On the other end of the phone, Kent looked visibly distressed, "Mr. Crawley he...uh..."
He hemmed and hawed but just couldn't spit it out.
Daniel was freaking out, "Spit it out, will you? What's up with him?"
Kent bit the bullet and blurted it out, "He's totally sloshed in his office."
"He's still drinking?" He was almost driven mad with frustration, "What the heck is the PR department doing? Can't they even release a statement?"
Kent said, "Mr. Crawley won't let them."
"He's about to run the company into the ground." Daniel couldn't help but curse up a storm, "Has he lost his mind? Not only is he acting like a lovesick fool over a woman, but now he's dragging the whole company down with him?"
"Mr. Crawley is just,well, in a bad mood, I guess." Kent's voice grew softer, "He's such a proud man, you know? Totally successful in every other way, but his marriage is a complete trainwreck. He just can't stomach it."
"Give him the phone." Daniel's voice turned even colder, "I need to have a word with him."
Kent hesitated, "Mr. Crawley's out cold now."
"Waste of space!" Daniel cursed and hung up the phone.
Listening to the sudden "beep" of the busy line, Kent pulled the phone away from his ear with a look of disgust and turned his gaze to Brandon, who was calmly working at his computer, before hesitantly calling out, "Mr. Crawley?"
Brandon didn't even look up, "Not bad acting. Next time he calls you, just paint as pathetic a picture of me as you can."
Kent still couldn't figure out what game Brandon was playing.
The rumors of his mysterious disappearance were released by his command. The mix of real and fake news was his doing, and the order not to let the PR department issue any statements came from him as well.
He wasn't seeing anyone or taking any calls; that was true, but all the important calls and matters were redirected to him.
He was just following orders, one instruction, one move at a time.
Without explaining, Brandon said, "Send over some more booze. If he gets suspicious about my whereabouts, just say to avoid the scandal of me getting wasted during office hours and to protect the company's image, we had to lock down the information."
"Alright," Kent respectfully acknowledged and left.
As the door shut, Brandon finally stopped what he was doing and looked up at his computer, his eyes cool and composed as ever.
At Daniel's house, he was pacing back and forth like a cat on a hot tin roof.
He might not have seen Brandon like this before, but he was well-acquainted with Brandon's toughness and determination.
Just like the last time Brandon said if he went after Sophia once more, he'd slash his shares by 5% - and he did, just like that, without flinching.
Daniel feared that if it continued like this, the massive company would be run into the ground by Brandon. He definitely had the chops to do it.
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