we are losing much more
than expected because of you " Mr Jaquish explains.
" Plus, we thought we received the share. Because your firm sends a
receipt every month to our office. Only till we checked the balance
before we found out something doesn't add up. So if I am to take this to
the court, it will be considered as a deliberate fraud"
Deliberate frauds can close down a company for good and my dad is
going to kill me if such a thing happens.
I can't let them sue me for all its worth.
I look to Iris to know what she has to say but she only flashes a wide
grin and shakes her head in a negative reaction.
She has nothing to add? I thought Dad said she will be useful in the
meeting? She literally just heard a sue to court and she's willing to
say nothing?
" Excuse me for a moment, Iris may we speak outside?" I get up and walk
out the door to wait for her. Counting numbers in my head so I can cool
my upcoming temper.
" My name in official gatherings or wherever is Jules"
I have bigger issues.
" Why the hell are you not saying anything?"
" Because it's nice watching your ass get lashed. You stepped on very
wrong toes Mr " She poked my chest and it looks like she's trying her
best not to laugh.
" This is funny to you? They're threatening to sue us here" I slap her
finger away from my chest.
" I'm aware" She shrugged.
God help me, if I'm going to jail there is no harm in adding murder to
my charges.
" You're aware? And you're going to do nothing about it!?" My brain is
calculating the best way to kill this girl without leaving prints.
" Well, Darlington looks like he could give me a job though "
My glare was probably forming lasers behind my eyes and I can't wait
for them to shoot out.
" They can't send you to jail " She adds
I laughed at her stupidity.
" Oh yeah, how so?" Sarcasm wrapped all over my words.
" Well if you read the contract you signed you'd know how " She turned
sharp on her heels and started heading towards the door but I gripped
her hands to stop her.
" You are staying by my side" My voice low but serious.
" Really? Why? It's not like I'm a sight to behold or something "
Ha, funny.
" I'm aware, but it seems like Mr Hayes-"
" Darlington "
" Mr Hayes is brainwashing you of your mortal reasoning. So by my side.
Pronto " I let go of her hand and walk back to the hall.
" Where's my princess?" Mr Hayes just learned to get on my nerves.
" I'm here." Iris enters and goes to her former seating position.
I assumed she was going to ignore my order and return back to where
she was but she just picks up the files she left there and walks to take
the seat by my side.
All this while the entire room remained silent for her.
" Mr Jaquish I'm sorry but you can't sue my boss to court " And she
began.
" Why is that?" Mr Jaquish answers with much more interest than
curiosity in his tone.
" Because in the deal you signed with Mr McConnell, it states that you
were to give a sum of seven fifty thousand dollars right?"
All men in the room nod in agreement.
" But following from Bank statements to office records, the only amount
to be deposited was four hundred thousand " She reads down the papers in
her hand again.
" Yes, we stopped depositing when we realized he was just fooling us" Mr
Harwood joined the debate.
" Hmm... I see and when was that? Because your last deposite was
recorded two months before the last receipt was sent to your office "
Did she really look into that?
" Receipts that were false-" Mr Harwood urged to continue but Iris had
more in mind.
" When you had your first meeting, you deposited only two hundred
thousand, meanwhile Mr McConnell deposited half the price promised" She
interrupted
" Yes" Mr Jaquish who now thinks silence is the best spoke.
" But on your agreement he was to drop only two fifty thousand on the
first, but hence he dropped more the receipts were only sent in
recognition of the time it was meant to be deposited " Iris argued on
That wasn't my plan but it seems to be a better cover up.
" And we were following up the rule too" Mr Harwood interjected.
" No, you stopped once you realized there was no increase in your
balances. You are not after him because he did not fulfill his part of
the deal. You're after him because you planned on duping him of his
money too but it didn't work out" She analysed and I was really shocked
at what she could pull out.
" That's not our plan" Mr Harwood speaks again.
" But that is what it will look like when the court gets to hear of it"
Mr Hayes who was now watching iris, intrigued by her character stated.
" Thank you Darlington " She flirtatiously remarked at the young man who
was eyeing her like she's a prized bull.
" Fine, we would not take it to the court " Mr Jaquish says as he
adjusted the collar of his shirt.
" I was hoping so. And we apologize for any inconvenience caused so far,
we promise to keep to our end of the deal from now onwards if you keep
to yours" She packed up the files in her hand and stacks them on atop
the other.
" We will. Thank you for the meeting miss Jules, I hope to see you
another time" Mr Hayes says as he rises from his chair alongside the
other gentlemen to end the meeting.
" I don't think so. Thank you for attending the meeting " I rise and
give a handshake in her place.
The young man eyed me waringly before walking out the room with his
associates.
I look to see Iris still seated by my side.
" So Dad was right huh?" I tell her and she just rolls her eyes at me
before standing up and leaving the hall too.
I smirk at her in response and turn my attention to Lily who is still
by the end.
" Hand over the minutes to her when you're done "
She just gives me a nod and I leave the room.