Chapter 189 I Want to Choose Myself
The car stopped downstairs at the company building. Leopold looked up at the lit windows. Footsteps followed behind him, and Erik said, "Mr. Preston Wipere has been working overtime a lot lately. Sometimes when it gets too late, he just sleeps at the company."
Leopold looked away and stepped into the lobby. As he walked, he asked, "Who has Mr. Anderson been getting close to lately?"
Erik thought back and remembered something. "The day the board meeting ended, Mr. Anderson personally saw off Mr. Borgia, Mr. Guise, and Mr. Gonzaga. The four of them stayed in the parking lot downstairs for half an hour before coming back up. Not sure what they talked about specifically."
Leopold curled his lip disdainfully. "A bunch of nobodies."
He didn't take these people seriously at all. If he had been at that board meeting, none of them would have stood a chance against him.
"Preston really is getting old!"
Erik looked up at Leopold, thinking he'd misheard, but didn't feel comfortable asking.
He said, "The stock price has dropped badly. Mr. Preston Wipere's mind is all on the stock price. Those people—he'll deal with them sooner or later."
"Sooner or later? Is it sooner or later? Dealing with them is easy. It depends on how you deal with them, and you also have to shut everyone up. That's what he finds difficult."
Leopold walked into the elevator. Erik pressed the floor button. The car slowly rose. The mirror-like elevator doors reflected Leopold's gloomy face. The fact that Preston was desperate enough to lower himself and ask for his help meant Preston was now at the end of his rope.
No matter how much he hated him, he didn't want Preston to fail at someone else's hands.
Knocking on Preston's office door, Leopold saw the person behind the desk flipping through a book. Walking closer, he could see the cover was an economics book.
Preston had a habit of reading. His study at home had a huge bookshelf, and every time Leopold visited, he'd notice new books had been added.
Leopold stood in front of the desk, pulled out a chair, and sat down. "Mr. Preston Wipere."
Preston closed the book and set it aside. "You handled the public opinion issue very well."
"You already said that on WhatsApp."
His lukewarm response carried a hint of suppressed resentment at this moment.
"You resent me a lot, don't you?" Preston looked directly into Leopold's eyes.
"Nothing to resent."
Preston was about to breathe a sigh of relief when he heard Leopold continue, "Is that what you were hoping to hear? So you won't feel guilty? Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not going to do things that make you comfortable while wronging myself anymore. In the past, no matter what happened, you pushed me to the front to take the hit. You talked about the bigger picture, but you did a lot of things that hurt me. I'm here today to tell you," Leopold paused, "this time, I'm choosing myself."
Preston understood what he meant. From now on, no matter what happened, he would choose the path that didn't wrong him.
Leopold's eyes were firm, with no hint of backing down.
"So, about the stock price crash—do I still have to take the blame?"
He wasn't asking. He was threatening Preston.
The wolf cub had grown up and now wanted to bite back.
At this moment, the office was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The atmosphere was oppressive and suffocating in this deathly silence.
Preston's eyes were bloodshot. Leopold had noticed it from the moment he walked in. The evaporating market value had put enormous pressure on him. This would be hard on anyone.
Leopold certainly knew this too. He'd studied this field in college, so he understood even more clearly that given Celestial Waters Hotel's current situation, if they didn't respond soon, they'd face the risk of being delisted in a week.
Preston asked, "You have a solution, don't you?"
Leopold didn't answer directly. "About the stock price—are you still planning to make me take the blame?"
Preston said, "From beginning to end, I never intended to make you take the blame."
"So you're going to throw Indigo under the bus?"
"That's not something you need to worry about."
"I'm not worried about him." He was worried about himself. Over all these years, Leopold had seen Preston's dirty dealings and disgraceful behavior, and experienced Preston's cunning and ruthlessness firsthand. Everyone was just a chess piece in Preston's hand. How long you were used depended on how much value you still had to Preston. "The whole thing involves me. I want a clear answer. Is that so hard to say? Or is the truth too ugly to hear?"
The crow's feet at Preston's eyes deepened, and his gaze grew darker. "You don't even trust my word?"
Leopold said calmly, "Until it's written on paper, it's all just talk. That's what you taught me, and I've certainly experienced it firsthand. Not to mention the distant past—just look at what's happened to me these past few months."
"You handed the hotels I managed over to others to divvy up. You sent me abroad with a promotion that was actually a demotion. The project I'd just made progress on, you sent someone to take over."
"Then you called me back. The person you sent caused the stock price to crash, and your first thought wasn't that it had nothing to do with me. Instead, you wanted to use me to protect your guy. Dad, sometimes I wonder—am I actually your son?"
Preston's expression darkened further. His tightly pressed lips and the hostile aura emanating from him were all reminding Leopold that he'd angered Preston.
"You just need to tell me—do I still have to take the blame or not?"
Preston said in a heavy tone, "I'm not making you take the blame, but you were involved in the overseas project restructuring. You have an obligation to work with Mr. Talbot to solve the stock price problem. If you solve it well, your merits will offset your faults. I'll naturally speak up for you both at the board meeting."
"Mr. Talbot and I working together?" Leopold laughed mockingly. "You still dragged me into it. How is this any different from making me take the fall?"
"Of course, there's a difference. At the board meeting, I argued against everyone and didn't push all the responsibility onto you. Doesn't that show my position?"
Leopold's long, narrow eyes narrowed dangerously. "Dad, you're much better at shirking responsibility than I am. Looks like I still have a lot to learn from you. I'm only asking one thing: does the stock price crash have anything to do with me?"
Preston thought for a moment. "No."
Good!
The frustration stuck in Leopold's chest finally released about seventy or eighty percent. "Since it has nothing to do with me, whoever's responsible for the hotel's public opinion issue should be responsible. You asked me here to solve the stock price problem, which has nothing to do with what happened before. You need to formally announce this to everyone at the board meeting."
Preston said, "You worked under Mr. Talbot back then. He treated you well. Don't you have any loyalty?"
Leopold smiled. "I made my position clear the moment I sat down: this time, I'm choosing myself. Don't involve me in all that messy stuff, and don't drag me into it. Your guy screwed up—you apologize in front of everyone."
Preston's brow furrowed tightly.
"I can't guarantee the company's stock price will recover one hundred percent, but I can try. As for what needs to be done, you have to follow my arrangements completely."
Leopold continued, "Also, all the hotels I used to manage need to come back to me, every single one. Not one less. HR needs to issue a formal appointment letter and announce it through the OA system. It's not that I don't trust you—I'm guarding against certain people with ulterior motives. It's not like this hasn't happened to me before."
With interests at stake, Preston had no choice.