Chapter 30 Exposed
As she wrapped up her speech, the whole room went dead quiet.
Wyatt dropped his gaze and chuckled. "Ms. Woods has a solid point."
"What do you mean? No room for negotiation?" The head villager shot up and banged the table.
Rufus jumped in, trying to cool things down. "Hey, chill out!"
He turned to Fiona. "Ms. Woods, we gotta talk this through properly. Acting on impulse won't help; dragging this out will just cost the company more!"
Fiona looked at Rufus, confused. "Acting on impulse? Mr. Chapman, I'm just laying out the facts. Did I say something wrong?"
Rufus went quiet, his smile almost fading.
Feeling overshadowed by Fiona, he was pretty ticked off.
Rufus glanced at Wyatt.
Logically, Wyatt should be the top dog here.
How did it end up with Fiona doing the talking?
Rufus added, "Mr. Durham, you both came all this way to fix the problem. You can't let Ms. Woods mess around like this, right?"
Wyatt gave him a helpless shrug. "Ms. Woods speaks for Mr. Solomon. Her words are his words."
Rufus went silent again.
Fiona stayed cool and collected, like she was saying, "Let's see how you're gonna keep this act up."
Rufus gritted his teeth.
He turned to the villagers. "Folks, Ms. Woods is different from me; she speaks for Mr. Solomon and can make the calls here. Whatever you need, just say it!"
Everyone exchanged glances.
They'd agreed that when Rufus said this, it meant they could start talking money.
"We get your project is far along, and moving is pricey. How about this, two billion dollars, and we'll move the graves." The head guy held up two fingers.
"Two billion dollars?" Wyatt was floored.
"If you move, the losses will be more than two billion." The guy crossed his arms, acting like they were being super generous. "So many people in our village will be affected by moving the ancestral graves. Losing property is one thing; if someone gets sick, this money is for saving lives!"
"Exactly! Two billion ain't much at all!"
"We're already being super nice, risking the whole village's lives to save you from losing tens of billions. Don't be ungrateful!"
The room erupted in chaos.
Fiona stayed unfazed, letting them make a scene.
Wyatt had a hunch Fiona might already have a plan.
He also remembered Darwin's call last night.
So he decided to sit down next to Fiona and wait.
These folks made a fuss but got no response.
Slowly, they looked at each other and quieted down.
Rufus got anxious. "Mr. Durham, Ms. Woods, what's this about? Even if you're not happy with their request, you should at least say something, right? What's with the silence?"
"Wait a bit longer." Fiona smiled at Rufus.
From the first time Rufus saw her, he felt a bit agitated inside.
He'd never seen such a beautiful woman, and her figure was top-notch.
But before, he didn't dare do anything, because she was Darwin's girl.
This time, before she came, word had already spread from Bay City that Darwin had dumped her.
Fiona had lost her backing, yet she was still so cocky.
Rufus glared at her.
Once this mess was sorted, he was definitely gonna get a taste of Fiona's charm.
Just as Rufus was about to start drooling, his phone rang.
He glanced at it; it was a call from home.
He was about to ignore it.
Fiona smiled and said, "Pick it up."
Rufus was confused.
It was just a call from home. What did it matter to her if he answered or not?
But he still put on a smile and answered. "What's..." he barely got a word out before crying and shouting erupted from the other end, "Rufus, our car got smashed, and our son is missing!"
"What!" Rufus nearly jumped out of his skin.
"What do we do!" The woman on the other end was hysterical.
Rufus suddenly thought of Fiona.
He looked in shock at the seemingly delicate Fiona in front of him. "Ms. Woods, was it you?"
Fiona's smile grew even sweeter. "Mr. Chapman, can we have a proper chat now?"
Rufus hung up.
He couldn't keep up the polite act anymore.
"We're on the same team, why'd you mess with my family!" Rufus roared.
The villagers looked at Rufus and then at Fiona, totally confused.
Why were they suddenly fighting each other?
This wasn't part of the plan, was it?
What were they supposed to do now?
"Take a guess," Fiona tilted her head slightly.
Rufus suddenly thought of something and roared, "I didn't smash your car! You got the wrong guy!"
Wyatt raised an eyebrow.
Fiona laughed. "Mr. Chapman, how did you know my car was smashed? I never mentioned it."
Rufus froze.
He was old and had just had a son.
Hearing that his son was missing, he panicked and lost his cool, blurting out the truth.
Rufus stood there, stunned.
"Mr. Chapman, you didn't actually think Mr. Durham and I really came here to hand out money, did you?" Fiona asked slowly.
Her presence was overwhelming.
Rufus took a deep breath and looked at the troublemakers. "Get out now."
"But the money..."
"Get out!" Rufus was furious.
The group quickly got up and filed out.
Then, only Rufus, Wyatt, and Fiona were left in the conference room.
Rufus dragged a chair and sat down.
"Looks like you two came prepared. What do you know? Ms. Woods," he asked.
Fiona's tone was calm. "Mr. Chapman, for a project of this magnitude, you could make enough money doing it the right way. You're too greedy."
"Ms. Woods, it's not that I want to be greedy, I'm being forced!" Rufus cried, "It's Mack, he has something on me and always uses my son to threaten me! I have no choice! I really have no choice!"
"Mack Murray?" Wyatt asked.
"Yes! It's him!" Rufus wiped his tears. "Actually, I know there's no issue with the graves. It was Mack who found people to cause trouble and ask for money! At first, he directly asked for ten billion dollars. I begged him for a long time before he agreed to at least two billion dollars!"
"Really?" Fiona asked.
"Really!"
"Then I need to have a good talk with Mack." Fiona tapped her fingers on the table.
Rufus was stunned.
He mocked in his heart, 'Fiona, you just got some info out of me and now you think you're hot stuff. Want to question Mack?'
At that moment, the door suddenly burst open. "Rufus, Mack got into trouble!"
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
