Emma arrived late to the meeting as expected because of the files she was asked to work on, and to Leo's annoyance, she arrived with Nicholas in tow.
"What is he now? Her henchman?" Leo whispered in annoyance to Paul who was sitting next to him.
"He just helped her with those files Leo, common! I would be angry with him if he had left her to carry them by herself." Paul whispered back, a little mockery visible in his tone of voice
"Well, if he just helped her with the files like you said, then why isn't he leaving already?" Leo whispered furiously.
"This meeting is only for the executive staff and departmental heads... And why is he sitting so close to her anyway?"
"Would you please swallow your jealousy for now and concentrate on the meeting!...
Jesus Christ, Leo! Stop looking in her direction for goodness sake! There are so many eyes on you right now." Paul also whispered furiously.
Leo reluctantly looked away from where Emma was seated, bringing his attention back to what his grandfather was saying, while he also worked on his laptop at the same time.
"Finally, a lot of issues have been happening following my retirement from the Chief Executive Officer of the Salvadorian Empire."
Emma heard Aderinsola say to the entire room when she entered the conference room where the meeting was being held.
"Some group of people or an individual from amongst us in this room have been doing their damnedest to sabotage the image that the righteous ones among us have worked so hard to build for Salvadorian Empire
I know that this person or group of people set up all the staff that is loyal to me and got them fired. I know about how they took advantage of ¹Mathew Adebayo, the former Director of the Human Resources Department...
How they got him to compromise his values by cooperating with them. They employed into key positions, people who are not even qualified to work as the Empire's janitors, and I couldn't help but wonder, to what end!?...
Just to see my grandson fail or is it that they would like to see the whole Empire crumble or would they rather take over the Salvadorian Empire entirely?" Aderinsola asked and gave a short derisive laugh.
'The man is truly an enigma!' Emma noted to herself as she watched with awe, as her future grandfather-in-law talked.
The way his eyes bore into each person in the room would strike fear into anyone's heart. Emma knew for certain that it certainly struck fear into the heart of whoever was involved in the attempt to bring the Empire's good image and credibility down. She continually watched and listened on with great respect as Aderinsola continued with his address
"If Mathew Adebayo had come to me, or the CEO to explain the predicament he was facing, perhaps I would have shown him mercy, but he didn't! He allowed himself to be used against the Empire...
Well, Mathew Adebayo no longer works with the Empire. He has been blacklisted and he will never work in the corporate world anywhere in this country again!"
Even though Aderinsola was talking about Mathew Adebayo, Emma knew he was also indirectly passing a warning message to whoever will be caught betraying the trust of the Empire again.
"Mathew Adebayo has ever since been replaced by a younger man..." Aderinsola looked towards the far left side of him where a young man who looked too young to be among the Executives was seated.
"Please introduce yourself." He said and the young man stood up.
"Hello everyone. I'm Yusuf Jakande, the new Director of the Human Resources Department. I'm honored to be working amongst you, great minds. Thank you all for this opportunity given me." Yusuf said with a slight bow before he returned to his seat.
"Thank you, Yusuf." Aderinsola said and continued "And the next person I'm going to let you all meet is the youngest person that has ever occupied a high position in the history of the Salvadorian Empire.
Just because she was hired, these people that I was just talking about, my enemies, to simply put, contacted all the shareholders and prompted them to sign a petition to the board of directors against my grandson, for mismanagement of company affairs..."
Aderinsola laughed again and said. "I just can't believe the effrontery of this Judas!... I want those of you involved in this matter to know that your end is near! There's no rest for the wicked!"
Emma was shocked when she heard what Aderinsola said. She looked towards Leo and tried to catch his eyes but he seemed to be busy with something on his laptop. Then she picked up her phone that was lying beside her laptop and sent him a text
'The shareholders wrote a petition against Leo because of me!? Why didn't he say anything about it to me?" She wondered and looked around the conference room in annoyance.
'Somebody here hated my man that much!...' She thought with disgust. Even though she could feel that there was more than one person involved in the matter, she marveled at how easy they could mask their hate with such an innocent look.
"Well, friends and foes of the Salvadorian Empire..." Aderinsola said sarcastically and indicated towards where Emma was sitting. "Let's meet the new Executive Accountant..." which was a cue for her to also introduce herself.
Emma stood up. "Hello everyone, I'm Emma Da-Silva, the new Executive Accountant of this great establishment. I'm happy to be here and I hope we can all have a cordial relationship in the future, thank you." She said simply and sat down.
Aderinsola looked at Emma. He could feel her fire element raging and he knew it was because of what she heard him say was done to the CEO. Right then he knew for a fact that she loved Leo fiercely, and won't hesitate to burn down anyone who wants to stand in his way.
She's the true blood of Silver and he was happy and considered himself fortunate to have such a woman standing alongside his grandson.
Paul, who has always been a good judge of character, knew Emma's introduction was not aimed to please and respect the people in the room and he knew it was probably because of what the Chairman said about her fiance.
He noticed that While Yusuf used words like 'thank you' and 'honored', Emma just expressed how happy she was to be working at the Empire. When she said she hoped they could all have a cordial relationship in the future, what he felt she meant was that it was okay if the executives were not interested in having none with her.
Paul smiled to himself because he knew she would be Leo's support when he and the chairman are no longer around to support him.
Leo on his part wanted to laugh so badly. He was proud that his wife was not a wimp. He was pleased about the way she introduced herself to the Executives. A clear and concise message, like she was telling them; 'love me or hate me, I sure don't give a damn!'
He picked up his phone to send her a text when he saw she already sent him one:
'Why didn't you tell me about the petition!' She typed and her text was accompanied by so many angry emojis that he couldn't count.
He tagged the message and wrote underneath it:
'long story. We'll talk about it later.' With different emojis of pleading, sad faces, love, hugs, and kisses.
'Btw. I'm proud of you. Love you, babe'
'Yeah, love you too baby...'
Emma barely type a reply to Leo's declaration of love when one of the executives asked a question that was aimed to degrade her
~||~
¹Mathew Adebayo: if you can't remember him he's in chapter 32, titled the intern.