Chapter 165: Lost

Cynthia’s eyes turned red. She gritted her teeth. When exactly did David own a share in this company?! She asked herself.

She looked at the directors who were on her side, and they all brought their heads down in defeat. She had lost.

Cynthia shook her head, not wanting to believe it “You lose, stepmother. And as such, we will decide who becomes the new chairman until I’m ready to take over since I’m the majority shareholder,” Marcel declared.

Everyone kept quiet because he was right.

“We have a lot of capable CEOs in Malcolm Group and the different companies under it, both young and old. We will give you people one week to tell us why you should become the next chairman, and someone else will also become vice president. So prepare yourselves, and there will be a public vote. Not just amongst the board of directors and top shareholders, but also involving every single employee of this company. After one week, there will be an electronic vote, and the person with the highest vote will become chairman, while the second person with the highest vote will become vice president. Take note that your position won’t be permanent. You can be removed by the board if you do not do well as chairman and as vice president,” Marcel said to the CEOs present. There were exactly five CEOs.

“With that being said, this meeting has come to an end. Have a nice day, everyone.” Marcel bowed his head before walking out. Robin followed.

David smiled and also left the room.

The room was still silent even after Marcel left. A 19-year-old had just given them instructions like they were little kids. But then he was Henry Malcolm’s first son and now the majority shareholder. Although he couldn’t be chairman yet, he was now the owner according to the law.

The boardroom gradually cleared, and it was just Cynthia and Adrian left in the empty boardroom.

Cynthia walked around with shaking hands. She bit her fingernails until she could no longer bite them. Everything that happened now was still a shocker to her. How could she have allowed a 19-year-old to win against her?

Cynthia turned and looked at Adrian, who was looking at her calmly.

His mother has been silent since. He was waiting for her to speak first before he went ahead and said his mind. There was no CCTV in this boardroom, so they could speak without anyone listening.

“How could you do that to me, Adrian?! How?!” Cynthia screamed at him.

“Why did you take my shares deceptively, Mother?!” Adrian fired back.

“Adrian, I know you felt betrayed that I took your shares, but I had a good reason for doing that!”

“What good reason did you have for deceiving your own son?! Why did you not tell me you wanted to be chairwoman?!” Adrian said.

Cynthia was silent. She walked closer to him.

“Because I knew you would not agree. I did it because of you. If I become chairwoman, naturally you will take over after me, or didn’t you know that? Now we have just lost!”

“We would have still lost! Marcel all this time had the majority shares, but he kept quiet because he was waiting for this moment to rub it in your face, Mother!” Adrian fired. His chest was rising.

Cynthia clenched her fist. “Yes, but even at that, I would have still won with the vote! If you had raised your hand, Marcel wouldn’t have stood a chance!”

“Yes, you are right on that, but there is another reason why I didn’t raise my hand, Mother. A very good reason.”

“What reason did you have?!” Cynthia said in anger. She felt like hitting his face.

Adrian looked his mother in the eye. “Because you had killed the chairman.” He saw the shocked look on her face.

Cynthia slapped him. How did he know that? she thought to herself. But because she did not want to admit it, she slapped Adrian.

Adrian held his face in shock.

“Oh wow, Mother.”

“How dare you accuse me of killing someone?!”

“So you want to deny it?!”

“Yes, because it’s not true! How can you, my own son, accuse me of such?!”

“I heard you, Mother. I heard you having a conversation with someone named Pascal!”

Once again, he saw that same shocked look on her face. This time it stayed for a while.

“What… are you saying?” Cynthia pretended she did not understand what he was saying.

How come he heard her? She had asked the maid, and the maid said he was not downstairs yet. Meaning it was a lie. He had come to the office door and listened to her conversation with Pascal. She clenched her fist tightly.

“Just wow, Mother. Just look at you putting on your usual act. Pretending like you do not know what I’m talking about.” Adrian’s tears fell.

“How could you, Mother? How could you kill someone?! How?!” Adrian’s tears fell. He had been holding them back. How could the only parent he had left become a murderer?

Cynthia slapped him again “Shut up!!! I did no such thing, you hear me. Get it into your head, Adrian. You heard wrongly. It’s not true.”

Adrian raised his head and looked at her.

Cynthia cleaned her tears, picked up her bag, and walked out of there.

Adrian sat down and allowed the tears to roll down his eyes.

He could not bring himself to go to the police station and tell them that his mother was a murderer.

“Thank you, sir, for helping me today,” Marcel said to Aurora’s father. They were inside the vehicle.

David nodded.

“I had to, and also because Cynthia can’t be the chairwoman. Every day I get impressed by you, Marcel. Today you showed me that you could command a whole room filled with older people and give them instructions. Aurora said you are capable of running Malcolm Group, but I doubted her a bit. But I guess she was right. So whenever you are ready to officially take over as chairman, I’m here to support you,” David said.

Marcel nodded.

“Thank you, sir. I will really appreciate your assistance when that time comes. And I have decided to wait until I’m done with university before taking over.”

David smiled.

“That is a good decision. And your idea of putting an elected temporary chairman amongst the CEOs was a very smart idea.”

Marcel nodded.

Aurora and her mother has been waiting for her father and Marcel to return back from the company. They knew they would win against Cynthia, so they had prepared lunch. Aurora was in the kitchen and had mistakenly cut herself a little. She hoped that Marcel wouldn’t see it because he didn’t like it when she cut herself.

“Aurora, they are here,” Juliana said.

Aurora smiled and rushed outside.

She smiled when Marcel and her father walked to the front door.

“You guys are finally back.”

Juliana pecked her husband.

“Yes, we are,” David said.

“We made lunch,” Juliana said.

“We?” David said and smiled at Aurora.

Juliana nodded, “She assisted.”

“Wow, that’s good. I hope you didn’t hurt yourself, Aurora, because you are used to cutting yourself,” her father said.