Family on Their Knees Heart Turned to Ice novel Chapter 82

Sebastian walked over and, with a rare gentleness, took the empty coffee cup from Bella’s hand. “You’ve been working overtime for days,” he soothed. “You need to rest. The project will come along.

I’ll have the team see what they can do about the lost data. If they can recover it, great. If not, they can work a few extra shifts to redo it.

But you can’t keep pushing yourself like this. You’re a vital asset to this company, and you’re important to me. Your health is not something you can afford to neglect, understand?”

Bella’s tense brow slowly relaxed. It had been a long time since she had heard Sebastian speak so gently.

In that moment, the lost data suddenly didn’t seem like such a catastrophe anymore.

Besides, she had a team under her. It was time they earned their keep.

Bella said, “Sebastian, I will see this project through. I will put you at the pinnacle of the tech world. That is my promise to you.”

Sebastian nodded slightly. “Good. I’ll have my driver take you home.”

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Nathan was jolted awake in the middle of the night by his ringing phone.

His voice thick with sleep, he answered the phone upside down. “What? It’s the middle of the night! Don’t you people ever sleep? Why are you calling my personal phone about work while I’m off the clock?”

The person on the other end, Eric Shaw, whom Nathan had just promoted to General Manager, was dealing with a massive headache. He had also been woken up by the Blake Group and couldn’t make a decision about the Li Algorithm on his own.

After Nathan hung up on him, Eric had no choice but to call the Blake Group back and tell them he couldn’t reach Mr. Cole and would have to pass along the message in the morning.

Thus, the first thing Nathan had to deal with at work was this mess.

Eric stood in front of his desk, listening to Nathan’s tirade. “What’s the Blake Group’s problem? The Li Algorithm was not part of our collaborative project. Don’t they understand that? Suddenly they’re demanding algorithm support? Tell them: it’s not happening.”

Eric looked troubled. “Mr. Cole, actually, the main reason the government wanted our two companies to partner on this official project was for our algorithm support.

The Blake Group sought us out for the same reason. Now that the partnership is official, they’ve just realized they don’t have access to the algorithm.

Last night, their legal team contacted me and warned us to provide support immediately, or they would sue us for breach of contract.

Mr. Cole, this is getting difficult.”

Nathan scoffed, “Let them sue. If they thought they could win, they wouldn’t be sending warnings. If they want the Li Algorithm, tell Sebastian to get on his knees and beg Li for it.”

Eric was stunned. “Huh?”

Li? As in, the legendary developer?

That person was a complete phantom. Who could possibly find them?

Eric relayed the message back to the Blake Group: Mr. Cole says if you want access to the Li Algorithm, Mr. Blake should personally get on his knees and beg Li for it.

The legal team was speechless. They silently took a screenshot and forwarded it to Sebastian.

In the middle of a meeting, Sebastian’s phone was connected to the large projector, and the screenshot was accidentally displayed for everyone in the conference room to see.

The room fell into a dead silence. Everyone stared at the screen with the same shocked expression, as if they had been frozen in place.

Sebastian himself didn’t notice at first. It was the horrified look on Bella’s face across from him that caught his attention.

He followed her gaze to the screen. The words ‘personally,’ ‘get on his knees,’ and ‘beg’ hit him like a physical blow, and his expression shattered.

Bella reacted quickly. “Meeting adjourned. Everyone out.”

Few people in the room outranked her. At her command, everyone quickly filed out.

Once they were gone, Sebastian transformed. With a single, furious swipe of his arm, he cleared his desk, sending his phone, laptop, coffee cup, and documents crashing to the floor.

Bella rushed to pick things up. “Don’t get angry yet,” she said, gathering the scattered items. “What Nathan said was disrespectful, but maybe he meant that he doesn’t have the authority over the Li Algorithm either. If we want access, we have to get authorization from the developer directly, right?”

Sebastian’s voice was tight with rage. “In terms of status, the Blake Group is superior to his Litech NaLabs. Even in the tech sector alone, Nathan has only gotten by for years because of that one algorithm. The Blake Group has never been beneath him. How dare he speak to me like that, all because of one woman?”