Chapter 13 - Chapter 13

 The auction had already began, but the big guns were not interested in the little things. They all waited for the highlighters of the event to start. Meanwhile, they were making business deals amongst themselves. It was not always they got together like this.

 Susan Martin, Penelope, Amelia and Brittney were seated together with two other prominent figures. Amelia was quiet during the whole time, but Penelope started a conversation with her "Amelia, you have achieved a lot over the years. And from what I know, you have not been around for up to three decades, but you have already grown to be a Mother Company to so many businesses. How did you accomplish all of that?" She asked.

 Amelia looked at her "Two things. My blood and my sweat. There was no tears involved in my growth" she gave a reply to Penelope's question. Penelope smiled "That is what everyone would say if they were asked the same question, Amelia. Do you mind elaborating more on that for all of us to know?" She asked again.

 On the outside, no one might see anything wrong with what she was doing, but she was trying to force out information from Amelia, trying to make her pour out secrets. Unknowingly to her, Amelia was not the kind of woman you could control.

 "Miss Penelope, if you're asking me to say all the dirty deeds I did to climb up to this point, you would be saying I should spill some dirty facts about other people. We don't want that to happen now, do we?" She said and turned away from Penelope to watch the auction going on.

 Penelope tried to smile through the snare that wanted to creep up her face. She took her glass of wine to cover it up. Susan seeing the tight spot Amelia had put her daughter in did not want to just sit back and watch.

 "Amelia, Milo told me you've always wanted a meeting with me, and I honored it because of him. Would you mind if we talked about it here?" She asked. Amelia stared at the two men that were with them before turning back to Susan "Okay".

 "I want a collaboration with Royals" she said straightforwardly, not beating around the bush. Susan took up her glass smiling "To the point, I see. Can you explain more?" She asked and Amelia nodded slightly.

 "Everyone knows the aim for Royals is to go global. I just want to be of slight assistance to that and help us grow together. It is a win-win deal if you ask me" she said to Susan.

 Susan was silent for a while before she spoke up "I don't do collaborations, Miss Amelia. I'm not a musical artist" 

"I'm not asking you to sing with me, Miss Susan. I'm simply asking for a sort of merge with the two companies. The more, the merrier, and more profit as well. Don't you like the idea of growing fast Miss Susan?" Amelia asked and Susan gave a small laugh "Even I know slow and steady wins the race. I'm not looking for fast growth, I'm looking for improvement. That's where I grow from" Susan said to her.

 Amelia remained quiet for a while, then she laughed "You know, I don't have a problem with doing business with people I hate or people that hate me. One of the laws of power is keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I don't have friends to begin with."

 "Most of my business partners are my enemies, Miss Susan" Amelia stared at her with sly eyes. "We just really know how to put our emotions aside and make money from each other".

 "What are you saying, Miss Amelia?" Even though she already knew what Amelia was talking about, she wanted her to say it out to her hearing.

"I sensed the hostility from you when I got here, but I thought that would not matter, because this is purely business. I don't even care why you don't like me, honestly. But it seems like you involve emotions in your business, that's why you could not tell that being a business partner with me would mean gaining access to my resources as well, which means big improvement".

 She turned to Penelope "About that question you asked. How did I get this big? Yeah, I never involved emotions in my dealings". She turned back to Susan "Thank you for inviting me to this beautiful charity event. Because it's my first time, and I'm looking for great collections, I'll stay till the end" Amelia ended the conversation and turned her attention back to the auction.

 Everyone on the table knew that was her declaring war between Royals and Amelia's Choice.