“Rachael, you’ve been disappearing often”Damien stared piercingly at Rachael who had an innocent look on her face.
Despite her ability to mask her emotions, she couldn’t stop the ramming of her heart against her chest. “I don’t understand, Mr. Russo. What are you implying?”
A displeased frown settled between Damien’s eyebrows, frustrated by her ignorant expression. “What I mean is you leave work at early hours without even saying goodbye. You’re always in the office on Saturdays but lately, you stopped coming… What happened?”
“Oh! That… Well, I had something to fill in for my weekends” Rachael lied with a straight face, though she felt she was telling the truth without the details. “I couldn’t come because I was busy”
“Busy with what?” Damien probed further which made Rachael shudder in fear. She searched her brain for any excuses that could bail her out.
Suddenly, a knock one the door broke her train of thought. She quickly asked the person to come in without Damien’s permission.
“Sir, the investors and company owners you sent an invitation to are already waiting for you in the meeting room” the resonant voice revealed politely.
Damien’s eyes lit up as soon as the news registered in his mind. He abruptly stood up from his seat, forgetting about the question he asked Rachael.
“Tell them I’m on my way” he declared as he disorganized his table, looking for any important thing to carry with him. He later gave up and turned to Rachael. “You’re coming with me” he ordered.
They both walked promptly to the meeting room and opened the door to meet a bunch of people waiting for them. Somehow, the atmosphere felt strange and tense, the people all had a displeased expression on their faces which almost made Damien rethink the meeting.
“Welcome, everyone” Damien uttered, attempting to attend calm. “I believe we all came with the same goal in mind and that is to ally to bring down the company whose assets would be beneficial to us”
He paused a bit, still trying to ignore the ominous signs he was sensing. The visitors still refused to say anything to him. He thought he saw a scornful look on their faces but shooked it away as his imagination.
A disapproving voice broke his train of thought.
“Mr. Damien, you’re wasting our time” the voice stated with impatience. “What do you want us to do and how?”
Damien was a bit stunned by the manner of speech used to approach him. At that moment, he knew something was wrong but decided to see the meeting to the end.
After a few minutes, he proceeded. “I need you to inject more funds into the Callahan enterprise.. that way, with all our shares combined, Liam’s shares will not be able to stand against us. We can then take over the company and distribute the benefits equally”
A silent scoff echoed in the room which made Damien search for the imposter. His rage was fueling up. He couldn’t seem to understand where the disrespect was coming from.
“Mr. Russo, everyone here knows how sly and cunning you are. How do you expect us to believe that you’ll share the spoils impartially?” An old man stood up on his feet and asked with a penetrating stare directed at Damien.
Damien was flabbergasted by the man’s audacity and couldn’t respond for a while.
“I have no intentions of taking advantage of anybody.” Damien finally found his voice and retorted. “Besides, I already drafted a contract that would serve as evidence of our agreement”
“Why can’t you let us draft our contract ourselves?” Another man butted in. “That way, it becomes fair and believing”
“Yes, he’s right. Let’s do it that way” another voice added in agreement which caused a commotion in the meeting room as they all began to murmur about it.
“Hold on a bit. That wouldn’t make it fair.” Damien silenced them with a thunderous roar. ” I draft the contract and you read it and make known your dissatisfaction for adjustment”
“How do you expect us to believe that you won’t do to us the same thing you did to the Callahan former investors?” Another man berated with a questioning gaze. “We don’t need sweet words from you”
“Yes, I also heard about how he subjected them to five years of service with interest.” another man added. “He also seized their shares”
“Mr. Russo, we won’t let you do the same to us. If you can’t let us draft the agreement ourselves, we won’t collaborate with you” a man declared as the others nodded in agreement.
Damien’s gaze darkened as he marveled at the boldness of the people who were way below him. What was giving them the courage to go against him?
He asked, “Who’s making you act like this?”
His question silenced everybody in the room so that even a dropped pin could be heard. They all didn’t know how to respond to his words because they had indeed been told to go against him.
Damien’s fear was confirmed when he didn’t get an answer. These people had done something behind his back. Not like he was any different from them, but it was very rare to see those who can’t measure up to your health, turn against you.
He inhaled sharply and said “Are you planning on saving a company that has no room for redemption?.. if that’s your plan, then you’ll end up losing a tremendous amount of what you’ve worked hard for”
“Hmph… You’re the one who’s going to lose. If we small-scale companies join hands together, you won’t be able to stand it” an old man fired back with confidence.
Damien was shaken by the man’s voice. Indeed, he couldn’t survive if they all came at him together. He had given them mouthwatering and convincing rewards and benefits and they had agreed. But now, they were all turning against him. Why?
Meanwhile, Rachael had remained silent the whole time. Her heart danced for joy as she could see the handiwork of Liam and William. They had worked wonders against Damien Russo. She just couldn’t wait for him to finally crumble on his knees and pay for all the crimes he had committed.