“Wait. Mr. Hayes, I heard that your wife used to work in the finance industry. How about we let her in on this? Maybe she can offer us some insights and suggestions?”
Sasha was stunned. She didn’t expect anyone to stop her and invite her to join a meeting that seemed rather important.
Me? Joining them? How can that work? I am not a part of this company, and the projects Hayes Corporation invests in are valued at over ten billion. If I make a mistake, I will cause my husband to lose a fortune.
Sasha instinctively wanted to reject that offer.
Unfortunately, the man sitting behind the desk was amused and was smiling at her. He nodded and replied, “That sounds fantastic. Sasha, you can sit there.”
Sasha was speechless.
She had no choice but to shoot an angry glare at the guy before she walked over and sat beside the top managers.
The managers, however, handed her a thick proposal after she sat down.
“Here’s the gist of it, Mrs. Hayes. The company recently bought a piece of land in an auction. The land is rather vast and we can build houses and apartments on it. Our problem is this if we build everything and its surroundings remain undeveloped, then the prices of real estate will be stagnant, and we won’t be able to attract many buyers.”
One of the managers gave Sasha the cliff’s note version of what was going on.
Projects like those were pretty common for a company like Hayes Corporation.
Yet, they asked me to stay here for the meeting. Why? Did they really encounter something they can’t solve? Or are they just curious about how brainy Mrs. Hayes actually is?
Sasha flipped through the thick documents she had with her. A moment later, she replied calmly, “This is not a good place to build a residential area at all.”
“Huh?” blurted someone. The top managers instantly looked surprised.
“Why would you think that, Mrs. Hayes?”
“That’s simple. The land is located in an old manufacturing district. The government may have made new plans to build more facilities in its surroundings; the previous facilities surrounding that piece of land were chemical factories.”
“So?”
“So it’s obvious, isn’t it? Those chemical factories had been operating for years, so the chemical waste had already polluted its surroundings. Who would live in a place like that? What do we do if something bad happens? Can the company afford to compensate everyone?”
All it took was a few words from Sasha to shut everyone up.
Most employees working there were aware of all that.
However, it was impressive that Sasha, who had never worked in the office or learned anything about the project, made that discovery within a few minutes.
They couldn’t deny that Sasha was truly something else.
“Well then, what do you think we should do with this piece of land?”
“Let’s do something commercial. We already have a lot of shopping malls in Avenport though, so we should look into importing foreign products to attract clients. Maybe something like duty-free outlet stores?”
“Huh?”
Those words truly shook the top managers to their cores.
She actually suggested setting up duty-free outlet stores? My gosh, that brain of hers is truly something else.
We have been discussing the matter for so long, but we can’t come up with any solution. I can’t believe that Mrs. Hayes managed to solve this issue so quickly.
Everyone started looking at Sasha differently.
“Mr. Hayes, your wife is truly incredible. I can’t believe that we never thought of something like that. Also, who would’ve thought that we have an expert like this right under our noses?”
“Exactly. Mrs. Hayes, we heard that you used to work in the finance industry. Where are you working now?”
“Huh?”
Sasha was a little troubled, so she shot a look at the man sitting opposite of her.
She didn’t want to let others know that she used to work at Wall Street. They will probably skin me alive if they figure it out.
Sebastian raised his brows.
He had been enjoying the show from the side, but he stood up from his chair at that moment and walked over.
“If everyone’s okay with it, then do as my wife suggested.”
“What?” blurted Sasha, who was surprised once more.
Isn’t that a little impulsive? All I did was share my opinion. They’re going to spend billions on that one suggestion?
“Sebby, that’s…”
“Yes, we’re definitely okay with it. I think Mrs. Hayes’ suggestion is amazing.”
“I think so too, but I think we’ll have to get some other large corporations to set up shop on our land. I heard that those corporations have high expectations, so there’s no saying if they would do that,” said another top manager, who pointed out the issue that came with that proposal.
Sasha has been listening on the side. She didn’t even think about it before she blurted, “Why bother getting them to set up shop on our land? We can just collaborate with them and focus on getting them hooked. That will cause a slight delay before we get our profit, but it’ll still be in our pockets eventually, right?”
No one spoke.
It was pin-drop silence.
The office became so quiet that it felt like someone had pushed the mute button and shut everyone up within a second.
Even Sebastian couldn’t speak.
Sasha didn’t know what to do about that.
Shoot, did I say something wrong? Was that too cruel? Yeah, I guess I was borderline conning the large corporations…
Sasha stood up right away and approached her husband carefully before saying, “Sebby, d-don’t be mad, okay? I was just bullsh*tting.”
