A Spoonful of Sugar: Don't Beg for Love

Hesper's presence managed to compel everyone there. Furthermore, she held at least 43% of the shares, so any smart person would know that she was there to challenge Carter for the company. Carter leaned forward to get closer to Hesper. "Ms. Lane, I'm sure you hate Mr. Duval. Why don't we work together and turn the Duval Group into the Rivera Group? Tsk tsk, that sounds like a good name." Renee put out her hand to block Carter with an icy expression. "Control yourself, Mr. Wilson."

"...Fine, self-control." Carter sat up straight but still tried to convince Hesper. "Think about it, Ms. Lane. We can manage the company together. What's it called? Co-managing? We could make Rickard fall to his knees begging us, hmm?"

"Carter!" Juniper observed the expression of all the shareholders and felt embarrassed. She tugged at his arm and whispered, "Enough. Don't forget why we're here."

Carter pulled his arm around while still keeping his eyes on Hesper. He smiled. "How about it?"

"It's a sweet fantasy." Even though Hesper said that, her eyes were on Juniper, teasing her. Then, she smiled. "Even though it isn't a bad idea, I'm not here to play pretend with you, Mr. Carter. I'm very interested in taking over the company. You see, I'm very selfish and don't like sharing."

Carter raised his brows. "Oh? Really? I guess I underestimated you."

Benji watched their exchange nervously. Carter sounded so confident that it made him anxious.

"If that's the case, I guess I won't be nice anymore." Carter raised his brow and seemed sad. "Now that everyone has made their intentions clear, it's time to find out who holds more shares."

The opinion of everyone else there didn't matter because they all knew. What they held had been sold to either side, so they had only showed up to see how it would end.

Benji's heart grew cold.

Carter must have brought it up because he was very sure.

Was the Duval Group going to be stolen? Benji lowered his head. He had been working alongside Rickard since he graduated from university and witnessed all the milestones of the company. If it was the end of Duval Group... He would be ashamed to face Rickard.

"Alright, we'll see how many shares we hold then," Hesper said.

Everyone looked toward. She looked toward Renee, who opened the agreement. After all the percentages were added up, they had 49.4%, almost half.

Benji's heart shook. They only had so much time last night, so it wasn't possible to get more loose shares. Benji knew Hesper and Matthew had done all they could.

From the way Hesper spoke, Carter thought she had a lot more, but...

"I'm sorry to break it you, Ms. Lane, but even though you hold a lot, I have more." Carter clapped his hands and Juniper brought out their agreement. He sighed.

"I don't have a lot more, just 0.1% more. Thank you, Ms. Lane."

Everyone's eyes fell on the agreements on the table. Benji's heart sank.

Just 0.1%...