“Uncle, hand over all your shares; Marley will leave you with 8% of the shares, and you don’t have to worry about company matters! I’m confident that, with his abilities, he can make the Hughes Group prosper to higher levels. You just retire and live out your life! But, if you won’t turn your shares over, then it’s no big deal. Worse comes to worse, we’ll just liquidate the assets and head out separate ways!”
“You said we each only keep 8% of the shares?” Teddie couldn’t help ask.
“Wrong, it’s only 3% for you!” Sylvie coldly snapped.
“3%? Why is it different for us?” “Why do you get preferential treatment?”
“Because you don’t know how to manage it. If you had all 8%, you’d only squander it all. So 5% will go to aunt for safekeeping! Then your whole family will be insured!”
Hearing Sylvie’s words, both Kasper and Teddie were quite surprised. Kasper asked, “Sylvie, so you mean to say that, your uncle also gets 8% of the shares, but it’s divided with your aunt? He gets 3%, and your aunt and cousins get 5%?”
“That’s right!” Sylvie knew that, over the past few years, Teddie blew all of his savings on excessive spending. Her aunt, however, was a frugal woman. Not only was she unhappily married to Teddie, she needed to raise two kids on her own. Sylvie really admired her aunt, so she had to look out for her best interests. “What I don’t know is whether Marley will accept our proposal, but I’ll do my best to persuade him. If you all surrendered your shares and control over Hughes Group, you can just live out the rest of your lives in comfort and collect dividends at the end of each year. It might even be more than what you get from 10%, 15%, even 25 of the shares you have on hand now…”
Kasper and Teddie exchanged glances; Sylvie could tell her persuasion was working.
However, Teddie was dissatisfied with his share of 3%. “But how come I only get 3%? That’s unfair!”
“I think it’s just!” An authoritative, low tone suddenly boomed out from outside as the conference room doors swung open.
Sylvie stared in awe as her family members stood outside the doors. Her mother smiled brilliantly at her. In a split second, Sylvie’s face turned red, and she said under her breath, “Mom, dad, why are you all doing here?”
“Brother?!” Even Teddie stood up in awe.
“Brother, your health…” Kasper said in a concerned tone.
Sylvie thought to herself; at least they still had a trace of some conscience left to worry about Aiden’s health.
Aiden’s wife helped him enter the conference room, and Sylvie quickly pulled a chair for her father-in-law to sit down.
Aiden took a quick glance at Sylvie with admiration, but he didn’t say anything. Miriam took her hand and said nothing as well. Sylvie pulled up another chair for her mother-in-law as well.
“Come, everyone, sit down. I want to make everything clear today.” Aiden said as he scanned across the room.
Kasper sat down first. Though he still felt pissed, Teddie eventually sat down.
Sylvie felt slightly uneasy. What she said earlier was her own thoughts, which she’d not yet discussed with Marley. She didn’t know what her father-in-law thought. But from her past observations, she thought that Aiden treated his brothers rather kindly, so she assumed that her proposal would be accepted, even though she wasn’t 100% certain.
After a moment of silence, Sylvie bit her lip, then said, “Dad-”
“Sylvie, I know what you’re thinking!” Aiden cut her short, then looked at her with kindness. Sylvie then remained silent and awaited.
Aiden looked back to his brothers, “What do you think about Sylvie’s idea?”
Surprised, Kasper looked at his brother, then pondered a bit, “I’ve got no objections. I agree!”
“And you?” Aiden asked Teddie again.
“I, I don’t agree!” Teddie stuttered as he said.
“Well, tell us your reason!” Aiden looked at his brother without any expression on his face.
“3% is not enough for me to spend at all!” Teddie managed to sputter out after a brief moment.
“You mean to say that, it’s not enough for you to gamble, right?!” Aiden replied.
Miriam tightly grasped his hand to remind him to watch his temper. Instead, he gently held and patted her hand. Miriam looked at him again to make sure he was not angry, then calmed down.
The couple’s tiny exchange of gestures was incredibly heartwarming. The understanding they shared was a testament of their years of longstanding relationship. There was no need for words; just a slight gesture between them was enough to communicate, and it made Sylvie really feel respect for them to the point that she became teary eyed.
Teddie was in a tough spot, “Brother, you’re sick, so I don’t want you to worry. But I have too much debts, I didn’t want things to turn out like this either!”
“Did he go gamble again?” Aiden looked to Kasper.
Kasper searched for the right words to say, but nothing came to mind.
“Brother!” Aiden lowered his tone, “Tell me, how much does he owe now?”
“Three hundred million!” Kasper finally spoke out, “He and Ernie owe three hundred million! It happened just yesterday!”
Aiden’s expression grew ill, “Ernie went as well?”
Kasper looked ashamed, “Brother, don’t worry about this; I will discipline my own son. As for the 8%, I accept the offer! So don’t you worry about these matters, you just focus on recovery.”
Sylvie was at a loss for words. Ernie was Marley’s cousin, and Kasper spoilt him too much, so he does nothing productive all day. But she had only heard of these from word of mouth; she had never met Ernie herself, so she didn’t know him personally. Hearing Kasper speak about Ernie like this made Sylvie realized that he was doing all this to make amends for his impious son. She suddenly began to felt a bit sympathetic for Kasper.
On the other hand, Teddie didn’t feel a hint of remorse at all; she felt sorry for him.
“Three hundred million; where do you think we’re going to come up with that kind of money?” Aiden began to raise his voice. “Teddie, you’re getting out of hand. And you even brought Ernie to go lose three hundred million?!”
“Aiden, don’t get angry!” Miriam began to get nervous as she felt Aiden’s temper rising.
Sylvie began to grow concerned as well, “Dad, are you alright?”
Aiden steadied himself and shook his head, “I’m fine, don’t worry!”
“Aiden, let’s head back!” Miriam was really worried sick about Aiden, who had just managed to recover his health a bit. If he got angry and worsened his condition, then it’d have all been for naught.
“Brother, I just wanted to get some leverage and try to make a quick buck. It was Marley who tried to force me out of the Hughes Group. I thought that, if I’d won the bet, I’d-”
“Shut up! You always tried to leave things to chance and take on risks instead of doing any hard work. You just never learn. Brother, if you still can’t learn to reflect on yourself, I don’t think you even deserve 3%!” Aiden fiercely remarked.
Teddie instantly exploded, “Aiden, don’t be so harsh! I did my share of the work back in the day as well.”
“Harsh?” Aiden retaliated, “Do you really think that I don’t know what you’ve been doing these past few years? Regarding what Sylvie has said you’ve done, did you really that both Marley and I don’t know? If you think we’re all fools, then I won’t dig further, I’ll just let the police look into it!”
Teddie was shocked; he never thought his brother would say these words.
“Brother, as people, we have to have a conscience when we act!”
Teddie’s face turned blue then pale white; he tried to say something, but instead knelt down, “Brother, I… I know I’ve done wrong. Please, help me, save me! I don’t have the money, and both Ernie and I are doomed! They’re going to feed us to the sharks in the ocean!”
His sudden gesture caught everyone off guard. Aiden’s temper also began to rise, “Look at yourself, do you call yourself a man? How could we have someone like you in the Hughes family…”
Aiden suddenly began to take deep breaths; his face also grew pale, and his lips turned purple. He pointed at Teddie but couldn’t say anything.
Miriam began to panic, and said in a low tone filled with horror, “Ah, Aiden, don’t scare me!”
Sylvie could tell something was wrong, so she asked, “Mom, where’s dad’s medicine?”
“Oh, medicine! That’s right!” Miriam snapped back to her senses and quickly pulled out a small bottle. She almost dropped it, but luckily, Sylvie was quick to save the medicine from dropping to the floor. “Dad, medicine!”
Before Aiden said anything, Sylvie shoved the medicine into his mouth.
Kasper also recovered, and quickly grabbed a bottle of water from the conference room. He unscrewed the lid and quickly handed it to Aiden, “Here, have some water!”
After taking his medicine, Aiden calmed down a bit.
With tears in her eyes, Miriam pleaded, “Aiden, let’s not worry about these matters first and quickly return to the hospital!”
“Uncle, get up, quickly!” Sylvie said after she had ensured that Aiden was better. “As for what happened today, we’ll need some time to think it over. Hurry and go home first!”
“I-” Teddie was about to say something, but Kasper used a glare to cut him short. He stood up, and looked at Aiden.
Aiden had managed to calm down, and blood again flushed through his face. In a heartbroken tone, he finally said, “To lose three hundred million in a day. Even if we had mountains of gold, there’s no way we can allow you to ruin the Hughes family like this. This time, no one can save you. Brother, I blame myself for being too lax on you these past few years!”
Teddie looked to the floor and said nothing.
“Aiden, Miriam, I’ll take him back first. Don’t you worry about with these matters. You’re still ill, so you shouldn’t be worrying about this!”
Aiden looked surprised, then shook his head, “Even if I wanted to get involved, with our current financial situation, a lot of funds are tied up in major projects in progress. Where can we get the money?”
“Well-” Kasper lowered his head, “Yes, I understand!”
“But the Mccarthy’s have money!” Teddie suddenly exclaimed.
“How dare you!” Aiden slammed the table, “Are you trying to use Mr. Mccarthy’s capital to pay off your debts?”
Aiden was suddenly too excited, which caused his face to get pale again and he found it difficult to breathe.