“I don’t have any appetite. You guys enjoy.”
After saying that, Stanford Fraser marched off with a grave expression on his face.
His humongous back seemed to contain a suffocating, dangerous aura, and even the air itself had seemed to cool down because of his presence.
Even Florence Fraser was shaking with fear.
In the past two days, Stanford’s temper was too unpredictable. What was going on with him?
Ernest Hawkins studied Stanford’s back with a meaningful expression and his lips curled up slightly, but immediately after that he picked up some food with a calm demeanour and placed it on Florence’s plate.
Roan Jenkins looked at Florence with a worried look and asked, “Flory, is it fine that your brother doesn’t want to eat dinner?”
He just walked off without a word in another person’s home. Florence felt a little embarrassed for him too.
She nodded hastily and replied, “Don’t worry, maybe my brother has something he needs to attend to. Don’t mind me, let’s continue our meal.”
Roan stole glances at Stanford’s disappearing figure and could only shake his head.
That man was extraordinary and excellent in every way. Roan would even cower sometimes in his presence. However, the higher someone was in life, the more difficult that person would tend to me. That person would not be easy to talk to.
Luckily, the one Phoebe Jenkins had her eyes on was Collin Campbell, not the untouchable Stanford.
Anyway, not many people would reach his level.
“Wait, what did you want to say to me? Why did you suddenly praise Collin?”
Florence looked at Ernest with doubt and asked in a low voice.
Ernest was not someone who would just shoot the breeze to kill time, and he was certainly not someone who would shower praises onto just anyone.
There must be a reason behind his words.
It must be a reason Florence couldn’t fathom at the moment. She had a feeling that it had a lot to do with how Stanford had stormed off angrily.
Ernest stroked Florence’s hair and said with a smile, “You’ll know sooner or later. Just eat first, the food is getting cold.”
As he said that, he shoved a few spoonful of food into her plate.
Without her realizing, her plate was already a mountain of food. It was full of food that she loved.
Florence glanced at her plate and then went on to lower her head to start eating.
There was no point in her pursuing the matter once Ernest wasn’t ready to share. Since he told her that she would know anyway, all she had to do was wait.
After all, Ernest always had a reason whenever he did something.
She trusted him.
They finally began to dig into their plates and besides Ernest, everyone else seemed to have lost some of their appetite.
Different thoughts were playing in their minds.
Phoebe would steal glances in the direction where Stanford had left, and her heart was in a turmoil now as if a million strings were broken and tangled with each other.
Earlier on, her father had stated his intention of giving his blessing to her and Collin, but why did Stanford storm off with such a cold expression at the exact moment?
Was it because he didn’t want to listen to that kind of nonsense, or was it because…
There were a few thoughts in her mind, but she didn’t dare to settle on any assumption.
Collin was especially devoid of any appetite as he barely put anything into his mouth.
He had a feeling that his life was on the line here.
He had completely offended Stanford, and all of a sudden he was standing opposite to Stanford as his love rival.
At the same time, that young master seemed to unable to comprehend his own anger. Anyhow, he was completely upset. In this situation, Collin couldn’t even try to argue and explain. He was a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
He was too miserable.
Should he run away as fast as he could now?
While they were in the middle of the meal, Timothy suddenly barged in from outside.
He stood politely by Ernest and reported, “Sir, Kieran has started his move. Something has gone wrong in the company.”
Florence slammed down her chopsticks and jerked up her head at Timothy. She asked warily, “What kind of trouble? Is it serious?”
As long as it had to do with Ernest, she would worry more than anyone.
Ernest’s mellow gaze swept past Florence and an infatuating sense of love flashed by in his eyes.
Then, he instructed Timothy, “Tell me everything.”
He was telling Timothy to disclose every little detail here.
The information Timothy was going to disclose could be considered trade secret, and not everyone was privileged to obtain such information. As for outsiders, there were three here.
Roan was even a businessman in the same city as them, and they had every reason to prevent him from overhearing.
However, since this was Ernest’s call, Timothy could only go ahead and report his findings.
Just this afternoon, there was a black market manipulator who suddenly appeared in the financial industry, and by using a method akin to suicide bombing, this manipulator had launched a fury of attacks on the Hawkins Group.
Since this was a trade war, and coupled with the fact that no one was anticipating such an attack, the company had suffered massive losses in just an instant. However, that was just the beginning.
Timothy had been ready all along. When the manipulator made his move, Timothy immediately reversed engineered the operation and found that it was done by a company headed by Kieran.
After some meticulous investigation, he found that the said company had appeared out of nowhere a few years ago in City N. Their development had been transparent, and the whole operation seemed legitimate as they didn’t make massive profit nor did they suffer great losses. This small company was just like any other in the market.
However, from the looks of things now, this company was Kieran’s informant in City N.
“Although I have found out about the company, its background was sparkling clean. Furthermore, most of the funds are from Kieran’s personal account, so I can’t figure out what kind of power is backing him.”
“Hmm, so he’s playing this game using his own funds?”
Ernest snickered coldly, “Then we shall allow him to continue his masquerade. Let’s see how much he can expend, and let’s see how the Hawkins Group would suffer more.”
Timothy’s facial muscles seemed to spasm for a little and although there were some doubts on his face, he simply nodded.
On the other hand, Florence interjected with a worried tone, “If this game continues like this, the Hawkins Group would continue to suffer losses. Both parties are going to deteriorate. Is this a price too big to pay?”
What’s more, with how Kieran was operating this with his own funds, it was proof enough that he was not hurting with money.
Since he was confident enough to lash out, then the one ultimately doomed could be the Hawkins Group.
Although Ernest was the president of the group, he still had to oversee so many stockholders. His brothers were eyeing for a chance too, hungry for an opening to interfere.
Once he made a mistake, someone would aggravate the whole situation and made life difficult for Ernest.
Florence didn’t want Ernest to sacrifice too much just to deal with such trivial things.
“This is the most efficient way.”
Ernest reached out and wrapped his arms around Florence’s shoulders. He said jokingly, “Are you worrying about my money now?”
His underlying meaning was ambiguous and blush-inducing.
Florence pushed him away with annoyance, “I’m being serious here.”
Roan was listening to their exchange the whole time, and then he frowned, “Mr. Hawkins, since you are going to let Kieran attack you however he wants, are you trying to make him sink further and further into his own trap and exhaust his savings? This is precisely the gambler’s mentality, as the attacker will not give up as long as there are still benefits. By the time all of his funds are used in his operation, and if the Hawkins Group happens to be still clinging on to dear life, the attacker himself must want to finish this off in one fell swoop. He can only do that with the help of his backer, who will finally show themselves and make the finishing move.”
Once Kieran’s backer showed himself and made waves throughout the business sphere, their base of operation and city and the family involved could be found out.
If the target was clear, then Ernest and co. could finally fight back.
Ernest nodded solemnly.
However, Roan’s brows were still furrowed, and after some hesitation, he said worriedly…