Chapter 797: Discussion Results Regarding Emily

Chapter 797: Discussion Results Regarding Emily

Raina had already mentally prepared herself for whatever criticism the elders might throw at her — and exactly how she'd respond to each scenario.

Would she play the good girl and admit fault? Or would she find a way to wriggle out of it entirely?

She entered the room with her best show of respect.

The discussion, it seemed, had already started without her.

The moment she stepped through the door, she caught Emily's name.

The room went quiet the instant they noticed her. Every head turned her way.

Gregory looked at her and spoke first. "I hear you were involved in what happened at the bar. Now that you've seen her in action — do you have any thoughts about Emily?"

Raina didn't answer right away.

She was calculating. What could she say that wouldn't make these people dismiss her — but might actually make them see her differently?

"She spent most of her childhood scrounging just to survive — it was rough, cutthroat. It makes sense she'd pick up a few tricks along the way. She happened to know exactly how to get under Simon's skin. But honestly, the bigger problem is Simon himself. He's got a personal history with her, and he underestimated her because of it. That's a rookie mistake."

This time, Raina didn't go out of her way to tear Emily apart. It came across as a reasonably fair take.

There was a personal agenda buried underneath, of course — but she'd buried it carefully, making sure none of it showed on the surface.

When she finished, she glanced toward Gregory, a quiet unease flickering behind her eyes.

Gregory was silent for a moment. Then, "That all? Anything you'd like to add?"

Was he not satisfied?

Raina's eyes shifted slightly as she turned the question over in her mind.

She thought for a beat, then added, "The fact that she learned those things and actually turned them into usable skills — that does say something about her. She's sharp. But the Johnson family never gave her the time of day, so after all those years under their roof, she's never had any real exposure to how business actually works. Street-smart only gets you so far."

Raina didn't want anyone in that room placing their bets on Emily — so at the end, she'd wrapped a subtle knock inside a compliment.

Gregory didn't weigh in this time. He turned to the other board members instead.

"What's your read on Emily? And on what she did to Simon?"

Everyone in that room wanted what was best for the company, so their takes were, on the surface at least, measured.

They didn't have a personal grudge against Emily the way some others did — which made them somewhat more objective than Raina.

The one real problem was that none of them actually knew Emily. Their picture of her was thin at best.

"Otto built that business from the ground up on his own. The man's no fool. If he handed things over to Emily, he saw something in her worth betting on. That alone tells me we shouldn't be too quick to write her off. At the very least, until we know more, it's smarter not to make an enemy of her."

Someone else jumped in almost immediately. "Otto also handed the reins to Calista once, and that was a disaster. She nearly gave the whole company away because she let herself get played by someone from the Stevens family."

"That's beside the point." Another voice cut in. "What I want to know is — why did she go that far with Simon? She had to know something like that would get around. Isn't she worried about what people in our circles are saying about her?"

"Maybe that's exactly what she wanted. Making sure everyone remembers what she's capable of. She probably wasn't the only one planning to test her or put her in her place — Simon was just the first."

A few in the room weren't impressed, of course.

"We don't even know if she's actually talented or just Otto's girlfriend. Men his age sometimes lose their judgment. It happens."

The man who said it spoke as if he'd never done anything of the sort — despite the fact that he was, by most accounts, the one in the room with the most to answer for on that front.

Gregory didn't summarize the room's opinions. Instead, he tossed out another question. "What about this new material she mentioned — real or a bluff? Patricia, you're welcome to weigh in too."

"Has to be a bluff. If she were actually that capable, why would she have put up with Simon's nonsense in the first place?"

"Exactly. If the material were real, we'd have heard something by now. The biggest players in the industry haven't gotten near a licensing deal. The idea that a woman who's been sidelined her whole life somehow has access to something like that — come on."

"You can't just dismiss it like that. If she made a claim this big without anything to back it up, it'll come back to haunt her. She'd be a laughingstock. Why would she hand people that kind of ammunition?"

The room stayed divided.

Finally, Raina spoke. "I think the whole material story is a smokescreen. If she actually had something, why would she be inviting people to come to her? A patent like that — why wouldn't you just lock it down and monopolize it? The way I see it, she's creating buzz to get out of a situation where a bunch of companies are probably about to pull their contracts."

Gregory spoke last.

"The reason we're all guessing is because we don't actually have enough on her. No one in this room has had any real contact with her. Her character, how she thinks, how she operates — it's all a blank slate."

Gregory paused there, his gaze landing on Raina for just a moment longer than the others.

"So the way I see it, the move right now is to send someone in. Make contact. If the material is real, it's an opportunity we can't afford to ignore. Whether she actually has something — that's what due diligence is for."

Raina's brows pulled together as Gregory's words settled over her.

She couldn't shake the feeling that this was exactly what Emily wanted.

She knew what those patents meant to companies like theirs — they'd been dangling out there like bait for years. Even Axel had been watching them closely.

And the patents didn't belong to Emily. Not originally.

She turned it over in her mind, then decided she had to say something. After all, she and the Mitchells were on the same side now, more or less.

"Dad, I really think we should be careful here. What if this is a setup? The environment she came from — it shaped her. She's always worked angles to get what she wants. That kind of thing doesn't just go away."

It was a gentle warning, but a warning nonetheless.

Someone pushed back almost immediately. "Fair point, but investing has always been a gamble. Risk comes with the territory. If you play it too safe, you never grow. If we want to be cautious, we send someone quietly to feel out the other players — see what they're thinking, maybe even get eyes on the material directly."

Raina found herself wondering, briefly, whether that person was on Emily's payroll. The defense was a little too enthusiastic.

"I'm just raising a concern," she said, keeping her tone measured. "But I do hope everyone thinks this through carefully. If the patent actually belongs to someone else, and we get taken in by a knockoff — the moment the real owner finds out we couldn't tell the difference, we won't be seeing a single licensing deal. Not one."

It was a pointed reminder — and she'd tied the family's reputation directly to the outcome.

The words landed with weight, enough to push the already-hesitant voices in the room over the edge.

In the end, most of them fell in line with Raina's position.

The study emptied out before long, leaving only Gregory.

His vote had never been the deciding factor anyway, so he'd spent the meeting listening and waiting to see where the room landed.

Raina walked away satisfied, her goal achieved. She headed off to get some rest.

Late that night, the house stirred with a new arrival — Gregory's son, Gavin.

Gregory still held the power, but Gavin ran the company as its president. He'd been out of the country on a business trip, dealing with an overseas project, and had only just made it home.

The moment he walked through the door, Gregory called him into the study.