Eternal Chains

EC 51: Asserting dominance

In the blink of an eye and the mountain resort was half way to its completion and Xander rarely visits the site since there were other pending projects he needed to look through after he was gone for two months. After organizing everything on his end, he decided to show his face in his company since he had been gone for too long. He was preparing to go to the office when he received an urgent call from Carl.

"What is it?" Xander answered the phone while choosing a tie to match his dress shirt. He was currently standing in front of the full body mirror with two ties in his hand and Xerra on the side who was choosing with him.

"The board had issued an emergency board meeting of course without you. If Mr. Gonzales had not told your secretary about the meeting, then we will all remain in the dark, luckily you decided to finally show up in the company today. They might have thought that just because you were not appearing you don't care about the firm any longer that's why they have the courage to do it behind your back. What do you want to do now?" The news was not a surprise to Xander, it was just that they already knew that he had returned but still chose to exclude him from the meeting and they had decided to not inform Mr. and Mrs. Villegas for the meeting. "What do you want to do?" Carl asked again after a while.

"I'll go with your parents to the company," he simply answered. He then chose the maroon-colored tie and used it. After he was dressed, he drove to the company and met with Carl's parents at the lobby. Carl was also with them and no words were exchanged as they went up to the conference room at the seventh floor.

"Sir, you're back." Lillian did not expect to see her boss once again after a long time. She thought that Carl and his parents would be the only ones to come.

Xander nodded towards her and gave her a smile, "Yes, it's already time for me to show my face since the board of directors are too eager to work for the firm."

"I'm glad that you are already here to set them straight sir," she told them what she thought. Without Xander, the board of directors had attempted many times to get their hands on the management of the company but thanks to sir Carl's parents they did not succeed and now they were doing it again.

She led them to the conference room and opened the door for them. The board of directors who were currently busy talking with each other were interrupted and one of them was about to shout in annoyance at the person who dared to come in while they were in a meeting only to shut up when he saw who it was.

Xander strode into the room with his poker face that he would only reserve when dealing with these people. Everybody might think that he was amiable because he was smiling all the time but like anyone else, he has his bottom line.

"Oh, there's a board meeting. I'm not even aware, this is odd since I am the major shareholder in this company, isn't that right? I should be the first one to be informed when a gathering like this happens." He faced the directors without the usual smile on his face. He looked at each one of these brazen people before he walked towards the head of the table and took his seat. Mr. and Mrs. Villegas had also taken their seats and waited for Xander to speak. "Now that I am here, let's continue with where you stopped. I want to hear what you were talking about before we came in." He gestured for them to continue as he leaned on his chair and waited for them.

The conference room remained silent. Nobody wanted to speak first. Xander saw this reaction and could not help himself from sighing internally. The only missing thing right now was that they would start to point fingers at each other. He waited for over ten minutes now but it seems that they were resolute in not talking.

"Should I talk first? Or will any of you continue. Normally I'm a patient person but right now I'm losing my patience fast." He spoke again then leaned forward and rested his head on his folded hands. "I'm waiting or you don't want me to hear what the lot of you were talking about. Were you talking about how you could remove me as the CEO of this company or maybe you were talking about ways on how you can have more influence inside this company? Is that it?" His words did not have any filter and it earned some gasps of disbelief from the directors. Some of them were even frowning at his direction because of what he had said. "What? Did I hit the bullseye?"

"Xander! You're going too far." One of them finally reacted and even slammed his hands on the table. "If you were not that irresponsible then would we talk about these matters?" he followed up while glaring at him.

"I was not irresponsible that's why in my absence I have Mr. and Mrs. Villegas to look after the company, oh and by the way they are also members of the board, just in case you forgot about it." Was his answer which made the man silent. "Never would I act irresponsible with the company that my parents created and raised from the ground up. I may be an engineer in profession but I am not stupid in order to fall into your traps just because all of you assumed that I lack knowledge in the field of business. The reason that this company is still standing and the reason why all of you are still the board members is because of me and because I value your previous relationship with my parents but if you continue with this farce, you'll pay the consequences of it."

He had never acted reckless with regards to the management of the company that is the reason why Carl's parents were the second largest owner of shares in the company and why he had hired the best people to work for him because he did not want his parent's legacy crumbling into the ground.

What he said was a clear warning to them and whatever he says he will definitely fulfill it. Since the directors had nothing to say, he dismissed them and watched them leave the room one by one until only him and Carl's parents were left with his secretary Lillian.

"That was intense," Carl's mother commented after they were the only ones left. She and her husband had been managing the company in his absence. Though they already had a company of their own they still found time to come and look at how things were in the firm, that's why Xander was very thankful to them.

"I needed to say that though or else they will continue to scheme behind my back," he answered. He sighed and loosened his tie before leaning on his chair.

"But even so, this might instead make the other directors angry at you. Are you okay with that?" she asked once again. She had been observing the people during the meeting, some were thoroughly offended while the others had not much reaction about it.

"I'm fine let them be angry. They won't be able to do anything no matter how they want to fight me." The confidence in his voice made the woman smile. He seemed timid on the outside but once he made up his mind, no one can change it for him.

"Then that's good. Be careful though, some might hold a grudge against you because of what had happened," Carl's father chimed in because he knew that not all of the directors were level headed.

"I understand," Xander nodded. He would heed their words.

Carl was waiting for them in his office when he entered. He saw that both of their attention was on the puzzle that Xerra was doing. Carl lifted his head and saw Xander, "How was it?"

"They're gone, I just hope that they won't create any more problems for me." He sat beside Xerra and watched her place the puzzle pieces on the board.

Carl could only laugh at his friend's tired face, "They'll be silent for now because you are here so just don't leave again without saying anything because they might really push it and take the company." Xander did not answer and just nodded his head. "Oh, by the way, since the mountain resort is already halfway done, I've received another project that you might be interested in." He stood up and picked up the files on Xander's table then handed them to him.

Xander flipped through the proposal and found it really interesting. It was a project for an art gallery in the suburbs of Cartnan. It was not a big gallery but the owner wanted it to be the best in terms of quality and design so he decided to approach ENIGMA. Money would not be a problem according to the budget they had indicated in the proposal.

"This would be challenging. Galleries are a little bit tricky to construct since most owners are somewhat narcissistic and have many demands with regards to the construction and design of it," he commented while reading the file.

"But you are still willing to accept it." Carl grinned since he already knew what his friend was thinking.

"Let's meet the owner tomorrow." He returned the documents on his table and gave his friend a smile.