Chapter 117 Your Personal Assets!
Chapter One Hundred And Fifteen
The room fell silent at the weight of those words fell on them. Some of the directors looked crestfallen as they took off their glasses and rubbed their eyes tiredly.
Reality was looking at them hard in the face, and it was not very nice.
It was torture.
The Chairman leaned forward, his elbows on the table, as he turned to face Aria, “You warned us.” He muttered in a regret laced tone, “You warned us, Aria.”
“No,” Aria replied, her eyes flashing with indignation, as she pointed to Nathan, “I warned him!”
Nathan’s gaze was on his feet.
His fingers were clenched in anger but he dared not show it. Instead, he kept his head bowed in shame.
“It was just…bad luck,” he muttered in a tight voice, clearing his throat.
Aria shook her head with a calm scoff, “You just keep telling yourself that to make you feel alright,” she uttered in disdain, “It was a bad contract and you know it!”
“Why you!…” Nathan’s head whipped up as he glared at Aria in fury, but then his gaze met with that of the Chairman’s terrifying one.
Immediately, he lowered his gaze, looking like a scaredy cat.
When he’d looked up earlier, he’d caught sight of the looks on the other directors faces, even his allies and they were mostly disappointed, some even downright disgusted.
He clenched his teeth tightly and the muscles in his jaw were all bunched up.
Lucian turned back to the finance director, “How much are we losing?”
The finance director cleared his throat once more and adjusted his glasses nervously, “Hundreds of millions.”
There were audible gasps from the directors all seated around. This soon turned into loud murmuring as people became agitated, casting dissatisfied looks at Nathan.
Nathan looked deathly pale and he actually stumbled a little backwards.
Hundreds of millions?
Only recently, he’d made the company lose about nine billion and now they’d be losing this much amount in five years.
All because of him?
The edges of the room seemed to blur and he managed to catch the edge of the desk before him before he would collapse.
“Hundreds of millions,” Lucian repeated, his jaw tight, “Director Nathan, surely you have a way of replacing the money, don’t you?”
Nathan looked up in alarm, shaking his head rapidly, “Wh…what are you talking about?” He stammered.
“You already made the company lose about nine billion in assets,” Aria went on, giving Nathan a direct look, “We can’t keep losing money all because of your incompetence. Or the company would be run down by you. What about our shareholders then?”
The directors all around nodded their head and looked at Nathan with hostility.
“Does he think because he’s the Chairman’s son he can just do anything and go Scot free?” One of them muttered.
“The chairman must be so embarrassed. This is why one must keep their house well organized, so your children don’t disgrace you.” Another whispered behind their palm.
“At least, the Chairman has still got Lucian. What a shame he was in a coma all these years. That’s why the company is like this under Nathan.”
Nathan looked around at them all in alarm as he could actually hear snippets of what the men were saying.
No, this could not be happening.
He adjusted his glasses once more, pushing the rims higher on his nose, “I know the company is going to lose money through this project,” he started, looking at the Chairman directly even though he was talking to all, “But I assure you, we will be getting and working on more projects that I’ll eventually give us back the money tenfold!”
“And what exactly are those projects?”
Aria uttered, with her eyes squinting slightly in mockery.
Lucian scoffed, a very sinister sound, “You actually think we’d let you head any more projects in the company?” He uttered in a hard voice, “Nathan Graves, you’re really delusional, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know what it is you’re talking about!” Nathan yelled, then inhaled deeply in an effort to keep his emotions under control.
He did not know why he was so agitated, but he knew that something really awful was coming and he did not want to experience it.
The board of directors waited for him to be calm, each with their noses and lips slightly downturned in distaste.
Nathan looked really pathetic at the moment.
“You have to believe me!” He finally said, his voice normal but with a bit of tremor, “I can get all that money back! And make it look like it never left in the first place!”
“Of course you will!” The Chairman thundered back at him, “Did you think we’d be letting you off in the first place? What else would we use to fund more projects?!”
Nathan had actually thought he’d be let go so easily because he was the Chairman’s son. In reality, while the Crown Avenue project’s flop would be a huge loss to the company, it would still not make a dent in the company’s assets or revenue from other projects.
But still, it was still a lot of amount to be lost over that period of time. No matter how wealthy the Graves empire was, they could not continue to bleed themselves dry into projects that bring nothing in return.
Nathan had expected to be let go, but then Lucian had brought up the issue of him paying back.
How was he supposed to pay back that if not through making some breakthroughs with other groundbreaking projects?
So when the Chairman finally spoke up, he was immediately relieved thinking the Chairman was on his side.
It was the old cycle.
He would make the company lose money, and then he’d try to make it up in one way or the other by scoring good projects.
He had done this before so it should not be that hard. Infact, he had to get those new projects to work.
Or he was doomed.
So, he let out a nervous laugh, smiling at the Chairman, “Father, I knew you would trust me.” He said happily, “I promise to make the other projects succeed.”
“Which other projects?!” The Chairman yelled at him in indignation, “You fool, you will be paying with your personal assets!”