Chapter 77 Blatant Favouritism
Chapter Seventy - Eight
Nathan looked like he would explode.
His face was red and his eyes were bulging out of his head, and his jaw tightened.
For a long while, he glared at Lucian while the latter looked at him coldly, sneering at his clenched fists.
“I said, do you have a problem with that, brother?” He uttered, arching an eyebrow coldly at Nathan’s silence.
Nathan was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly, to their astonishment, he laughed lightly.
“Of course not, Lucian.” He uttered in a good natured tone, “Why would I have a problem with that?”
He patted Lucian’s shoulder with his charming smile on his face. Lucian looked at his shoulder where he’d been patted, then back to Nathan, his eyes filled with unbridled disgust.
Nathan saw the look, and quickly snatched his hand back, keeping his own rage carefully concealed.
However, the Chairman and Madam Graves were happy that the two men had finally come to a conclusion on the matter.
“That’s right. We are all family,” Madam Graves cooed happily, “And I’m sure Aria would do well. Let’s just give her a chance.”
“Well, you never know.” The Chairman put in, “She might surprise us, the way she did with her medical skills.”
Aria laughed nervously.
What the hell? What medical skills?
The Chairman winked at her, “Just don’t surprise us too much, okay Aria?”
Aria gave a slight graceful bow.
“It’s nice…” Lucian said with a tight smile, his gaze hard on Nathan and Monica, “…to see that we are all on the same page on this matter.”
“Of course.” Nathan replied, a big toothy grin on his face.
Monica was displeased, and extremely surprised at her husband’s behavior, “Nathan,” she hissed at him, hitting his arm, “what are you doing?”
Lucian’s cold gaze cut to her, “It seemed my sister in law does not agree with the family’s decision.”
A shiver ran down Monica’s spine but she quickly regained her courage. She glared at Lucian, and boldly raised her chin to stare at him haughtily, “Hmph, I cannot and will not be a part of this charade.” She uttered, “Bringing a country bumpkin like this into the company, the headquarters at that?! Hah! Ridiculous!”
Nathan was alarmed and he grabbed Monica’s hand tightly, saying to her through gritted teeth, “Stop. Now.”
“Ow! Let go of me, Nathan! You’re hurting me!” Monica uttered stubbornly as she yanked her hand away from Nathan’s hold.
“You!…” Nathan was frustrated beyond measures at his wife’s stupidity.
Can’t she see what he was trying to do here?
If they openly went against Lucian and his decisions, it would definitely backfire on them.
Lucian was the heir apparent, for God’s sake!
If they wanted that position, they had to thread carefully around him and act as though they were harmless.
This way, Lucian would easily let down his guard before them.
But there was Monica acting all silly and ruining his plans.
Monica had no idea of the thoughts going through Nathan’s head. She stood arms akimbo and faced the entire family.
“I’ve been the Graves family daughter in law for almost five years now,” she started saying, “And I’ve only been working in that measly sales department. Why can’t I head something as important as the marketing team?!”
“You head the sales team, don’t you?” Aria put forward, giving Monica a bright smile, “What’s the problem then?”
Monica gritted her teeth at her, “It’s not the same thing!” She snapped, “I’m more than qualified to head a team but you’re not! That’s the problem here.”
And it was a department as important as the marketing department.
Monica aspired to be in that position.
Although her team was doing quite well, and her department was a good one, she refused to be in the same level as Aria.
She had earned her shine through hard work and Aria had dared to sneak her way in, all because she married the eldest son of the Graves family.
Never.
She folded her arms and stomped her foot on the ground, “I can’t stand Aria working in the same headquarters with me,” she uttered in an annoying manner, “Send her to another place, maybe a branch in the country. Or I will not come into work in the office.”
Lucian shrugged, “Fine. Don’t come into work then.”
“What?!” Monica screeched, her eyes going wide in shock.
Aria laughed silently, thoroughly enjoying the show. Her reaction only earned her a glare from Monica but she did not care.
Lucian went on, “You said you can’t stand being in the company with Aria and that you would leave if she was there,” he gave her a cold look, “Well, she is going to be there next week, so you might as well leave. You’re fired.”
“You can’t do that!” Monica wailed, stomping her foot once more.
“Lucian, it’s not that serious, hehehe,” Nathan tries to put in, laughing nervously as he reached for his wife’s hand once more.
But Monica swung away from his reach, breathing hard at what she thought was the unfairness of everything.
“You cannot just fire me!” She retorted, “Do you know who I am!”
“A very incompetent sales manager.” Lucian uttered coldly, rendering Monica momentarily speechless.
Lucian smirked devilishly, “You mishandled your team, gave back poor reports, stole your colleagues projects multiple times and you’ve used your position as the Graves family daughter in law to make the employee lives hell,” Lucian paused, “Do you have any idea how many times we’ve had to compensate people and clean up your mess due to your incompetence? And you dare try to raise a bargain?”
Monica swallowed hard.
She clenched her fists to keep from trembling, “B…but…I…”
“That’s enough!” The Chairman thundered, and everyone fell silent. He turned to Monica, “You’re extremely incompetent but we only kept you at the company because of family ties. Why should we not give the same favour to Aria? How greedy can you be?!”
“If you don’t want to work, don’t work!” Madam Graves put in, “But depriving Aria the chance to showcase her skills is not very becoming of you, dear.”
“Thank you Mother,” Aria cooed coquettishly at the praise. She hooked her arm with Lucian’s, while all the time holding Monica’s jealous gaze.
It was nice to be in this position.
Her husband doted on her and her parents in law adored her.
Monica can go to blazes for all she cared.
And Monica did look like she would explode at that moment.