“What I meant was, how are you supposed to buy me designer dresses and shoes if you do not work harder and earn more money?”
Avery had changed into her house slippers, walked over to Elliot, and added, “This is my first time wearing such expensive things.”
“Poor you,” Elliot hissed, then walked into the elevator.
Avery held her tongue as she watched the elevator doors close.
She wanted to insult his excessively extravagant and wasteful lifestyle.
When she entered her room, she took off her gown and walked into the shower.
The warm water enveloped her entire body, numbing her senses.
Avery arrived at Tate Industries first thing the next morning.
At 10 a.m., there was not a seat left empty in the meeting room.
“Good morning, everyone. My name is Avery Tate. The reason I called for this meeting today is because I was abducted last night,” Avery said, then glanced around at the faces in the room.
“Seriously?! Are you okay, Avery?” someone exclaimed in shock.
“I’m fine. I wanted to have an open discussion with all of you today,” Avery said calmly. “Things aren’t looking great with the company right now. Investors aren’t interested in us, and those that are looking at u s, are only interested in acquiring us for a low price. With our current debt, what they are offering will hardly cover what we owe.”
“We can bring out our Super Brain program! Once we arrange a press conference and introduce it to the public, people would be lining up to invest!” someone suggested, setting off a frenzy of consensus in the room.
“My father would never agree to sell the company. This is something that I’m sure all of you are aware of. Also, the new system isn’t ready yet, so I’m afraid it is not worth as much as you think it does,” Avery explained.
“What do we do, then? Are we really just going to let the company go bust?”
“If we continue to not have stable funding, I’m afraid that’s exactly what’s going to happen,” Avery answered.
Shaun slammed his palm on the table and roared, “You just want to keep Super Brain to yourself! Your father wasn’t the only one who worked on it!”
Avery looked coldly at Shaun and said, “Mr. Shaun, since you are claiming that the program isn’t the work of my father alone, then you should be able to form a new team to produce a new Super Brain. When you d o reach that point, I would not object to you selling it to rebuild the company.”
Shaun’s face flushed with anger at Avery’s words.
Avery’s father, Jack, was the lead engineer on the project. Without him, there was no way for them to recreate the program.
“You say that you’re doing all of this for your father, but you secretly gave his life’s work to an outsider…”
“So, you were the one who abducted me last night, Mr. Shaun?” Avery asked.
Shaun’s eyes widened in horror.
“If you’re staying at the company in hopes of getting some giant profit, I suggest you give up. How would you get any kind of profit with all the debt we’re still buried in?” Avery said, then shifted her gaze to the rest of the room and added, “Anyone who’s on the same page as Mr. Locklyn is welcome to settle your final wages today.”
Shaun and two core members of the research and development team stormed out of the meeting room.
“Avery Tate looks gentle and quiet, but she turned out to be brutal!”
“She said she gave the stuff to Cole Foster… but I don’t trust her! She might still have it!”
“Let’s look into Cole Foster first!”
Avery left Tate Industries at noon to meet with Tammy at a restaurant for lunch.
“It’s so hard to meet you now, Avery! We barely see each other anymore!” Tammy whined. “Are you still having trouble looking for investors for your dad’s company?”