Chapter 4

I chuckled coldly and held Bianca's gaze. "You probably don't understand law much, Ms. Leblanc, but the state laws here say that employees may terminate their employment anytime they wish after simply serving 30 days' notice. It does not need to be approved by anyone else." Everyone could immediately tell that we were at war with each other, with tensions rising. I ignored Bianca's dark expression and walked toward the all-familiar conference room. However, I didn't sit at my usual spot. Instead, I took a seat in the observers' spot, with nothing in my hands. The people coming in saw me sitting relaxedly in the corner and exchanged surprised glances with each other. I also saw a handful of my colleagues anxiously rubbing their hands together. After all, this project wasn't exactly a company-wide project—it was actually my private project, something that I had been working on alone the whole time. Everyone else knew zilch about it. The meeting was about to start in ten minutes. Bianca kept throwing helpless glances at me, but I chose to ignore them all. Finally, she left her seat and pulled me into the corridor. "My attitude hasn't been the best lately, but stop being mad at me. I know I lost my temper at you yesterday, but you were equally in the wrong! You didn't prepare anything at all for our anniversary last night yet you got mad at me for no reason. You can't blame me for being mad at you! "Alright, alright. I'll let you handle the meeting today, which is a way of acknowledging you and your efforts in front of everyone else. You'll explain everything to Mr. Goldsmith later, okay?" "Not okay," I replied. "Ms. Leblanc, I have already resigned from my position. Since this is such an important meeting, I really think you should let your top salesman handle it." With that, I shook her hand off mine and walked back into the conference room. The meeting started. Jaxon took my place as the presenter and started to talk. I didn't know where he had gotten my presentation slides from, but it was just a background decoration anyway. He didn't explain anything about the functions, benefits, or even concepts of our smart furniture. Instead, he just talked about the company's future and bragged about his contributions to the company. In short, he was just tooting his own horn throughout the presentation. Jaxon got more and more excited as he went on. However, Terry fell quiet, and some of the members from the board of directors even started to have grim expressions. Finally, they called to adjourn the meeting in silence. Nobody said anything about investing in the project. They also said nothing about wanting to continue with it. Bianca wanted to stop the investors from leaving so she could get an affirmed answer, but Jaxon beat her to it. He thought that Terry had simply silently agreed to invest in the project since he didn't seem to have any objections to it. So, without bothering to read the room, he grabbed Terry's hands and said, "Everyone, I'm treating all of you to dinner tonight! Let's get drunk and celebrate!" I frowned and walked over to them. Just as I was about to speak, Jaxon cut me off and said, "Mr. Daniels—oh, I mean, Aston, since you've already resigned from your position, you're no longer needed for things like this anymore. You're not invited to the dinner tonight. "Ms. Leblanc is the true owner of this company, and she knows how to keep her promises too! She promised me a Ferrari and gave it to me at once! She's not stingy like you. Someone like you would never be able to make it big. "After all, doing business is like making friends. It's most definitely a done deal as long as you can get along with them well. Don't you agree?" Jaxon then patted Terry on the shoulder as if they were longtime buddies. Everyone else was as quiet as a mouse. They could tell that Terry was very unhappy with how things had turned out. Thus, none of them dared to approach him or the other board members at all. Bianca's face was a little flushed. She also thought that Terry had agreed to invest in the project, so she hurriedly got her assistant to make a reservation for a private dining room at a pricey restaurant. Jaxon looked at me standing in the back and walked over with a condescending look on his face. "Don't look so sad, Aston. I know that this is all your hard work, but the company belongs to Ms. Leblanc and every one of us here. Your accomplishments will be the company's accomplishments anyway. You can't be too greedy, after all. "But don't worry. If you'll be good and follow my directions, I could perhaps consider giving you a promotion or a raise if I'm in the mood." He then patted me on the shoulder. "It's all for the good of the company, and all for Bibi. What's the point of getting mad? I know that you're still angry at me. How about this? I'll invite you to dinner tonight. We'll talk things out over some drinks, alright?" I frowned harder as I tried my best to control my fury. My voice was icy as I said, "I said I've already resigned from this company, and I refuse to attend any dinner the both of you host. Don't touch me with your filthy hands!" Jaxon's face stiffened when he heard me answer him like that in front of Terry and the board of directors. I shoved him aside in a huff, about to leave the place. But Jaxon glanced at Bianca just then, looking all sorts of wronged and pitiful. Bianca immediately marched up to me, forced me to turn around, and slapped me hard across the face. The loud slap caused everyone to stare at us in disbelief. "Aston Daniels, you fucking moron! How dare you show an attitude at a time like this? Who gave you the right? "Jaxon already gave you a way out to protect your ego, yet you still walked all over him and made him a joke in front of the investor! You're just trying to sabotage the investment at this rate, aren't you?" Jaxon just shrugged nonchalantly by the side, as if he had tried his best to secure the investment, but I was the one who had ruined it all. I finally lost my temper and yelled back at Bianca, "Gave me a way out to protect my ego? What kind of bullshit is this nonsense? Are you out of your fucking mind? "This project was mine all along, from the start to the finish, and I was the one who wrote every single code for it! Who the fuck is he to say he's giving me a way out?" Bianca's eyes turned red. She couldn't care less about her surroundings anymore as she screamed back at me, "Jaxon Chadwick is my future husband and the future CEO of this company! Does that give him the right now?" She then grabbed me by the collar and started to beat me up. "Apologize! Apologize to him right this instant! And compensate the company for every single cent we should have made! Otherwise, I'm going to divorce you and leave you penniless!" At this rate, Terry and the board members were shocked out of their minds. They wanted to come up and stop us, but I stopped them instead. "Fine. Leave me penniless, you say?" I turned toward Terry and said, "Cancel the investment for today and remove Bianca Leblanc's name from the company's shareholders! Also, whoever works with her in the future will be working against me, Aston Daniels!" Terry immediately nodded at me and said respectfully, "Understood, sir." Bianca stopped hitting me and raised her head in disbelief. "What did you just call him? 'Sir'?"