Free Web NovelChapter 344: Some News
Christian smiled even more deeply with a sinister look on his face. He picked up his cellphone and made a long-distance call to Timothy.
The moment the line got connected, Christian said coldly, "I agree to do as you suggested. However, you’ll have to find some way to keep Zen by Wendy’s side."
"Are you sure?" Timothy sounded nervous. "If she joins the board of directors and learns of your involvement, it’ll spell huge trouble."
"We have complete control of HG Enterprise through our shares. She will only get to know what we choose to feed her. Unless someone tips her off, there is no way she will learn the truth," said Christian confidently. "We have worked together for years, so I am sure you have no problems taking care of this. Moreover, if we don’t give her what she wants, she will feel upset. We stand to gain nothing if she is unable to focus on the Moonlight collection."
Christian had no clue that Michael had already connected the dots about Christian and HG Enterprise. Wendy also knew about this.
Christian had a selfish motive. If Wendy owned shares from HG Enterprise, it would bring them closer to each other. He and Wendy would end up defeating Michael hand in hand.
Just thinking about Michael’s downfall made Christian feel excited.
"Got it," replied Timothy softly.
...
Wendy worked hard every single day. At least on the surface, it certainly seemed that way.
Todd continued ferrying Wendy to and from work every day. Sometimes, he would even pick the children up from school if he managed to finish work early. He was already seen as Wendy’s boyfriend and he was a very good one too. However, it was starting to feel like a burden to Wendy.
Based on her last conversation with Todd, Wendy was unsure if Christian and Todd had anything to do with each other, but she was certain Todd knew something that she did not. Otherwise, he would not have overreacted, but there was nothing Wendy could do about it for now. Fortunately, Todd had never forced her to do anything against her will.
It has been a week since Wendy last brought up her request about the shares. Timothy said to give him a week. In the past, Wendy would have called Timothy directly to ask, but she did not dare to do it after hearing what Todd said. Fortunately, Timothy took the initiative to reach out to her.
Wendy was working with her head lowered when she heard someone knocking on the door. She said, "Please enter."
Wendy put down her pen when she saw Timothy come in. She pressed for the intercom and told her assistant, "Bring in two cups of coffee."
Wendy stood up and walked towards Timothy, gesturing for him to take a seat. Timothy sat on the couch by the side.
"Mr. Woods, what brings you here?" Wendy reckoned Timothy was here to talk about the shares. However, she was not about to broach the subject so as not to appear desperate about it.
"I’m here to talk about the shares," said Timothy as he smiled. "I have some news."
Wendy contemplated before she asked Timothy, "Really? How did it go?"
But she also immediately added, "It’s okay even if the outcome is not what I would have wanted. There is no sense in getting into a fight with the board of directors because of me."
"Initially, the board was adamant about not giving you any shares. After I fought for it, more than half of them agreed to it."
Timothy was exaggerating. He wanted Wendy to feel like she owed him. He actually did not have to call for a board meeting. All he had to do was call Christian.
"Oh, really?" Wendy looked surprised and happy. "Mr. Woods, I can’t believe what you did for me. Todd tried, but even he failed to get the shares. I didn’t expect you’d do that for me."
Her assistant brought in the coffee. Wendy handed a cup to Timothy as she smiled and said, "Mr. Woods, here you go."
"Are you not going to ask me how much shares you’re alloted?" Timothy smiled when he saw how happy Wendy was.
"It doesn’t matter. I’m sure you have done your best to fight for it." Wendy flattered Timothy intentionally. She was being ingratiating. As long as she could get hold of some company shares, she would be able to attend the board meeting. She did not really care about how much shares she had been given.
"Well..." said Timothy voluntarily. "Initially, I suggested giving you 5% worth of shares, but the board of directors felt it was too much. After further discussion, they decided to start with 3%. Once the second batch of the Moonlight collection hits the market, you can receive 1% more. If the second collection meets the target sales, you can get another 1%. That adds up to a total of 5%.
"However, there’s one condition. If you are unable to meet the sales target for the second collection, you won’t be able to get the remaining 2% worth of shares. I have absolute faith that you can make this happen."
Although 5% did not sound like much, HG Enterprise was one of the top international firms in the fashion industry, so it was worth hundreds of billions in assets.
That meant 5% was worth over tens of billions. Even 3% of HG shares was worth an astronomical sum.
Wendy was the main reason HG Enterprise could remain this profitable. it was only natural for the company to give her 5% worth of shares as a reward.
If the company wanted to grant her shares, it had to be taken from the other board members. No one appreciated getting their share of the pie taken from them.
"Mr. Woods..." Wendy lowered her head. When she looked up again, her eyes were teary.
She sniffled and pretended to be touched by Timothy’s effort as she said in disbelief, "Mr. Woods, I did not expect you to convince them to grant me this much shares. I had thought that even if the board members agreed to it, it would be only be 1 to 2%."
Timothy reached out and patted Wendy’s shoulder as he said, "You have earned it. You have made huge contributions to HG Enterprise, so we should have given you the shares ages ago. I was simply helping you fight for what you deserve."
"Mr. Woods ..." Wendy’s eyes became even more teary. Timothy could feel that Wendy was so moved that she was speechless. But Wendy was only putting up an act.
Timothy pulled out a few pieces of napkin and handed them to Wendy. He smiled as he said, "You’re a grown woman. How can you cry this easily? It seems as though I have just bullied you."
"Mr. Woods, you have just done me a huge favor. How could anyone say that you bullied me?" Wendy took the napkins from Timothy and wiped away her tears. She proceeded to smile and said, "When will the board meeting be held to sign the shares over to me?"
Wendy had always wanted to join the board of directors. She already knew Christian was the one helming HG Enterprise. She wanted to find out who the other shareholders were.
Wendy had never once seen the other shareholders of HG Enterprise. She had never attended any of the board meetings. Wendy could only deal with Christian after joining the board of directors as a shareholder.
"My secretary is drafting the agreement as we speak. It can get notarized in about three days," said Timothy. "We don’t need to hold a board meeting. I have full authority to approve this."
"No board meeting?" Wendy was stunned.
Giving an employee company shares was a huge affair. How could they not hold a board meeting? From the looks of it, Christian was not simply a shareholder of HG Enterprise. He must be holding majority of the shares.
Timothy saw Wendy contemplating with her head lowered, so he said, "The board members are busy people. I had to call for an emergency board meeting just to ask them about giving you shares. I was worried people might not be able to show up, so I’d already asked them to grant me the authority to finalize the shares transfer during the last board meeting. I now have total authority to do it. Don’t worry about the legitimacy of the agreement."
Timothy pointed at the document folder he had left on the table, saying, "Take a look at this."
Wendy picked it up and had a look. It was genuinely an agency agreement. Since Wendy wanted to find out who the board members were, she flipped right to the last page, which had all their signatures. She wanted to see if Christian’s signature was there, even though she was certain that she wouldn’t find it on the last page.
Wendy frowned slightly and felt even more puzzled. Was Christian not the man behind HG Enterprise? Was he not the biggest shareholder in the company?
For the transfer of shares to take place, more than half of the existing shareholders had to agree to it. This meant the signatories of this document owned over 50% of the company’s shares. Timothy’s signature was there though.
Wendy asked quizzically, "Mr. Woods, how much shares do you own in HG Enterprise?"
"I have a 40% stake in the company," Timothy said as he immediately figured out Wendy’s concern. "Don’t worry. This document is legitimate since all the signatories have over 50% shares in the company."
Wendy nodded as she smiled and said, "Then I’m sure this document is legally binding."
Wendy checked out the signatories once more and quietly made a mental note of the names. There were a total of seven signatories and Timothy held 40% of the company’s shares. That meant the six other shareholders combined possessed more than 10% stake in the company.
Wendy was not afraid that Timothy would lie about this.
After all, Timothy could have refused her altogether if he did not want to make her a shareholder.
To be precise, Christian could have said no if he did not want her to be a board member. If no board meeting was held, Wendy would not be able to find out more about the members of the board. It was impossible for Wendy to identify the signatories with just this document alone.
None of the shareholders had ever shown their faces publicly. It was public knowledge that Timothy was the CEO and chairman of HG Enterprise. No one knew anything else about the other board members.
The names on the document were useless since plenty of people had the same names. Wendy knew Christian did not want her to be in contact with the key members of HG Enterprise. free𝑤ebnovel.com
They might have given her the shares, but she was still unable to see the board members.
At least having the shares meant that she had the right to join future board meetings.
Wendy felt that they were bound to hold a board meeting one day.
"Corrine, keep up the good work." Timothy reached his hand out and patted Wendy on the shoulder and said, "You mean a lot to HG Enterprise. Now that you are going to become a member of the board, we are on the same side."
"Mr. Woods, trust me. I will do a good job," said Wendy. "I will ensure that HG Enterprise will only get better."
"I have faith in you." Timothy nodded as he smiled and said, "Oh yes, one more thing."
"What is it, Mr. Woods?"
"It is about time that you hire some new people for the design department," said Timothy. "HG Enterprise needs to keep up with the times, so we can’t keep using the old pool of designers. In the design industry, sometimes you need inspiration from the youngsters. Without new blood, the design department will probably end up going downhill."
Wendy nodded her head in agreement with Timothy, "I agree, but there is no hurry. After I am done working on part two of the Moonlight collection, I will hire new people. Otherwise, no one will have the time to train the new hires."
Timothy’s concern came unexpectedly.
Also, Wendy ought to get to decide on hiring new people and not Timothy.
She knew best when her design team needed new blood, so she felt that Timothy did not bring this up out of the blue.
There had to be a reason for him to say this.
Sure enough, Timothy continued, "I agree that it can be a little tough to train completely new hires. What about your friend, Zen? I recalled you talking about her, so I looked into her. She used to work as the design director at DR Group and made a lot of profit for them. I took a look at her designs and I thought they were pretty good. If you like, you can recruit her. Since you two are friends, it would make things easier for you at work."
Why was Timothy talking about Zen? freeweɓnøvel.com
From the looks of it, Christian was planning on placing Zen right under her nose.
Wendy was going to bring this up to Zen when the opportunity presented itself, but she did not expect them to beat her to it.
Timothy noticed that Wendy had gone quiet, so he immediately explained, "Don’t misunderstand, Corrine. Although she is good at her job, she can’t compare to you when it comes to design. I only suggested her since you two are university friends. Now that she is out of a job, I just thought that perhaps we could hire her. I have no other intentions and she won’t threaten your status in the company."
"To be honest, Mr. Woods, she asked me about a job recently," said Wendy as she smiled. "She said she was bored to her wit’s end staying at home and asked if she could be my assistant or even a design intern. I felt it was a bad idea for her to work since she is pregnant. Also, it would be a pure waste of talent for her to be an intern, so I did not agree right away. Since you have spoken on her behalf, I will talk to her and see if she is still interested in joining us."
"It’s completely up to you." Since Timothy had achieved what he wanted, he pretended as if it was purely Wendy’s decision. "You have complete control over the design department, so it’s completely up to you if you want to hire her. I just brought it up since she was a suitable candidate. If you think she suits the business, then you can hire her. Otherwise, just forget I mentioned it."
Wendy smiled as she nodded.
"In that case, I will leave you in peace to continue working." Timothy stood up and said, "Once the secretary is done drafting your shareholder agreement, I will bring it over so you can sign it."
