Sentenced to Marriage by MadlainQ novel Chapter 103

Revealing the truth There were only two pairs of eyes looking at Aren and me without an ounce of hostility: Chris, who sat on our left side as the second biggest shareholder, and Neil, who sat farther away from the main people, ready to offer his assistance if Aren needed it. The fact that I found suspicious was that only Chris seemed to be overjoyed by Aren’s return, while the rest exchanged nonchalant looks or filled the room with their impatient huffs. I seriously wondered what was wrong with those people.

As Chris noticed my confused grimace, he leaned into my ear to give me an explanation. “Most of the shareholders are the rich kids–the unnecessarily bright and easy to manipulate rich kids.”

I stifled a chuckle, suddenly detecting a lack of brain cells in at least five of those who sat by the table. I wanted to thank Chris for giving me more confidence, but he suddenly moved his chair a little further away from me. I couldn’t understand why until I shifted my gaze to my husband and saw him glaring at his friend. My lips instantly formed an evil grin, and I leaned over him.

“Are you jealous, dear husband?” I whispered to his ear, my lips delicately brushing his earlobe.

He took a deep breath as if he needed it to remain composed. “I should be the only man you see,” he murmured, a hint of annoyance in his tone. I smirked teasingly. “I see a lot of men in this room, but there is only one I want to see naked.” The corners of his lips dangerously curled up as he locked his intense gaze on me. “Be careful what you wish for.”

His words sent a wild wave of electricity down my spine. I bit my lip before realizing that I was getting turned on in the room filled with vicious people. Aren’s presence made my stupid hormones march in happy parades all over my blood vessels. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to resist a moan if he even accidentally touched my thigh. As dumb as it sounds, I was actually relieved when Mr. Cooper stood up and started to speak.

“Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders of the Lan Diamond Corporation, we, the board of executives, called for this meeting due to the long absence of Mr. Aren Lan, the Chief Executive Officer.” Mr. Cooper started his speech hesitantly, barely sparing Aren a glance, unlike Aren, who gave him all of his attention. “The replacement that Mr. Lan appointed seemed inefficient, and it resulted in a drop in sales of -”

“Did it really?” Aren interjected, messing up Mr. Cooper’s carefully prepared arguments.

“P-pardon?” He looked at Aren with a nervous smile.

Aren chuckled coldly. “You are the CFO, for God’s sake. You should know all the numbers by heart, so stick to the facts. Prove that Cora Lan made the sales decrease,” he dared as his lips curved in a wicked smirk.

Mr. Cooper restlessly corrected his glasses. “Well, Mrs. Lan’s decision concerning the “Sky Fight” game didn’t match the current trend and”

“Numbers, Mr. Cooper.” Aren’s even voice pierced the room like a blade.

“I-I… It’s not… I-I can’t…” he stuttered mindlessly.

Aren gave Neil a brief nod. Neil nodded back and remotely turned on a half-wall-size screen with a large-scale sales statement. Aren pointed at the screen, glancing at the CFO. “If you can’t tell us, maybe you can at least read it?” His mocking tone made Mr. Cooper clench his fist.

“It doesn’t show the trend that I was talking about…” he squeezed the words through his teeth.

Aren raised his eyebrows, a smirk flashing through his lips. “Are you saying that we should imagine the trend?” A wave of snorts spread through the auditorium. “I didn’t say that. According to my predictions, the game’s sales might drastically drop over the next three months, and that wouldn’t have happened if we waited with its launch until next year,” he claimed, his voice’s pitch driven by anger. Aren places his hand on top of mine. “Mrs. Lan, mind explaining your decision?” he asked, his warm gaze at me giving me courage.

The corners of my lips curled up into a timid smile. He couldn’t have the full knowledge of why I had made the decision to push the launch of that game earlier than Aren had initially planned, and yet he trusted that it was the right move.

I stood up from my seat and looked around the table. All eyes were on me, curiously awaiting my explanation. I wasn’t afraid. I had all the confidence I needed because my husband believed in me. “I discussed that issue with the game developers, and we had reasons to believe that someone leaked the game’s basic strategy as well as graphic solutions. I ordered the Lan Diamond Corporation’s special team to find out whether our competition was planning to release something similar to the market, and we discovered that our assumptions were correct. The company called Blue Dreamland Corp. has just announced their new game, “Space Fighting,” and I can assure you that the name isn’t the only similarity to our product…”

I paused and observed the shareholders’ reactions. Some of them nodded in approval, while others gasped at the revelation that things like stealing technologies and ideas could actually happen. Only Mr. Hill, Cooper, and Dawson seemed to be displeased with my explanation. I took a deep breath and continued, “The Blue Dreamland had been planning to launch their game in less than two weeks, but as soon as we released our game, their plans suddenly changed. Their second announcement was about releasing “Space Fighting” at the beginning of August, and currently, there are no announcements concerning that game. It only proves that the decision of an earlier release helped save our project.” I smiled and sat down. Aren quickly grabbed my hand, a warm smile forming on his lips as he looked at me. “I couldn’t be more proud of my wife right now.” He kissed my hand before shifting his gaze to other shareholders. “That only proves that I made the right choice in appointing Cora Lan as the temporary CEO. She predicted the problem and made the tough decision. In a perfect world, perhaps launching the game half a year later with a better-designed marketing campaign would have brought an even higher profit… But we do not live in a perfect world, and we could either release the product faster than our competition or kiss the whole project goodbye.”

Aren’s words caused another wave of muttering and approving nods. Even if they were reluctant to believe that I had made the right call, after Aren’s statement, they no longer had