Chapter 205 Equity Change
Just then, Henry's phone rang. Hearing the sound, Henry picked up his phone and walked out while taking the call.
By the time everyone came to their senses, he had already walked out the front door of The Lockwood Villa.
Seeing this, I quickly explained, "I'll go check on him. There might be something urgent at the company."
Without waiting for anyone to react, I rushed out. When I got outside, Henry was nowhere to be seen, only the driver was there.
As soon as the driver saw me, he said, "Ms. Lockwood, Mr. Lockwood said he had something to take care of and left first. He told me to wait for you and take you to the company."
"Okay." I agreed and got in the car heading to the company.
Before long, when I arrived at Henry's office, I saw people from the legal department were all there.
"Dad, what's going on?"
Seeing me appear, Henry waved me over. "I was just about to call you. Perfect timing."
When I walked to his desk, I was surprised to see a will on it. The moment I saw it, my mind went blank.
"Dad, what are you doing?"
Seeing my face turn pale, Henry quickly explained, "Helena, don't misunderstand. Nothing's wrong with me. I just had the legal team draft a will as a precaution, just in case something happens to me."
"There won't be any 'just in case'—there won't be any!"
I raised my hand and tore the will to shreds, exploding at Henry, "I won't let you curse yourself like this. You and Mom are going to be fine and will always be with me!"
Henry didn't expect such a strong reaction from me and quickly said, "Okay, okay, we won't talk about this anymore."
Henry shook his head helplessly, pressed my shoulders to make me sit down, then continued, "I'm planning to transfer all my shares, properties, and the company to your name. You won't object to this, will you?"
"What about you?"
His words shocked me quite a bit. I stared at him and asked, "Are you planning to dump the company on me and not care about it anymore?"
"How could that be?"
Afraid I would object, Henry quickly said, "How could I not care about the company? I'm transferring everything under my name to you to prevent certain people from getting other ideas. As for me, I'll be your hired employee from now on. You pay me a salary, I do the work—isn't that great?"
I frowned. "What's so great about it? If you do this, the company's old-timers will definitely jump out and object."
"I've thought about that too, but you're my daughter. Everything I have will go to you sooner or later anyway. Their objections don't matter!"
Henry continued with a frown, "But this is actually an opportunity."
I pressed on, "What opportunity?"
"An opportunity to clean house, of course."
With Henry's explanation, I finally understood.
Giving me everything in the company was half real, half a test. If anyone objected at this time, they would naturally become targets to be suppressed.
I had to admit, in just over an hour from leaving The Lockwood Villa to returning to the company, Henry had thought of all this and acted quickly. He was truly decisive.
"So Dad has made up his mind?"
Seeing my question, Henry patted my head. "Yes, Helena. You saw what happened today. With Ivan back in the country, your grandmother will definitely pressure us every time we meet. I can't dodge it like I did today every time, so I need to act in advance and transfer all my assets to your name. Only then will they give up."
Henry thought this would make them back off, but I knew in my heart they wouldn't give up. They would never let it go until they completely seized our family's wealth. But in this life, I would never let them succeed.
Seeing me still hesitating, Henry smiled and patted my shoulder. "What's wrong? Getting cold feet?"
"No way. I'm your daughter—I'll never get cold feet!"
Seeing my voice loud and clear, Henry laughed. "Good, that's my daughter, full of spirit. In that case, it's settled."
After saying this, before I could object, Henry directly instructed the legal team to start processing the property transfer and equity change procedures.
After everything was arranged, Henry looked at me and said, "I'll call a shareholders' meeting as soon as possible to explain this to all the shareholders."
"I'll also have the legal team issue a statement on behalf of the company. I'll let everyone know that from now on, the Lockwood Group is yours."
Looking at Henry's proud expression, infinite ambition surged in my heart. I looked up with a serious expression. "Don't worry, Dad. I'll make you proud."
Henry smiled and patted my head. "Good, I believe in you!"
Sure enough, the company's moves couldn't be hidden from everyone. As soon as we took action, people with ulterior motives who caught wind of it came over.
"What are you two up to, keeping me in the dark?"
Back at home, Maria came up with a smile. I asked in surprise, "Mom, you heard about it too?"
"With something this big, even if I didn't ask you two, people would call to tell me about it."
Maria shook her head and held up her phone. "Look, I've already taken seven or eight calls. All kinds of things—some saying you're too young to handle the company, asking me to persuade your dad to work a few more years. Others calling right away to ask if you're engaged. You're quite the hot commodity now—everyone wants to connect with you."
Maria continued teasing, "Let's see how Atlas guards you. If he's not careful, you might get snatched away by someone else."
Seeing Maria even joking about Atlas, she was clearly in a good mood and not affected by outside influences at all.
"Mom, you're not upset that Dad and I didn't discuss this with you first?"
As soon as I finished speaking, Maria smiled and pulled me to sit down. "What silly talk is that? Your father worked so hard to build this empire—wasn't it all for you?"
"Besides, whether he gives it to you a day earlier or a day later, it's all the same. Although I don't know what happened to make your father do this so urgently, as long as it's for your good, I support it!"
"Thank you, Mom. You're the best."
I buried myself in Maria's arms, hugging her waist and acting cute.
"You're all grown up and still acting cute. Come on, get up."
Maria had just pushed me away with a smile when Henry walked in from outside. His expression didn't look good. Before I could ask, my phone rang. I saw it was a call from Rosalind.
I instantly understood that Rosalind must have found out and went to question Henry. With this thought, I silently hung up the phone, stood up, and said to Henry and Maria, "To show my thanks and celebrate, how about I treat you both to dinner?"