Zane could have just handled it on his own; he didn’t have to travel all the way to visit Sonia if he didn’t respect her. However, Sonia didn’t answer his question about respect. Instead, she knitted her defined brows into a slight frown. “You want to deal with this?”
“That’s right.” Zane nodded.
Sonia chuckled. “This is my business, isn’t it? I appreciate that you helped to uncover the truth and find evidence for it, President Coleman. But I’m really curious about why you would want to handle this matter? Does this have anything to do with you?”
“I’d like to clarify something. I’m not doing this for you; I’m doing this for myself.” Zane held a hand up as he spoke; he seemed worried that Sonia might misunderstand him.
Seeing that made her roll her eyes at him. “Well, tell me about it. I’d like to hear your reason.”
“It’s really no big deal. I’m sure you know that the Coleman and Gray Families are no longer on good terms. You probably also know that the Colemans lost to the Wallaces this time. We didn’t manage to dominate the market with our products.” Zane squinted his eyes to form a threatening glare as he spoke.
Sonia was surprised to hear what he said. “What? Didn’t you guys manage to do it? Charles told me that the Coleman Family managed to get sufficient funds just in time. The Wallaces had about the same amount as you guys. How did you end up losing to them?”
“It’s all due to the Gray Family.” Zane knocked his knuckles against the table. “Both the Colemans and the Wallaces found our last investor at the same time. This business was willing to invest its funds, but it didn’t announce whether it had chosen the Colemans or the Wallaces. However, we found out that the business had secretly invested in the Wallaces, so the Colemans lost in the end. We also learned that the Gray Family was a distant relative of the CEO of that business.”
“Are you saying that the Gray Family was the one who gave them orders?” Sonia frowned.
Zane held his chin up. “That’s right. Our family has been working hard to dominate this field, and we were just about to succeed when the Gray Family ruined it all. We’re not going to let them off so easily. However, it’s tough for us Colemans to do much since we are one of the well-respected families. That’s why I decided to use your horse accident as an opportunity for us to attack the Grays.”
“I see. I understand now.” Sonia nodded.
Zane edged closer to her. “So, do you agree with this? I may have my own intentions, but I’m also taking revenge for you in some ways.”
“I know, but I don’t need you to avenge me in any way. I’m planning to go against the Grays myself. I hope you didn’t forget about all the grudges between Triforce Enterprise and Paradigm Co., and me and Tina,” Sonia reminded him.
Zane fell silent for two seconds after that. “Why don’t we partner up, then?”
“Partner up?” Sonia’s eyes lit up for a moment.
“Mm hmm. We can be partners since we’re both going against the Gray Family. You need power and skills to do this, but you don’t have any of that now. How do you expect to get even with them? Are you going to wait for Paradigm Co.’s business to be further developed? How sure are you that Titus isn’t going to attack you midway? By the time you’ve built your business, he would have expanded his Triforce Enterprise. You’d never be able to go after him, let alone take revenge on him.”
Zane’s words left Sonia speechless. He’s right. I’m growing and improving, but that doesn’t mean that Titus is going to remain stagnant throughout this period. It’s going to be a long journey for me; it’s impossible for me to get revenge any time soon.
Zane knew that his words had hit the spot when he saw the woman falling silent. He continued after taking a sip of coffee, “That’s why you should work with others who share the same hatred for the Gray Family. Your plan to get revenge won’t happen any time soon if you do it on your own. I believe I’m your best option as a partner. I have power and can provide you with all the help you need. You’ll be able to get revenge just by partnering with me for a year. How does that sound?”
Based on the amount of power the Colemans had, it was easy for them to deal with the Gray Family. They could manage to turn Triforce Enterprise bankrupt within just a month. However, The Colemans weren’t allowed to do that. The Gray Family wasn’t just a well-known real estate company in Seafield; it was famous even on a national scale. It had over ten thousand employees. If Triforce Enterprise were to go bankrupt, a huge number of people would lose their jobs, and the officials would run investigations on this matter. Once it was revealed that the Colemans were the ones behind it, they would get in trouble, so it simply wasn’t worth the risk.
Therefore, the best way forward was for the Colemans to secretly gain leverage over the Grays by gathering evidence of their illegal acts. Such evidence would serve as the Coleman Family’s means of launching an attack and gradually destroying the Gray Family from there. It was a much slower process but also a much safer one. By the time the Gray Family realized that they were being attacked, Triforce Enterprise would already be in the hands of someone else, and the employees wouldn’t lose their jobs as the company wouldn’t go bankrupt. That way, the officials wouldn’t run any investigations, and the Gray Family would still lose everything they had. That was the perfect plan that Zane had in mind.
Naturally, Sonia managed to consider all the factors that Zane had considered regarding the situation as well, so in the end, she let out a long sigh. “I guess I have no choice but to work with you.”
Zane beamed as he reached his hand to her. “Don’t worry. I promise that you’ll benefit just as much from this. You don’t need to do anything about the horse incident. I’ll handle everything from here. You can continue to assume that it was an accident and keep this information to yourself. One year later, when the Gray Family begins encountering issues, I’ll let you know the right time to launch your attack. You will send them the final blow.”
Sonia looked down at Zane’s hand without giving him a handshake. “Aren’t you worried that President Fuller might go against you if you carry out this plan? The person he loves the most is in the Gray Family after all.”
“The person he loves the most?” Zane raised an eyebrow before he curled his lips into a thoughtful smile. “Do you really think Toby loves Tina?”
“What do you mean by that?” Sonia looked slightly perplexed.
Zane chuckled. “Why don’t we make a bet?”
“A bet?” Sonia sucked her lips inward.
He nodded. “That’s right. Let’s bet whether Toby is really in love with Tina. I’m betting that he isn’t.”
“Did you take your pills today?” She shot him a peculiar glare. “You must be crazy to say that Toby isn’t in love with Tina.”
“You’re the one who forgot your pills. I’m seriously betting that he doesn’t love Tina. We will get our answer to this bet a year later. We’ll see if Toby ends his friendship with me after all of that happens.” He wore a confident smile as he spoke.
Sonia pouted for a while before she smiled along with Zane. “Fine. Since you seem so eager to lose this bet, I’ll play along with you. What are we betting?”
Me, losing? A playful look surfaced in Zane’s eyes. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to lose. “I haven’t thought of what to bet. We can talk about it a year from now—when the results are about to be revealed,” Zane replied after giving her question some thought.
“Okay,” she said with a nod. Only then did she reach her hand out to shake his hand. Zane had large palms, and he had extremely tan skin. The back of his hand was tan, while Sonia had pale and fair skin. The contrast between the skin tones was more evident when the both of them shook hands with each other.
An electric current seemed to run through Zane’s heart when he held the woman’s small hand in his own. Before he realized what he was doing, he squeezed her hand to feel her soft and warm skin against his. It felt good for him to squeeze it; her hand was so soft that it almost seemed like she had no bones. He gave it another two squeezes before he could stop himself.
The corner of Sonia’s lips twitched a little when she saw what he was doing. “Do you enjoy squeezing my hand, President Coleman?”
Zane froze the moment he realized what he had just done. His ears turned red as he hastily let go of her hand and placed his own hand behind his back. “Uhh, well, that… I’m sorry. I just thought your hands felt really nice to squeeze, so…”
Sonia couldn’t decide if she should laugh or feel annoyed at that moment. My hand felt nice to squeeze, so he just continued squeezing it as if I was some soft toy. I never knew he could be such a childish guy! she thought.
“No worries. You should bring the evidence along with you, President Coleman.” Sonia waved him off to show him that she didn’t mind. She then picked the documents from the table before passing them to him. Since she had agreed to let him handle this matter, there was no use for her to hold onto the evidence.
Thus, he took the documents from her. “Alright. The Coleman Family will gradually infiltrate the Gray Family from now on, and I’ll update you whenever we make any progress. You’ll have to lend us a helping hand if we ever need you to do so, of course.”
“Sure,” Sonia replied. They were partners, after all; she wouldn’t reject his request.
“Alright. I’ll make a move now,” Zane muttered. Sonia walked him out of the office, and he headed straight for the elevator. While waiting for the elevator, he couldn’t help but revisit the moment when he had been holding onto Sonia’s hand. For some reason, he missed the tender and soft feeling he felt when he was with her.
