Chapter 252: The Setup

Chapter 252: Chapter 252: The Setup

Anne thought for a moment, looking as though Damian Morgan had convinced her. Calming down, she said, "I do have some savings. I can hold on for half a year, no problem."

"But you have to think, what if Heart of the Ocean doesn’t make it? Sophie Shaw is sick, and her treatment has to come first. Alaric Blackwood used to back her, but now he’s been kicked out of the Blackwood Family and stripped of his inheritance. Who else is there to help Sophie Shaw?"

"But I’m her best friend. I can’t abandon her at a time like this. Besides, she still has her mother’s side of the family. They can’t just ignore her, right?"

Damian Morgan froze. ’I almost forgot about the Ford Family,’ he thought. But on second thought, ’Sophie Shaw is just a woman. No matter how much the Fords dote on her, could they possibly favor her over Evan Ford?’

’The Fords know who is one of their own and who is an outsider.’

Damian Morgan figured the Fords didn’t care that much about Sophie Shaw. If they truly cared, why had they ignored her existence for all those years while living in the same city?

They only acknowledged Sophie Shaw after she married into a prestigious family. They were clearly just after the Blackwood Family’s wealth and power, hoping to latch on to them.

In the Fords’ eyes, Sophie Shaw was just a stepping stone.

After mulling it over, he decided he couldn’t be a sitting duck. He had to pull out of Heart of the Ocean as soon as possible. Knowing Bianca Kane, once she targeted something, Heart of the Ocean was doomed to go bankrupt.

Back when Conor Sullivan and Vianne Kane had gotten together, Bianca Kane had destroyed the Sullivan Family in revenge. She’d forced Conor’s parents to take on massive debt until they couldn’t go on living and both jumped to their deaths. As for Conor, breaking his legs wasn’t enough; she even sent people to take his life. If he hadn’t been so lucky, he would have been in Hollowdeep reuniting with his parents long ago.

Vianne Kane was now in Conor Sullivan’s hands, but she refused to yield and transfer her Kane Group shares to him. If Conor couldn’t get those shares, he wouldn’t gain any leverage. The little capital Damian had left for a comeback couldn’t be destroyed in Heart of the Ocean.

Eager to offload his shares, he began to lay a trap for Anne. "Oh, that’s right. How could I forget about Sophie Shaw’s family on her mother’s side?"

He looked at Anne, a faint smile on his face. "How does that family treat Sophie Shaw?"

"Very well. Her grandmother adores Sophie Shaw."

"So you believe that if Heart of the Ocean runs into a major financial crisis, the Fords will definitely step in and sort it out?"

"I suppose so."

"Do you have faith in the Fords?"

Anne deliberately hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"Since you have so much faith in the Fords, how about you take my shares off my hands?"

"Well..."

"Don’t you have savings?"

"I do, but not a lot."

"How much?"

Anne told him how much she had in savings. Damian Morgan considered it. Finding the amount too small, he prodded, "Do you have any other assets?"

"I have a car."

"Then sell your car, pull together two hundred thousand, and my shares are yours. How about it?"

Anne looked conflicted. "Isn’t that too risky?"

"Don’t you believe the Fords won’t abandon Sophie Shaw? As her best friend, aren’t you supposed to stand firmly by her side? What, was that all talk? So you’re just fake friends, is that it?"

"Don’t say that!"

Anne flew into a rage out of humiliation, her face flushing bright red. "I said I would stick with Sophie Shaw through thick and thin, and I will not abandon her! I’ll even see her through her recovery."

"In that case, buy my shares for two hundred thousand. That’ll make you a shareholder in Heart of the Ocean, and you’ll finally have a firm foothold. It will stop the staff from whispering behind your back about how someone uneducated, who never even went to college, was parachuted into the vice president’s seat."

Damian Morgan coaxed.

Anne hesitated for a long while before letting him persuade her. "Two hundred thousand it is."

"I’ll give you some time to sell the car. Contact me when you have the two hundred thousand."

As he spoke, Damian Morgan pulled a card case from his pocket, took out a business card, and pressed it into Anne’s hand. "Is three days enough?"

"How am I supposed to know if the car will sell quickly!"

"Just do it fast!"

After Damian Morgan left, Anne stared at the card in her hand. She realized it was his old business card from when he worked in the Kane Group’s human resources department.

She took the card back to the hospital room, shut the door, and pulled the curtain over the small window. Then, she waved the card at Sophie Shaw.

"That guy really is desperate to offload his shares. He tried to trick me into buying them."

She spoke as she walked over to the hospital bed and sat down, crumpling the card in her hand and tossing it into the trash can.

Sophie Shaw smiled. "He’s the type who can’t stand to lose out on anything. If it were just the online drama about the Nine Stone Series, he wouldn’t be this jumpy. But hearing that Alaric Blackwood lost his job and was disinherited must have sent him into a panic. He thinks that without Alaric Blackwood’s protection, I have no one left to back me up."

Anne grabbed her hand, unable to hide the smile spreading across her face. "In that case, I’ll happily take the shares he’s serving up on a silver platter."

"What price did you two agree on?"

Anne held up two fingers.

"Two million?"

She shook her head. "Two hundred thousand."

Sophie Shaw was stunned. "Two hundred thousand?"

"That’s right. He probably figured I didn’t have much money, so he didn’t ask for the moon. I think it’s a great deal."

Sophie Shaw hummed in agreement. "It is a great deal. Those shares he has now originally belonged to his parents. When Heart of the Ocean was founded, they didn’t put in much—maybe three hundred thousand. So, he’s taking a small loss, but not a huge one. It’s better for him than not even getting two hundred thousand out of it."

Damian Morgan was a calculating man. He knew that in Heart of the Ocean’s current state, his shares would be incredibly difficult to sell. He was desperate to offload them, even at a loss.

"Do you have enough money on hand?"

Anne chuckled. "I’m going to sell my car. If I scrape things together, it should be about enough."

"You’ll have to put up with the inconvenience for now. Once this all blows over, I’ll get you a new car."

"Okay."

...

A few days later, Anne had gathered enough money and bought Damian Morgan’s shares.

That very day, Heart of the Ocean sent all its employees home. The doors were locked without a single word of explanation. As the employees left one by one, Damian Morgan, who had been secretly watching the company, saw the locked gates and silently congratulated himself for moving quickly enough to sell his shares. He was certain Heart of the Ocean would be declaring bankruptcy any day now.

He drove off and headed to the hospital.

From a distance, he watched Sophie Shaw through the glass window on her room’s door.

Alaric Blackwood was still keeping vigil by the hospital bed. He was wearing the same clothes as days ago and hadn’t shaved, looking even more disheveled than the last time Damian had seen him.

He couldn’t quite hear what Alaric Blackwood and Sophie Shaw were saying, but he saw them smile from time to time. To him, they were just two failures trying to make the best of a miserable situation.

He pushed open the door and walked in. The laughter died instantly.

"Sophie Shaw, you look truly pathetic," he said with a mocking grin. "If you need my blood for a compatibility test, I’d be happy to provide a sample."

"We don’t need your hypocrisy."

"I already spoke to your attending physician. He said they still haven’t found a full match. Only your father is a partial match."