Night of Destiny (Anastasia and Elliot) novel Chapter 249

Chapter 249 Desperate Measures

“That’s the spirit, honey. You can’t just let anyone take the company away from you! You have to pull through this no matter what,” said Naomi as she encouraged him with renewed fervor.

Anastasia interjected, “Dad, do you know who the acquiring party is?”

Francis was seething with rage, and his eyes were bloodshot red as he snapped angrily, “He’s an old rival of mine. He’s despicable and disgustingly ruthless, and I can’t believe he’d resort to such underhanded ways to whittle me down!”

Upon hearing this, Anastasia’s heart dropped to her stomach. If the acquiring party was Francis’ old rival, she couldn’t possibly expect her father to go through with the acquisition without putting up a fight. Even if he did, he would resent and grow angry over this for the rest of his life.

Naomi was beside herself with panic as well. Her continued life of luxury depended on her husband’s company, and if he were to call it a day and let the acquisition go through, it would be the end of her privileged lifestyle. A look of horror colored her face as she turned to Francis and urged, “In that case, what should we do? Honey, you have to think of a way to save the company, and you must be quick! We can’t just let someone snatch the company away!”

“That’s right, Dad! You have to do something!” Erica chimed nervously.

“My hands are tied,” Francis admitted a little tiredly. “The acquiring party now holds thirty percent of the shares in the company, giving them enough leverage. More to the point, the business hasn’t been doing great for the last two years, and I’ve had to sell ten percent of my own shares to another company to help tide things over. Now, that company has decided to join forces with the acquiring party. As things are, I’m left with a forty-percent share in the company, and if they were to persuade the other shareholders to jump on their bandwagon, my words will not carry any more weight.”

Francis was devastated. Never did he think that his company would fall victim to such a hostile takeover.

“Dad, why don’t you just buy those shares back?” Erica suggested.

Alex, who had been standing to the side all this while, knew the company’s financial troubles well enough. He pointed out emotionlessly, “Buying back those shares isn’t as easy as it sounds. Our company hasn’t been profiting for the last two years, and we’re making just enough to keep the business afloat.”

“If you’d known that this would happen, maybe you wouldn’t buy that house,” Naomi said begrudgingly as she implicitly blamed her husband for buying Anastasia the apartment.

Francis was already annoyed to begin with, so he glared at Naomi and snapped, “Keep quiet, will you?”

“I’m right, aren’t I? You should’ve tightened your belt and stopped spending money so frivolously if you knew the company was struggling,” Naomi argued, rubbing salt in his wound.