She Is A CEO

Before Lucia answered the phone, Arthur woke up with a soft moan beside her. Even without opening his eyes, his arms wrapped around Lucia's slender waist accurately as if he had a navigation system. His voice was unusually languid when he just woke up lazy. "Who is calling so early?"

"Did it bother you?" Lucia smiled slightly, leaned over and kissed Arthur on the forehead, and then said, "It's Kane, maybe there is something urgent."

Arthur frowned and slowly opened his eyes, and said, "You answer the phone first." After speaking, he hugged Lucia's waist and put his cheek on her back. At first glance, he looked a bit like a large dog. Lucia had just connected the phone, and Kane's voice came quickly. The more she listened, the deeper her frown became.

"I see, you stabilize the situation first. I'll be there in half an hour." Lucia's tone sounded serious a little. She told Kane and hung up the phone.

"What's wrong?" Arthur stood up and asked Lucia when he heard Lucia's tone was wrong.

Lucia's eyes were heavy, and she said in a low voice, "Kane said that a group of workers gathered at the gate of the company early this morning, holding up banners and demanding that we take responsibility. Now the security guards are maintaining order. I will go there immediately to see what happened."

"I'll go too." Arthur woke up instantly, sat up and said.

"No need for now," Lucia shook her head, "I don't know what's going on right now. You represent the Branch of Davonnis as soon as you show up. It's better not to show up for now. Don't worry, I can handle it." Arthur thought for a moment and nodded. Lucia smiled at him and got up to wash up. After wearing the simple and elegant makeup, she was ready to go. Arthur had been leaning against the closet, wearing pajamas, and said to her,

"I'll take you there."

"It's been a long time since I got my driver's license. I'll just drive there by myself." Although Lucia was a little uneasy in her heart, she wouldn't show it to make Arthur worry.

Arthur believed in Lucia's ability. After the two kissed, Lucia rushed towards the company. As soon as she came to the road outside the company, she saw a large number of workers gathered in front of the building. The banners were extremely dazzling, and a few leaders were yelling something with loudspeakers, and the others responded and chanted slogans.

Lucia frowned, took the car around the underground garage and took the elevator to the lobby. At this time, Kane and the other high-level executives had been waiting for a long time.

"Kane, who are those people?"

"They suddenly gathered in front of the gate around 5:30, and no one has come to negotiate with them yet. But judging from the banner they're holding, they're here to demand their wages. Lucia, we can't underestimate this matter," Kane said quickly.

Lucia's eyes narrowed as she immediately responded, "The government now pays attention to workers' rights and punishes companies severely for unpaid wages. If they openly gather at the company's door, it will definitely cause a public uproar. Send someone to negotiate with them right away and find out what happened."

"Jayden has already gone over there; there should be results soon," Kane answered anxiously.

Lucia walked up to the gate and looked at the workers outside patiently.

Half an hour later, Jayden Baker, the manager, finally managed to break free from the crowd of workers after being pushed several times while walking back inside through security lines. As soon as he saw Lucia, he reported on his negotiation results.

"Ms. Webb, these are workers hired by Vian Construction Engineering Corporation. The boss ran off with their project funds a week ago; now they can't find anyone responsible for paying their salaries so they came here causing trouble hoping that we could help them get paid."

"If Vian Construction cannot pay their salaries, then why did they come here asking us?" Lucia found this situation unbelievable as she turned towards Kane asking,

"And besides that, do we have any business relationship with Vian Construction?"

She had never even heard of this company before.

Kane couldn't remember if there was any connection between Webbex Group and Vian Construction either until his secretary whispered something into his ear which made him realize. "Lucia! Stable Growth invested in one of Vian Construction's projects two months ago!"

"It's them!" Lucia felt her heart sink as a hint of anger flashed across her eyes.

"I overlooked it," Kane felt guilty that he didn't anticipate such an incident happening under Stable Growth's investment portfolio.

"It's not your fault; Nia and Kevin probably didn't expect that Vian Construction's boss would run off with money either but... how did these workers find us?" Lucia still felt like something wasn't quite right about all this.

"Ordinary workers can't get their wages, either they go to their direct unit or they go to the superior company. I've never heard of them protesting before, but now they can come directly to us. It's really suspicious. Could someone be behind this?" Kane thought Lucia's suspicion was reasonable and agreed with her.

"You have Jayden go and appease them first, see if we can find a way to persuade them to leave. Then call Nia and Kevin over. I'll be waiting for them in the office." The situation was starting to show itself and Lucia had a plan in place. She calmly deployed her actions and went upstairs.

Kane watched Lucia enter the elevator and immediately had Jayden go out again to mediate with the wage-claiming workers who were still in an explosive state of mind.

"Is Blake who just spoke with me still here?"Jayden shouted into the crowd.

Blake was a middle-aged man in his fifties. He walked over when he heard Jayden calling him out loudly and asked roughly.

"So what? Did you find out whether your boss will pay us or not? If he doesn't give us our money, we won't leave!"

"Blake, I understand that you're anxious right now but Webbex Group has no relationship with Vian Construction's boss at all. Protesting here is useless because it wasn't our company's responsibility when he fled with your money," said Jayden patiently, explaining things while trying to persuade him.

"Look everyone! Look at this guy trying to shift blame onto his own company!" Blake became enraged by what Jayden said as he called on his co-workers around him.

"Our boss ran away but this project is invested by Stable Growth which is under Webbex Group! You guys are responsible for us!"

Jayden explained how each company was related again but Blake didn't listen at all. He clung onto Webbex Group like a drowning man clutching at straws while two or three younger workers beside him echoed his words exactly.

"Don't think we don't know anything! Stable Growth is your subsidiary so you have responsibility for it!"

Chapter 1022 Regeneration of Ulterior Motive

After hearing this, Lucia picked up one contract on the table and looked through it. Sure enough, it was a transfer contract, but whether or not she agreed was entirely up to her.

"How do you know I'll agree?" She tossed the contract back onto the table with a faint smile on her face, but there was no humor in her eyes.

Nia frowned at her words and unconsciously glanced at Kevin. He immediately spoke up,

"Ms. Webb, Stable Growth may be an insignificant company to you, but for us it's everything we've put our hearts into. We entrusted it to you willingly, but dealing with Stand Hill requires special measures. It wouldn't be good if we ended up having a falling out between us as well. So we're asking that you return it to us and let us deal with Stand Hill ourselves without troubling you or Mr. Davies."

"Nia," Lucia continued to smile faintly as she shot a gleam of light from her eyes, "You begged me before to save Stable Growth for you and now you want it back? Not only have none of your promises been fulfilled yet again, but this isn't the first time I've been deceived by you guys either! Can I even trust what you say?"

"What you mean... is that you don't want to return Stable Growth to us?" Nia became anxious.

"Didn't Mr. Berry just say earlier?" Lucia said, "Stable Growth really is insignificant for me personally; however, since your promises haven't been kept and I'm not helping for nothing in return, if y'all want Stable Growth, then y'all gotta show some sincerity."

Nia exchanged glances with Kevin awkwardly as they sat there staring at the contracts on the table.

"I won't sign anything," Lucia said bluntly, "And if Stable Growth does anything out of line, then I will still take care of them myself."

"As for how y'all handle Casper - that's entirely up ta' ya'll." Seeing Nia and Kevin looking gloomy-faced made Lucia straightforward about what she meant.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

"Well then since that's settled, we won't disturb you anymore." Nia knew about Lucia's temperament so saying more would only trample all over their own dignity; therefore they simply bid farewell and left. It wasn't until after Nia and Kevin had left that Kane came into Lucia's office.

"Kane," She said, "You need to keep an eye on Stable Growths movements recently; relying solely on economic sanctions won't bring down Casper anytime soon. They need to be forced into coming outta hiding."

"Nia and Kevin are like parasites, always relying on the power of others. They want to use Stable Growth to their advantage, but they're afraid you'll swallow it up. They only care about their own interests and think everyone else is a fool for letting them use them," Kane said, looking down on people like Nia.

Even though Jacob took over Webbex Group, he still derived JTP Group by his own power. Nia was worse than him.

"Once I reject them, they won't give up easily. Keep an eye on Kevin's every move and let me know if anything happens," Lucia said with a slight frown.

"Okay," Kane replied.

Meanwhile, Nia left Webbex Group in anger and complained all the way while criticizing Lucia without realizing her own greed and selfishness.

"Don't worry," Kevin comforted Nia. "Lauren's funds have already arrived so we don't have any worries. Since Lucia doesn't agree, let's make some moves to force her to agree!"

"I'll leave this matter to you then. I just need to deal with Eve," Nia said with a smug look in her eyes.

Over the next two weeks, Kevin aggressively snatched several big deals from Stand Hill, which made Casper furious as he was used to being the one who schemed against others but never expected someone would do it against him too.

"Leon! Have you found out who the mole in our company is?" Casper asked angrily as his temper had been getting worse lately.

Leon was always careful around him these days because of his volatile mood swings but when he heard Casper ask again about this issue, he felt like burying himself alive. "Not yet..."

Before Leon could finish speaking though, a folder hit him hard on his head causing him pain. He cried out loud but he didn't dare complain even once.

"You can't even find a few moles? What are you all good for?!"

Casper scolded harshly, "Stable Growth has taken away four deals from us this month alone! If we keep going like this, what face will we have left in Athegate?"

"Boss... Stable Growth has recruited many connections through Webbex Group now, so even if there were no moles...we might not be able to compete with them right now..." Leon hesitantly shared his thoughts which immediately angered Casper further.

"What? Are you saying I'm incompetent?!"

"That's not what I meant..." Leon's face was pale.

"The investments I've chosen are all in booming industries. Stable Growth is like a dog chasing after scraps, you know?!" Casper was furious about it. He thought that after Stable Growth left him, they would run their business poorly. But instead, they followed him and stole his business, which made them even more successful.

"I know, I know..." Leon flattered him repeatedly. "Kevin knows that you have a long-term vision and that's why he keeps competing with us for business. Otherwise, how could they find these resources?" Casper calmed down a bit after hearing Leon's words. He slowly sat back in his chair with shining eyes and kept thinking.

Leon didn't know what Casper was thinking about and suggested, "Boss, I still think we shouldn't be so gentle with them. If we want to make sure they don't mess with us again, we need to show them who's boss."

"Do you think I don't want to?" Casper interrupted impatiently as his thoughts were interrupted by Leon's suggestion.

"Nia has already relied on Lauren; if it were so easy to take action against them, do you think I would wait until now?"

As soon as Lauren was mentioned by Casper, Leon felt uneasy and dared not speak any further.

"Did you find out what happened with the project Stable Growth had last month which hasn't been paid yet?" Casper glanced at Leon before finally clearing up his thoughts.

"I found out that the middleman ran off with the money but it had nothing to do with Stable Growth so I didn't pay too much attention," replied Leon lowering his head.

"Nothing to do with them?" sneered Casper as an idea formed in his mind. "Then let me make sure it does!"

"What do you mean, Boss?" asked an unaware Leon.

Casper smiled and waved for Leon to come closer before telling him carefully what he planned on doing next, making Leon excitedly say,

"You're brilliant, Boss! Let me go take care of this right away!"

"Remember," said Casper confidently while looking into Leon's eyes. "Make this matter public knowledge; let's see how long their relationship can last!"

Three days later at dawn when Lucia usually woke up from Arthur kissing her awake, she was woken up by her phone ringing instead. At 7am, she was wondering why Kane would call her so early?