Sentenced to Marriage

Chapter 103

Revealing the truth There were only two pairs of eyes looking at Aren and me without an ounce of hostility: Chris, who sat on our left side as the second biggest shareholder, and Neil, who sat farther away from the main people, ready to offer his assistance if Aren needed it. The fact that I found suspicious was that only Chris seemed to be overjoyed by Aren’s return, while the rest exchanged nonchalant looks or filled the room with their impatient huffs. I seriously wondered what was wrong with those people.

As Chris noticed my confused grimace, he leaned into my ear to give me an explanation. “Most of the shareholders are the rich kids–the unnecessarily bright and easy to manipulate rich kids.”

I stifled a chuckle, suddenly detecting a lack of brain cells in at least five of those who sat by the table. I wanted to thank Chris for giving me more confidence, but he suddenly moved his chair a little further away from me. I couldn’t understand why until I shifted my gaze to my husband and saw him glaring at his friend. My lips instantly formed an evil grin, and I leaned over him.

“Are you jealous, dear husband?” I whispered to his ear, my lips delicately brushing his earlobe.

He took a deep breath as if he needed it to remain composed. “I should be the only man you see,” he murmured, a hint of annoyance in his tone. I smirked teasingly. “I see a lot of men in this room, but there is only one I want to see naked.” The corners of his lips dangerously curled up as he locked his intense gaze on me. “Be careful what you wish for.”

His words sent a wild wave of electricity down my spine. I bit my lip before realizing that I was getting turned on in the room filled with vicious people. Aren’s presence made my stupid hormones march in happy parades all over my blood vessels. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to resist a moan if he even accidentally touched my thigh. As dumb as it sounds, I was actually relieved when Mr. Cooper stood up and started to speak.

“Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders of the Lan Diamond Corporation, we, the board of executives, called for this meeting due to the long absence of Mr. Aren Lan, the Chief Executive Officer.” Mr. Cooper started his speech hesitantly, barely sparing Aren a glance, unlike Aren, who gave him all of his attention. “The replacement that Mr. Lan appointed seemed inefficient, and it resulted in a drop in sales of -”

“Did it really?” Aren interjected, messing up Mr. Cooper’s carefully prepared arguments.

“P-pardon?” He looked at Aren with a nervous smile.

Aren chuckled coldly. “You are the CFO, for God’s sake. You should know all the numbers by heart, so stick to the facts. Prove that Cora Lan made the sales decrease,” he dared as his lips curved in a wicked smirk.

Mr. Cooper restlessly corrected his glasses. “Well, Mrs. Lan’s decision concerning the “Sky Fight” game didn’t match the current trend and”

“Numbers, Mr. Cooper.” Aren’s even voice pierced the room like a blade.

“I-I… It’s not… I-I can’t…” he stuttered mindlessly.

Aren gave Neil a brief nod. Neil nodded back and remotely turned on a half-wall-size screen with a large- scale sales statement. Aren pointed at the screen, glancing at the CFO. “If you can’t tell us, maybe you can at least read it?” His mocking tone made Mr. Cooper clench his fist.

“It doesn’t show the trend that I was talking about…” he squeezed the words through his teeth.

Aren raised his eyebrows, a smirk flashing through his lips. “Are you saying that we should imagine the trend?” A wave of snorts spread through the auditorium. “I didn’t say that. According to my predictions, the game’s sales might drastically drop over the next three months, and that wouldn’t have happened if we waited with its launch until next year,” he claimed, his voice’s pitch driven by anger. Aren places his

hand on top of mine. “Mrs. Lan, mind explaining your decision?” he asked, his warm gaze at me giving me courage.

The corners of my lips curled up into a timid smile. He couldn’t have the full knowledge of why I had made the decision to push the launch of that game earlier than Aren had initially planned, and yet he trusted that it was the right move.

I stood up from my seat and looked around the table. All eyes were on me, curiously awaiting my explanation. I wasn’t afraid. I had all the confidence I needed because my husband believed in me. “I discussed that issue with the game developers, and we had reasons to believe that someone leaked the game’s basic strategy as well as graphic solutions. I ordered the Lan Diamond Corporation’s special team to find out whether our competition was planning to release something similar to the market, and we discovered that our assumptions were correct. The company called Blue Dreamland Corp. has just announced their new game, “Space Fighting,” and I can assure you that the name isn’t the only similarity to our product…”

I paused and observed the shareholders’ reactions. Some of them nodded in approval, while others gasped at the revelation that things like stealing technologies and ideas could actually happen. Only Mr. Hill, Cooper, and Dawson seemed to be displeased with my explanation. I took a deep breath and continued, “The Blue Dreamland had been planning to launch their game in less than two weeks, but as soon as we released our game, their plans suddenly changed. Their second announcement was about releasing “Space Fighting” at the beginning of August, and currently, there are no announcements concerning that game. It only proves that the decision of an earlier release helped save our project.” I smiled and sat down. Aren quickly grabbed my hand, a warm smile forming on his lips as he looked at me. “I couldn’t be more proud of my wife right now.” He kissed my hand before shifting his gaze to other shareholders. “That only proves that I made the right choice in appointing Cora Lan as the temporary CEO. She predicted the problem and made the tough decision. In a perfect world, perhaps launching the game half a year later with a better-designed marketing campaign would have brought an even higher

profit… But we do not live in a perfect world, and we could either release the product faster than our competition or kiss the whole project goodbye.”

Aren’s words caused another wave of muttering and approving nods. Even if they were reluctant to believe that I had made the right call, after Aren’s statement, they no longer had

any doubts. I smiled shyly, only glancing at my husband, but inside my mind, I was madly celebrating the fact of being appreciated.

Suddenly, my phone quietly buzzed in my pocket. I used the opportunity when all eyes were on Aren and checked the message I received. It was an email from Alan. He sent me a few photos with a short message, “We thought it might help.” Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

I only managed to see one from Alan. It was a picture of Mr. Hill, Cooper, and Dawson sitting in the restaurant with two other men in expensive suits. I had no idea who those men were, but it looked like the group in that photo was celebrating something. I was about to take a look at the rest of the pictures when I noticed Mr. Hill standing up and getting ready to speak.

He cleared his throat and glanced at Aren before turning to the rest of the shareholders. “I just wanted to say that we decided to call this meeting because we, as the executives with experience, thought that Mrs. Lan’s decisions were hasty and irrational, such as appointing this woman to lead a-”

“This woman?” Aren glowered at Mr. Hill. “This woman?” he repeated, sharpening the edge of his tone as if it were a deadly weapon before he got up from his seat. “You are trying to insult my wife again, and truthfully, I have had enough of your poor performance, Mr. Hill. You make me realize that I made a terrible judgment call…”

Mr. Hill’s eyes brightened with agitation. “Yes! That is exactly my poi—”

“I made a terrible judgment call in hiring you, Mr. Hill, Mr. Cooper, and Mr. Dawson.” The way Mr. Hill’s jaw dropped was priceless. I barely stifled a laugh as I saw it, but Chris was far less reserved than I was and boldly burst out laughing. Of course, we could all just count the seconds until the protest began…

“This is outrageous!” Mr. Dawson jumped up from his seat. “We’ve been bringing money to this company for years! If it weren’t for us—”

“You are replaceable. In fact, your replacements might start working for Lan Diamond Corporation by the end of the week,” Aren said coldly. The tension within the room rose sky-high. The commotion kept increasing by the second, easily covering all the shouts and cursing coming from the executives. I took that opportunity to use a few tricks and check the identity of the two unknown men from the pictures that Alan sent. What I found made my lips curve in a wide, devilish grin. I glanced at Aren; it seemed like he was more than eager to finish this meeting quickly, and now, I had something that might help with that…

“You want to fire us?!” Mr. Hill thundered across the room. “You need a reason to do that!”

Aren burst into vicious laughter before sending Mr. Hill a murderous look. “How about deliberate vilification that could easily decrease the company’s value? That’s enough to fire you and sue you for money even you cannot afford.”

“We were doing what was necessary to save the company’s money!” Mr. Dawson spat.

It was time to end this, and I decided to do it with style. I gestured at Neil to come over, sent the pictures I had from Alan, and asked Neil to put the first one on the widescreen.

“What’s this?” one of the shareholders asked, turning everyone else silent.

Aren raised his eyebrows at me, amusement painting his face. I winked at him and stood up,

ready to explain. “I bet that you can all recognize our executives in this picture. The two other men are directors working for the Blue Dreamland Corp., isn’t a convenient coincidence?” I chuckled.

Mr. Cooper cleared his throat. “It’s normal for businessmen from different companies to meet, and sometimes drink…”

I gestured at Neil to put another photo on the screen. It was a picture of a couple celebrating their anniversary, but the thing that was more important was happening in the background of that photo. As I asked Neil to put focus on the picture’s left upper corner, everyone gasped.

“I suggest we all take a closer look at the handshakes and the exchange of envelopes between our dear executives and those men from Blue Dreamland. We can also match this fact with the executives’ protests against the early launch of Lan Diamond Corporation’s game.” I grinned proudly and looked at my husband.

“This is bribery!” someone yelled. “Call the security and the police here, now!” another shareholder roared. The security was already inside, and those poor bastards had nowhere to run. The turmoil kept rising, with the shareholders ready to crucify the executives and the executives uselessly begging for their mercy or claiming innocents, but I no longer cared. My eyes were locked on Aren’s, just like his were on mine. At one moment, in the middle of this commotion, he stood up, pulled me into his embrace, and clashed our lips in a long, sensual kiss. For us, the meeting had officially ended. We won.