Unwanted Marriage: Honey, No More Divorce!

Chapter 187: Couldn’t Settle Today’s Contract

The next day, the news of Christian’s arrest was all over the headlines.

He had gone to the hospital to harass a woman in the middle of the night. It was all over the newspapers. No one dared mention the identity of the woman though. The stock prices of Christian’s company plummeted because of it.

As Michael watched the news, his lips curved up in a smile.

While Wendy was hospitalized, Christian had been targeting Michael’s company, swiping his raw materials, and customers.

Unexpectedly, one night of drunken misjudgment negated all his efforts and put it all to waste. In a twist of fate, while Christian was in remand, it was Michael’s turn to take as much of Christian’s business as he could.

When Zen saw the headlines in the morning, she was flabbergasted. Christian had always been level-headed and in control. Why had he gotten himself drunk and ended up harassing a woman in the hospital in the middle of the night?

Although there was no mention of the woman’s identity in the newspapers, Zen knew it was Wendy. Did Christian get drunk because of Wendy?

Zen chewed on her lip unconsciously, drawing blood.

Just how much did Christian love Wendy? Did he love her so much that he would lose control of himself?

Zen felt Christian was laughingly pathetic. However, she herself was not much better. She quickly made herself presentable and left home for the remand center.

Christian was not surprised to see Zen, but Zen was taken aback by the extent of his injuries.

"Michael beat you up?" Zen felt a little sorry for Christian as she gazed upon his face.

It was badly bruised and swollen.

"Yes," he replied plainly.

"Christian, you’re unbelievable, you know?" Zen scoffed. "I just laughed at you for being a coward because you dared not visit Wendy in the hospital, and you went there straight after? Don’t you know that Michael has not left her side since she was hospitalized? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"Are you done?" Christian was already in a bad mood. He had asked Zen to meet him not because he wanted to listen to her nag at him.

He looked at Zen and said flatly, "My brother will definitely try to steal my business while I am not in the company. Go look for my mother, tell her to beg my father to hold the fort at my company. I don’t want to see them, my mother will cry again if she sees me like this."

"Your father?" Zen asked. "Can your father do it? He has never worked in your company before and does not know the ins and outs. Will he know what to do?"

"Are you stupid?" Christian lashed out at Zen. "What I want is not his abilities but his status as Michael’s father. As long as he is willing to help me hold the fort, Michael will have to go against his father if he wants to take my clients away. When that happens, he can either cut all ties with Anthony or give up trying to steal my customers."

"Will your father agree to help you?" Zen frowned. "Michael is also his son."

"That’s why I asked you to look for my mother and have her convince my father."

Christian was getting tired of explaining things to Zen and said, "Just pass my message to my mother. She will know what to do. You don’t have to do anything else."

Zen couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. Christian really was cold-hearted.

Wendy was the only person he ever had feelings for. It was because of those feelings that he wanted to kill her.

A shudder ran down Zen’s spine. If she had known Christian was such a person, she would never have chosen to work with him. However, it was too late for that now.

She could no longer help herself, she had to help Christian.

***

From then on, Michael became exceedingly busy. Now that Christian was in the remand center, it was the perfect time for him to act.

However, Wendy was still in the hospital and he wanted to take care of her by her side. As a result, she often heard him on the phone.

That day, she heard his phone ring again.

Michael glanced at Wendy and walked out of the room to take the call so that he would not disturb her.

Mr. York’s voice came from the handset, "Mr. Lucas, I couldn’t settle today’s contract."

"Didn’t I already complete the negotiations last night? Mr. Nathan promised to sign the contract today. I told him you would be there on my behalf, and he agreed."

In order to convince Mr. Nathan to work with him, Michael even gave him another percent of the profits. It might have been only one percent, but for a contract worth hundreds of millions, that one percent counted for millions of dollars.

However, Michael’s concern was not the profit. He had to take over as much of Christian’s share of the market as he could within this month.

There was no way Michael would be able to bankrupt Christian’s company outright, but while Christian was in the remand center, there would be no one managing his company. The news of his arrest was everywhere and all his business partners would have heard about it.

This was the perfect time for Michael to poach his business partners.

However, Christian had been in business for a few years, and he was bound to have some loyal business partners. Michael had finished negotiations with Mr. Nathan yesterday. Why had he suddenly changed his mind?

Michael’s original plan had been to win over at least one-third or if possible half of Christian’s suppliers and customers. As long as he succeeded, Christian would have to deal with the aftermath for at least a year after he got out from the remand center.

Mr. York remained silent.

"Tell me what the situation is now!"

Mr. York had been Michael’s assistant for many years and Michael knew him well. If he was being quiet and recitant, he must have encountered an exceptionally sticky situation.

"Mr. Lucas, it’s your father." Mr. York sighed. "He showed up at the meeting as the acting CEO of DR."

"What?" Michael could barely believe his ears.

Why was his father helping Christian now?

Michael fumed. After a while, he started laughing.

Anthony was his biological father but he had an affair when Michael was young and had continued to provide for his mistress and illegitimate son. And now, he had shown up to help Christian hold the fort.

"Mr. Lucas, will you make a trip here personally, or will you give up Mr. Nathan?" asked Mr. York tentatively. He knew that Michael must be fuming mad. "Actually, it doesn’t matter if we manage to sign the contract with Mr. Nathan or not. Your father might have appeared to stand in for Christian but he has been out of touch with the business world for years.

All the resources in the city are in Christian and your hands. Now that Christian is not here, your father will not be able to help much either. As long as we act faster than your father, we will still be able to win the other companies over to our side.

Mr. York knew that Michael’s family situation was rather complicated but Anthony was his father after all. It would not look good to outsiders if the two were to compete for business so openly.

Michael actually did not care about Mr. Nathan at all. Even if there were ten men like Mr. Nathan, he didn’t care. freewebnσvel.cѳm

Although Christian had poached quite a lot of his business while he was busy in the hospital, MC’s business had always been better than DR’s and it would take MIchael a mere two months to recoup his losses.

He was, however, extremely angry with Anthony Lucas. He was Anthony’s son too, and a legitimate one at that, but Anthony always took Christian’s side.

Michael closed his fingers one by one, clenching them into a tight fist and his chest ached dully.